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Technology Thread: Building a Desktop Computer

DCDeac said:
I'd be really interested to see the price breakdown on a mid-tier system ($400-$700) that compares favorably to deals you can get on OEM machines.

Even with labor and profit, the reason PC building basically fell off the map is that nobody can compete with a lean-based supply monster like Dell. They can simply demand components at a fraction of what Newegg can sell them to and end user for, even when discounted. Plus you have to pay for the OS as opposed to it being massively subsidized.

The benefit obviously is total control, complete customization, newer versions of components, etc. Then again, when your Video driver causes your HDMI capable sound card to present itself as non-compliant and breaks something, there's nowhere to go for support. Or when a component simply fails, you're the one who has to figure out what failed, prove it, and get it replaced instead of simply returning the machine under warranty.

Building a machine yourself is great for some, but it's not for everyone. And in general, I think most of the time when someone says "I build something for $500 that would have cost $1,000" they are not considering all the costs. Otherwise there would still be thousands of small companies building computers for companies like there was in the 90's.
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HDMI sound cards aren't really the realm of the average-joe user that you are describing :p

Obviously it isn't for everyone, but with a little research and time, you can build a vastly superior system to an OEM manufacturer. Sure, you can have component failures, but 90% of the time you can do a quick google search on your laptop to figure out what the problem may be.

This isn't for everyone, but I don't think I am alone in wanting to be able to do things for myself in a much quicker fashion than shipping my whole computer to Dell to fix a bad SATA cable or PSU.

The only place where the value of the components begins to balance out is in the very low end. As you increase the quality and performance capabilities of the components, you quickly destroy whatever value an OEM manufacturer can bring to the table.

Small businesses can't compete with the big manufacturers and the people that buy from Dell or HP, aren't the type of person that care about the performance gains you can get from building your own computer.
 
CPU Intel Core i3-2100 $125
CPU Cooler Intel boxed heatsink/fan $0
Motherboard ASRock H61M-VS $60
RAM Crucial 4 GB (2 x 2 GB) DDR3-1333 CT2KIT25664BA1339 $40
Graphics Sapphire 100315L Radeon HD 6850 1 GB $170
Hard Drive Seagate Barracuda ST3500413AS 500 GB, SATA 6Gb/s $40
Case Xigmatek Asgard II B/S CPC-T45UE-U01 $30
Power Antec EarthWatts Green EA380D 380 W$40
Optical Asus 24X DVD Burner SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS $21
Total Price $526



Inspiron 570 Minitower w/ Black Bezel FTS13A
CPU: AMD Athlon™ II X3 Processor 450 (3.2GHz, 1.5M, 4C)
RAM: 6GB DDR3 SDRAM - 4 DIMMS
HDD: 500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
Graphics: Integrated ATI Radeon HD4200 Graphics
Optical: 16X DVD+/-RW Drive
Total Price: $489.99


Look at that Dell monster. Integrated graphics :laugh:

I'll concede that it comes with an operating system and 6gbs of ram(totally negated due to the garbage that comes on these machines), but both are easily remedied. For $40 more you could upgrade to 8gb on the build it yourself machine.
 
Planning my next computer that will be bought around tax return time.

I'm trying to decide between a high-end laptop(desktop replacement) and a high-end desktop.

Building a desktop will let me maximize the return on my investment, but it obviously won't be portable. Buying a laptop would be a bit more expensive, but you get the benefits of a manufactured laptop from a mainstream manufacturer.

I've always really scoffed at Alienware, but looking at what they have to offer in high-end 17+ inch laptops is intriguing. I wish Asus would let you customize your own laptop instead of buying a pre-configured model.

The price tag on these laptops is the only drawback. They can get very expensive at higher end configurations.
 
TWDeac said:
Planning my next computer that will be bought around tax return time.

I'm trying to decide between a high-end laptop(desktop replacement) and a high-end desktop.

Building a desktop will let me maximize the return on my investment, but it obviously won't be portable. Buying a laptop would be a bit more expensive, but you get the benefits of a manufactured laptop from a mainstream manufacturer.

I've always really scoffed at Alienware, but looking at what they have to offer in high-end 17+ inch laptops is intriguing. I wish Asus would let you customize your own laptop instead of buying a pre-configured model.

The price tag on these laptops is the only drawback. They can get very expensive at higher end configurations.
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Obviously one experience isn't enough to judge an entire company on, but I had an Alienware laptop in college and it literally started smoking one day. I was like "why does my room smell like playdough?...HOLY FUCK THAT'S NOT PLAYDOUGH, THAT'S BURNING PLASTIC"
 
TW you don't currently have any other machines? A laptop is a must for convenience sake, even just lounging in front of the TV using it, but if you game, I've never really been satisfied with any laptop, even high end stuff, usually still less responsive, smaller screen, and lots of heat.

All that being said, laptops are ridiculously cheap right now, I've seen i7 with decent graphics well under a grand. I just built a box that screams for games, even with my old 9800GT video card in it still, and I got all this for just over $500:
Part list permalink / Part price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($214.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master RR-910-HTX3-G1 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($16.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($147.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($51.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($191.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Antec One Hundred ATX Mid Tower Case ($47.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Antec 750W ATX12V Power Supply ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Sony AD-7260S-0B DVD/CD Writer ($21.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $793.92
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated 2011-10-11 06:38 EDT-0400)
 
Juice said:
Obviously one experience isn't enough to judge an entire company on, but I had an Alienware laptop in college and it literally started smoking one day. I was like "why does my room smell like playdough?...HOLY FUCK THAT'S NOT PLAYDOUGH, THAT'S BURNING PLASTIC"
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Yeah, I know what you mean. I just keep seeing good reviews of their laptops.
 
dot com said:
TW you don't currently have any other machines? A laptop is a must for convenience sake, even just lounging in front of the TV using it, but if you game, I've never really been satisfied with any laptop, even high end stuff, usually still less responsive, smaller screen, and lots of heat.

All that being said, laptops are ridiculously cheap right now, I've seen i7 with decent graphics well under a grand. I just built a box that screams for games, even with my old 9800GT video card in it still, and I got all this for just over $500:
Part list permalink / Part price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($214.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master RR-910-HTX3-G1 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($16.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($147.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($51.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Crucial M4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($191.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Antec One Hundred ATX Mid Tower Case ($47.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Antec 750W ATX12V Power Supply ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Sony AD-7260S-0B DVD/CD Writer ($21.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $793.92
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated 2011-10-11 06:38 EDT-0400)
Click to expand...

I have a desktop that needs completely reworked. It has Core 2 Duo tech in it that is about 5 years old now.

I have my old T400 laptop and my HP Probook work laptop.

Ideally, I'd like to get rid of the desktop and T400.
 
How old is the T400? I'd keep that around for surfing and go with a new desktop.
Core 2 is what I updated my desktop from.
 
Yeah, I can build a Core i7 based desktop with 16gb of ram, a 256gb SSD, 2TB 7200 HDD and Geforce GTX 5800 3gb for around $2,500. That includes a new case, a new mouse and new keyboard.

That leaves me a lot of extra wiggle room. Especially because it will be 6 months until I am actually ready to buy anything.
 
Hopefully a simple question: I recently updated my desktop (my brother-in-law is in IT and did it back in January). I upgraded the power supply, memory, hard drive, and graphics card. I have no specifics other that I have maxed out the memory for my motherboard at 4 GB and have a 1TB hard drive now.

I turned off my computer while I was out of town this weekend and turned it on Sunday when I got home and it started up but turned itself off after about 5 minutes. I thought I needed to clean out the tower so I vacuumed the loose dust out and used some canned spray air on the cooling unit and elsewhere. I plug everything back it, hit the power, everything looks ok, starts ok, but then dies before the desktop comes up.

I'm thinking the power supply is bad (hopefully the case since it has a 1 year warranty) and my brother-in-law agrees and will test the power supply sometime for me. Then it's just an easy fix to swap that out. Any ideas of what else the problem could be. The motherboard is almost 4 years old so I guess there could be a problem there.
 
TWDeac said:
Yeah, I can build a Core i7 based desktop with 16gb of ram, a 256gb SSD, 2TB 7200 HDD and Geforce GTX 5800 3gb for around $2,500. That includes a new case, a new mouse and new keyboard.

That leaves me a lot of extra wiggle room. Especially because it will be 6 months until I am actually ready to buy anything.
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Well that's just gratuitous. You can build a relatively blazing machine for a grand. I went with just a 128GB SSD, and I'm running Windows and several games off it with 30GB to spare. I'm going to upgrade my video card soon, but probably just to a 560 or 560TI, anything more is just overpriced.
 
HeltonCreek said:
Any ideas of what else the problem could be. The motherboard is almost 4 years old so I guess there could be a problem there.
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What do you mean by "it just dies"? Just shuts off? if so, that seems like a power issue, but motherboard would be a good possibility too since the mb connection is necessary for anything else to draw power. If "it just dies" involves any kind of blue screen or automatic reboot, then it's possibly some other hardware piece that's freaking Windows out.
 
dot com said:
Well that's just gratuitous. You can build a relatively blazing machine for a grand. I went with just a 128GB SSD, and I'm running Windows and several games off it with 30GB to spare. I'm going to upgrade my video card soon, but probably just to a 560 or 560TI, anything more is just overpriced.
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I don't really agree. A grand can get you a decent machine, but it's not going to be blazing by any stretch of the word. I think you should go for broke every four years to future proof your computer.

That way, barring any unforeseen technology upgrades, or system failures, you don't have to touch your machine. It has worked out perfectly for the past 3 systems I've built.
 
dot com said:
What do you mean by "it just dies"? Just shuts off? if so, that seems like a power issue, but motherboard would be a good possibility too since the mb connection is necessary for anything else to draw power. If "it just dies" involves any kind of blue screen or automatic reboot, then it's possibly some other hardware piece that's freaking Windows out.
Click to expand...

Yeah, just shuts off, no blue screen or anything like that. I'm pretty sure it's just the power supply but a motherboard issue would not surprise me given the age. May be time to upgrade that and just swap out my recently purchased parts if the power supply is not the issue.
 
HeltonCreek said:
Yeah, just shuts off, no blue screen or anything like that. I'm pretty sure it's just the power supply but a motherboard issue would not surprise me given the age. May be time to upgrade that and just swap out my recently purchased parts if the power supply is not the issue.
Click to expand...

Is there any fan motion at startup? That is a pretty good indicator of a dead power supply. If there is power being delivered to the fans, it could possibly be the motherboard.
 
TWDeac said:
Yeah, I can build a Core i7 based desktop with 16gb of ram, a 256gb SSD, 2TB 7200 HDD and Geforce GTX 5800 3gb for around $2,500. That includes a new case, a new mouse and new keyboard.

That leaves me a lot of extra wiggle room. Especially because it will be 6 months until I am actually ready to buy anything.
Click to expand...

Waste of money if all you are doing is gaming. The i7 is 0% more powerful than the i5 sandy bridge for gaming because games don't take advantage of the hyperthreading. Unless you are feeling quite rich and just want to benchmark, you should just go with a build similar to what dot com posted with a better video card. I have almost his exact setup except the gtx 460 and 16gb ram and I can run all games on ultra graphics with 0 lag. All for about $900
 
OliveGardenDeac said:
Waste of money if all you are doing is gaming. The i7 is 0% more powerful than the i5 sandy bridge for gaming because games don't take advantage of the hyperthreading. Unless you are feeling quite rich and just want to benchmark, you should just go with a build similar to what dot com posted with a better video card. I have almost his exact setup except the gtx 460 and 16gb ram and I can run all games on ultra graphics with 0 lag. All for about $900
Click to expand...

It will be for other things as well. I plan on doing a bunch of media related stuff. It is $100 more than the i5 I'd get. Not really that big of a deal.
 
This is all a moot point at this time anyway because there are some big updates on the way in the next 6 months. I was just curious as to what you could get in the extreme high-end currently.
 
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