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Forum: Geek Forum
Topic: barebones systems..
started by: jiggyfresh

Posted by jiggyfresh on Nov. 06 2001,20:38

if you look on ebay under barebones systmes you find half made systems that come with case, power supply, motherboard, processer, ram, and sound/video cards for like 200-300$ depending on what speed and parts etc..all i would have to do is use my old harddrive, cd drive etc..but i have no experence installing any hardware. is this a difficult job to do? im fairly intelegent when it comes to putting things together but is there anything that would cause me trouble if i did the job myself?

Posted by askheaves on Nov. 06 2001,20:55

Probably the hardest part is deciding which drives should be master, slave, and which ide channel they should be on... and that's not all that hard.

Harddrives should likely go on the primary ide channel, with your boot drive being master. CDs typically on the secondary channel. Try to keep your CD Writers on the opposite channel as your harddrive you'd typically burn from. Etc... just common sense stuff. You set master/slave using the jumper on the back of the device. I avoid cable select because it scares me.

After that, just put all your cards in straight, keep cables away from your CPU fan, make sure to plug all of your power cords into the right spots. Find extra screws before hand to make life easier. Pay attention to putting your memory sticks in the lower mem banks first. Plug a cable from your CD-ROM into your sound card many times. Make sure you have airflow. Don't break anything.

That's everything I can think of. Not a whole lot of brains required.

Posted by Beldurin on Nov. 06 2001,21:35

It's frighteningly easy. One caveat though...make sure that the power switch on the back of your power supply is set to the correct voltage for your country. They usually flip from 120 to 230 or so depending on the supply. The first time I build a computer my dumb ass flipped it to 230 because 230 is more than 120, so it's better, right? NOPE. Fried my mainboard.

Morals of the story:
1.) I'm a dumbass and didn't know anything about electricity at the time
2.) Make sure that all jumpers and switches are correct before powering up.

Aside from that...good luck and enjoy your inexpensive upgrade!

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Give me ambiguity or give me something else...

Posted by Dark Knight Bob on Nov. 07 2001,09:42

and de-statise yourself too

the best way to reduce static is to work on you pc naked

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Oh and by the way, if you see your mum this weekend, be sure to tell her SATAN!!! - Orbital

Posted by kuru on Nov. 07 2001,13:14

Do not use SCSI cables to install IDE devices. (Yes, some incredible moron working for a company I'm familiar with tried to do this.)

Actually, it's really easy. Boot hard drive on primary channel set with jumpers as master (can find jumper settings on the website of the drive maker or on the sticker attached to the drive).

CD ROM and CD Writer on secondary channel, one as master one as slave. (again with the jumpers, find the proper settings)

Adding RAM is about the easiest part: find out what kind you need, most likely DIMMs at PC100 or faster for a modern board, get some, and stick them in in the only direction they fit. If you're really lost, take one out of the computer you need more for and go to the computer store with it. Stick it in an anti-static bag though. Static bad.

Always have beer on hand when doing hardware upgrades. Always be prepared to cuss at the computer for a while. These things are necessary in order to convince the system that you know what you're doing, and if you don't drink a beer and swear a lot, the computer will not work.

The US uses 11x V and most of Europe uses the other one. (x being replaced with either 0 or 5, sometimes it's 110 V and sometimes it's 115 V), so if you're in the USA use that one that starts with 11.

Good luck and all.

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kuru
'dancing is the vertical expression of horizontal desire.'
-robert frost

Posted by Dark Knight Bob on Nov. 11 2001,11:09

and the uk uses 230/240

haha our voltage rulez!

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Oh and by the way, if you see your mum this weekend, be sure to tell her SATAN!!! - Orbital

Posted by MattimeoZ80 on Nov. 11 2001,23:17

quote:
Originally posted by Dark Knight Bob:
the best way to reduce static is to work on you pc naked

i might just have to set up a camera next time i open up my case... wait, its been sitting open for a month. ok, tomorrow then!

Posted by Spydir on Nov. 12 2001,16:44

just don't make it like this:

< http://www.attrition.org/gallery/priceless/tn/priceless33.jpg.html >

Hey CK, got a little brother?

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Net Syndrome - < www.netsyndrome.net >
Catch The Sickness