Is Building A Pc Worth It?

**<DV8>mrbucket** · 03-14-2006, 10:03 AM

Re: Is Building A Pc Worth It?

It is worth every penny. If you are not into dealing with some issues, or flat out are stupid, you should NOT build a computer. BUT- if you dont mind saving alot of money, and learning alot about how a computer works, and trouble-shooting some problems, BUILD YOUR COMPUTER!

**CaptJordus** · 03-14-2006, 10:06 AM

Re: Is Building A Pc Worth It?

If it took your dad 6 months to build and troubleshoot a PC then he is the most unprofessional computer "professional" ive ever heard of.

Its not hard at all.

**cheesewz** · 03-14-2006, 10:07 AM

Re: Is Building A Pc Worth It?

Originally posted by gr0und_str1ke

Hey, in the past 5 years i have had a desktop pc, laptop pc, and now i have an ibook (mac). Im planning on selling my ibook and using the money to build a pc. My dad is an expert in computers, its his job, and he is doesnt think that building a computer would be a good idea. the last time he built a computer was 6 years ago, he was building a server and it took him 6 months to find out what was wrong with it so he is somewhat "against" the idea of building a pc.

Building it yourself is the best way to get bang for your buck. Your dad would have been mostly right 6 years ago with all of the drivers issues that Windows had. It could be really painful to put together the right combination of hardware. That isn't a very big issue anymore. I put together my rig (listed in my sig) in a couple of hours and have had no problems at all. Cost me about $4k (excluding software) to build the best possible rig that could have been built on the day I bought the parts (day the 7800GTX cards came out). At the time it would have cost at least $2k more if I'd bought from Alienware, Falcon, Voodoo or Velocity Micro. Dell and Gateway didn't even build the spec that I wanted, so they don't apply. Not that I'd buy a gaming rig from them anyway.

If you can get a ATI 1900XTX for the same price as the pair of 6800's then that would probably be a better choice right now. I have NVIDIA cards, but that is just because when the 7800's came out they were the top of the heap. If I bought today I'd get a pair of ATI's best cards. Definitely buy 2gb of RAM instead of 1 if you can afford it. My case (Thermaltake Tsunami) would fit your price range, but in retrospect I would have spent more for a full tower with liquid cooling.

**Scinto** · 03-14-2006, 10:58 AM

Re: Is Building A Pc Worth It?

everyone has to build their own PC atleast once in their life and it shouldnt take much time can easilly be done in an afternoon, generally cheaper to buy parts seperatly as you can buy from different outlets

**cheesewz** · 03-14-2006, 11:06 AM

Re: Is Building A Pc Worth It?

Originally posted by Scinto

everyone has to build their own PC atleast once in their life

I agree completely. I'd built plenty of servers before, but building my first dream gaming rig was a great experience. It makes you much more comfortable with opening the case and doing upgrades, and helps you to understand hardware, OS and software. If it is the first time a person has built their own box it is helpful to have assistance from someone who has done it before. But if you don't have that there are plenty of great online guides and mags like Maximum PC put out guides generally at least once a year. There are also people on forums like these to get advice from.

**gungho** · 03-14-2006, 11:18 AM

Re: Is Building A Pc Worth It?

Building a PC isn't really hard these days, just make sure all the hardware you buy is compatable with each other & you dont leave any bits out. Google to find some websites to help you out, e.g. -

http://www.buildeasypc.com/

and make sure you have a working PC while building your new one, if you run into trouble you can surf for a solution - someone has almost certainly had the same problem before & posted a solution somewhere. I built my PC last year, and could not get the SATA hard disk to be recognised by the motherboard, so I typed the mobo & HDD names into Google & found the answer inside of 15 minutes !

I advise you to try it, you will feel VERY proud of yourself when it works !

**MonkMachine** · 03-14-2006, 11:20 AM

Re: Is Building A Pc Worth It?

Build it yourself far cheaper and not that hard!!! I would get a 7800GT instead of a 6800 and 2GB of ram.

**Alm()nd J()y** · 03-14-2006, 03:29 PM

Re: Is Building A Pc Worth It?

Yes, very much so. I've built two so far, it's a good learning expierence and you definently learn more about your computer and you can choose everything you want in it. Where as if you buy a desktop and if you want to do an upgrade by opening your case to install it you void your warranty and with a PC you built you won't :). Most of the parts, MO'BO, ram, vid card, processor, ETC. will have their own warranties.

**ThoughtForm** · 03-14-2006, 04:30 PM

Re: Is Building A Pc Worth It?

If your not a avid gamer, you can probably save some money by not buying a SLI motherboard.

With the money you save from a non-SLI motherboard, you can upgrade the RAM or monitor / LCD screen

This reminds me of what happened today, hard disk died

lasted me only 2 and a half years :cry:

Right now working with a tiny 40gb harddisk I took from my server :|:

If you have any questions about putting together a new computer, feel free to ask, been putting computers together for more than 10 years ^_^

**Xicer** · 03-14-2006, 04:39 PM

Re: Is Building A Pc Worth It?

Building a PC is definetly worth it.

And why did it take your dad six months to fix a problem after building it. No offense but he must not be that great in computers if it took him six months...=\

**gr0und_str1ke** · 03-14-2006, 04:48 PM

Re: Is Building A Pc Worth It?

hey thanks for the help guys, i will definetly build my pc now. i've found a gigabyte sli mobo for only €90, i wouldnt normally buy something i dont need, but so far i have only seen mobo's with sli that have ddr2 ram. and yeah im gonna get 2gigs of ram.

EDIT: oh and xicer, he said it was a simple problem that the pci graphics card did not work with that specific motherboard, even though he said it was basically a standard in pci graphics cards, also, he built it in his spare time so he didnt have much time to work on it.

**Alm()nd J()y** · 03-14-2006, 05:02 PM

Re: Is Building A Pc Worth It?

When your done finding paarts you want, post them ALL back in here with links to where you're getting them from, so we can make sure they're compatible.

**Sir. S.A.S** · 03-14-2006, 05:07 PM

Re: Is Building A Pc Worth It?

i say building a pc is the best move you could ever make!

But ohnestly i fix comps and servers and it take me no more that a couple of hours to find and solve the problem. If it took your dad six months the questions need to be asked!

**Bucknasty** · 03-14-2006, 05:17 PM

Re: Is Building A Pc Worth It?

its worth it

u can have a computer thats 2x better than ones u buy and 2x less expensive too if u bump into good deals

all of my computers are built

Is Building A Pc Worth It?

Is Building A Pc Worth It?

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