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Building myself a computer... Maybe.
Hey guys. I am at work from my cell phone listening to the old 'building a new computer' series, and I have decided that I want to get a new computer. My current laptop is on its way out and I had an idea. I will probably build a new one, as I would love to learn how, but one of the computers will be my first ever Linux box. I do not need the computer, be it a laptop or PC, for much - just the basics. I am unsure if new egg ships to Canada - as I Said, I am at work - and need help deciding which I should use as my Linux box... Also, if I am unsure about how to do it totally, should I build it myself? I just want to learn, and I do not need to spend a lot... Any help is appreciated. Thanks
Comments
TomsHardware.com is a wonderful tool for checking out what the best bang for your buck is for various hardware components. And since I recently wrote an email to my parents about some of this stuff I'll paste it here...it was geared towards a laptop purchase but most of it should be semi-useful for you.
1. DON'T SETTLE! Knowing you guys this'll be your computer for the next 5+ years! Don't settle on a crappy $500 machine. You can get a pretty good machine for about $1200. Depends a lot on what's important to you but I guarantee that a $500 machine will not be satisfying. $1200 may be a little high...for what you guys will use it for and such, $800-1000 is probably a reasonable price point though.
2. Get an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor. There are other "bargain" processors like Pentium M's and various other processors. The "Hertz" of the chip or the speed of the chip is not as important as it used to be. The chips, particularly the Intel Chips, are more efficient so a 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo is much faster than a 1.8 GHz chip from a few years ago. They also literally have TWO chips on the same chip which means twice as much processing power (this doesnt mean a quad core chip is better for various reasons I can try to explain if you care).
3. I'd recommend 1 Gigabyte of RAM. It's not totally necessary but RAM is so dirt cheap and can make a reasonable amount of difference up to 1 GB that it's worth the extra bit of cash for it.
4. Hard Drives in laptops are somewhat...irksome. Try to get an 80GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive if you can. Part of the speed of the computer is based on the speed the hard drive will spin at. From what I've seen the average speed for a laptop hard drive is 5400 RPM. That's pretty old technology though for hard drives in general. Right now the most cost effective speed is 7200 RPM. As for size, based on a number of different things I'd recommend 80GB which should be fairly future proof for you. Don't go lower than 60GB. It's WAY to easy to suck up hard drive space really quickly with pictures and music especially.
5. If you want wireless get 802.11g. This shouldn't be a problem but it's something to keep in mind. It's just nice to have it built in. The order to speed for the wireless types goes from fastest to slowest: 802.11n,802.11g, 802.11b, 802.11a. 802.11n hasn't been...standardized yet so it's not the best choice right now.
6. TV out might be a feature you want so you can output pictures to the TV right from the laptop. But that's not something to necessarily base a purchase on...it won't add any cost to a machine but it can be hard to find sometimes.
7. It is possible that you'll need to be SURE that the PC has a modem/telephone port built into it. Ethernet (broadband) ports are pretty much standard now but the telephone jacks are getting tough to find.
8. I'm pretty sure laptops all have them but be sure you have at least one PCMIA card slot. You may never need it but it's nice to know that you CAN utilize those types of accessories if you need them.
9. Keep in mind what ports are on the back of the machine in case you want to connect an external mouse and keyboard. Most important is probably an external mouse as the glide pads SUCK (to me anyway) So make sure you have a couple USB ports.
10. It should be pretty easy to find a laptop with a CD-RW/DVD-R/W drive. Don't be concerned about floppies, I havent seen a laptop with a floppy drive in forever...floppies are pretty much useless anymore. If you still have some with data you might care about, go through them now while you still can and get the relevant data off onto a USB memory stick or something.
Besides:
Oh, and video download/conversion.
My suggestion for Mitchy would be a few things. First of all, do as Rym did. Hesitate to buy your products. I waited two weeks and Intel released its new 6750 Duo processor, which for the two hours that I was drooling over it was cheaper than its slower counterpart, the 2.3 Ghz 6600 Conroe (What Rym bought). But despite price increases, its still only ten dollars more last I checked.
Secondly, don't go above and beyond, especially with what you describe as your computer usage habits, you do not need a five hundred dollar graphics card, SLI ready mobo, and DDR3 ram, its not really necessary. As far as graphics go, theres a lull in the market for powerful yet insanely cheap cards, and right now the only midrange I am looking at is the 8800 GTS which regrettably is more than I want to spend right now. I'm really shooting for a rig thats $1000 or less, and wanting a new flatscreen monitor that really shaves into the hardware options.
It just takes patience, research, and comparison. I should note however, that when I drafted my initial bare bones list, I choose the exact same parts as Rym, even down to the case (which is teh hawtness). I didn't even realize it until my brother mentioned I should check out his newegg wishlist.