Building a custom computer may cost less than you think : eBay Guides

Building a custom computer may cost less than you think.

I've built thousands of computers and one thing I can say for sure is that there is much more value in building a computer than buying one from a retail technology store. Plus you get all the satisfaction of building your own machine. All of the custom computers we build are considered to have a 10 year life so thats what this will be. This means that the computer you build based on these specs can perform so well and do so much that you wont have to worry about it being obsolete for at least ten years.

Here is what you need to do, most items can be found on eBay but other sites like newegg might be necessary. Parts list as follows and if you have any questions during the building process you can message me through eBay or my site at ilovepetras.com.

1-motherboard, should have: am3, sata raid, usb3, ddr3, nic, PCIe x16 cost around $150 (gigabyte, msi, and more)
1-AMD Retail Processor 3.4GHz Quad Core $100
1-pair of 2 x 2GB Ram modules ddr3 $100
2-Hard drives (1TB ea at least) Cost $160 (that estimate should be high) GET RETAIL DRIVES WITH CABLES. We will setup up a raid 0, striped set.
1-Mid Tower ATX Case, look for cases by Antec, Coolermaster, Thermaltake should cost less than $100 and include 400-600 watt power supply.
1-ATI Video card, get a PCIe x16 with at least 512MB ddr3 or higher. If  you look for the higher numbered cards say like the 6950 which might be the newest you can get then look for a 3950 and pay much less. Has most of the same features just slightly older model. Cost $150
1-CD/DVD/BD burner cost less than $50

So you can build a monster custom computer for $810.

You will be able to burn CDs, while encoding a video or playing the latest HD games (cause they don’t get any better than this). You can even setup an entire virtual computer environment consisting of Linux, windows, mac, your phone system, whatever and each virtual machine uses its own segment of the system resources. Everything can run independently in its own memory and processor allocation limits. This basically means that you wont be able to overload this computer! We will also use the 2 1TB hard drives in a Striped Raid configuration. This will basically create a channel for each disk, say A or B. Then when the system reads or writes data, half is written to A and the other half to B. This allows the disk drives to perform much faster than what either disk can perform on its own. This is all handled at the hardware level because our motherboard has Raid built in.

Assembly

Once you have everything unpacked, be sure to ground your self before touching the electronics. You should be using a ground wrist strap to be absolutely sure.

Next, open up the case. Locate screws and other fasteners. You should notice on the case that one side opens up entirely and provides access to the inside. Once open confirm that you have located the power supply, small box inside the case. Confirm that the power connectors included fit in the hardware. Spend a few minutes to analyze the connection type and visually assemble them to ensure you have all the right connections available.
Next, we insert the motherboard you should notice that each screw hole in the motherboard will line up to the case. Use the screws that came with the case to attach the motherboard. 5-7 screws are enough to attach it securely.

Once the motherboard is in you need to insert the processor. Locate the lever along side the processor slot on the motherboard, lift it open then insert the processor. Make sure you line up the processor with the slot, it will only fit one way. After that is in, insert the two memory modules. Next attach the processor which is included in the retail processor purchase.

Next, plug in all the cables for your motherboard, refer to the manual. The manual will also identify other objects like the tiny wires for the case leds and system speaker, so you will need to refer to the manual for that information.

Once all that is done, insert your video card. Depending on how powerful the card you purchased, it may require a secondary power plug that can be found coming from the power supply.

Insert the hard drives into the case's internal bays. Put at least a screw or two and connect both sata cables and connect to the first and second sata port on the motherboard. Most connections on the motherboard are labeled on the board itself, look hard because they are small.

Optional items for your computer include these item.
Additional Ram 4GB cost $100
Case fan cost $25
600 watt antec coolermaster, or thermaltake power supply $75

This will be an amazing PC, the processing power will be more than you will need for the next ten years or more and your probably paying less than you would have from the other larger manufactures like dell, hp, acer and others. You can run a windows computer, Linux computer, mac computer, web server, phone server, domain controller, exchange server all on one box.
If you have any questions let us know, check out all the ilovepetras.com's advanced software solutions for the tools and software you need.