Forb's computer building thread

[Forb]

First things's first.
First!

Anyway, this is the thread where I am going to put up my progress towards building a computer so I can become active again.
Hunter. I encourage you to post any minor thoughts in here.

[Phauss]

For thest performance, match BUS speeds with the motherboard. Some components will come with another stat called FSB (front side bus) speed, measured in MHz. (Actually, every component has a FSB rating, but it doesn't matter on all of them.) This measures the speed at which the component talks to the board, and can be a bottleneck if your component has a low FSB.

The first mistake I see a lot of people make is not knowing what you want the build to be composed of, which will dictate what the most critical part will be, the motherboard. I recommend browsing for the motherboard first before anything, and keeping a basic idea in mind while you're looking.

For example, let's say I want a motherboard with at least two PCIe slots, two PCI slots, DDR3 memory memory up to 16GB, have a LGA1366 processor socket, have an overall FSB speed of no less than 1333MHz, and for the sake of the build, the motherboard must be red. That narrows things down a lot, but that still includes a ton of motherboards. At least now you can browse through motherboards that meet your requirements, and then buy the appropriate components for them without too much concern.

And please don't get a crappy looking case. As far as cases go, these are my favorite. Lian Li makes some classy stuff. (Coincidentally, I'm using a PC-65B case from them.) But this site (an excellent site for modding) has just about the biggest selection of (good) cases I've found in one place.

[Forb]

What significance does the color of the motherboard have?

[God King]

I usually choose the processor first and try to find a good MoBo that matches. Processors are a simpler choice, relatively, given the number of options that MoBos have.

I don't care whether you get a pretty case or not, but make sure it has good airflow.

[Phauss]

What significance does the color of the motherboard have?

If the case I get has a window, it might be interesting to get components that match in color. I tend to do this, because my first experience with this kind of thing exposed me to a cheesy acrylic case with all sorts of neon green, light blue, red and black components. It looked like crap and scarred me for life. I'm forever doomed to make computers that look good.

I usually choose the processor first and try to find a good MoBo that matches. Processors are a simpler choice, relatively, given the number of options that MoBos have.

I don't care whether you get a pretty case or not, but make sure it has good airflow.

I find that doing it this way is most like reverse engineering the system you want to build before you build it. Selecting the processor first means you know how powerful it is, but now need to sort motherboards by socket and bus speed. The other components can only be selected when the motherboard is selected, which means the selective process of singling out a mobo slows things down quite a bit.

I chose to find the mobo first because it's the most time consuming, and once selected, provides the information you need to select the other parts. If you already have an idea what you're looking for (intel i7 processor, for example) then you browse boards with a LGA1366 socket, letting you go back and select any 1366 socket processor you'd like for the board. That will also let you buy a processor that fits the FSB of the board, so you don't waste money on an overkill processor that would be bottlenecked by the board anyways.

Everyone has their own way of doing it. I know of some people who start with the power supply (???) and others who start with the form factor of the motherboard (for shuttle desktops).

[Clow]

Start with the power... supply...?

My brain is full of what and why.

[God King]

I chose to find the mobo first because it's the most time consuming, and once selected, provides the information you need to select the other parts. If you already have an idea what you're looking for (intel i7 processor, for example) then you browse boards with a LGA1366 socket, letting you go back and select any 1366 socket processor you'd like for the board. That will also let you buy a processor that fits the FSB of the board, so you don't waste money on an overkill processor that would be bottlenecked by the board anyways.

True, choosing the mobo is the most time consuming by a good bit. When you're choosing the mobo, you're pretty much making significant choices concerning every other piece of hardware.