www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

Is it still possible to do this cheaper than buying a tailor made one?....

I priced it up online and had quite a shock...doesnt seem like it worth it anymore..

Depends what specifications your aiming at.. Some GPU's can cost more than the mobo and processor put together.

If it helps, I was going to build my own (done it a few times before over the years) but as you say even for something "basic" its not worth it now.

But you no longer get a cd (it was then) of the OS, it's on a partition on the HD

Currently trying to do one myself. Bought the processor for it (ivy bridge!) now found out although compatible i have to use a different processor (sandy bridge!) first to flash the bios. Didn't have either and can't find a cheap one on ebay just to flash it.

This is project two.

I have another one, which i have all the bits for, buts its a flex-atx motherboard and can't find a case for it too fit in to. So now need to find a case which can be modified but still be small enough to look good.

This is project one.

Both are nothing special, by the time i have finished them they will be a few more rungs down the ladder spec wise.

It's still worthwhile if you want something a little out of the ordinary or you want better specification than a shop build. Trouble is at the cheaper end the OS can be a significant part of the overall cost

it depends on the specs, its a bit hit and miss on the lower end of the market, quality is where the mass produced PC's save money

£800 in parts will get you a mid range 4th gen i5 a good, quality mother board, corsair memory (crucial or corsair is all I will use)


if you want a bespoke custom built pc speak to Graeme at Kustom Pc's (based in Ayr) not the cheapest around but top customer service and they carry a lot of high end and unique items

I'd buy.

My last one was built, but I can't moan as it was all freeeeeeee.

I'd go to Aria or similar, as Scruff did.

I'm currently trying to get a 486/100 single board computer up and running and trawling my memory for how to write an autoexec.bat and config.sys file!!!

Out of the six 1.44Mb floppy disks I still own not ONE of them will format properly and getting hold of a sub 4Gb HDD?????

That's technology for you

I'm starting on the lock up tomorrow KE. There's a very good chance that I still have some 5 1/4 discs knocking about in there. Will have a look

And I've got Kingston memory, nothing to choose between that and Corsair IMO - especially if you have 32 lovely gigs of it

Mind you perhaps I really, really need 64Gb

[quote="kellys_eye"]I'm currently trying to get a 486/100 single board computer up and running and trawling my memory for how to write an autoexec.bat and config.sys file!!!

Out of the six 1.44Mb floppy disks I still own not ONE of them will format properly and getting hold of a sub 4Gb HDD?????

If you'd have asked last week, I could have got all of that. The place I was at would have found that most entertaining.

I can recommend Aria as well.

I bought quite a lot of HDDs etc from Aria and they're good people. About time they gave the forum a discount

Interesting answers gents...I did it years ago and saved a few quid, ...but I had a OS ready to sling on it, but given the cost of them now I cant get near shop prices of around 3-400 quid..

I dont want the equivalent of the technology to launch and run a trip to Mars...just something fast enough to handle photoshop and lightroom...my current one, that I bought online is ok...I just got that itchy fingers feeling and thought about building one for something to do...

Plus...programs like those are all single user...I would have to buy them again...

Just to sling a name up though (and thanks for the advice about aria) ..Novatech used to be good for prices and bear bones models..

@ Razor - thanks for the offer Razor but I'm using 3.5" 'stiffies' rather than 5.25" 'floppies' (cue some smutty ripsote from Wes..... )

@ BG - and thanks also BG but I'm beginning to think the bootloader files on the SBC aare corrupt and I don't have the right software to reload it (stupid eBay purchase )

FYI it's an ELAN-104NC PC/104 compatible ebedded processor board - without the manufacturers development CDROM (which is the crux of the issue). Sigh.

I've almost certainly got some 3.5" disks from either my Amiga or Atari St days. Will have a dig tomorrow