Last Page - Venturing into PCs

First Homebuilt

I decided to take the plunge and build my own system for three reasons :-

1. Looking at the cost of the individual components against a pre-built system they were cheaper

2. Challenge of building a system for myself

3. Opportunity to choose the components I wanted rather than those supplied pre-built

So, these are the specifications I came up with :-

• Celeron 366 PPGA Socket 370

• Abit BX6 Rev 2.0 ATX motherboard :- 440BX chipset, Slot 1, 1x AGP, 4x PCI, 2x ISA, 4x DIMMs (up to 1 GB RAM), 2x USB, PS/2 mouse/keyboard, ATA33, Award SoftMenu II BIOS

• Abit Slot 1 to Socket 370 adapter

• 2x64 MB PC66 memory

• 4.3 GB Samsung & 8.4 GB Maxtor ATA33 hard drives

• IDE removable disk caddy

• 16 MB AGP Voodoo Banshee 2D/3D graphics

• Diamond Sonic Impact S370 sound card

• 36x CD-ROM

• 16x4x2x Hitachi CD-RW

• Vasco T-217 ATX midi-tower case :- 4x 5.25" bays (3 external), 5x 3.5" bays (3 external), 230W PSU, removable motherboard tray

• Axion C1733 17" monitor

• Windows 98 OS

This was a quality system and most of the components would serve me well for 2 years - a first for me!. Saying that I did upgrade to :-

• Celeron 533 PPGA Socket 370

• 16 MB AGP Voodoo3 3000

• Additional 128 MB PC100 memory

• A further 8.4GB Maxtor ATA-66 hard disk and a 2.1 GB Fujitsu hard disk (for back-ups)

In 2000 though, three new components appeared on the market which lead me into another avenue - overclocking.

Next Page - Overclocking