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Building Your Own PC. Part 1

Can’t find the ideal PC? Why not build your own – Iain Laskey did.

I’m sure I’m not alone in as much as I had a ‘Dream PC’. A specification that I yearned for. The machine would be packed to the gunwales with the latest bits that I wanted - not bits that others thought I’d like. Accordingly, I started to put together a shopping list of what to buy.

This in itself proved to be no minor feat. Much reading and trawling round the web ensued, looking for the best power for the money for each component. After some days, the only thing that was still causing me grief was the motherboard and case. 

The Shopping List

One thing that really helps here is a truly knowledgeable supplier. In my case I called EQ consultants in Scotland (01764 685220, email biz@cix.compulink.co.uk). I have had dealings with them in the past and found the prices to be as keen as their opinions and ideas. After a few phone calls I’m sure they were getting a bit fed up my indecision but we finally decided on the following list:

·          Large tower case (Vasco) with 6 full size bays and 3 half size bays

·          Asus P2B motherboard

·          Celeron 333a processor

·          Creative Labs Blaster RIVA graphics card

·          Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! Audio card (full version)

·          Creative Labs 4-Point surround speaker set.

·          8.5Gb hard disk

·          Hitachi 2500 DVD drive

·          Hewlett Packard 7200i CD-RW drive

·          LS-120 120Mb floppy drive

·          128Mb SDRAM (CAS 2/100Mhz)

·          PS/2 keyboard

The cost of the whole lot seemed pretty good for the specification.

Wise Whys?

Some of the components probably need some explanation. One thing I was intending to do was to overclock the processor. This is not to recommended unless you know what you are doing as it could damage your PC and will certainly blow your warranty out the water. 

Suffice to say, it is possible to persuade a lowly Celeron 333a to run at 500Mhz or more by ensuring good cooling and some cunning settings in the motherboard and BIOS. Most suppliers pretty much hung-up the phone when I mentioned overclocking. EQ on the other hand were very helpful in recommending motherboard and memory options to maximise my chance of achieving this goal. They did point out that if I did overclock the CPU then the guarantee was null and void – but this is only fair.

The Creative Labs graphics card is one of the better ones around right now. The RIVA/TNT chipset is very fast and it comes with a generous amount of RAM onboard. The audio card is available at half the price as a value version. I wanted to use it for MIDI and sampling though and the full version includes all kinds of additional digital and analogue socketry as well as some nice software for composing and editing sounds. 

The speakers consist of four small satellites and a sub for extra bass. These allow you to use what Creative have dubbed environmental audio. This boils down to more realistic sound and the ability to create noises behind you as well as in front.

Versatility 

I wanted a DVD drive because I watch a lot of films and wanted access to these on my PC as well as my standalone player. More importantly though, it gives me access to the increasing amount of DVD based software. The HP 7200i CD-RW drive adds a CD-ROM writer combined with a CD-RW rewriter. This would help alleviate the burden on the main hard disc as far as storage goes as well as allowing me to create my own music CDs. Mmmm, Jazz. Nice. The 120Mb floppy drive would also help in the storage department as well as allowing me to easily move files between this PC and another one I use.

Memories are Made of This

Finally, a generous 128Mb of RAM. This might seem like a bit much but when you are doing a lot of programming or graphic work, it can make all the difference. Because of the overclocking requirements, I needed extra fast RAM referred to as CAS 2 memory that tends to be more stable in certain configurations.

Having placed the order, I sat back and waited for the deliveries to begin. Impressively, it all arrived the following day, apart from the audio card as it was out of stock. That turned up a few days later.

In the next part I’ll look at the putting all the hardware together.