PC Building - Where to Begin

[abberto]

Hi all,

 

First post, so play nicely! Just kidding, I'm old enough and ugly enough for any abuse.

 

I was just wondering where you guys get your knowledge from? I've only recently learnt about PC Building, having wanted to learn for years, but there are some things that I don't quite understand. For example, things such as RAID. I've never heard of this. Ever. And as for knowing that the CPU or GPU will be fit for purpose, what really determines the essential characteristics/specifications?

 

FYI I'm not massively into PC Gaming, but I'd quite like to get into it. Need a bit more spare time but ATM I'm just playing Football Manager 2015 on this old laptop of mine (HP Compaq Presario CQ62) which is close to dying. After my holiday next month and wedding next year (or between now and then if I can convince the lady) I'm looking to build my first PC which, naturally, I'll be asking for your help with, especially as I'll be starting with no PC or peripherals (unless you count an old Dell Optilex 170L in my garage, which you don't)

 

Any help would be massively appreciated. I'm up for reading articles or reviews and watching YouTube just to enhance the knowledge!!

 

Cheers people (and animals, if any of those tech savvie cats are online)

[Marxtai]

I think the best thing you can do to get started is read a lot, and watch some Youtube videos. I recommand that you look at the LTT videos, and especially the TechQuickie if you want to learn the basics about stuff like RAID and other concepts/terms. Then, if you're interested, you can learn more, but at least you'll learn enough to get started and have a basic idea of the concept.

 

Other than that it's just reading, and experimenting if you can. Look at the topics on this forum, see what builds people propose to other members, it will be slow at first but eventually you'll get more comfortable. It's a slow process, I used to be up to date with hardware and interested in that, but I just stopped coming here and looking at LTT after I got busy with other stuff, I just came back to here and there are a lot of new things to learn ^^ 

[Tedster]

Hi all,

 

First post, so play nicely! Just kidding, I'm old enough and ugly enough for any abuse.

 

I was just wondering where you guys get your knowledge from? I've only recently learnt about PC Building, having wanted to learn for years, but there are some things that I don't quite understand. For example, things such as RAID. I've never heard of this. Ever. And as for knowing that the CPU or GPU will be fit for purpose, what really determines the essential characteristics/specifications?

 

-snip-

Welcome to the Forum.

 

I've learned most of my stuff from YouTube and then first hand experience after that - just diving in with the intention of things still working at the end of the day.

 

For stuff like RAID it's pretty simple once you know the terminology and the concepts that sort of stuff uses. And for CPUs and GPUs and how they're matched, I don't really know how to explain. An easy way is to look at benchmarks and look at headroom on both sides - if the GPU isn't at 100% usage in this system then there's something limiting it - which is probably CPU bottlenecking.

[SirKarp]

Google and Reddit.  :lol:

[abberto]

Cheers for the quick responses!! I'll have to get reading and YouTube watching I guess. That's the next few weeks lunch hours sorted.

[manikyath]

i pretty much learned my pc building skills by myself.

 

the building itself came from messing with old computers, and theres actually not much to learn.

 

as for picking parts that go together well: its a very situation specific decision what hardware fits with what hardware, its generally just knowing performance numbers, and match up what fits into budget.

 

PS: welcome to the forum.

[abberto]

Google and Reddit.  :lol:

 

Ahh reddit. I've not been there for a while. Was put off by the layout. Not the neatest of places  :unsure:

[HoiDaniel]

Youtube video's aaaaall the way, read a lot of wikipedia websites and google something like 'how does a GPU work' and such. It's pretty fun to do so.

[Zach Is Kill]

Check the subforums under Computer Hardware, lots of information. Also Tech Quickie comes out with good miscellaneous videos regarding computer hardware and is a great place to start.

[chesleywan]

When I learned around four years ago, I used Kijiji to buy older computer hardware for cheap (i.e. Pentium 4 era) and mess around with it to learn things hands-on. So if you have the resources to do so, search your local classifieds or ask friends for old (but not too old) hardware for personal educational purposes. Even better, you might find someone giving away a non-working computer, learn how to troubleshoot problems, and then discover that it wasn't far from working. Then you can sell stuff, maybe even for a profit, to support your own learning. 

[abberto]

When I learned around four years ago, I used Kijiji to buy older computer hardware for cheap (i.e. Pentium 4 era) and mess around with it to learn things hands-on. So if you have the resources to do so, search your local classifieds or ask friends for old (but not too old) hardware for personal educational purposes. Even better, you might find someone giving away a non-working computer, learn how to troubleshoot problems, and then discover that it wasn't far from working. Then you can sell stuff, maybe even for a profit, to support your own learning. 

 

This sounds like a great plan! One worry I have when thinking about building PC's is that I would struggle initially as money is relatively tight. I always wondered what would happen if I finished using a PC that I had built and then wanted to build a new system. I guess I could sell the complete system setup and use the revenue from that or, if just upgrading parts, I could sell the old parts. I just wouldn't want to lose loads of money, even breaking even would be fine by me.

[abberto]

I was wondering what people thought about this build? My budget is super tight at the moment and I think the parts here leave scope for mild upgrades as time goes on. I only use my laptop for Excel, internet, music, YouTube and Football Manager 2015. Would this build handle the 3D options for FM15 at all??

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Celeron G1840 2.8GHz Dual-Core Processor  (£27.82 @ CCL Computers) 

Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£30.97 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Memory: Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£19.49 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£32.34 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GT 610 1GB Video Card  (£25.97 @ CCL Computers) 

Case: Zalman ZM-T4 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  (£14.99 @ Novatech) 

Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply  (£29.95 @ CCL Computers) 

Total: £181.53

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-26 22:17 BST+0100