i want to build a computer for my German inlaws ..

[HammondSeaRanger]

I am going back to see my Inlaws come this August in Germany. I want to build them a computer here in the states, and take it with me to install for them.

Does anyone have a resource or working knowledge of hardware problems I would run into doing this?

I sure would appreciate any advice. ....

[Swamp Puppy]

only thing i can think of would be a different power supply that works with European voltages. once you have that handled the rest should be the same.


here are some links that are great resources for doing it yourself.

ENU is a local company in hillsboro that sells lots of stuff

Price Watch is a great place to buy stuff..i bought almost everything for my system through this site.

Tom's Hardware Page is a good resource..sort of like consumer reports. unbiased and informative.

PM me if you have any other questions. i am certainly not an expert on the subject, but will help where i can.

[HammondSeaRanger]

i have a good working knowledge of how to build the system my worries are if the system will be compatable once i get there. And if just putting a european compatable power supply is all that will need to be changed.

thanks for the links I will use them !

[HeavyMetal BankFisherman]

Most power supplies have a flat red switch on the back. You need to switch that from 115 to 230 and get a different cord that fits the electical outlets over there. You can most likely just get a cord over there very easily.

That is all you need to do. There are no hardware issues. You just need to switch to thier voltage on the power supply.

[Beeatease]

I've built all our computers and that's a total of 8....over the past 10 years or so.

ENU is a great place to get info parts. I shop Fry's for some things but when I want some real quality it's ENU.

The power supply would be a major first starting place......IMHO

[BCF]

I think you might want to think about frequency also. 60Hz vs. 50Hz.
Just a thought.



BCF

[HammondSeaRanger]

help me out here BCF ... frequency of what?

[walkersteelhead]

Frequency of their electricity.

[HeavyMetal BankFisherman]

You don't need to worry about electricity in Europe being 50hz with computers. It does cause problems with some devices, especially those that use power cyles for timing. It won't effect a computer. Computers run on DC current. The power supply converts the electricity to low voltage DC current that the computer can use.

They buy the same components for thier computers in Europe that we do here in America. They are all made in Taiwan anyway.

You only have to switch the power supply to 230 when you get to Germany and plug it in.

[wthr4d]

Microsoft does make different software for distrobution in the EU. If you are considering installing software you will want to look into that. I know a couple folks in software testing at the evil empire if you want me to ask around about it.

Paul

[HammondSeaRanger]

ouch .. evil empire.

If you wouldnt mind asking I would apreciate it.

If I am able to, I will install windows stateside and they can deal with the language barrier, as long as windows will recognize any german software they wish to install later.

The puter is mainly for chat / emails back and forth with family stateside.

[wthr4d]

BluePig- Its a loving nickname, realy! The info I got from them says that windows is Windows no matter where you use it. There is a version specific to the EU but all that is different is that the defaults are set to metric/euros etc. all that can be changed at any time on any version of windows. The only other thing that may be different is that primary drivers provided by microsoft will be EU specific, but If you are building it here you will want the drivers from here anyways.

hope that helps
Paul

[HammondSeaRanger]

very much .. thank you.