twpierce@amherst.bitnet (Tim Pierce) (05/02/90)
In article <Apr.29.14.48.28.1990.15329@u2.rutgers.edu>, sardana@u2.rutgers.edu (Sandeep) writes: > I'm looking for info regarding building an IBM PC(386) > from scratch. I'd like to hear comments on how to proceed in > terms of purchasing(what, where, prices, pitfalls, pros & cons) > I'd also like comments on the very idea of building one rather > than purchasing one from other manufacturers(cost-effectiveness, > support etc.) Funny. I'm almost finished with a project just like this one... a friend upgraded from 286 to 386, so I bought his used 286 motherboard cheap and ordered a bunch of parts. All I can really suggest is that you not undertake something like this unless you're really sure you understand the hardware you're assembling. Case in point: we didn't. Unbeknownst to us, there was a little chunk of CMOS RAM on the motherboard that stayed active after it was taken out of the machine. This little bit of memory kept track of, among other system configuration information, how many and what kind of hard disks were installed. Since my friend had two 40M Seagate drives, and I was trying to install a 30M Tandon, it refused to acknowledge the very existence of this new drive. When we finally figured out what was wrong, and finally figured out how to fix it (a hellish task in itself) it turned out that the disk itself was bad. I'm still waiting for the replacement. Not that you should feel completely turned off of a project like this one (it was still LOTS of fun), but just proceed with caution. If you want more information, you can e-mail me directly -- no need to clutter up TOO much bandwidth. - Tim Pierce twpierce@amherst.bitnet