The Official PC building thread!

Hey,

i was jsut wondering can you put any internal harddrive inside a pc or is it certain ones for certain model?

and can someone post a link on where to get BIG internal harddrives at cheap prices, i want from 750gb to 1tb? i live in the uk

Ok, last thing is it posible to get a router for a computer with internet thru a cable (not wireless) and send the connection to another computer?

thanks alot

-Josh

 

You can put any normal 3.5" drive in an external enclosure as long as the enclosure is for the right connector (IDE drive in an IDE box etc.). The largest Hard disk I know about is 750GB though, if you want any more you'll need to get two smaller ones and put them in RAID. With most boards you can RAID up to four drives together. RAID 0 provides an increase of both storage and speed making all the drives appear as one large super-fast drive. RAID 1 provides a mild increase of speed and a big increase in data reliability, as if one drive fails, the data is kept on the other drives. RAID 0+1 is only compatible with 4 or more drives, and allows a combination of those two methods, in the case of four 250GB drives at 60MB/s performance rate, RAID 0 would give you one 1000GB drive with about a 200MB/s performance rate, RAID 1 would give you one 250GB drive with about 70MB/s performance rate, and RAID 0+1 would give you one 500GB drive with about a 130MB/s performance rate. Or you could scrap that idea and use them as two separate drives, the choice is yours!

 

It is possible to network using a cable, and that's generally the preferable method where it's easily set up, because of the lack of connection drops.

This is a good price for a 750GB Barracuda:
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/110736
Not cheap are they?
or for very little more, two of these:
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/114111
That makes £310.82 rather than £280.42, a mere £30.40 more, and earns you an extra 250GB of storage.

 

Let me first start off by saying I'm sorry to be off top here, but...

I noticed a lot of you are from England. I've been trying to find a copy of the movie "Big Fish" in Italian language, but I've only found it on English websites. Is it possible to buy that from here in the US (on a US credit card I guess?) and have it shipped either to the US or somewhere in Italy? I'm trying to send it to a girl in Italy. It would be better if I could personally send it...but I'mg having trouble finding it in the US. They have it on the Amazon.uk webpage.

Back to computer...

I don't have a lot of experience building PCs. Only tried it once with a friend - but I didn't upgrade everything. I ordered all the parts I've listed on this forum, so when I get the stuff from newegg (early next week I assume), I'm going to try to build it. Does anyone know of an online guide, video, or help manual or something that could get me through it if I get stuck?

THanks!

 

If it's going to Italy, you'll need to buy it from somewhere in Europe, otherwise unless the italian person has a region-free DVD player, it will only run Region 2 DVDs like we have here in the UK, not Region 1 like in the US, much like NTSC and VHS. If you can find a Region 2 version in the US good luck to you, else it'll need to be from somewhere like Amazon.

Without sounding too pompous, far and away the best source of guidance for building a PC is in a forum like this one. Feel free to Personal Message any of us for a general guide, or you can just ask questions here if ever you get stuck. Guides on the net can often tend to leave out information that may not apply to that build in question, but does to yours. When you talk to real people, not just look at a bit of paper, you can be sure you're getting information specific to your build.

 

Here is enough to keep you busy until you are ready to start building.
Took me 2 minutes to find this lot --- have fun!

http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/

http://www.buildyourown.org.uk/pc-building/

http://www.opentechsupport.net/guides/pcbuilding/page1.shtml

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1444

http://tomshardware.co.uk/2002/09/04/building_your_own_pc/index.html

 

here's another good, simple guide with lots of pics: http://sysbuild.corsairmemory.com/report.aspx?id=2

 

Thanks guys!

 

I am thinking of upgrading or building a new pc and I was wondering if it's possible to use a handheld drill instead of a screwdriver and if so, do I have to buy a special one so I don't end up with an expensive paperweight on my hands?

Thanks in advance!

 

Best to use a long handled, good quality screwdriver which is also magnetized, so the screws stick to it when in awkward places.
Using a drill etc... You run the risk of over tightening the screws and damaging parts.

 

Using an electric screwdriver I stripped the thread on one screw and another snapped in half when changing an optical drive. I suggest sticking to a normal screwdriver.

 

I was at PC stop putting my machine though some tests and I ran across a "Vista Readiness" test [ Not that I would use the controling commie]but it was a new test and thought it would be fun. I passed with flying colors but video memory? NOW that makes me wonder? I have per. sig. not the greatest, but for $100.00 + their not bad, and even better in SLI mode! I have 512 of ram on ea. card. for a total of 1 gig.[in SLI mode]. Is there a way to check it to see if I am using my cards to the fullest? I am not a hard core gamer, but have played Farcry and Doom 3 with no problems and added stuff in video when up graded from last card.

 

6600s are OK for Vista, and I don't think they use turbocache technology, probably just standard DDR RAM.

 

Where do I go to check how much my machine is reading the memory on my video cards?

 

You mean you want to know the memory usage?

 

That will work also... At PCstop.com is where I test my machine over the internet, just confused that it stated I had not enough video memory...

 

I doubt it. Unless that card uses turbocache, you've tonnes of VRAM.

 

What is turbocache? I am at work now...but will check the specs on the boxes when I get home. These cards came with alot of goodies that some 6600s did not have which surprised me, other then the price was good at the time.

 

If I remeber right the ram is DDR3.

 

Turbocache is basically a snazzy name for a card that nicks some of your system RAM for its own memory and therefore not only performs slowly itself, but drags your system down.
If the RAM is GDDR3 it won't be turbocache. Phew!