I can't deny that i have a bit of experience when it comes to assembling, cleaning and fixing PCs, but I've never built one from scratch, I've always had someone to do it (normally, the guy from the shop i bought it), and all that was left for me to do was deal with upgrades. So how would it be, having to disassemble and reassemble nearly 3 at the same time?
It all started when i decided to get a new gfx card for my old PC, dubbed "PD-Station I". I had it running with a problematic Foxconn Nvidia 8600GT, 256MB model. It keept conflicting, overheating, getting all sorts of driver errors, I would at least get BSOD per week on Vista, I also sort of messed with my onboard audio card. Strangely, i would get this problems only when:
- Running Games
- Running iTunes
All other times it would run fine. It would even render stuff on 3DS with V-Ray without problems, either way, i got tired of it and went on searching for an upgrade. But i had some problems to deal with that. 1st, my PSU. It was a old 420W Seventeam model, and as much as good as it was (never failed me once, protecting my PC from burning specially when all went haywire during the blackouts here), it didn't produce enough juice to allow me to get a really decent Nvidia card. So i had to look on lower levels. I ended up settling for a 9600GT model, 256bits, 1GB memory from Zogis. Good brand, enough memory to run some of the last gen games, cheap to my pockets. Everything seemed fine, but after sometime, i noticed that while playing games, it would heat up pretty fast. The problem? My PC Case, A WiseCase Dolphin BK-9959.
While it was a somewhat good case (you should see the other ones available when i went to pick my old PC), it lacked of several key features for a more modern PC. So to replace it, i went on and got a Cooler Master CM 690. Man, i was happy, everything now was perfect, temps were cool, the case was great looking, lots of space, i even had a go at cable management for the first time of my life XD. And since I was happy, i decided to help my younger brother with his PC by changing his case with my old one, since his didn't have enough coolers nor front usb / sound connectors. That's when it all went downhill...
The "transplant" went out OK, i disassembled his PC, cleaned it throughly (lots and lots of dust, felt like I was trying to clean the sand out of a desert >_> ), reassembled it back, and while at it, added ONE extra cooler from his old case to improve the airflow onto the hard disk drives. That was enough. Once i plugged everything back, his PSU shortened, since it couldn't provide enough power to everything that was plugged (damn you generic brands). Took me a day to figure out WTF was happening, along a good amount of cursing and googling. Once i managed to get it ruining, i could see how bad the damage was. Both HDD were damaged. the one holding the system had some errors, but they were fixable, The one with the files was inaccessible. The boot section got messed up and Windows was asking to format it in order to get it back running. Had to run it through a disk recovery software for about an entire day to get all my data out of it.
After all that, both PCs were back on running, although my brother's were still a bit funky. He could no longer work on editing his stuff without getting random freezes and errors, and i could see that he was struggling with it. I thought about it and after a bit of talk, i decided to pass my PC to him, as long he waited till i built a new one for me as replacement.
Upon analyzing my options, buying a new one straight away was impossible, as much as I wanted, there wasn't a possible way to get all the right parts without having to sell my both kidneys around here... So i decided to go a different path, getting a set of parts each month, that way i wouldn't blow up my monthly budget. That involved into some long research about what i could get now for a fair price that wouldn't be too outdated by the end of the built, and would still keep me happy from months on.
I decided to set for this:
- AMD Phenom II X4 965 Deneb 45nm (CPU)
- Noctua NH-U12P SE2 (CPU Cooler)
- Crucial Ballistix Tracer 4.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 PC3-12800 (RAM)
- ASUSTeK Computer INC. M4A79T Deluxe AM3 (Motherboard)
- 1000GB Seagate ST31000528AS ATA Device (Sata II HDD)
- 500GB Seagate ST3500418AS ATA Device (Sata II HDD)
- LG DVD-RAM GSA-H20N (IDE DVD Drive - from my older PC)
- Spire SP332CB Cardreader (USB Internal Drive)
- Cooler Master HAF 932 (Case)
Theres one important thing still missing, which is the gfx card. Right now I'm using my busted nvidia one, but i do plan to get a ATI later on, since the Asus M4a79t deluxe is a ati oriented board. Still, right now everything is working right, no BSOD's, freezes, nada :P
I shall be posting pics of it once i get the card reader from the shop.
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