Building a PC from scratch vs....

[Fermixalot]

So I'm looking to get back in the PC game and I was looking into possibly building my own. I'm not overly knowledgeable about the hardware side of things, but with a few guides I could definitely do it.

My questions are what exactly would I need? They have the barebones kits on tigerdirect.com that come with stuff, but what baffles me are motherboard selection as well as connections too the hard drive (RAID and whatnot).

Is this the best route, or should I just suck it up and buy a manufactured system?

Any input would be appreciated. :jack


Go Spurs.

[Strike]

Research, research, research. Figure out what you want, and don't sell yourself short. Don't be afraid to spend some bucks to get exactly what you want.

As far as the actual building process, I know very little. I paid a friend to build my system. I gave him the money for the parts I wanted and paid him $150 for his time.

Totally worth it.

[koriwhat]

i'll always suggest buying a mac just because i love them and they just work!

but i will never suggest buying a pc from a manufacturer. pricewatch.com is your friend.

[baseline bum]

i'll always suggest buying a mac just because i love them and they just work!

but i will never suggest buying a pc from a manufacturer. pricewatch.com is your friend.

pricewatch.com is a great way to get ripped off by shady dealers too. I would recommend buying everything from newegg.com. They're cheap, there's no sales tax to ship to anywhere outside of California, they offer free shipping on a lot of things, their shipments are very fast, and if something isn't right, getting a refund is painless and they don't charge stocking fees. I got a refund on a $1000 monitor from them without having to jump through any hoops when I got the thing and it didn't live up to its hype, even though nothing was technically broken in it. I enjoy spending my money with a company like newegg who values and respects its customers and has incredible selections of hardware in stock.

[Bender]

for my last couple of systems I put together, I picked out the case I wanted (Antec), motherboard and processor I wanted, then I had the place where I bought them install the mobo & processor in the case for me. Since I bought the stuff from them, they did it free.

I did everything else myself - RAM, video, HD, burner, etc.

[baseline bum]

- For motherboards I buy either ABIT or ASUS with no exceptions

- For CPU I'd get some form of Intel Core2Duo. A bigger L2/L3 cache makes a huge difference in performance of a CPU. My best advice is to never buy the most expensive processors (you pay out the ass for maginally better technology just because it's newer), but don't skimp either. Make sure to buy a retail box desktop CPU though, as OEM CPUs usually don't come with heatsinks. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE SHOULD YOU EVER POWER ON YOUR COMPUTER WITHOUT THE HEATSINK AND ITS FAN PROPERLY INSTALLED ON THE CPU! YOU WILL FRY YOUR CPU IN LESS THAN A SECOND

- For memory Crucial and Mushkin are nice, and good RAM is ridiculously cheap right now. Don't buy more than 3GB of it if you use a 32-bit Windows though.

- I never skimp on power supplies: you can get some very nice Antec cases with power supplies for less than $100, and the power supplies are very reliable. A mid-tower or higher makes it way way easier to build the system and upgrade it later (smaller cases make motherboard installation a pain), Also, having hard drive cages is a huge plus in a case.

- Buy a SATA hard drive. Most modern motherboards don't have more than 1 IDE connector, which is what you'll usually use for your DVD drive. Never have a DVD/CDROM share the same ribbon cable as a hard drive.

- RAID is not useful for a desktop system used for gaming.

- For video cards, I'll have to defer to someone who knows them better. I never build my systems for gaming anymore, as I'm pretty satisfied with my XBox360 for that.

- Don't pay someone $150 to build a system. It's the easiest thing in the world. Read some articles on http://www.tomshardware.com and check on youtube; I'm sure you'll find plenty to show you how to build a good system.

[baseline bum]

Absolutely build the PC though. You won't save huge money like you would doing it 12-13 years ago, but you'll still get much better hardware doing it on your own.

[ChumpDumper]

For CPU I'd get some form of Intel Core2Duo. A bigger L2/L3 cache makes a huge difference in performance of a CPU. My best advice is to never buy the most expensive processors (you pay out the ass for maginally better technology just because it's newer), but don't skimp either.Good advice. Get a motherboard that can support the best CPUs with the same socket design. Later on when newer CPU designs come out, you can get the best one for your board a lot cheaper than today to squeeze a little more performance out of your machine.

[PixelPusher]

- I never skimp on power supplies:

+1
Learned that one the hard way.

And if you don't already have one, I'd also add getting a UPS (battery backup), not so much for keeping your system running during a blackout/brownout as for the voltage regulation the battery provides to your system if you live in a house or neighborhood with shitty electrical lines. "Bad" electricity can fry your mobo too.

[Fermixalot]

Thanks for all the advice, its research time, especially since I don't want to do my Psych Paper.

[baseline bum]

Good advice. Get a motherboard that can support the best CPUs with the same socket design. Later on when newer CPU designs come out, you can get the best one for your board a lot cheaper than today to squeeze a little more performance out of your machine.

:tu That's the way I've always done it.

[dimsah]

pricewatch.com is a great way to get ripped off by shady dealers too. I would recommend buying everything from newegg.com. They're cheap, there's no sales tax to ship to anywhere outside of California, they offer free shipping on a lot of things, their shipments are very fast, and if something isn't right, getting a refund is painless and they don't charge stocking fees. I got a refund on a $1000 monitor from them without having to jump through any hoops when I got the thing and it didn't live up to its hype, even though nothing was technically broken in it. I enjoy spending my money with a company like newegg who values and respects its customers and has incredible selections of hardware in stock.

+1 Newegg is the shit. Bought multiple items from them over the years and have never had an issue. Shipping is wicked fast also.

[spurster]

I would look at what you can buy before building your own. Scanning newegg.com, I see very very good machines less than $1000, though I don't know how good CyberpowerPC and iBUYPOWER pcs are. An advantage of getting a whole machine is getting a whole warranty.

It also looks like quad-core is becoming more standard.