Computer build.

[PD]

I've been having a few minor niggles with my faithful old steam driven computer recently. ( I don't play games on it, its more or less text based forums news etc) But being the adventurous soul that I am I've been working around the faults.
My son came in and stated he fancied building his new computer and was prepared to spend his annual works bonus on the parts ( he's a big gamer ! )
Apparently he has spend the last month learning how to do this via you tube and google....
So we both went to local Maplins shop and 30 mins later emerged and he was £320 lighter.
3 hours later he had a brand new supa dooper top whizz fast computer up and running,new case motherboard graphic card, the list seemed endless. Well done to him, ( and only 2 swear words ! )
An off the shelf ready built computer to his specs priced out at over £850.
So we had his old computer bits left... and we decided to upgrade and improve my machine......................! ... :pray:
It took 2 days !... and in the end we have had to remove windows and re install it ! So I'm left to re build my environment from scratch.... it's been a long haul !
( we got ourselves into a position where he didn't have the opportunity to save stuff to my seperate hard drive and therefor lost everything I deemed important. )
All my beer brew data , e mails contacts etc etc.
We are slowly recovering.... however the loss of my e mail account is serious and for some reason I can't get it recovered ( so please anyone out there DON'T try an send me anything ! )
You wouldn't believe the problems I've had also with getting the right resolutions and texts to show also.
Almost sorted but I'm stuck with large desktop icons at the moment and decent text size or smaller neat icons and poor text !

My son has been looking on with a smug look on his face.....

 

[joe1002]

I hope you get it sorted soon PD.

There are quie a fae 'techies' on here, hopefully someone will be able to sort you :thumb:

 

[PD]

also getting annoyed with microsoft sending me updates to install ! I've installed over 90 of them and seem to spend my days infront of a computer just waiting. I have one now service pack 1 to install....its been installed 4 times but still keeps coming up to install !....

 

[hairybiker]

Another of the reasons I no longer use M$ OS's. I can set up a new Linux install in <2 hours (usually <30 min).

As to you email account, as long as you know the username/password it should let you in, can you check via web mail that the details are correct, you can usually get the settings for your client there.
Large icons etc, usually mean you have the wrong destop size setup. Right click on dt and choose properties then look for a resolution tab.

 

[graysalchemy]

I spent over £1200 last year on a computer from a well known personal computer specialist . The hard drive went t*ts up so I got onto the help line and eventually sent it back. Well the royal mail managed to lose it and i was left without a hard drive or working computer. Any the personal computer specialist company I used washed their hands of me which I suppose technically it wasn't their fault that the hard drive was lost, but it was theirs for supplying me a dodgy hardrive. Their customer service department was rude and very unhelpful.

Anyway last week I got a standard email from them saying I hope everything was fine with the computer, so I sent them an email back politely telling them what had been wrong with the computer and what i thought of it. Tried to send it but it got bounced. They had bloody well banned my IP address. Managed to send it via my phone. Needless to say I haven't heard from them and I am unlikely to hear from them :evil:

 

[cutnrun]

Cough, cough LINUX, cough

totally gone off windoze after 7 has been installed at work. I have old PC that has only ubuntu on (practiced on a PC that was currupted and needed a full format anyway) and one that has both windows and ubuntu on and windows as i need SQL MS and .net stuff

 

[PD]

there you go again.....talking Chinese ! :grin: :grin: :grin:

 

[anthonyUK]

I've only ever bought one PC and that was in the mid 90's.
All before and after that I'd built from parts.
I have been a Microsoft certified professional since 1998 so I know the Windows OS better than most.
The update issue is still a bugbear for me too but there are things you can do to speed things along such as install the service pack from a file rather than wait for it to appear in Windows update.
I also use Linux and OSX too on a daily basis and am happy with what each OS has to offer.

 

[PD]

yes I really didn't mean to go on about my problems...the point of the post was originally to say how my son a complete novice managed to build a very good computer with just browsing the internet for advice and guidance., and at around a third of the price.
Well done to him

 

[cutnrun]

Well done to him

deffo well done him,

you dont know where he got his info from do you? I am getting tempted to do this myself!

 

[PD]

no sorry, just google and you tube.

 

[hairybiker]

I have allways built my own. But I wouldn't have gone to Maplin for the bits (Dabs or Aria would have been my choice)

Now you say I am taking chinese? Is that about your email?
You don't say who you get your mail from so this will be generic:
Open a web browser
navigate to your mail provider (e.g. www.orange.co.uk/www.gmail.com/etc)
log in to your mail using the web mail link
Check the HELP for setting up your email client (thunderbird/outlook/OE etc)

Since you only use it for browsing why not try out Linux distro on it? Download the iso, burn it to a DVD and boot from it. No need to change/install anything yet.

 

[artyb]

I spent over £1200 last year on a computer from a well known personal computer specialist . The hard drive went t*ts up so I got onto the help line and eventually sent it back. Well the royal mail managed to lose it and i was left without a hard drive or working computer. Any the personal computer specialist company I used washed their hands of me which I suppose technically it wasn't their fault that the hard drive was lost, but it was theirs for supplying me a dodgy hardrive. Their customer service department was rude and very unhelpful.

Anyway last week I got a standard email from them saying I hope everything was fine with the computer, so I sent them an email back politely telling them what had been wrong with the computer and what i thought of it. Tried to send it but it got bounced. They had bloody well banned my IP address. Managed to send it via my phone. Needless to say I haven't heard from them and I am unlikely to hear from them :evil:

id be buggered if i would let it lie after spending £1200... :evil:

sales of goods act .. :hmm:
recorded post ..?

 

[graysalchemy]

I spent over £1200 last year on a computer from a well known personal computer specialist . The hard drive went t*ts up so I got onto the help line and eventually sent it back. Well the royal mail managed to lose it and i was left without a hard drive or working computer. Any the personal computer specialist company I used washed their hands of me which I suppose technically it wasn't their fault that the hard drive was lost, but it was theirs for supplying me a dodgy hardrive. Their customer service department was rude and very unhelpful.

Anyway last week I got a standard email from them saying I hope everything was fine with the computer, so I sent them an email back politely telling them what had been wrong with the computer and what i thought of it. Tried to send it but it got bounced. They had bloody well banned my IP address. Managed to send it via my phone. Needless to say I haven't heard from them and I am unlikely to hear from them :evil:

id be buggered if i would let it lie after spending £1200... :evil:

sales of goods act .. :hmm:
recorded post ..?

Thats the problem I did't send it recorded as i begrudged having to pay for the return in the first place. Cost me well over a Hundred quid by the time I had someone fit a new one and re instal windows etc.

 

[BIGJIM72]

Well done to him

deffo well done him,

you dont know where he got his info from do you? I am getting tempted to do this myself!

With the right guidance putting a machine together from scratch isn't a daunting a task as it might first appear.My dad who is now in his seventies has managed to build his own (with a bit of guidance). Believe it or not there is a Haynes manual out there! I agree with the comments about Maplin-you can get parts cheaper elsewhere,but it is a one stop shop with staff that more often than not can give you advice.

Simple PC recipe (assuming you have mouse,keyboard & display)

1 MOTHERBOARD (basically a printed circuit board with slots & sockets that everything plugs into).Worth taking a bit of time over choosing one as they vary in size and features.
1 CPU (central processing unit,the brains of the machine)-you will need a CPU that will fit your motherboard. Specific CPUs fit specific boards so make sure that you check first.CPUs generate vast amounts of heat so they require cooling,so you will also need a HEATSINK relative to your CPU and motherboard.THERMAL PASTE is used between the heatsink & cpu to maintain contact & improve heat transfer
1 CASE. Again they come in different shapes & sizes-choose one relevant to the size of your motherboard (smaller motherboards will fit in full size cases).Cases may come with cooling fans & a PSU already fitted,if not you will need to purchase seperately
1 PSU (may come fitted in your case already)
MEMORY-again make sure you buy memory that is applicable for your motherboard & CPU.Take a bit of time to research & get the right memory first time (just because it fits in the motherboard doesn't mean it will work!)
1 HARD DRIVE-stores data on your machine.Solid State Drives (SSDs) are quite popular at the moment. Vary in price according to the size of data they can hold. My advice-go large
1 INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE-if your machine has HD capabilities I would lash out on a BD RW (Blu ray Re Writable),but a DVD RW should be more than adequate
1 OPERATING SYSTEM-as far as Microsoft goes XP support finishes in 2014 but is still used by a lot of folk,Vista is horrible,Windows 7 probably the best of the bunch at the moment,not tried Windows 8 but wouldn't until they release a service pack.Windows OS costs money & there are the added issues of viruses/malware. Linux is open source (free).

I will come back to this later

 

[PD]

and a bit of good news he couldn't use the new case he bought in his build for some reason and was going to return it to shop.
However I've nicked it at a very reasonable price and now have 3 fans a thermometer and some other bells and whistles....

 

[hairybiker]

Ahh a noisy box then :whistle:

 

[PD]

:lol: ....

us young'uns dont mind a bit of noise, as long as we look cool man.....