SK's Diary of Building a PC

[doh_boy]

prolly, the one I used was a bit dusty

what pissed me off was the fact that having acces, outlook express and word opened made the pc have a heart attack!

It was one of those really small ones......optimax or something similar. :/

I did use one of the new funky black tower jobbies but still wasn't impressed. I also spent two days lugging boxes of them around and putting them together so I have every right to hate their heavy asses.





so to speak

 

[dysfunction]

Originally posted by MYstIC G
Give
It
Up
Please

What's your problem?

 

[Trem]

Originally posted by ]SK[
I wont have to take the M6, I can take A52 and then A523, its pretty much the way I went to Alton Towers not long ago.

Erm well kinda, its not far from Stoke City FC's stadium anyways if that helps.

 

[Shocko]

Originally posted by ]SK[
I wont have to take the M6, I can take A52 and then A523, its pretty much the way I went to Alton Towers not long ago.

You overlook one large fault, with this route:
It takes you through Derby and its utterly shite ring-road

 

[old.Jas]

Originally posted by caLLous
But shite because you're paying through the nose for "labour costs" and substandard components.

No - I'm paying for a machine that I know will work.

And if it doesn't then a Dell support bloke will knock on my door at 9 the next morning with exact replacement parts, or a new machine.

 

[]SK[]

Originally posted by Shocko

You overlook one large fault, with this route:
It takes you through Derby and its utterly shite ring-road

Ah well, still dunno if I will go yet. Im gonna wait and see what happens when I get replacement parts.

 

[PR.]

I really like Dells (though there old Laptops and new entry level models seem flakey) I saving for a 8200 Dimension but I can't make up my mind on a 20" Flat Panel screen

 

[Sawtooth]

and I thought I was gonna learn something

 

[S-Gray]

I had this sort of shit with Ebuyer, i think it was Memory i ordered, but it never showed up so i emailed em, and they said they didnt have any in stock, so we ended up getting into an arguement and they said "dont take what it says on the Website about the Stock, its just not been updated in <# of days here>

i eventually got banned

 

[caLLous]

Originally posted by old.Jas
No - I'm paying for a machine that I know will work.

And if it doesn't then a Dell support bloke will knock on my door at 9 the next morning with exact replacement parts, or a new machine.

That's such a low-risk approach to it all.
Wouldn't you rather buy each component and put the machine together yourself? To hell with "what if it goes wrong", if it does, then send the parts back and get replacements.

And I know any machine that I build from parts will work, the compatibility problems of yesteryear practically never rear their ugly heads nowadays

 

[PR.]

I've been building my own machine since '98 but recently the number of problems I've had with compatibility and reliability

I'd rather have a machine that is quite, stable, has a huge customer base so if there was ever a compatibility option they would have little option but to repair it

 

[dysfunction]

Originally posted by caLLous
That's such a low-risk approach to it all.
Wouldn't you rather buy each component and put the machine together yourself? To hell with "what if it goes wrong", if it does, then send the parts back and get replacements.

And I know any machine that I build from parts will work, the compatibility problems of yesteryear practically never rear their ugly heads nowadays

I wouldnt mind trying to build my own system. I am a bit worried that I may connect a wire or three wrong and damage some of the circuits....or the hard drive...cos I'm daft in that way!

 

[mank!]

I was worried about doing the same dys mate. When it came to it, all the wires only fit in one hole anyway and it'd be pretty difficult to put anything on wrong enough as to damage something seriously. Maybe I was just lucky too

 

[]SK[]

The board I had was an Epox as they are jumperless. You cant really go wrong except for the leds and power cables for the case. Even then you cant damage anything.

 

[legendario]

Originally posted by dysfunction



I wouldnt mind trying to build my own system. I am a bit worried that I may connect a wire or three wrong and damage some of the circuits....or the hard drive...cos I'm daft in that way!

Don't worry m8y, its basically like expensive mechano

I've built more machines than I care to remember... there isn't that much to take to worry about these days. Maybe applying thermal compound and fitting the proccy and taking care not to electrically discharge any of the ICs on the boards.... a nice anti-static strap will surfice for that.

 

[]SK[]

Nah take your shoes off, rub your feet on the carpet and take your feet off the floor, then touch the mobo. Toasty!

 

[Gumbo]

I recently built my new PC, all bits bought from a company called Aria.co.uk, as did two of my clanmates at about the same time. As far as I know, they didn't have any problems and neither did I

It is fairly easy to put a new PC together now. I bought branded components, none of this no-name shite. (imo there are some things that should never be bought 'own brand', toilet paper, batteries and breakfast cereals spring to mind). I also got a jumperless board, I was put off before because I was a bit worried about screwing it up, but with the help of mates on irc etc it was really easy. Still a bit scary first time you press the button and wait for the smoke though

Anyhow Aria gave good overnight service all components worked fine and I love my spangly new machine. Oh and sorry to point this out, but in a £400 pound order I saved £100 over OCUK, so not only shite service but pricey too.

 

[Will]

Well, the thing is, it's easy to build your own machine if everything works, but, when it goes wrong, tracking the fault is where it gets harder. If you ain't confident, just have a mate on standby to help out, and access to a spare gfx card, some RAM, and even another processor, will help a lot.

 

[legendario]

Originally posted by Itcheh
Well, the thing is, it's easy to build your own machine if everything works, but, when it goes wrong, tracking the fault is where it gets harder. If you ain't confident, just have a mate on standby to help out, and access to a spare gfx card, some RAM, and even another processor, will help a lot.

Good point Itch.

This has happened to me a few times and like you say, access to spares is a massive help.

 

[]SK[]

The second reason I chose the Epox was cause it had an LED panel to display what the error is. Without this from whats happened I wouldnt have a clue what the error could be as nothing has been displayed on screen.

 

[doh_boy]

hehe, my mate got one of those...and when he plugged it in he got an error that wasn't in the book!! heh how I laughed, but when he fixed the problem he did say it was the dogs bollocks

 

[mank!]

What mobo did you buy SK? If it's the 7BDA (I think) it's the same as mine.

 

[]SK[]

Its a Epox EP-8K3A+ RAID

6th September 2002 (Day 17)

Quote from Royal Mail's Site

Your item with reference SU4258850xxxx was delivered in STOKE ON TRENT before 11:04 on 06/09/02.

E-Mail from OCUK

Dear A J Palmerf,

Your RMA has been received at our offices and shall be processed in due course.

Regards,
Overclockers UK - Support

Note the typo

 

[mank!]

I thought you surname was Palmerf until I read the rest of your post

That's a diff mobo to mine too, oh well. Mine has those funky LED's on too.

 

[Skyler]

Ahhh..

/me praises Epox boards..

That number system 0wns

 

[Pro]v[etheus]

If all else fails use a hammer

 

[Gumbo]

Ooooh I used to have a boat called Prometheus, it was a fireball ..

Not awfully relevant, sorry

 

[]SK[]

6th September 2002 (Day 17) Continued...

Right, with them saying they have the RMA before 12pm I thought maybe they woudl be able to send replacements before the weekend. Seeing as though they wont work untill Monday now it looks that at the eairliest its going to be Tuesday.

To be continued...

 

[ECA]

COCK UK

Dear A J Palmerf,

Your RMA has been received at our offices and shall be processed in due course.

Regards,
Overclockers UK - Support

The mistake is where they say offices it should read:

Your RMA ( Random Madeup arsecake ) has been recieved at our den of scum and villainy and shall be processed when you have whinged enuff that your getting on our tits.

 

[]SK[]

9th September 2002 (Day 20)

Rang today to find out whats happened to my parts I sent back on Thursday which got to them Friday.

Me - "Can I have an update on an RMA pls?"
Blah blah blah
OCUK - "We have a three working day turn around of RMA's, so your looking at Wednesday or possibly Thursday"

OMFG!?

:uhoh: