Where people overspend/underspend on computer setup

[Yoinkerman]

A lot of people overspend on a mobo and CPU thinking spending $350 each on a CPU, mono, GPU is a good balance

[Hiitchy]

I accidentally spent over $250 on RGB... 

[porina]

5 hours ago, Almostbauws said:

8 gigs is unusable nowadays. Rainbow 6 siege is an example, and if you do any video editing 16 is a must. Also the ram usage gets higher every year.

I did say for a budget build. I'm not familiar with that game, if appropriate settings to the hardware level are used how bad is it? Video editing, it's not like every video editing software package will turn its nose up at 8GB. Some may be more demanding than others, but again it is down to realistic expectations.

 

BTW I have multiple systems that are on 8GB simply as I couldn't build them with less. I'd go 4GB if I could, but the software needs dual channel and they don't make 2GB DDR4 modules  

[Guest]

I buy a Mac so I never overspend. 

[Guest]

Just now, RorzNZ said:

I buy a Mac so I never overspend. 

You never underspend either.

[Guest]

5 hours ago, Ms Mercedes - Trijet Girl said:

I mean, if you really don’t care about the highest resolutions or most crisp displays, there’s nothing wrong with using an old monitor or tv. It’s always something you can upgrade later when you feel like it.

 

 I’m using a 32-inch 720p tv that I bought in 2009. I’m more than satisfied for now.

With 50 smart cars what are you overspending on?

[Murasaki]

It really varies when the wallet is shallow. You either skimp out on x or y or z. Sometimes the extra need for one component over the other plays a role too.

To have a small school desk with a dell monitor from the 2000s yet its littered with razer products is an example ive seen

 

[Mr.Meerkat]

8 hours ago, minervx said:

High-end cooling for marginal performance boosts.

How about for a cool n quiet running system and not for performance? My computer is in my room and I can have my 1700+Fury running at full whack and still be able to sleep fine as it is rather silent (I'm someone who wakes up from the slightest change of ambient sounds or if a somwhat loud noise goes off). 

Okay, I will have to change my fan profiles as currently I have the fan curve set up in a way that both my CPU and GPU does not go over 50C however if I raised it to 65C, I can have an almost completely silent system.

[Ms Mercedes - Trijet Girl]

4 hours ago, RorzNZ said:

With 50 smart cars what are you overspending on?

Bras and dresses.

[TheRandomness]

Overspend: Literally everything
Underspend: PSU.

[Andreas Lilja]

> ram. 

[SupaKomputa]

16 hours ago, thegreengamers said:

I did video editing on a Core 2 Quad machine with 8GB of RAM, and it worked perfectly...

Yes, pc from core 2 duo era and beyond will do everything.

Just slower, no problem...

[SupaKomputa]

Just as i see in this forum most overspend on PSU.

Thinking that a good pc must have a BIG PSU.

What i see and observe that you don't need more than 500 watt for the top of the line setup.

CPU and GPU have been very power efficient nowadays.

Gone the days that a GPU requires 250-300 watt alone.

Thats is Titan XP zone, if you can afford one.

[Spotty]

15 hours ago, Mutoh said:

I'd say power supplies. A lot of people are getting 850w or 1000w power supplies when their rigs simply don't need it. 

I'd add that there are also people who underspend on power supplies as well. People who may use some trash-tier power supply that comes bundled with their $39 case.

RGB is one that people definitely over spend on, especially now with almost everything having RGB variants which can be significantly more expensive than their non-RGB variant.


 

 

2 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

Gone the days that a GPU requires 250-300 watt alone.

You're joking, right? Under load GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 is around 300W and AMD Vega 64 is over 400W.

[handymanshandle]

20 hours ago, minervx said:

I have no right in determining how other people should spend their money, so I'll base this mostly on personal experience and general observation.

 

People tend to overspend on:
"Gaming"-branded accessories.
High-end cooling for marginal performance boosts.
A workstation CPU for gaming

More RAM than they use.

I'd say case is something a lot of people over spend on, and generally aesthetics.
I'd know because I used to really concern myself with aesthetics. I mean it's not wrong, I just don't think that if money might be an issue that you should't worry about the aesthetic as much and get more computer for your buck over more cosmetic stuff.

 

As far as workstation CPU, I'm guessing you're talking about Threadripper and HEDT and not like Ryzen 7.

Quote

People tend to underspend on:

Monitor; so many people buy $500+ GPU's for pretty games and use a crap monitor from 2009, i don't get it.
Keyboard/mouse.  These are the parts we interact with and use everyday.

Chair.  Comfort and ergonomic support greatly enhance the overall experience.

I'm running a 39" Westinghouse TV from 2013 (1080p "120hz") with an RX 470.

But I agree monitors are often underlooked

 

Yep. I paid $100 for my Logitech G610 with MX Browns and that is one purchase I am glad of.
I wished I would've spent a little more to get the K70 RGB with MX Browns, and I might eventually get one. I dunno. and while I need to RMA my m65 Pro RGB for a scroll wheel issue, it was worth the $60 or so I paid for it because a shitty m325 is shitty. Go figures, a $20 wireless mouse sucks. I mean it's logitech so it's not like bad or anything it's just not great for more than just web browsing.

 

Chair... Honestly that one is subjective. I'm using a kitchen style chair that's entirely padded and it works just fine. Although a better chair would be fine.

So I agree with that point....

 

Adding to what I think people spend too much on too little on:

Proper high quality power supplies (both too much and too little) -- You have people who will buy absolutely shitty cheap Chinese knock off PSUs for decent parts sometimes and you have people who buy like far larger PSUs for systems that maybe draw 200-300 watts.
 

As mentioned earlier, Cases... People spend way too much on those a lot of times.

 

Motherboards. If I would've known I wasn't going to put more than an i3 6100 in my Z170 board, I would've gotten a H110/H170 board. But I thought I was going to stay with Intel, and I'm sure people might still wonder why I didn't stay with Intel and my H440 and it's simple my needs changed. I wanted something smaller and Ryzen is a better value proposition. Considering the cost of an R7 1700 and a decent B350 board. It's almost the same price as just an i7 6700K or i7 7700K, and since I wanted to shrink my footprint. It made the most sense. I don't fully leverage the full capacity of my R7 1700 yet. But the headroom is there for me to do so, and that's the largest part.

 

Footnote: I got my R7 1700 for $236 after tax at Micro Center and my B350 TUF for $68.99 after tax/shipping at Newegg. I purchased the mobo late November and the CPU late December.

 

[tatte]

My most recurring target for underspending has been the GPU, I guess I never learn. From the 7600GS to 8500GT, pair of GTX 460s that I later upgraded with a pair of GTX 660 Tis, while the 660s were a superb upgrade from the 460s, they only served to heighten the hunger and were soon replaced by a 1070 (which in turn is a whole another story in terms of "was it a smart buy").

 

On the overspending side my shame is keyboards. Deep down inside my head, there's a voice nagging "switches make the keyboard, everything else is meaningless". I paid over 200€ for my Das Keyboard, and while I love the it, I probably overpaid for it. The same applies to the SteelSeries G6v2, while it's nice to have a keyboard strong enough to brutalise someone, it especially is just a board with standard switches and no extra features. Without RGB and custom keys, what really justifies an expensive mechanical keyboard?

 

Where I'd advice people not to underspend would be headphones. Every extra ounce of quality in every aspect of the headset makes a difference. Don't touch any headphones Sony makes, they won't last.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Spotty said:

 

You're joking, right? Under load GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 is around 300W and AMD Vega 64 is over 400W.

I hope you realize that the graph is the total system power draw, including cpu etc. 1070 is a 150watts card.

[Vacras]

Power supplies are often neglected.

people tend to underspend on them or rather “missspend” (is that a thing?). They get a 50$ 800w cheapo PSU, which is overkill for their system, instead of spending 50$ on a decent 450-500w unit.

 

Because more powwaaa right? 

[Canada EH]

Cheap out on - The cheapest case there is, $20!

Spend more money on - #1 is CPU, #2 is either Mobo or Ram then #3 is storage

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

RGB LEDS, the ricer parts equivalent for PCs.

[Xander Cousins]

@r3loAded love the plant on the Pc  

[r3loAded]

49 minutes ago, Alex Colson said:

@r3loAded love the plant on the Pc  

It's natural. I need to change the pot and soil today

[BisquTz]

On ‎24‎/‎02‎/‎2018 at 2:23 PM, Almostbauws said:

8 gigs is unusable nowadays. Rainbow 6 siege is an example, and if you do any video editing 16 is a must. Also the ram usage gets higher every year.

I play rainbow six siege with an Athlon x4 760k, radeon r7 260 and 8gb ram, albeit not high rez 60fps but I get low graphics 55 fps, and that's totally fine for me

[Tim_S]

Well every computer I have built I over spend on everything. I go all out and get the best of everything I can get. Been doing that since the 90's. I over do it everytime.