Project Corona · 11:43pm May 14th, 2014
To my friends, followers, and people who stumbled upon my page,
Contrary to what you may think, the title of this post has absolutely nothing to do with Celestia's nutbars Lunaverse self. Hell the name comes from a different fandom all together. Project Corona is my summer project and it's not writing, it is my attempt to build my own computer as my loyal laptop I fear will not last the year. Given that I work at Nerdvana, aka Fry's Electronics, and in the department that has all the bits (ok most of them, optical drives and video cards are somewhere else). With all the talk that I hear from my co-workers, and the knowledge I've picked up I decided that instead of hitting up Dell that I will build my own desktop a piece at a time.
What I ask from all of you is that if any of you have experience in building computers can you give me advice. Except for whether or not I should pick Intel or AMD, I already got the motherboard picked out and its for Intel.
Sincerely,
Celestia's Paladin
Rule #1
Make sure all of the components are the same general spec. ATX is pretty standard, and 99% of the parts you'll buy will be ATX style, but a few aren't.
I had a Dell XPS 710 and was going to use the motherboard and power source but switch out the CPU and other accessories. However, the XPS 710 was not ATX so I had to go back twice for more parts - once for motherboard, once for power source.
Most of what else I'd say is to follow all directions on the various parts manuals. Took me an hour to get my computer to work because I'd forgotten to plug in one wire. Oh, and don't forge the cooling gel for between your CPU and heat disperser. (I'm sure it has a different official name.)
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Apart from what I think is called ITX, all we have at Fry's are ATX boards so no worries there. At least for the motherboard, ASUS has a nice little QR-code flip guide that takes me through the main steps.
And the gel stuff is Thermal Paste, though I prefer to call it goo or goop.
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I mean the heat disperser thingy, but goop is good to know too. I'll have to ask my local Best Buy for more "goop" for my "Motherboard."
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The disperser is the heat-sink
I have some experience with building home computers. Both of my previous two desktops have been home-built off of newegg. Below are some of the things that I remember from my own mistakes and pitfalls while I was still learning the ropes with my first, then second machines. I'm not an expert, by any means, but I do have a decent memory for lessons that I've learned.
1. Ram: Make sure that the spec (It's labeled as PCXXXXX) is the same on the motherboard and RAM sticks.
1a. RAM is good, more the better. But it's not the only thing. Depending on what you're planning on using it for, maybe stick to less expensive/lower Bus Speed
2. SSD is good for your OS drive. Not so much for file storage. Supposed burn-out for the elements in an SSD is in write/erase cycles, so depending on how much you're writing...
3. Power Supply: Make sure you know your power requirements before committing to a low wattage power supply
4. Video Card: On board video is fine if you're not a gamer (I'm not anymore), but if you are, research your card first. ATI is good, but potentially limited support due to the mother company in varying degrees of possible financial stress (AMD)
5. Cooling: If this is your first time. Air cooling is best, dun' mess with water or liquid cooling. I'm still terrified of the concept.
5a. Also, dust buildup will be a problem unless you're willing to be creative and get some foam or nylon fiber furnace type filters and velcro them over the cooling vents. Or just buy a case with filters prebuilt into the fan vents.
6. Heat Sink: Stock is fine, but if you're a gamer, you will want something with a bit more power behind it. Make sure that it will fit in your case (Learned that the hard way)
7. Peripherals: Check your motherboard's connections - my most recent didn't have any IDE connectors, so I had to jump up to a SATA for my DVD reader.
8. Make sure your motherboard has enough SATA connections for all of your drives.
9. Know what parts you want before you start bit-buying pieces. Made this mistake once... I ended up having to return a few parts.
Feel free to PM, also. I'm usually pretty quick to respond. It's been a couple of years since I built my last machine, so I'm probably missing out some key information. I can maybe also offer advice on bits and pieces, but I've been out of the market for pieces for a while, so I'm probably out of touch with what's out there now, but I'll offer whatever advice that I can.
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The amount of question I will have are dependent on how much advice I get from from co-workers, who are the ones who sell the bits, and what the A+ cert books says... oh and what ASUS gives me as help.
1) Luckily the manual for the mobo gives a list of RAM that are capatable
2) Already plan on it, got my eye on a 120GB Samsung
3) All the advice I've been given is to got overkill on the PSU, just in case
4) Thanks
5) No way I'm going to try liquid cooling, same reason as you: scared if something goes wrong
6) Processor went goopy?
7) Where the hell would I get an IDE device?
8) I have eight so I think I have enough with only the HDD, SSD, Blu-Ray
9) That is my biggest worry (along with fraking it all up when I try to put it together)
I may take you up on that, and thanks for the advice
Not quite. It had a variable RPM setting with 4k being the low end and an insane CFM. Unfortunately, the fan had a tendency to sound like a jet engine, and the tip poking against the case cover drove me nuts until I ate the cost of a smaller, quieter version.
Never made that mistake again.
I have a tendency to migrate old gear to new cases. All I had were IDE DVD drives. And a DVD OS disk. I had to go haunt the local part shops for a 10$ drive they were just going to toss out.
I wasn't going to spend 40$ on a part that I was going to use maybe once in a blue moon for an OS reinstall.
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Ah, well I'm going to stick with stock for now, I'm not planing on doing on high end gaming anytine soon. Though a video card I will be picking up, if only to increase the longevity of the mobo
Second hand store for parts? Well that would explain where you get an IDE drive. I don't have to worry about that, even if I did I know exactly in Fry's to get adapters (Aisle 2 between HDD enclosers and CPU coolers).
Oh what do you know about monitors? I was wonder if I could just forgo getting one and using my TV as one (the TV is full HD and very much a new model)
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The monitors are much more of a personal preference, honestly. I do some graphics work from time to time, so I like a nice, big monitor with good true-to-life color capabilities. Also, it's easier on the eyes when the text is bigger. It's also nice for when I want to lean in real close to focus on one section than if I'd just used my TV or my itsy bitsy laptop screen.
As for a TV, certainly you can, but depending on how big your TV is, everything may turn out to either be much, much smaller than you anticipate, or much bigger. I was surprised by how tiny everything looked when I hooked up my laptop to our big screen for the first time. But perhaps that's a perspective thing, too.
Also, from a perspective perspective, unless you want to be right up in front of it while you're writing to be able to make it out and focus on the line you're reading/editing/writing, a monitor will serve you much better in the long run and be well worth the extra expense. It's hard to read off a TV from a distance. Too much enters your peripheral vision if you're trying to focus on one thing - or maybe that's just me.
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Ok, that is what I thought. Thanks
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Yus. I will talk your ears off if you let me.
Toodles!
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Given that I only have a vague idea at what I am doing, manuals and books can only go so far, I am quite happy to have some talk to me about this
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I am more than happy to chatter! My advice may or may not be useful. Or relevant. I tend to be very tangential. When I get going.
If you go for a gaming capable rig I recommend a Nvidea GTX 660. It has the best price to performance ratio at the moment. (or so I have been told)
Other then that nothing that Noble Thought hasnt said already.
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*looks it up) Ok not the one my co-worker recommend...Jesus Christ there is a lot of variance in prices, hell it looks like there are ASUS cards that higher end that are cheaper than the GTX660. Still I've got something to work from. The video card will be the last thing I get anyway.
Ok for you and 2113078, PSU any recommendations? I know its the one thing you really do want to go overkill on, and according to my coworkers 750 watts is a good place to start.
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I think 750 is what I have for my current machine. It's a migrated part from my previous one, and it's held up well for being almost five years old. I'll have to dig around and see what it is.
Hum... it is 5 years old. And no longer sold, but it's a 700W one.
OCZ was the company that made it, Gamestream line of PSUs.
Like I said earlier, I've been out of the market for a while, but below are some resources you can use to check on the quality and performance of different models. Unfortunately, the website that I used to check is gone from my bookmarks, but they had a really nice review process that I haven't seen anywhere else. I'll dig around and see if the website is still around somewhere.
Doesn't appear to be. HardOCP appears to be the closest. They have a torture test section of their reviews which really stresses the equipment. It's so much more than just PSUs, though. I'd recommend this for edification as well. It's quite informative, but somewhat math and statistics intensive. They also have a conclusion section at the end which goes over, in cleaner language, the pitfalls and polish of each product. Look for Silver and Gold rated items, but also research.
If you see anything you like, shoot me a link and I'll look it over and give my thoughts on it.
http://www.hardocp.com/ *Recomended viewing
http://www.anandtech.com/tag/casecoolingpsus *Close
http://www.tomshardware.com/t/power-supplies/articles/ *Meh
To the writer's desk! High ho Silver!
Just this once? 
Thanks, Twilight.
This is prettty...
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/04/04/seasonic_xseries_x850_power_supply_review
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Nice if I could actually get it, never heard of Seasonic
Ok taking a look at the Corsair RM750... huh interesting they review the packaging as well... interesting, wonder what they would say about the packaging use for Apple products.
Yesh... they did not like the RM750, though if what they said is right Corsair should have fixed the issues. And given that I won't be pushing it like they did I shouldn't have as many problems anyway.
Thanks for the links. And the ones I'm looking at are Gold certified
*phew* you had me scared for a moment.
Anyway, i know what "fandom" you are talking about.
crownimportsllc.com/images/cl_header.jpg
Personally, i am more of a fan of Apple Pie.
Not Applejack's cousin...
Not this...
mentalfloss.com/sites/default/legacy/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/3063024748_7d252abc83.jpg
Or this...
wikihow.com/images/f/f0/Bake-an-Apple-Pie-from-Scratch-Intro.jpg
This kind
1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZA0rMmGnGY0/UHhKPlifDrI/AAAAAAAACn0/VfDc6QQwfE4/s1600/IMG_3174.jpg
Garth Brooks says it pays to have friends in low places, I say it pays to be related to moonshiners.
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Most of the people I work with have a very low opinion of Apple.
As for the fandom... you've got it wrong Dance:
37.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ljkh3zwcb51qicvbxo1_500.jpg
2126795 okay I give up, how is Mexican beer related to Tangled?
Unless you somehow need advice on stripping and cleaning a shotgun or how to get your phone to work (Verizon's training: step 1: take the battery out and put it back in. Step 2: update the software. Step 3: Panic), I'm pretty bad in regards to technology.
p.s.
I think i have better codenames.
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It isn't, but the kingdom in Tangled is called Corona. Not sure where Disney has stated the name but it is canon.
2127012 well, maybe it was what they were drinking at the time? Like how thise tomb raider people were listening to the beatles when they found the earliest human remains.
Plus, anybody knows that the best codenames have to give away half of the secrecy of the subject.