Hi i need help.i fryed my cpu the other day and i want to know how to build a new computer.now i can take most electrical/mechanic things apart and put them back together I dont know how to install a bios or what one is.I know what windows is im good with windows 98 and xp.personally dont think theres a point in vista cause 90% of programs dont need it.Now i noticed this site has changed and cant find the general computer discussions section.the search option doesnt work either.I can't download of the internet either and dont have a connection.i appreciate all the help.BTW im in australia so its minimum $500 for a shop to do it.

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my problem is i give my opinion and sometimes it offends.
1 decent phone.alot of old computer parts.will have a new computer soon and consider playstation 3,xbox360 or nintendo wII

Lol. All you really need to do is get all the parts, install them in the case. And install an OS (Operating System) such as Windows XP. Once you have done so, if the hardware (i.e. graphics cards, sound cards etc etc.) did not come with a driver, (software for running them) Then download them from the manufacturer site.

It's really not difficult to build a computer, just make sure all your hardware can work together. You don't want to buy a motherboard, and ram, and it turn out you got the wrong ammount of pins on your ram for that motherboard.

If you have trouble locating hardware, or drivers, I'm sure someone here will be more than happy to point you in the right direction. As for downloading "A bunch of software", piracy is not viewed in a good light here at XS, so you will be on your own there.

Any other questions I'm sure someone can answer for you =)

Darlyle.

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My only real advise id DO YOUR RESEARCH!!! make sure you know exactly what you want your PC to do before you even buy the first part. I am not sure about the prices there in Australia, but to build a pretty good system here in the USA i estimate these days your talking about dropping $700-$1200 and that is without the small stuff such as hard drives, DVD drives, keyboard, mouse, speakers & monitor.

The BIOS will come with the motherboard you buy. It is a simple disc and you just run it in your drive and it installs. From there you will have to do some studying as far as what settings you may want to change (like overclocking your system to get better performance)
Here are some suggestions for what would be called a "mid-range" system these days. Not the best but surely better then most pre made systems:
If you can afford it you can go bigger on the RAM, CPU and Graphics card.

Case: Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GZ-XA1CA-STB Black Front bezel : Aluminum Body : SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

PSU: Newegg.com - ENERMAX Liberty ELT620AWT ATX12V 620W Power Supply 90V~265V (Auto Adjusted) UL, cUL, TUV, CB - Retail

MOBO: Newegg.com - MSI 975X Platinum V.2 LGA 775 Intel 975X ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

Graphics: Newegg.com - XFX PVT73GUGD3 GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

CPU: Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail

RAM: Newegg.com - Crucial 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

Extra: Newegg.com - Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM

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First off, don't start with the ban speak. There is no reason to get banned, you are just not sure where to start with building a PC from scratch, thousands of people deal with that every day. The best idea is to do your research.

1. Figure out your budget.

2. Research what the different components do and how they fit together.

3. Figure out what you need a computer for and buy parts accordingly. For example, there is no reason to buy a top notch graphics card if you don't game on PC.

Try this guide, Kam wrote it awhile back for general PC building.

XnogarD Blog Site :: Tutorials :: Building the Perfect PC

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Start with the motherboard. The motherboard will dictate what processor, and RAM you get. Since you don't care about Vista, don't worry about SLI support (dual video cards). You can get a cheap 7 series video card that will play most everything now (I'm playing Crysis with an 3-year old NVidia 6800 on the lower settings). Newegg details all of the specs, so you can see how many PCI, PCI-e, I1394, USB ports you will be able to support.

Intel or AMD?

I would go Intel. AMD is lagging behind them. For the most part, Intel's out-perform their AMD counterparts. Go for a motherboard that supports Intel socket 775 and get a Core 2 Duo processor. (The new Intel Penryn processors are coming out in March is you want to wait that long.)

RAM is dirt cheap. Size it based on what your motherboard can handle. Newegg is great with listing all the motherboard specs, allowing you to choose all your other devices accordingly.

Cases are fun to shop for. You can get a good deal at Newegg (as you can tell, I'm a Newegg fanboy :-) ) Just about all cases support ATX mobo form factor, but always check to make sure.

Just my 2 cents!

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THanx for any help and info provided.Im thinking unless i go second hand and get a computer thats likely to break in a month or be full of spyware probably be a month before i get 1 maybe longer.I do remember asking about cpu's and basically i'd be better off with a dual core/quad core i've decided that already.Basic uses for my computer will be gaming,music&movies,internet,word docs and anything else that i find amusing on there.But i do want the latest games on their.been warned not to buy an amd processor.not to buy a dell.will do a bit more research and get some more quotes.anyone know how good a computer will survive being mailed overseas?

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my problem is i give my opinion and sometimes it offends.
1 decent phone.alot of old computer parts.will have a new computer soon and consider playstation 3,xbox360 or nintendo wII

If you really want a good computer. Get one of the new Macs. You can even install Windows on them, and they run Windows better than a pc. Lol.

If you wanna get a pc, for gaming, music, videos, blah blah etc etc, my personal vote is with HP. Dunno how their laptops are, but my stepdad recently got one of the desktop ones, and it's bad ***.

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I dont know how to use a mac.As for laptops hate them you cant just take parts out and replace them and usually they end up getting stolen or stepped on.I did get a quote for a computer yesturday.will put more info on the next post just to make sure im not getting ripped off.

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my problem is i give my opinion and sometimes it offends.
1 decent phone.alot of old computer parts.will have a new computer soon and consider playstation 3,xbox360 or nintendo wII

You can put Windows XP on a newer Mac now though. And they run it better than a PC does.

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