Building a new computer

I'm about to start building myself a new computer.  And I thought I'd document the project for myself and anyone interested.

When I tell people that I'm going to build a computer, they react something along the lines of "Wow, where did you learn how to build a computer?"

It's really not that hard these days.  If you've got the mechanical aptitude and patience to screw a few (sometimes tiny) screws in, you can probaby handle it.  It's just a screwdriver project.

But first, why?

Especially since I have 3 computers now.

I have a server computer that just sits in the corner and (mostly) stores the files that I want to keep around for long term storage.  Then I have a laptop that I got a little over a year ago (when I thought I was going to be doing quite a bit of traveling for a contracting job that didn't materialize).  And finally, a desktop computer that I actually do most of my work on.

Now, the desktop is over 4 years old, which isn't that bad in and of itself. I've extended it with more memory and bigger disks, so it does pretty much what I need. That is, when it's working. And therein lies the rub.  Recently (like the last 6 months or so), it's been getting cantankerous, and refusing to come back up when it's been powered down for a long period of time (usually several hours or more).  Most of the time, it does eventually come back up, if I just leave it alone (powered on), and wait.  Usually 12-24 hours.

But when I got back from my vacation to Costa Rica a few weeks ago,  it took me almost a week to get it up and running reliably again.  It would come up for a while, and then crash and not boot for a day or two.  And that's just too unreliable for me to use. So I decided it needed to be replaced.

The second question, then, is why am I building a new computer instead of just buying one?

In general, the argument that you can save money by building it yourself is spurious.  If you go to a computer store and buy all the equivalent parts that you need to build a computer with the same capabilities as one on the store shelf, you are going to spend very, very close to the same amount of money, perhaps a little more, than if you had just bought one off the shelf.  And you're going to have to put in the time and effort to build it yourself, plus lose out on the vendor support aspect.

But, in this case, I'll be able to re-use several of the components from my existing computer, and also tailor the system to have exactly the capabilities I want.

To build a computer, you basically need to assemble the following components:
Case
Power Supply (may come with the case)
Mother board
Processor (CPU)
Memory
Video card (may be built into motherboard)
Disk drive(s)
CD/DVD/Blu-Ray (your choice) reader/burner
Keyboard
Mouse
Speakers
Display
Software (Operating System)

Now, in this case, I think (remains to be seen) that I can use the case from the old computer, I already have an almost new power supply that will work, I will use the disk drives and DVD burner form the old computer, and, of course, I have the keyboard, mouse, speakers, and display. And I have access to the Operating System (Windows 7) because of my work as a Microsoft developer.

I'm using the lowest end of the very latest series of processors from Intel (a core i7-920), which means that, if I want more performance in the future, I'll be able to swap out the processor for one with as much as 50% more throughput (they're just kinda pricey right now, and I don't really need that much power right now.)

The choice of that processor constrained the choices of mother boards that I could make that would be compatible with it.  And all of them used a newer generation of memory (DDR3) than what was in my old computer, so I'll have to buy new memory. The good news is the price of memory has come down and the capacity has gone up.  Where I might have spent $100 for a Gigabyte of RAM when I last bought a computer, I can now get 6 Gigabytes for $100.  And the processor uses a new memory architecture called Tri-Channel that (apparently) serves up 3 times the memory information at once.  Memory speed is ultimately the biggest performance-limiting bottle-neck in a system, so this system should be blazing.

So, I needed to buy a mother board (ebay for $167 including shipping), processor (ebay for  $247 including shipping), a video card (Fry's $45 including tax after rebate), and memory ($100 after rebate, give or take. I'm on my way to get that in a little while.)  So for less than $500, I've got the machine I want, with the latest generation and a clear upgrade path, and, to have bought a similar machine would have cost in the vicinity of $1000.

All the components except the memory are now in my living room, so I'll document my progress as I go.  Stay tuned.