Home Built Computers
 

Stealing some mojo from another thread, I was curious as to who here has built theiir own computer? If you do, would you mind sharing what hardware/software you're using and what you primarily use the computer for (gaming, home office, etc)?

Also, links would be greatly appreciated to the hardware parts, but if you're too lazy, it's all good. I'm going to start building my own system, and I'm looking for some advice.

Thanks in advance.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fea..._rig_under_700

Edit: Good starting point for a budget gaming PC. I'd get a better case, though. Probably a better hard drive (WD Black). You could also step it up to an intel i5 for not much more. The motherboard limits expansion too.

I order everything from newegg.com.

This. Also I buy stuff from Fry's. I've noticed that the stuff is usually the same price except for tax. Sometimes when I want something now I'll go to Fry's. What works extremely well is getting the newegg app and cruising around frys and checking out the reviews as you shop.

If there is any one thing you should know, it's this:

ALWAYS READ THE REVIEWS ON NEWEGG! ALWAYS! It's probably THE best place there is to find out how good or reliable something is.

From my post in the other thread:

It ended up at about $600, but I re-used some stuff from my first machine.


AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition

ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3

CORSAIR XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3

COOLER MASTER HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP Black Steel + Plastic and Mesh Bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Corsair Force CSSD-F120GB2-BRKT 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive

Plus I already had this stuff:

Hauppauge Colossus HD Video Capture Card

Thermaltake TR2 RX 750W Power Supply

XFX Radeon HD 5850

2x 160 GB Western Digital 7200 rpm HD in Raid 0
1 TB Samsung HD for backup
1 cheapo dvd burner

This thing works great. I use it for gaming and TV/movies mostly.


Pros:

• everything runs super smooth
• windows boots in about 10 seconds
• all of my programs load almost instantly, including outlook, excel, and windows media center
• the ssd makes no stupid click click noise like a normal HD
• I love watching and recording HD tv on my computer
• the case is awesome and keeps everything super cool
• no matter what I do, I can't seem to get the CPU utilization up to 100%
• multitasking like crazy. I can run WMC and play a netflix instant movie streamed onto my big TV in the living room while playing BF2 on my monitor
• six cores + ample overclocking room + good mobo + crossfire capable = somewhat future proof
• this system is very overclockable
• anything else you can think of

Cons:

• I had to pay for it?
• it won't make me a pizza and bring me some beer
• I don't have a blu ray burner yet so I can't copy my netflix movies...yet
• it's not quite up to the top end Intel i7 speeds, but you can't beat the price to performance ratio of the 1090T
• BF2 loads so fast that the server kicks me on every map change due to an erroneous "modified content" error. Then I have to go back and rejoin and I'm still one of the first ones in.

How necessary is this? Would I be fine for gaming purposes with just the quad?

See I differ now. I used to build my own. Now I just new late model desktops that I know I can upgrade memory and graphic card. I just use it for internet and bf3 and the new starwars game.

Should be able to get a 8gig memory and 2gig pc done for under 700 from wjat I have seen with prices out there.

Yeah, six cores is overkill for right now as I can't name any single programs that can use all 6 cores at once. However, it does help for the future AND it is rather helpful in multitasking.

The thing that I think has made the most difference is the SSD. I put my OS and commonly used programs (MS Office, Firefox, BF2, Steam) on the SSD, then my other stuff and music and video files on my RAID.

Asus P5K Mobo
Intel Q6600 Quad core
two Western Digital [300GB, 160GB] and one Maxtor [240GB] internal hard drives, as well at a MyBook external [1 TB]
Invidia GeForce 9600 GT
ATI HD Wonder HDTV Tuner
LiteOn LH-20A1S DVD reader/writer
Rocketfish BTCombo Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse
Envision G19LWk 19 inch widescreen monitor
2 GB Corsair RAM

Also dedicate a 4GB USB drive to ReadyBoost

Use the computer for;
Internet Access
Home Theater/Media Management [Window 7 Ultimate, specifically Windows Media Center is awesome for that]
Engineering computation [AutoCAD, Matlab, PSpice, Electrc, ModelSim, MathCAD, FilterPro, etc]

One of the coolest instance of letting my PC feel its oats is to use Xilisoft Video Converter. Uses all 4 cores at full speed, and can convert an 8 GB .wtv show into Ipod friendly format in like 4 minutes.

I've built every desktop computer i've own(for immediate family too) for the last 20+ years. It's not hard, you just have to educate yourself on the current hardware specs and find the 'sweet spot' that fits your budget. Usually i look for the biggest,baddest hardware out there and then take a step or two down.

good forum to read about the best hardware etc: http://hardforum.com/

ReadyBoost? lol

Depends on what you want. Just want a capable machine for doing some web surfing, some Flash games, watching some Youtube or Netflix? You can build that with off-the-shelf parts at Microcenter for $215 (no monitor, keyboard, mouse).

Contrary to other posters I don't like to buy my parts online. If something isn't working I don't want to have to pay to ship it back and Microcenter's prices are generally within 5% of the reputable online dealers.

:spock:

It cost me all of a 100 yard walk from Trader Joe's to MicroCenter with my free USB drive coupon.