COMPUTER NERDS -- please gather in this thread

one thing I'm confused about is how do you save money building a PC? The parts bought individually cost way more, no?

I built a 486 long ago… back when they were the hottest thing thing around…

parts most definitely cost less when bought individually at a large outlet like newegg.com. walking into your local strip-mall or best buy, you're definitely going to pay more.

building your own is way cheaper if you're building a high-end system with specific needs - you're saving the boutique builder's mark-up. if you just want an e-mail/web/word-processing machine, it's dicier to justify financially - chances are Dell can do a low-end machine for the same price as you can.

i build my machine to make music (or with that intention, anways) so i wanted specific kind of disks, high-speed memory, an overclocking-friendly motherboard, a fanless but fast video card, quiet case fans, extra firewire ports, no network card, yadda yadda. searched online, no one was building this for less than $2600 and often way more. parts, all told, were less than $1400.

OK, I'm pretty sure I shorted my motherboard out around 3am last night :D

I'm a complete fucking moron, and didn't realize that I had to mount my motherboard on my case with standoffs between the case/board … so I started the thing up with it screwed directly to the case and it worked for a few seconds, then the whole thing shut down

I went online to troubleshoot and realized how retarded I am, then I reinstalled the whole thing, making sure to use the standoffs correctly. Still won't start.

I'm guessing I killed my motherboard, but do you think I blew anything else out (CPU, RAM, etc)?

Should I just RMA the motherboard to Newegg and claim it was DOA?

thanks guys!

Originally posted by bootsycollins:
When I looked at the list of gear, I thought 'good move on getting the fan'.

yeah, everyone else told me that too, I wish they just told me to use fucking standoffs!! :(

Originally posted by RatBastard:
Hoya you going to the Velvet revolver show? If so look me up. I'm the long haired old bastard that will be upstairs at the back on one of the barstools.

nope, won't be there