pc knowledge..thats something i lack lol. i was thinking about getting some book on pc hardware and learning all the stuff this summer. My current setup from dell is a pile of junk, so i was thinking about building my own pc. so how did you guys learn about all this? books, classes, relatives?
I learned from people around here, like xelink and defusion the most.. Go to tech forums, or here and ask questions.. Also, try this: http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/ and a vidcouldnt find the other examples ) http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?ei=UTF-8...m&vback=Results Dont waste too much money on books..
books are totally outdated in 2 years, anyway.. I just threw out 2/3 of my old, old computer books i had... I suppose youre not old enough, but college would be best.. otherwise, see if there is a refurbish place where they fix computers, and they "hire" volunteers. that's your next best.
http://certification.about.com/cs/aresourc.../aplusguide.htm Its the lowest of the low but its a start.
You just gotta stick to this computing forum alot. We post up computer builds for people all the time, and most of the time we explain why we chose them. This is how I learned what I know about the hardware aspect of Computers.
i learned by opening up a PC and looking at it when I wanted to upgrade ram, by taking appart(andapparently unsuccessfuly, stilll have no idea why, hooked everything up properly, then tried it again in a few months and it worked... currently seperated into spareparts bins though) taking apart and putting together an old PC(learned alot about hwo stuff fits etc.) installing a soundcard, building a low end PC to get me by(primarily out of recycled parts though) and by then building my current PC... right now I'm pretty much tech support for all my friends and even my history teacher... it's rather easy if you actually have some direction though, I learnt through trial and error, no explanations or anything, if I actually read a written out guide or something I probably would have been able to put together a PC in about an hour without having ever opened a PC up before hand.
Most of building custom PCs (non-modded ones) is really just "insert card into slot" stuff. Ram slides into a slot, CPU literally drops into place (well, socket 775 at least, I dont know about the others), graphics card is slide into slot, you get the picture.
do you mean specs or actual installing hard wear i learnd every thing i knwo from the internet and my friends on it i am the kind of guy that does not stop untill he knwos every thing about it (the engener in me) but i got board with just putign together computers (i got it down to taking every thing out and putign in completly new parts in 20 mins) ^_^ but now i am into modding my case im sure i will post the finished product but yeah just leanr about one thing at a tiem go from google search on CPU's then video cards then ram then Mobos then cases ect ect... that is how i learned i also put a dream computer together in my head speced every thign out but never got the parts (waintign for conroe) but yeah google is a very good source good luck mate
LGA775, and pretty much everything else too... only exceptions i can think of are during the slot era of the PIIs and PIIIs, and mayeb some stuff that's truely ancient. again it's really simple, place motehrboard in and then everything else only really fits in one way unless you have more than one of a given slot, but then it just means you have more choices for the same net result. if you're case is prepped again it doesn't take any more than 10-30 mins depending. Then just popo in your windows CD, then after that pop in every CD that came with your devices, update drivers next if desired.
oh kool thanks guys. 1 question. how do u know which thing goes where? and like the wires n stuff too.
they only fit in one way, that's how... thre might be more than 1 of the same port or slot or w/e but which one you choose shouldn't really matter. as for wires, there really aren't any individual wires, maybe one from a soundcard to an accessory(CDd rive, some port port etc. but you don't really need to connect i never did) the closest things to wires you'de encounter are eIDE ribons(used to connect harddrives and CD drives, they only fit in one way) and SATA cords which again only fit in one way. my abridged building guide: plug in everything the only way it fits... here, check this http://sysbuild.corsairmemory.com/report.aspx?id=2&sid=1
Classes in school are good. Summer classes are good too, if this is what you want. If you want to learn more hands on and at home, just open stuff up and play around with it. Here is your first tip on that though, "Always touch a metal part of the case before touching something important." Why you ask? ESD!
thank you guys. i'll try some of those suggestions but i dont think i'll be allowed to open up my pc lol. my parents would get furious. btw how to you decide which hard drive/mobo/vid/graphics/sound card is the best? i know nothing abt those either. i'm sorry abt all these questions, i'm a newb when it comes to these.
you set a budget and look at benchmarks... can't say much other than that. a lot of use here, don't even use sound cards and opt for onboard sound. I'm sure you can find someone with an ancient PC though...
