My amazing computer challenge-help needed.....

[deadite]

Being the type of chap who has nothing better to do, I have decided to build a PC from scratch....
Not interesting enough for me, I have decided to build this PC using only components available from online auctions-possibly excluding the case.
The PC will not be built for any kind of performance-it must however be able to run a basic OS and programs like word...
The PC must be built for as little cost as possible.
No time limit though.....

My only problem is not having built a PC from scratch before I don't really know what I'm doing in terms of component shopping so if there is anyone there can you tell me what I need to do this-bare minimum of components only, so far I have;
CPU
Motherboard
RAM
Hardisk
CD drive
Case
Fan
I also want to add a floppy drive.....
Is there anything else I need?

[heinzmanm]

It is dependent on whether the motherboard has onboard graphics and sound. If it didn't have, you would need to obtain a graphics card and a sound card. I have built many PC's from scratch and would recommend not using motherboards with onboard graphics as should anything go wrong, the whole board would need replacing rather than just the card.

[steveteach]

Hi IDE cable (motherboard to Hard drive) and one from motherboard to floppy, operating system, CD drive and cable (if you want to hear sounds from CD). Plus keyboard, mouse, monitor, also some cases come without a power supply unit (PSU).

Hope that helps.

Steve

[heinzmanm]

Was going to mention IDE cables but most m/boards come with them anyway! If you get your m/board first, see if it comes with any and then buy them if necessary otherwise you'll have more than you need!

[deadite]

Thankyou for your advice....I shall begin the project in the next two weeks, and will endevor to post updates every now and again, in the meantime would anyone care to guess how much I'll be able to do it for-this is just the main computer unit-no monitors,mice etc.
I reckon £50 with the most expensive items being the case,cd drive and floppy.

[sgt_panzer]

Thankyou for your advice....I shall begin the project in the next two weeks, and will endevor to post updates every now and again, in the meantime would anyone care to guess how much I'll be able to do it for-this is just the main computer unit-no monitors,mice etc.
I reckon £50 with the most expensive items being the case,cd drive and floppy.

£139
using cheapest available parts.

[deadite]

:lol: I like the way I said it better
I reckoned £50 was about right as I can get CPU's for £2, Motherboards for £10 all on ebid, but we will soon see won't we....

Does anyone else fancy having a go......perhaps you could just do a virtual version-add up the cheapest possible prices you can get......

[sgt_panzer]

:lol: I like the way I said it better
I reckoned £50 was about right as I can get CPU's for £2, Motherboards for £10 all on ebid, but we will soon see won't we....

Does anyone else fancy having a go......perhaps you could just do a virtual version-add up the cheapest possible prices you can get......

if anyone is selling cpus for £2 they need their head looking @ lol, my point being why bother building a unit like this in the first place? why not spend a bit more for a unit. Seems a waste of £50 to me.

[deadite]

It's just a bit of fun to see how cheap a working PC can be, no point to it really.........

[orca_uk]

It depends really on whether you're building a base unit or a full PC, base is what you listed above but for a full PC then add yourself a soundcard, keyboard, speakers, mouse and monitor.

As for shopping for the bits, you really need to know what equipment each class of motherboard will take which can get a bit complex, especially at the bottom of the scale where you're looking at the older AT systems with a socket 7.

If your going for an older pentium style system then you want these sort of parts:

Socket 7 motherboard
Pentium 75-200
72pin Simm RAM
PCI graphics
ISA/PCI soundcard
540Mb - ~6.4Gb IDE Hard drive
CD-ROM
OS Windows 95, Office 97
*These systems will mostly have AT form factor motherboards and power connectors, so if possible buy the proper case, newer ATX style cases will not fit - shop around and you'll find barebones systems of this spec for about £10 (just add drives and a souncard).

or

Super Socket 7
Pentium 75-200
Pentium MMX 166-233
AMD K6+ 166-550
Cyrix (IBM) 166+ - 333
72pin Simm RAM or
164pin P66/100 SDRAM
PCI/AGP graphics
PCI/ISA soundcard
CD-ROM
OS Windows 95/98se, Office 97
*If you install an AMD K6 2 350Mhz or higher cpu Win95 needs a patch to work, but Win98 will run fine. These spec systems can come in either AT or ATX form, if possible get ATX because you can buy new cases for under £20 these days and the ATX mobos usually have lots of onboard goodies like graphics, sound and USB.

After these older systems parts become a lot easier to sort, and the most important thing is to match the CPU with the motherboard's CPU slot/socket (though for the older Intel chips you can often find slot to socket converters called slockets), so Slot 1 mobo's use Pentium 2, and early Celeron/Pentium 3 CPUs, Socket 370 use Pentium 3 and Celeron CPUs, Slot A mobo's are for the original AMD Athlons and you could even find bargain Socket A parts for the next generation Athlon/Duron AMD chips, though the prices on auctions rarely save much compared to what you can buy new at retail (current price for an intigrated 1.2Ghz Duron build with 128Mb RAM and a 20Gb hard disk is about £175 retail if you shop around).

All the newer motherboards should be ATX form factor and will fit into the new cases avaiable cheaply everywhere, and most will use either PC66/100/133 168 pin SDRAM, but that is more dependant on what front side bus (FSB) CPU uses - always check for this on the manufacturers web site to avoid problems. Also check the motherboard uses 3.3v memory before you buy as some might use the older and almost impossible to get hold of 5.5v RAM. AGP slots should also be standard on these class systems, but they'll still use PCI graphics if needed.

But when your looking the most important part is the motherboard, and always do a bit of research on it before you bid - just to make sure you can actually find the parts, download the newest bioses, drivers and manual for it as it makes life a whole lot easier when your doing a system build .

One final point about putting an OS/Wordprocessor on, if you have broadband and a CD-R drive have a look over at http://www.redhat.com/ - they have several of their brand linux install cd's downloadable as iso's and the latest version has a copy of Openoffice included with it. If you choose an older version that hasn't got it then try http://www.openoffice.org/ to download a copy, both of which are free, and Openoffice has quite good MS Office compatability.

Hope that helps since it's something I do every now and then when I feel like playing some of my older games that just won't run on a newer Windows XP system and in most cases I'll buy a cheap base pentium system, and upgrade it via the bits I find on the auctions or bit's I get from upgrading peoples old computers, but I always keep my trusted old 3.6Gb IBM deskstar for them since the hard drives always seem the most expensive part to buy.

Happy hunting, and if you need any other advice or help drop me a PM and I'll see what I can do.