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hpr_transcripts/hpr1258.txt

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+Episode: 1258
+Title: HPR1258: How to Build a Desktop Computer
+Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1258/hpr1258.mp3
+Transcribed: 2025-10-17 22:33:18
+
+---
+
+...
+Hello, this is how to build a desktop computer.
+Usually you start off with the build versus buy kind of discussion where do you have the
+interest in time to research and build a desktop computer.
+You probably won't save a lot of money, but with all the research you may get better quality
+parts.
+You'll know exactly what's in your system should any issues or questions ever arise.
+The first sort of thing you want to do is define the purpose of the system.
+You want to gather the requirements, is it going to be used for gaming or video, photo
+processing, maybe web browsing or documents.
+The applications should really drive most of your hardware decisions.
+Then you start talking about protection and you have data protection.
+How much data do you plan to have?
+How resilient does it need to be?
+Does it need to be on-site mirrored?
+It can be raid?
+Does it have to be off-site stored?
+There's power protection.
+You have surge suppression or you can have UPS.
+Then you start talking about physical protection.
+You can have a key case lock, prevent disassembly or maybe you have a cable to anchor it down,
+case their theft.
+These are the sorts of things you want to start off with when you're deciding on how
+to build a desk to have a computer.
+There's other things like defining a budget and deciding what you were willing to spend
+maybe a maximum or a target price, maybe even a minimum that you're willing to spend.
+Check some of the off-to-shelf models to get the price points and sort of the going price
+on the market.
+Understand that there are trade-offs and if everything is needed at once or if you can
+add the capabilities later, maybe you'll help prevent some sticker shock.
+If you have the time, you might want to buy components when the price is a dip, especially
+things like memory where prices tend to be volatile.
+Be careful about return policy.
+Some have 30 days or 90 days or maybe even only a little replace it but they won't give
+you a refund kind of stuff.
+You also want to learn about the technology and the prices.
+For example, the core of the system, you're talking about CPU, memory, motherboard, graphics
+controller, power supply.
+Then there's things like storage where you've got solid state drives, rotating hard drives,
+removable media like DVDs and USB.
+There's also auxiliary components like audio, monitor, power protection, webcam, printer,
+scanner, backup drive.
+You talk about interfaces like SATA or IDE and DDR2 and DDR3 memory or PCI versus PCIe
+and USB or SATA.
+These are all sort of interfaces that you can have to your system.
+These are things you're going to want to learn about before you delve into building your
+own desktop.
+You also want to get a sort of a determined and approximate price range that you're trying
+to get your hands around on this and where to research this stuff.
+You want to go to Wikipedia and Tom's Hardware, a non-tech, that's A-N-A-N-D-T-E-C-H.
+You want to check the specs on the vendor's websites.
+Typically shop at neweg.com or Amazon.com.
+So let me check with HP or Dell's websites.
+You'll find some good deals out there and give you a real good idea where to sort of start.
+Sometimes you can pick up a cheap monitor on sale or something.
+Another factor to consider is understanding compatibility.
+Hardware to hardware compatibility.
+We're taking memory to a motherboard or CPU to the motherboard and memory.
+Usually what you'll do there is you'll check the CPU supported lists or memory support
+lists or qualified vendor lists.
+Some call it a qualified hardware list.
+Usually if you stick to the qualified hardware parts, the hardware compatibility is much
+more assured.
+Then you've got things like hardware to operating system compatibility.
+Here you've got drivers, maybe either built into the operating system or maybe you have
+to go to a vendor website to get them.
+Pay attention to 32-bit versus 64-bit in both operating systems and their drivers.
+Operating system and application compatibility.
+This isn't something I'm going to address in this podcast, but it's something to research
+and understand before you get too far into it.
+You may find that you have certain limits on what applications you need to have and
+those maybe restrict your operating system choices.
+You also define what kind of components you need.
+You'll need to have the core and storage components, but there may be other auxiliary components
+that you don't need or maybe have from a previous system.
+You may find that you can reuse them with your new system, especially things like speakers
+or printers, monitors, thrall prime candidates.
+Building your own desktop.
+Assuming you've reached the point where you assured yourselves that you want to do this
+and this is something you're keen on doing and you think it'll maybe save you a little
+bit of money.
+Who knows?
+But you've reached the point where you're going to build your own system.
+The first component you want to pick is your CPU.
+You typically start with either an Intel or AMD as your brand.
+You want to pick out what brand of CPU you're going to have and once you know that then you
+can pick out a model which is typically dictated by your needs in your budget.
+If you're going to be doing gaming, you're going to want to look for the higher end systems
+or higher end CPUs.
+You also want to dictate which motherboard, the CPU will dictate which motherboard socket
+you can use.
+Be sure to buy a CPU in a box set so it includes the CPU fan and heat sink.
+Otherwise you'll need to figure out the thermal dissipation needs and the physical dimension
+limitations of the case in order to select the appropriate third party CPU fan and heat
+sink.
+This can involve liquid cooling solutions and all kinds of exotic hardware.
+I'm not covering the thermal solutions in this podcast.
+Just make sure when you buy your CPU, get it in a box set and it'll come with the CPU
+and heat sink and fan everything in one box.
+The next thing you'll want to look for is your motherboard.
+Here we're talking about needing to narrow the search for the motherboard because there
+are dozens and dozens and dozens of these things.
+So the first thing you want to do is narrow your search down to the types that have the
+right socket for your CPU.
+You can decide on the motherboard form factor.
+It can be ATX or mini ATX or micro ATX or mini ATX or not and not it goes.
+You can look that up with a PDF for motherboard sizes.
+Usually I would recommend just using ATX as sort of the standard but then you typically
+have a larger case.
+The next thing I want to decide about the motherboard is whether you want to have onboard
+video or discrete video and what I mean by discrete is that it'll actually be a separate
+card you have to buy separately and it goes into a slot inside the motherboard.
+If it's an onboard video card that you're opting for, check that it has dedicated memory
+or if it borrows main memory from the system.
+If it borrows from the main system, you only want to increase the amount of memory that
+you put in your system a little bit.
+I'd recommend using a discrete card if you have any kind of 3D requirements.
+One of the later versions of GNOME actually required 3D at one point to not go into fallback
+mode but I think they've corrected that.
+But you can go discrete later if you want even if you go with the onboard initially.
+You'll just have wasted a little bit of money on the motherboard.
+If you do go with discrete, ensure that the motherboard has enough high-end PCIe slots
+for your needs, otherwise you could run a follow-up capacity limitation.
+Still on the motherboard, you can decide whether you want to have audio onboard or you
+could have a discrete or you could even have an external.
+If you're going to go with the onboard audio, check the motherboard has a suitable output
+port for your needs and if it's discrete, ensure the motherboard has a slot for the audio
+card.
+If you're going with an external audio system, make sure the motherboard has the ports
+to support it.
+On Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, while there's a few other boards that have these, they're generally
+considered inferior in terms of performance for connectivity and security, a non-mobile
+device like a desktop.
+It's also easy to add a card or USB device to obtain these Wi-Fi or Bluetooth types of
+features, communication channels.
+Also when it's integrated on the motherboard, there tend to be harder to upgrade later.
+Moving on to output ports, you want to make sure that you get enough output ports to meet
+your needs.
+While some output ports like the parallel port, the serial com port, or kind of legacy, some
+systems, some people still prefer PS2, maybe you've got some keyboard you want to keep
+or something like that, want to make sure your motherboard has a PS2 port.
+I also want to make sure it has enough USB.
+There never seems to be enough of those.
+If you're going to have external hard drives, you might want to consider an eSate a port.
+This stands for external serial ATA.
+There's also the SP diff for audio, high quality audio, optical stuff.
+HDMI is another port that's very common and I would highly recommend.
+There's Ethernet type ports, whatever your output ports need are.
+Make sure they come on your motherboard, otherwise you're going to be shuffling out money
+for a district card to do whatever you need.
+At this point, knowing these sorts of parameters, the video, the audio, the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth,
+the USB ports, whatever output ports you need, you should be narrowing your search down
+fairly narrowly.
+What you want to do is you want to compare prices, read the reviews, compare the ratings,
+and then decide on a motherboard vendor in model.
+That's the motherboard.
+Next thing you want to do is pick out your memory.
+Typically the memory is based on the motherboard and you want to make sure you find a matching
+type of memory for your motherboard.
+It's usually DDR2 and DDR3 are the common types nowadays.
+There are five memory properties.
+There's the DDR revision, which is currently the DDR2 and DDR3.
+There's the chip classification, like DDR2, hyphen 13333, where that 1333 is the maximum
+clock speed and megahertz the memory chip support.
+Third item is the module classification, and here we'll be talking about PC3, hyphen
+10666, where the 10666 is the maximum transfer rate in megabytes.
+The fourth item about memory properties is the timing, and here you'll see it in like
+four numbers that are separated by hyphens, be like 7, hyphen 8, hyphen 8, hyphen 24.
+This measures the time the memory chip delays doing something internally.
+The fifth property is the voltage.
+Now, out of all those properties, only the first two or three are really critical to
+understand for picking out a system, unless you're going to start doing overclocking, in
+which case the timing and the voltage also become relevant.
+Note that the prop memory properties are maximums.
+The actual rates will be lower based on the motherboard.
+If you match those first three properties, the DDR revision, the chip classification,
+and the module classification, you should be in pretty good shape.
+The DDR revision has to match.
+If you can get an exact match on the chip and module classifications, make sure the
+memory module is faster than the motherboard.
+So you want the module to have higher numbers than the motherboard does.
+Like I said, the other two properties you'd probably don't need to worry about unless
+you're going to overclock, and I'm not going to cover that in this podcast either.
+For more assurance, get memory that's on the motherboard maker's certified list.
+Again, most memory will probably work just fine as long as the DDR version matches and
+the chip classification and the module classification works are matching.
+I personally recommend buying memory in higher capacities per module for future expansion.
+So if you have four memory module slots, say which can accept one gig, two gig, or four
+gig modules, I'd opt for the four gig modules.
+I recommend that all the memory modules be the same size, optimally the same brand and
+model if possible.
+That'll avoid a lot of timing issues that can happen when you mix memory modules.
+So that's memory in a nutshell.
+The next item is video card.
+If using an onboard video controller, you've already decided this.
+If you're using a discrete video card, narrow the search down to the available motherboard
+slots.
+If you've only got one PCIe 16X slot, you're not going to be able to do AMD's crossfire
+X or Nvidia's SLI card linking because you don't have two slots.
+If you buy a high end discrete card or cards, be sure to check the video card vendors recommended
+power supply wattage and required power connector.
+These cards can often require a separate power connector from the power supply.
+Another thing to be careful of is the heat dissipation.
+Typically, the higher in cards have their own fan, which can generate a lot of heat inside
+the case and justify their need for more fans and ventilation.
+If you're going to have like dual monitors, it might be proven to get.
+Make sure you can handle two video cards, discrete video cards inside the case.
+So that's video cards.
+Internal storage.
+By internal storage, I mean storage devices that will be housed inside the computer
+case.
+Most motherboards come with an onboard storage controller, typically SATA2.
+Some have an ID controller for legacy support, like for, you know, floppiness or what
+have you.
+Server motherboards may have some version of scuzzy or serial attached storage or SAS controllers.
+These onboard controllers are configured from within the BIOS or UEFI.
+Depending on the motherboard's soft bridge chipset, it may support a few raid levels,
+usually raid zero, which is striping and one, which is mirroring, or maybe I got the
+other way, may have seen the way around.
+In any case, storage devices come in different physical sizes, which require different size
+bays.
+There's five and a quarter inch, straight and half inch, two and a half inch, one point
+eight inch.
+These refer to the size of the storage medium, not the actual bay size.
+So a five and a quarter inch bay comes in half height versions, which are typically what
+you see for standard CD and DVD drives in today's computers.
+The three and a half inch bays are usually used for floppies or zip drives or, you know,
+more legacy type equipment.
+Again, you can check Wikipedia and some of the other sources for some of that kind of
+reference information.
+Storage devices can vary significantly in terms of their storage capacity.
+Often the larger the storage capacity, the higher the latency and storing and retrieving
+data from it.
+The cache on board the disk can mitigate this latency.
+So large cache sizes are preferred, particularly for large capacity drives.
+Cache sizes currently include somewhere between eight mag, 16 mag, 32 mag and 64 mag sizes.
+With rotating magnetic disks, the speed at which they rotate can also mitigate this latency.
+These speeds include like 5400 RPMs, 7200 RPMs, and 10,000 RPMs, and 15,000 RPMs.
+With each steps and speed requiring more power and giving off more heat, this is something
+sort of cognizant of when you're talking about rotating disks or the number of disks.
+If you need more than two or three drives, you'll need to make sure that your case has
+adequate physical space for them and that your power supply is sized appropriately.
+That's it for this internal storage.
+Now there's case and power supply.
+Some cases are bundled with a power supply, which might work great for average to low-end
+system configurations.
+Based on the motherboard form factor and the internal storage requirements, you pick
+out your computer case.
+These features to consider is the power supply location.
+It's always in the rear, but can be on the top or the bottom of a tower configuration.
+So if your computer is going to sit on the floor, having the power supply on the bottom
+might turn it into a dust-bunny haven.
+The number and type of storage drive base is another thing to consider in your case.
+Removable or washable dust filters, those can come in kind of handy, especially if you're
+in a dusty environment.
+Some people like to show off their system so they'll put in lighting kits or something
+like that.
+Another thing to consider is the front panel ports and the static suppression.
+A lot of times when, especially in colder climates, there's a lot of static that builds up
+because of the dry weather.
+And when you touch that front panel where you plug in USB ports or external stated drives,
+you could create some static issues.
+The number and size of fans is limited by the case's design.
+So a typical case will come with one rear fan, but most offers some kind of front side
+or top vents where fans can be mounted.
+The fan size is range from about 25 millimeters to 250 millimeters.
+The popular size is seen to be about 80, 92, 120 or 140 millimeters.
+Make sure the power supply is sized correctly and there's a couple of things to consider
+here.
+There's three things.
+There's the physical dimensions of the power supply fit in the case.
+There's some slim power supplies out there for smaller form factor cases.
+There's the wattage output which is driven by the video cards and the number of internal
+storage devices.
+And then the third thing is connectors required by the motherboard, CPU fan, case fans, video
+cards, internal storage devices.
+Without a discrete video card and two to three internal storage devices, a three to
+400 watt power supply is more than adequate.
+If you're getting a discrete video card, check on its specific power requirements.
+Power supplies have efficiency ratings under the 80 plus certification, which span from
+vanilla 80 plus to bronze, silver, gold, and platinum.
+If you want more information on that, you might want to check Wikipedia.
+Some of the things to consider is the monitors and printers needs that you may have.
+What kind of operating system you're going to want.
+But I thought that just going over these basic parts of the system would be helpful to
+those who maybe haven't gone through that process before.
+Again, the steps are pick your CPU, pick your motherboard, pick the memory, then the
+video card, the internal storage, and then the case and power supply.
+Then you can pick all your monitors and printers and other items.
+I hope this has been beneficial to you.
+Thank you, Hacker Public Radio, for providing a platform in which for us geeks and broadcast
+to the world.
+Thanks.
+This is Toby signing off.
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