My DIY Computers

Page updated: 22 October 2004

I've built 3 computers. They are based on the Gigabyte 7NNXPV motherboard with dual head
on-board graphics, which allows me to use 2 monitors next to each other.
I've got 2 Hansol 920P 19” monitors. This gives me a superb large display.

A Picture of My Third Build

As you can see this computer has 3x hard drives, all 60GB Excelstors.

Computer Back Connections

Notes:

LAN (10/100) is normal speed ethernet
LAN (Gigabit) is 1000MBit ethernet
SPDIF is the Philips serial digital audio interface
SATA connections are for an external serial hard drive

Some connections are software switchable between input/output
Refer to the manual for full details (pages 24 & 86)

Computer Components

First you need to get the components for the base unit:

1

Silver Nokia style midi tower case, 350w with power lead

£24.16

CCL

1

450W PSU CWT 450BDP

£36.43

SCAN

1

Gigabyte GA-7NNXPV motherboard

£147.00

DABS

1

XP2400+ AMD Athlon processor

£59.71

CCL

1

Thermaltake A1365 CPU heatsink/fan (to XP2800+)
with thermal paste sachet

£2.87

PCNEXTDAY

2

512MB DDR333 PC2700 RAM CL=2.5, CT6464Z335

£122.18

CRUCIAL

3

Excelstor 60GB hard drive

£130.39

EBUYER

1

Lite-on 52x24x52xCD-RW LTR52246S Retail
with Nero v5.5 & InCD

£29.18

CCL

1

Lite-on 16x48x DVD LTD165 Retail with PowerDVD

£24.46

CCL

1

Sony 3.5”” floppy

£7.14

PCNEXTDAY

3

Thermaltake A1365 just for variable speed case fans

£8.61

PCNEXTDAY

3

Round IDE cable UDMA133, 3 connections, 80 line
40 pin, 0.5m, transparent

£17.64

PCNEXTDAY

1

Round floppy cable, single drive, 34 line, 0.5m

£3.23

PCNEXTDAY

1

Modem PCI 56k Conexant Chipset Software V90
including modem to telephone socket cable & CD

£6.72

PCNEXTDAY

1

Edifier R1000TC Amplified 6W/channel RMS, wood case

£14.22

PCNEXTDAY

1

Audio cable 3.5mm Stereo Male to 2x RCA Male, 5M

£2.35

PCNEXTDAY

1

Genius KB-19e PS/2 keyboard

£9.52

CCL

1

Genius Netscroll+ eye wired optical mouse

£7.21

CCL

1

Windows XP Home OEM (with processor)

£64.98

CCL

Total price of base unit

£718.00

You also need monitor(s) and cables:

2

Hansol 920P 19” Monitors

£236.00

WSTORE

2

SVGA signal cables, 15-way male-male, 15 line, 5m

£10.69

PCNEXTDAY

Total price for monitors

£246.69

Prices include VAT.

Windows XP Home (OEM) was supplied with the processor. You can only get OEM versions
if you buy certain pieces of hardware, like processor & hard drives.

You may want some sundries:

1

Clear Plastic Storage CD Jewel Cases (pack of 25)

£3.83

WSTORE

2

PS/2 keyboard/mouse extension cable
mini din 6 pin M-F, 2m (EX-02)

£1.76

SCAN

1

CD-RW Nashua branded 80min 16x 10pk jewel case

£9.39

PCNEXTDAY

1

CD-R Nashua branded 80min 48x 50x on spindle/box

£13.71

PCNEXTDAY

1

Audio cable – 3.5mm stereo male to 2x RCA male 5m

£2.35

PCNEXTDAY

Total price of sundries

£31.04

You need to add the delivery charges for the items you buy.
The following is a rough guide:

CCL

£9.25

CRUCIAL

£0.00

DABS

£7.05

EBUYER

£5.85

PCNEXTDAY

£4.69

SCAN

£11.75

WSTORE

£9.34

Total

£47.93

My Comments on the Components

I did months of research to find what I thought would be the best components at the best prices.
To my surprise I'm very happy with the result. There have been changes from the first build to the
third. I'll describe why I picked what I picked and what I think of them.

Silver Nokia style midi tower case, 350w with power lead

If you want style, then this may not be the case for you. I wanted the blue version, so that it would
contrast with the beige optical & floppy drives, but it was out of stock when I wanted to order.
So, styling is not ideal with silver & beige & another hue of beige.
However, if functionality is what you want, then this is a pretty good case at a low price.
It has:

2x rear and 4x front 80mm fan positions.
4x 5.25” drive bays
6x 3.5” drive bays, 2 visible
7x PCI slots
2x front USB sockets, although these seem to be lower quality than on the motherboard.

The top is held in place with one thumb screw, and then both sides slide off, making for great access.
The number of PCI slots is important if you get a motherboard with masses of functionality. The
Gigabyte 7NNXPV comes with 2x brackets for add-on sound and SATA hard drive connections.
Then there's the modem card. That's already 3x slots occupied.

450W PSU CWT 450BDP

The PSU's that come with cases are 'rumoured' to have shorter lifetimes than good quality ones.
That's not surprising when you compare the price of the case with PSU and a good PSU.
When the PSU blows, it has a habit of destroying most of your expensive components.
That's why I got a extremely good, but low priced power supply.
The 450BDP, at the time of writing, is only available in this country from Scan. Postage is a bit steep
but the unit is worth it.

Gigabyte GA-7NNXPV motherboard

Well, what can I say. At the time of writing, this board has it all.
My main reason for picking this board is that it has on-board graphics that can supply two monitors.
I'm not interested in games, so on-board graphics is fine. And, being on-board, there is no worry about
compatibility problems with the motherboard. Oh, and it's cheaper than getting the two separately.
Other reasons for picking it are:

4x RAM slots
5x PCI slots
Dual PSU system which they claim aids reliability

XP2400+ AMD Athlon processor

I picked the fastest processor that was a reasonable price. Above this the price starts to sky rocket.
I can't see the point of paying twice for a 20% increase in speed.

Thermaltake A1365 CPU heat sink/fan (to XP2800+) with thermal paste sachet

I still can't believe this bargain. You will see plenty of CPU heat sink/fans for a lot more than this.
A copper base for added thermal conductivity, and a variable speed, good quality quiet fan.
It is quite big, so you need to check that it will fit your board.
Fitting was easy. The conductive paste comes in a sachet, so you can test the fit before applying it.
The spring clip works well. The first cooler I got was a real pig to push the clip into place. Fear can
produce a lot of sweat ! You don't want to ram the screw driver into the motherboard !

512MB DDR333 PC2700 RAM CL=2.5, CT6464Z335

It works fine. Good delivery, well packed.

Excelstor 60GB hard drive

After the problems I had with the Maxtor drives, I checked that I could test these drives. An e-mail
to Excelstor and almost by return a piece of software to test them. This I ran on the drives after
a few days using them. Excellent drives.
I would rather have 2x 60GB drives than 1x 120GB drive. That way you can backup onto the 2^nd
and if the first blows up, you're still OK.

Lite-on 52x24x52xCD-RW LTR52246S Retail with Nero v5.5 & InCD

These had good write-ups, which claimed they would work with almost all makes of media. They also
said that they are noisy. No way. I've had no errors and they are quiet.
Some other drives had better performance, but didn't work with all media. I want to be able to read
every disk I get, so I picked the LiteOn.
It is worth emphasising the value of the software that comes with these drives.
Nero is great for some things, but InCD is ideal for data backup.

Lite-on 16x48x DVD LTD165 Retail with PowerDVD

Works fine.
Comes with PowerDVD which also seems fine.
Reads PCW DVD disks, which is what I use it for most !

Sony 3.5”” floppy

The cheapest one I could find. Works fine.

Thermaltake A1365 just for variable speed case fans

OK, so here's the bargain of the century continued ! I bought some of these just for the fans !
On my first builds I paid more just for the fan.
Unscrew the fans, and you get a good quality, quiet, variable speed fan.
You do need some long nuts & bolts to fix them to the case though.

Round IDE cable UDMA133, 3 connections, 80 line 40 pin, 0.5m, transparent

You get ribbon cables with the motherboard. Put them all in and you are not going to be able to get into
the case, and you won't get much air flow. Hence, these round cables.

Round floppy cable, single drive, 34 line, 0.5m

As above.

Modem PCI 56k Conexant Chipset Software V90
including modem to telephone socket cable & CD

I picked this modem card because it is supposed to work with Linux as well as Windows.
It comes with a Linux driver CD.
It was also cheap.

Edifier R1000TC Amplified 6W/channel RMS, wood case

I picked these because they are not cheap plastic speakers.
Made from MDF, with either a wood or silver finish.
The sound is brilliant.
The only slight drawback is that the controls are on the back.
They have 2x RCA (phono) connectors for connection from the computer.
They are connected together with wire ended twin wire, which is therefore easy
to extend if like me you want your speakers either side of two monitors.

Audio cable 3.5mm Stereo Male to 2x RCA Male, 5M

If you want to put your computer under the desk, you may need a longer cable
like this one.

Genius KB-19e PS/2 keyboard

I could rant and rave about the competition to this keyboard & mouse. I'll try not to.
This keyboard is cheap, it's got useful multi-media buttons, it feels good, and it works.
Enough said.

Genius Netscroll+ eye wired optical mouse

The same applies here. This mouse is very light, the buttons work well, as does the scroll wheel.
It's optical, so no ball to clean, and less force needed to move it.
My old Microsoft mouse & my friends Logitech ball mice are heavy. Like moving a lead weight.
I avoided wireless mice because I didn't want any hassle with batteries.
Anyway, it always sits on the same A4 pad, so the wire makes no difference.
My recommendation is to look for Genius products first.

Windows XP Home OEM (with processor)

You have a choice. Either buy the retail version for about £167, or buy the OEM version with
a suitable piece of hardware, like the processor or hard drive. The actual requirement is dependant
upon the company you're buying it from. Some companies, reportedly, will sell the OEM version
with a mouse.
Personally, I'd rather buy the OEM version and give a processor away to a friend than pay the full
retail price.
Despite what people say about Microsoft, you do get a lot of software for £65.

Hansol 920P 19” Monitors

These monitors are not perfect. I do get a slight wiggle in the verticals where the brightness changes
sharply. This only really shows when the contrast and brightness are quite high. It's worse on one of the
monitors which I keep meaning to get replaced. The other is near perfect.
Having said that, for the price, they are excellent monitors.
Two 19” monitors for £240. You could pay a lot more for better known makes, that don't have better
write-ups - for each one !
These also have 3 year on-site warranties. That means any problem and it gets exchanged.
The resolution is good and the image sharp all over the screen. I use 1280x1024 @ 75Hz.
They have cables attached with 15-pin VGA connectors at the end that connect to your computer.
So, to extend these as I have, so that the computer can go under the desk, you need extension cables.
That means male at one end and female at the other.

SVGA signal cables, 15-way male-male, 15 line, 5m

They work fine.

Clear Plastic Storage CD Jewel Cases (pack of 25)

I prefer the thicker cases, but these were cheap and they work.
They do take up less space than the thicker ones.

PS/2 keyboard/mouse extension cable mini din 6 pin M-F, 2m (EX-02)

These can be very expensive from some companies.
These I eventually found. A bargain.

CD-RW Nashua branded 80min 16x 10pk jewel case

These work fine. Good jewel cases.

CD-R Nashua branded 80min 48x 50x on spindle/box

These come on a spindle, so you need somewhere to store them when you've used them.
Hence the jewel cases above. I also have a wallet from Lidl.

©2004 https://www.angelfire.com/hi5/neuralnetwriter/

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