[Walker]

I have been looking around for good deals on barebones computers. I have never built a computer, but have an OK amount of knowledge for installing upgrades such as video cards and cd-roms.

I was wondering, how hard would it be to get a case, and install a motherboard? I found a good motherboard with a built in processor (which seems like it would be hard to do), and a cheap/decent case. I am just wondering how hard it would be to install the motherboard into the case. It seems like that would be the hardest part, but I am really just going on a clueless assumption.

Thanks for your input.

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First off, you have to know if the case will fit with your motherboard. is the case a BTX or ATX case?

If you're sure they'll fit, just take off the sides of the case and mount the motherboard. It's not very difficult to do.

[emery]

First off, you have to know if the case will fit with your motherboard. is the case a BTX or ATX case?

If you're sure they'll fit, just take off the sides of the case and mount the motherboard. It's not very difficult to do.

[Walker]

The main case I am looking at is ATX, is there any advantage either way? thanks

Edited by Walker, 18 July 2006 - 02:28 AM.

[emery]

I don't know anything about advantages of ATX or BTX. Wait for a hardware expert to answer this question for you.

Emery.

[austin_o]

Barebones kits are a good option. I bought a barebones socket 754 kit from http://www.geeks.com/ and put it together, installed W2K Pro and it booted right up. The only thing to be aware of is that kits often consist of really cheap components. I was not impressed with the case, power supply and speakers. It came with a motherboard CPU combo (Biostar, good basic AMD) CD/DVD combo drive. I had to provide a hard drive, floppy drive and RAM. I made do with the case, but I got a quality power supply and already had good speakers. This was to replace my old HP PIII 450 Mhz and the final results, even with the cheap case it that it is a great system, AMD socket 754 2.0 Ghz Next time I will buy components of my choice and put it together myself. It is not hard, either way. Here is a good guide that will provide some insight. http://www.mechbgon.com/ There are many others out there. Do some searches. You can find lots of bare bones systems on Ebay.

Edited by austin_o, 18 July 2006 - 06:23 AM.