[Previously: What motherboard do I choose?]
Decision: What RAM (memory) should I use?
People seem to spend an inordinate amount of concern over RAM. What
RAM do I pick is an easy question to answer. Just look at the motherboard
specification on Newegg (or the manufacturer -- which is likely to be
more up to date), and you can see if it is DDR2 or DDR3, and what speed
is recommended/ supported. There may be an indication on what you can overclock
the RAM to that the motherboard will support it.
As to which brand of memory to use, you can usually find a list of
certified memory used to test the motherboard on the manufacturer's web
site. Unfortunately, there are many different manufacturers of memory
and many different sizes of memory. About all you can usually
determine from this list is if it will support memory similar to what
you are considering and in all slots and combinations. Worth a look,
but not useful in assuring which memory will work in your
motherboard. Know this that RAM from almost all sources generally
behaves well unless pushed to its extreme.
The motherboard manufacturer will also state what sized memory sticks
the motherboard's slots will support and sometimes restricts its
orientation. Dual channel support is generally best conducted by
matched sticks of RAM having been tested and certified by the memory
manufacturer as having very similar properties to one another "dual
channel memory." In fact for motherboards with four slots, there are
even four stick kits so certified to behave the same to one another. Dual channel RAM
should be marked and kept in the same channel with one another and not mixed.
DDR2 running at 800Mhz meets its specification. The specification calls for 1.8V per stick of RAM to run DDR2
DDR3 running at 1333Mhz meets its specification. The specification calls for 1.5V per stick of RAM to run DDR3.
Generally RAM meeting these two specs will run on a compatible motherboard.
RAM certified as running faster than the specs above may achieve that
number by raising the voltage on the RAM (usually done manually in the
BIOS). Better RAM is that which meets the spec without raising the
voltage, or raising it as little as possible.
Of all the items to ensure faster RAM, like the speed of a CPU, there
is no substitution for being able to run at a higher frequency if the
motherboard will support it.
After that the next consideration you will hear is CAS value. For now,
all you need know is that the lower the CAS value the faster the RAM
will run. While other timing values can also be reduced for greater
performance from RAM, it makes little perceived difference for most situations. Lower CAS value should only be pursued if the cost is negligible which
frequently it is.
Lastly, as a general rule if there is a choice, running 2 sticks of for
example 2Gb each of RAM is better than 4 sticks of 1 Gb for 4 Gb
total. It uses half the voltage and stresses the computer less.
Upgrading RAM is generally a waste of money, as perceived performance
enhancement is negligible. You should buy what you can afford from the
first. Adding more RAM later can have dramatic improvements as long as
you are careful to match the RAM in speed and voltage.
How much RAM should I buy?
DDR2 and even DDR3 RAM is cheap. [No longer made DDR and PC133 is
expensive and not getting any cheaper.] A 32-bit OS can support up to
4Gb. 64-bit is a number so big (2 to the 64th) I don't bother
contemplating it. Suffice it to say it is operator system dependent,
and motherboard dependent.
For 32-bit OSs I strongly recommend buying a couple of sticks of 2Gb
RAM to max. out at 4Gb. Yes if you are using XP or a 32-bit Vista,
only 3Gb or so will be reported. Does that missing Gb go to waste?
Some of it does. But some of it holds Window's OS drivers and video
RAM shadow. But the price difference between 3Gb and 4Gb is
negligible, and you will have to do 3Gb with four sticks which is less
desirable. Now if I had 1Gb and wanted to upgrade to 3Gb, that may
make more sense from a cost perspective, rather than discarding the 2 x
512Mb sticks for 2 x 2Gb sticks. But starting out new, it makes no
sense to me.
XP (SP3) really needs 2Gb to work well. And Vista needs
4Gb. 4Gb will improve the performance of either significantly. For the cost 4Gb of RAM is one of the biggest performance gains you can make for your computer.
For 64-bit Vista the OS imposed limits to memory are:
Windows Vista Home Basic - 8 GB of RAM
Windows Vista Home Premium - 16 GB of RAM
Windows Vista Business - 128 GB of RAM or more
Windows Vista Ultimate - 128 GB of RAM or more
Next: What video card do I choose?
[Previous: How to choose a CPU?]
Decision: How to choose a motherboard?
Which socket the CPU can fits is the first limiting factor on which
motherboards you can choose from. Even Newegg asks Intel or AMD
motherboards --- not meaning manufacturer of the motherboards, but from
which CPU manufacturer the motherboard will support. Long gone are the
K-series days of Intel compatible chips from AMD.
Once you have a CPU decided upon, you can eliminate all but those
motherboards that utilize the compatible socket for that motherboard.
And then a WHOLE BUNCH of new, but fun decisions are underway.
In my opinion the motherboard is the single most important decision
point in building a computer. In a well designed computer, the
motherboard will determine every interaction and output you have with
your computer from how the keyboards are plugged in to the output of
the video to the front panel connectors. A myriad of options can
reside on a motherboard. Yet often I see people assembling components
in which little obvious thought was given to choosing a motherboard,
yet great thought (and often expense) went into choosing rather
unimportant RAM. How many times have I seen someone assemble a build
with a top of the line CPU, such as the Q9550 and expensive
ultra-performance gaming RAM complemented with a $50 motherboard tossed
in...to save money of course.
How big do I want my motherboard?
Motherboards come in standards. A myriad of standards. Fortunately
few have been particularly successful, and only three are generally
something you will likely come across today: ATX, micro-ATX (u-ATX) and
mini-ITX. Size, component location and mounting hole location
standardized.
ATX: 12" x 9.6" -- 7 expansion slots -- 12 mounting holes (not all
have to be present) [The ATX spec is identical to the u-ATX except it
has been lengthened to accommodate three more expansion slots.
u-ATX: 9.6" x 9.6" -- 4 expansion slots -- 9 mounting holes (not all have to be present)
mini-ITX: 6.7" x 6.7" -- 1 expansion slot -- 4 mounting holes [Note:
Mini-ITX boards feature mounting-hole overlap with the FlexATX
standard, allowing them to be used in most standard PC cases. The
standard has recently been revised (v.2.0) by VIA to allow a PCIe x16 slot and for whatever reason an IDE connector.]
Some motherboards will violate these dimensions in length in either
direction. Tis is permitted as long as the mounting holes are
positioned exactly according to spec. But it can present problems for
some cases which might not have room for an expanded format. Be sure
to check. All back plate components and location of the CPU and
expansion slots are identical to standard boards however for all three of these board types.
What chipsets do I want?
Almost never looked at by purchasers...because they don't understand
them. But this is the heart and soul of the motherboard. Usually two
chips referred to as the Northbridge and the Southbridge. These
control the interactions between the CPU and the various I/O functions
on the computer. Every input and output leading to and from your
computer, and memory access, expansion slot access, SATA and IDE
ports. Every interaction with your CPU goes through the chipset until
recently. A few years ago, AMD built their memory controller directly
into their CPU, a strategy Intel just adopted with its i7 CPUs. So in
the future, the Northbridge is likely to disappear as its functions are
incorporated into the CPU. Additionally video may be built into the
Northbridge.
The chips set are typically two large silicon chips, often covered by
heatsinks. The Northbridge is the closer of the two to the CPU, and is
almost always covered by a heatsink. It typically deals with the
memory accesses between the CPU and RAM and the video card interactions
between the CPU and the GPU.
The Southbridge which generally deals with audio, the drive accesses
(near where it is usually located) and all of the I/O functions you
contribute in all of those ports and expansion slots you plug things
into. This generally requires less speed in interactions and therefor
does not get as hot. RAID controllers may be incorporated within as
well.
Improvements and additional features are constantly being put into
chipsets, and this is why I encourage you to go with more modern
chipsets for your working computer --- particularly when you will be
using it for years to come.
A supplemental chip is now appearing on motherboards that now controls IDE, misc. ports and usually adds two RAIDable SATA ports. It remains to be seen how this added SATA capacity will be used. The boot drive does not go here!
How many expansion slots do I need? What kind and how many of each?
Now a days it is not uncommon to have zero slots filled. The
motherboard provides most services that used to be performed by add on
cards pretty well. The only card left is a graphics card, and onboard
video is getting so good, only those with gaming or video needs need
the kind of power and external GPU can provide.
Except for audiophiles, ultimate gaming and musicians the onboard audio
is so good these days that most audio card makers are out of business.
How many video cards am I planning on running?
Zero. One. These are the two most likely answers. Unless you are playing or ever will play high end games that can take advantage of dual graphics processors stick with worrying about a single PCIe x16 video slot.
If the answer is more than one, then plan accordingly. I have seen
motherboards with SIX!!!! x16 slots for running multiple video cards on
a bigger than ATX board. Flight Simulator indeed.
Do I want onboard video? What video output options are available?
Onboard video is nice even if you do not use it to have a inexpensive
backup solution (and testing) if your video card acts up. It has also
become powerful enough for watching online video, handling or writing,
email and browsing tasks ... generally everything. The truth is most
people do not need an independent GPU.
AMD, NVIDIA and Intel offer onboard video (as do a number of other
Northbridge producers who are disappearing). ATI (now AMD) and NVIDIA
offer video cards (there are still some others who offer consumer video
GPUs, but often they are old chips for special uses).
Standard VGA (aka D-SUB) is normally found on motherboards with onboard
video. But increasingly DVI (DVI-I or DVI-D) and HDMI outputs are
either co-residing or replacing the D-SUB video output port. Be sure
to match the output to your monitor's input -- though there is often an
adapter solution. The DVI and HDMI interfaces offer easier connection
and higher resolutions (higher bandwidth).
What type of memory do I want?
What speed do I want supported? How many memory slots? What is the
minimum amount of RAM that I want to be supported? [Memory will be
discussed in my next blog entry.]
Right now that is either DDR2 or DDR3 RAM. The standard for DDR2 is
800 Mhz speed at 1.8V. For DDR3 it is 1333Mhz at 1.5V. Generally I
look for motherboards that support at least these speeds. If they do
not support the standards, I pass.
4Gb is the maximum that can be used by a 32-bit operating system. And
for DDR2 utilizing motherboards this will probably be the minimum
support you should demand in a motherboard. 8Gb is nice, but the
claims of 16Gb is probably unrealistic because it is extremely hard
(and expensive) to find 4Gb sticks of DDR2 RAM. And RAM manufacturer's are abandoning DDR2 manufacture to gear up for DDR3 manufacture so I doubt any will be made in the future since DDR3 seems to be a successful format.
DDR3 RAM will probably appear in 4Gb sticks eventually so a four slot
motherboard supporting at least 16Gb would seem a no brainer to me in a Socket 775 (DDR3) or AM3 motherboard.
I shy away from motherboards that can support both DDR2 and DDR3 RAM. In my experience, such transition boards do neither well.
Most motherboards today support single and dual channel memory
configurations. In dual channel memory access occurs on two separate
sticks of RAM at the same time theoretically doubling the access time.
In reality the improved performance is not especially improved fro DDR2. I have not seen the figures but I suspect for DDR3 even less so. The i7
has introduced triple channel access, requiring three sticks of DDR3 RAM to
run For this reason, if you decide on a i7 motherboard I advocate selecting only those with
six DDR3 RAM slots, not three or four. I am interested to know if triple channel shows much improvement over single channel.
For Socket 775 and AM2 CPUs I advocate going with DDR2 using
motherboards. There is no inherent benefit to using DDR3 RAM with
these CPUs. With the i7 you have no choice: DDR3. And in the near future as
DDR3 and DDR2 prices meet, there becomes good reason (faster speed and by lower prices eventually) to prefer a DDR3
based motherboard for the socket 775 or AM2 CPUs. There is no
current disadvantage besides cost for going with the DDR3. In fact it will
stably go to higher frequencies (speeds) than DDR2.
What rear panel connectors do I want?
The rear panel (backplate or I/O panel) is where you plug in most if
not all of your computer connections in the back. There is a panel
that comes with the motherboard, that you replace in the case for a
perfect fit.
PS/2 = I like PS/2 connectors over USB for my mouse and keyboards, but
they are rapidly disappearing. Still there are times when a USB
keyboard connection can get confused....I sure will miss them.
Video = only if you have onboard video. Discussed briefly above. There are occasionally other video standards.
Serial/Parallel = Why are these still on a motherboard? Hardly anyone
still uses a serial or parallel port. There are certainly people who
still need them, and that is fine. But a expansion card with one or
both can be had for under $20, and may even contain its own controller
and a bit of memory to optimize the transfers.
LAN = One Ethernet port is usually sufficient. Look for a 1Gb transfer
port, just because anything slower is suspect of a old board.
USB = Some people want a lot of these. I have seen up to 8 USB ports
in the backplane. Combines with headers and expansion slot cables,
having 12 USB ports in the back would not be impossible. I have never
used more than three. Currently USB2.0. Super popular for good
reason=fast and convenient. USB3 that offers about six times faster
rates will be out early 2010. USB2 devices will plug into USB3 ports
and work at USB2 speeds. I believe USB3 cables will plug into USB2
ports and drive USB2 devices, but USB3 devices will not function on
USB2 ports (unless they do not need the extra power connections, then they would run at USB2 speeds).
Firewire = (aka 1394) Another high speed transfer that never really caught on except in digital cameras. Can be 6 pin or 4 pin. Essentially as fast as USB2.
eSATA = Newest connector. Requires separate inconvenient power connector. Connector plugs somewhat fragile. Hot
swappable IF a RAID driver was preloaded into the system in XP, which is built
into Vista. About three times faster than USB2.
Audio (3 port, 6 port typical) = Largely replaced audio cards. Most are 6 port
unless rear panel space is at a premium. Claimed 7.1 channel sound. [3 port claimed 5.1 sound]
Coax (SPDIF) or optical = Frequently present as digital sound output options. Occasionally as input options.
Other? There are often some interesting option placed on special boards.
What motherboard headers do I want?
USB = usually two or three header pairs, each capable of handling two USB ports for eight or twelve total.
SPDIF = digital audio output or input
IR = infrared port
CD audio = Total waste -- use your IDE or SATA cable to carry the audio and leave this ridiculous anachronism unplugged.
Front panel audio = HD Audio [AC'97 audio is well so 1997.]
Firewire = (aka 1394) Can usually support two ports on one header if available.
Serial/Parallel port headers = occasionally still present. Will need an adapter cable that usually must be purchased form the manufacturer.
Front panel headers: these are where your case power LED, reset switch, power switch, HDD access LED (IDE only), and speaker output (beep codes) reside. HDD access LED is now pretty much superfluous. Unfortunately few motherboards or cases provide any kind of speaker to hear beep codes -- which sure are nice when things go wrong early in the boot.
How many SATA connectors do I want? Do I want to support RAID?
Generally you want at least four connectors: two for HDDs, one for an external eSATA port and one for an ODD.
There is little need for RAID. If you want to RAID you should have a
specific need for wanting to RAID drives. It is hard on the drives and
rather dangerous from a data standpoint. If you are installing XP, you
should strongly consider doing an F6 install of the RAID drivers if
your Northbridge supports RAID making the computer "RAID capable."
This will allow you to run SATA drives in AHCI mode (aka SATA mode) for
hot swapping and NCQ which may improve performance. But if not,
emulating IDE is almost as good and more stable. Vista systems already
install themselves as RAID capable.
Do I want IDE support?
Motherboards are starting to appear without any IDE controller. You
can still add an expansion card to run your old IDE HDDs and ODDs if
you want. But do not expect to see motherboards with IDE drive
capability in the future, and for now the most you can run is two
drives.
Floppy support? Disappearing
floppy drive [disappearing working floppy disks]. Still useful for
BIOS updates and F6 RAID driver installs. But its days are numbered.
Try a USB interfaced floppy if you must.
Parallel or serial port support?
As I said above, why limit yourself to motherboards when you can add a
expansion card for a few bucks more that covers this area?
What kind of audio support is important to me?
Most motherboards come with 7.1 sound that is pretty good. If you need
more then buy a sound card, but for the vast majority of people this is
not a problem in search of a solution.
What LAN support do I need? Most people need a single
LAN connector for their cable modem/DSL Internet connection, or to plug
into their router. Some people actually use a motherboard as a
router. Not smart IMHO, but your call. Since a cable modem/DSL
connection runs well under the 100Mb/s speed on most Ethernet, do you
really need 1Gb/s? Probably not, but the motherboards without 1Gb/s
speeds may be old motherboards that have been sitting in a warehouse
for a couple of years.
What power supply connectors are required?
On modern ATX motherboards a 24 pin power supply connector and either a
4 or 8 pin CPU power connector. Some of the Mini-ITX use a 20 pin which is
compatible with modern PSUs...you just leave the last four pins disconnected OR hanging
off the side.
What cables come with the motherboard?
Frequently a floppy and IDE cable will come with motherboards that
support these headers, but the only ones to care about on a new system
are generally SATA cables and most come with either two or four SATA
cables. [Check the image on the Newegg site to find out.] Some are
lately coming with a eSATA expansion bracket cable for the back. Be
warned, power must be supplied to the eSATA device by something other
than the data transfer cable.
What kind of manufacturer website support is available?
This is my last stop. This is a major purchase; it pays to do your homework before whipping out the plastic. I want to go to the manufacturer's support site
and see what kind of online support is offered. I shy away from some
manufacturer's boards because of poor online support. Can I download
manuals? How good are they? Can I download BIOS updates and drivers?
How up to date are they? I often check out older boards to see if this
support ceases about a year after the board comes out, or if updates
for five year old boards are still coming out. You can also drop into
their forums to see how they treat and respond to customers -- most don't.
BIOS menu?
This should be examined in the motherboard manual before purchase.
Some vendors giver you the ability to tweak your system extensively,
others barely give your the ability to change your date and time. Ones
with fewer adjustments are probably less likely to give trouble --
although selecting the optimal default setting should always give you a
stable system. But having the ability to tweak various setting on your
computer allows you to overclock and adjust things that might otherwise
cause problems. If you do not like tweaking stay out of the BIOS
menu. But if you are wanting to overclock it pays to make sure your
motherboard will allow you to before you buy. (Intel is notorious for not allowing overclocking on most of their boards.)
Warranty? Self explanatory.
Lookup CPU compatibility:
While on the manufacturer's web site look up and make sure the specific
CPU you are buying is on their CPU support list. You have been warned. See whether
its support was recently added and is the latest BIOS number...that
could be a problem if the motherboard that shows up is using an older
BIOS version. How are you going to update the BIOS without a compatible CPU?
Lookup memory compatibility:
While on the manufacturer's web site look up and make sure the specific
RAM you are buying is on the Memory Support List. This is almost useless for a brand
specific standpoint, but you can often get clues as to what forms of
RAM are known to give the motherboard trouble. These days most RAM will work well, but this list can help.
Lookup BIOS update and driver downloads: See above comment on how frequently does the manufacturer support it's own products?
BTX and FlexATX MBs replacements: Lastly I should say something about a couple of motherboard standards
that experienced brief popularity and have since disappeared but are
still running on many people's computers including mine. BTX was
supposed to be the replacement for ATX motherboards. Great idea at the
time... but the abandonment of ever higher frequency computers spelled
the death knell for BTX. Plenty of Pentium D's and very fast Pentium
4's still out there running on BTX boards. If you think you can replace your BTX motherboard,
CPU and RAM with an ATX think again; the motherboard is incompatible with the ATX
specs. Sorry.
The FlexATX was a smaller version of the u-ATX. The good news here is
that a Mini-ITX should fit inside of any FlexATX case providing a
faster CPU, and maybe more RAM. But you are looking at a single
expansion card. Worth it, maybe if you like your minicomputer...but
remember the Mini-ITX formats are usually even smaller...so if it is
mini you are after why not buy a new case.
Next: How to choose memory?
Previous: Why build your own (Part 4) Checklist of components
Decision: Intel or AMD CPU?
[First please note, I am limiting my
writing to consumer components -- there are components designed
for servers and rather specialized computers that I will not touch
upon, though many principles are the same.]
If you want the fastest, most powerful computers available then your
decision is easy (and more costly): Intel. Intel's high end
processors are incontestably the faster and more powerful CPUs on the
market. AMD -- once briefly at the top -- is back in familiar
territory of keeping up in the middle and bottom of the pack with its
CPUs.
But AMD's engineering is really excellent (as is Intel's), so if you
are looking for a good to modest computer system, it is AMD's
competition that keeps Intel's prices down. AMD has kept up
through clever engineering and clever predicting of the market.
AMD's CPUs are often lower energy users and run cooler (but generally
their thermal tolerance run about 10 degrees C less than most of Intel's CPUs).
CPUs (central processing units) are the
computer. They are where
the software instructions execute and instructions are relayed for
the next task. The biggest consideration is speed; currently
measured in
GHz --- though AMD for a while tried creating an equivalence scale
(eg., 5200+) when
they could not keep up with Intel in producing ever faster CPUs and
instead employed engineering improvements (onboard memory controller,
fully integrated dual cores, etc.) to compete. And compete they
did. They actually overtook Intel for a time, and eventually
Intel had to concede that ever faster processing speeds were not
possible or economical, and one consequence is the multicore phenomenon
occurring now --- one that unfortunately, the software creators (and code
compiler producers) have yet to take advantage of.
So as a rule, the higher the GHz the faster the computer. If you
look at pricing structures you will find in any line of CPUs a linear
increase in speed produces a linear increase in cost. But here is
the dirty little secret: For most users the fastest CPU in a line is
not much faster than the slowest CPU in that line in real perceived speed. Also, most of
todays CPUs will overclock by at least 10% without any problems or
special thermal equipment. [But keep in mind you are only assured
the CPU will meet the speed you buy.]
Intel
and AMD
have families of CPUs. The differences within family
members are the speed of the chip. Families however differ from
each other in
both the number of CPU cores (Multiple cores equals multiple "CPUs"
inside the same CPU. Currently 2, 3 or 4 cores, but 6 and 8 core CPUs are
soon to be released), the amounts of internal memory present (L1, L2 and
now L3 internal memory caches), how fast the CPU can communicate with the
motherboard/memory (FSB; front side bandwidth) and how thin the
"traces" are. Traces are the
"wires" that connect the various parts of a CPU. The thinner the
trace, the smaller the CPU can be made. This allows more CPUs to
be made from a quantity of the conductive/ insulative layered material
(silicon) which results in cheaper CPUs being offered for sale.
Smaller traces have additional benefits in actually speeding up the
actual speed of the processor, running cooler due to less
resistance. But the shrinkage is once again approaching the level
where people are asking at what level does it become so small that
electrons start jumping ("shorting") across adjacent traces? In
the laboratory, Intel has experimental chips running at 15nm.
Right now 45nm is the main target, with 32nm about to roll out from
Intel. There has to be some point where the wires can get no thinner.
It is now believed this point lies around 9nm. But such predictions
have been made in the past, and point to the reality that we really do
not understand all of the physics going on at these dimensions in
electrons flowing through.
Each CPU connects to the motherboard (MB) through a socket.
Intel's most popular current socket is the 775. The number
representing 775 pins that make electrical contact between the CPU and
the motherboard socket. Intel's latest is Socket 1366 -- yes you
guessed it -- that is used by the new i7 CPU. AMD has a similar
socket, though they have stopped going by connection count and refer to
their latest FSB as AM2, AM2+ and the newest AM3.
With Intel socket 775 CPUs are not compatible with socket 1366, but
with AMD AM2, AM2+ and AM3 do have some compatibility. Further, not
all motherboards support all CPUs even if they fit in the socket. They
must have the appropriate micro code programmed into the BIOS for one.
And there are often other reasons why a CPU family is not supported.
Generally the faster the CPU can communicate (FSB) with the external
memory (the RAM) or computer's components (e.g., hard drive (HDD),
video card, etc.) the faster the computer. In practice, it often
is not particularly noticeable at relatively similar price points.
A fairly modest CPU which is modest in price can often have over 80% of
the performance of the highest end CPU in the line costing five times
as much and requiring far more expensive support components.
Memory inside the CPU interacts much faster with the CPU than if the
CPU
must go to access the external memory, so in theory the more internal
memory the faster the computer. This is a good general rule of
thumb. The bigger the L2, the better. The L3 is still
relatively new, and combined with Intel now following AMD's lead and
incorporating a memory controller inside the CPU rather than on a
external chipset (discussed in another bog entry), it will be
interesting to see how important the L3 will be. It will still be
faster than external memory accesses. When a CPU goes looking for
instructions or data it looks first in L1, then not finding it, the L2,
then L3 (if any), then external memory and then finally the hard drive
cache. Each progressively slower than the last. [Intel's i7 works a bit differently than this. It looks first in its L3, if the information sought is present, the L3 will indicate if it is possibly present in the faster L1 or L2.]
CPUs come in two forms for sale: OEM and retail. OEM is offered bare as is --
often for a great discount, but frequently for only a few dollars
less. You get only a few days return policy from the vendor -- Intel or
AMD sell this CPU as is -- so usually in 15 to 30 days if you have not
returned the CPU you own it. But a little known secret --- both
CPU manufacturers can be cajoled by a polite but persistent caller to
take back OEM CPUs up to three years after purchase because neither
wants a reputation for producing and sticking customers with bad chips. With retail CPUs you get a
three year warranty from either CPU manufacturer, AND usually a
manufacturer's specification heatsink/fan (HSF) is included in the box along with thermal compound.
You will often see a "Black Box" designation on a CPU. This
box may not have a HSF included, but does have the 3 year warranty.
It's main feature is in overclocking as it has usually has it's
multiplier unlocked which may or may not allow the owner to overclock
the CPU multiplier without having to raise the clock frequency.
Te last consideration is energy use. CPUs range anywhere from 140W
required to a low of 45W in most systems, and lately new low energy
single core CPUs have been introduced by AMD and Intel (and VIA) that
us even less. Mainly in laptops to extend battery life, however, many
can also be found in low energy using systems in desktop computers as
well.
Overclocking is where conditions are changed to push a CPU, GPU, RAM or chipset past its manufacturer specification to produce greater performance. Pushing too far can destroy the component through heat. Pushing beyond a point will also lead to part failure prematurely. CPUs are now quite safe to overclock as they contain limiters that keep them from damaging themselves -- GPUs too. There are special HSFs that allow greater overclocking of these four components. In my experience you can usually stably overclock a CPU by 10% using stock HSF with no harm to the computer.
Next: Decision: How to buy a motherboard?
Previous: A bit of history and encouragement Part 3
Why build your own?
Building your own will familiarize
you with what is in your system, and
allow you to decide on the components. But you will get no support
unless you hire an independent contractor or service. But there is
satisfaction to be obtained in figuring out problems on yourself and by
asking advice on appropriate forums.
Check List of what is needed (in the order I usually start to choose
components):
CPU:
Motherboard:
RAM:
GPU (video card, optional):
Case:
Power Supply:
Hard Drive (C:):
Hard Drive (D:, optional):
DVD Burner:
-------------------
Monitor:
Keyboard:
Mouse:
Speakers:
Next: Decision: The CPU: Intel or AMD? (yes I know it is lame to stop now, but more tomorrow I promise).
Previous Part 1: How to decide on a computer build?
Part 2. What is my Budget Range?
[be sure to account for taxes
and
shipping] I can tell you that many people have unrealistic
expectations. Will building my own computer save money?
Often
not. Check out ads online and in the Sunday papers. [Best Buy, Fry's, OfficeMax, OfficeDepot, Staples....] Local Mom & Pop Shops. Sign up to receive Newegg's newsletter, which daily offers weekly deals
on numerous items that can save you tens of dollars. Check the daily
deals. There are some great deals which is one of the reasons why
Newegg is so popular.
If you are really budget tight be sure to check out prices
of systems, refurbished systems, bundled items and clearance
systems. You
can
find some good bargains or some tired dogs. Shop wisely. Arf!
Are you realistic? If you are looking for a computer for much under $300 don't
bother. That is rock bottom and reliability and ability to
upgrade are limited in the below $500 category. Also this price
often does not include any I/O (input/output) parts: that is, monitor,
keyboard, mouse, and maybe speakers. Add those and you are
minimally in the $500 area.
So, what can you afford? If all you can afford is $300, consider
upgrading your current computer with a CPU + MB + RAM
combination. You can often upgrade a computer significantly ...
but not if it is too old; where virtually all its parts are outdated
and worn out. People often make the mistake of waiting too
long then putting money into an old computer (like$200+ for a CPU for
their old MB) that would be better spent on replacing these three
aforementioned items for one heck of a bang for the dollar.
Will I buy all new parts, or will I be using some parts from a current
computer?
You can often reuse the case, ODD (optical disk drive), monitor,
keyboard, mouse and speakers from an old computer.
Reusing a more than three years old PSU (power supply) from a computer
is generally unwise. Power supplies -- particularly those NOT
protected by a good power strip or UPS (universal power supply=backup
battery) -- take a beating over time from power surges. And their
capacitors age whether in use or not. After three years a PSU
often has lost 30% of its rated power output. And in a factory
bargain computer it is typically the PSU where corners were cut to
lower the price. Frequently PSU's from noname vendors never
supplied the stated voltage even when new. As the temperature
inside the case rises, the maximum voltage the PSU is able to supply
falls. Better quality PSU's use better quality, longer lasting
capacitors and will be capable of lasting many years of use if properly
protected.
Hard disk drives (HDD) can also be reused with these caveats.
One, ATA (IDE, PATA) controllers are disappearing off of the
motherboard (MB). Eventually this old technology will vanish all
together.
Most MBs will support two IDE drives these days. Usually a single
ODD placed upon the end of the cable. But if you wish to place a
HDD onto this cable it should be at the end, with the ODD in the middle
--- both in a "cable select" arrangement jumper setting.
If you have a Windows XP/Vista operating system on an old hard drive
and it is OEM (original equipment of manufacturer) initially installed
by a computer builder [You can check by going to the General tab in the
Systems Folder and the "registered to:" should say "OEM" in it if it is an
OEM version.] you will be in violation of your user agreement (EULA) if
you transfer the operating system to another CPU/MB. That said it
can be done, but it may require some skill and skulduggery.
If it is not an OEM copy of XP, it can be moved to another computer under your license, as long as it is only on one computer.
If
you use that HDD as the boot drive, you will have to install new
drivers (but if XP is attached to the Internet it will actually make a pretty good attempt to find and install the correct drivers for you), and almost certainly have to re-activate your copy of Windows.
RAM tends to be replaced by faster RAM in a different form every three
to five years. DDR2 while common is finally phasing out to DDR3
manufacturer, and now is a great time to max. out motherboards with
DDR2 for the dollar. But anyone with DDR or PC133 RAM is in
possession of RAM of little interest to anyone. Equally trying to
stick old DDR2 @ 667MHz into a modern MB capable of running standard
800 MHz speeds or greater may detrimentally effect overall performance of your
system...especially when 4Gb of DDR2 RAM can be had for $40 to $55 these
days.
Video cards also rapidly fade. There are some classics still out
there, but standards change. AGP was replaced by PCIe, and now
PCIe 2.0 (backward/forward compatible with PCIe 1.0 standard).
Anyone with an AGP card--it is also a dead technology. If you have a MB with AGP or even older PCI based video in need of upgrading, you should replace the system, or at east the CPU+MB+RAM if it will fit in the old case. Otherwise you are throwing away good money towards dying tech.
I laugh when I see somebody state they want a fast gaming computer with
BlueRay, and an 8800GTX GPU for under $300. Unrealistic? Heck,
delusional! I have seen somebody as for ideas on a three hundred
dollar build, only to come back when people propose possibilities and
state they want to play Spore, WoW, Chrysalis or get faster video
editing. It is not going to happen at that price. Any thoughts
otherwise is a fantasy for now.
You can buy, right now, some impressive laptops for $300 (called
Netbooks) that are targeted at wirelessly surfing the Internet and
doing email. And not much else.
Next: A bit of history and encouragement
Previously: What is my Budget Range? Part 2
A bit of history and encouragement
In the mid-80's a entry level computer would cost $5,000. Entry
level. There were high end Compaq's going for $10,000. Now it is hard
to imagine a $10,000 computer, and a $5,000 one comes with very fancy
cooling designed for extreme overclocking the incredible capacity
machine that kind of money produces. And today those $300 Netbooks
exponentially outperform the $10,000 boxes of the mid-80's. That is
progress. In the 80's it was ads in the backs of computer magazines
like Computer Shopper and PC Buyer that led you into the bargain world of Asian importers
residing on both coasts who were bringing in computer components from
Taiwan and Japan, and later other Asian nations whose components started to make
building your own computer affordable.
Some people quickly realized how easy it was to assemble these
computers and started putting them together in their houses for profit
(eventually becoming local Mom and Pop Shops). Computers from the few companies that
existed were overpriced. At first is was easy to undercut the big boys
and make a tidy profit on a sale. Mom & Pops could often offer not
only a lower price, but higher end specifications (we didn't call it
overclocking back then) on computers. They also started reselling the
parts to computers at good prices. All of this forced prices down to
rock bottom where it remains today.
Computers are some of the greatest
buys available. They entertain, inform, allow multiple avenues for
instantaneous and artistic communication and data preservation. They
last for years. When you amortize the cost over several years you can
realize you get years of pleasure from this box for only an investment
that amounts to a few hundred dollars a year. And for you radical
extremist gamers out there who upgrade and build an el Supremo
box every six months to a year and push the market to ever greater
heights of performance and capacity -- Thank you! And computers have
led to eBay where you can recoup some of that investment to pay off
your latest creation, by selling your previous project to someone else
who has lesser requirements but appreciates a fast powerful build.
So how hard is it to build your own computer? Easy and hard. A
computer generally consists of less than a dozen parts that push, snap
and screw together in less than an hour's time. The first time is
intimidating. But there is a fair chance that when you flip that power
button for the first time ("the smoke test") the computer will come to
life.
Hard in that there is a lot of terminology out there, and a lot
of varied components some with advantages or differing functionality over the other. Some
obscure and arcane. People argue all the time about variants and this
is healthy. 3Gb of RAM versus 4Gb? Intel versus AMD CPUs?
Overclocking? NVIDIA versus ATI versus onboard video? MB manufacturers?
Yes nerds and geeks are full of opinions and all are right and many
misconceptions fly around. After many years I still learn something
new almost daily. When you first start out it seems overwhelming. But for the most part it is rather simple. You just need a few parts and they need to be compatible with one another.
Many people do not want to know much about their computer's inner
workings. That is fine. They are in the majority. They should stick
to buying supported retail computers. Pay someone else to maintain
their computer.
But if you are here reading this you are someone
else. Either interested in building your own, or so poor you are
forced to consider building your own to have a computer. If this
latter applies to you I would suggest trying to buy a clearance,
refurbished or special sale computer that comes with a known
manufacturer warranty. eMachines offers good bargain buys. Building
your own is likely to be a frustrating experience. Buying is a better
option for you. Or paying someone to build it for you.
But if you always found computers to be intriguingly mysterious, and
you wanted to know more, then there is no better way to understand
computers than to build your own. And that means doing some groundwork
to decide upon and assemble your parts. What is it you want your
computer to do?
Next: Why build your own? What is needed?
[NOTE: This will be a running thread for the next couple of weeks, with maybe an occasional add on later on this topic. It is intended to explain to the novice how to pick and choose components in building a commuter.]
1. What are the intended uses for your computer? Predominate
list: General purpose, video making,
gaming, Internet, other special uses?
As a general rule -- for now -- everything can be readily handled by a rather
simple setup for under $1,000. The only two demanding areas that fall outside of this rule are
dedicated gaming and video encoding. [I am assuming a home user ---
scientific, engineering and other commercial applications may have
unique and demanding needs as well.]
General rule of thumb for High End Gaming: Dual core and as fast
as possible (Ghz). Big L2
cache (internal memory built into the CPU (computer processing unit)). Overclocking (running the computer components beyond their rated specifications). Powerful GPU (graphics processor unit, aka video card). [If you read the
specification/ recommended system requirements for the games you like
to play, you may often find you do not need this high end/ high price
setup, and a less costly build will suffice.]
General rule of thumb for Video Encoding: Quad core and faster CPU
helps. Biggest L2
cache. Overclocking OK, but foremost the system must be
stable. Hard drive storage. More RAM is better.
Moderate GPU (HD4850) with video functions. [Lesser systems will
work, but take longer -- sometimes hours -- to compile.]
General rule of thumb for Everything else: Onboard video, modest CPU
suffices. Motherboards have gotten very good at supplying most
needs at a great price.
Part 2: What is my budget range? Will I be reusing old parts?