Build Philosophy

[8tg]

I want to know what your general philosophy on pc building is, because it seems to vary a lot from person to person, what is the goal is and what influences part choices for you?

 

For me I see a custom assembled PC as more of a long term thing, I think that regardless of budget you should omit the high end core components for lower tier ones and instead spend that money on a platform which is better for upgrades in the long run.

What I mean by this is let’s say you can afford an i7 10700k and an RTX 3080, but in doing so you end up with a 212 evo or other 120mm tower cooler, a smaller ssd and an acceptable but not great motherboard, case or power supply.

Long term a larger upgrade would involve a better psu, maybe a better cooler, you might need to add more storage space or have trouble working in the case you chose.

My philosophy on the matter is to drop your core components and spend money on better components for the rest of the system. Get an i5 10600k, or even the i3 10100, get an RTX 2060 or a used 1080ti. Spend the rest on a really nice case, high efficiency power supply and something like a dark rock pro 4, get the best motherboard you can, get a big nvme ssd if not two or more.

Then when you go to upgrade you toss in that 10700k, RTX 3080/3090 or whatever is in the future, and then you have a system which is overall very high end rather than great core components on a mediocre build otherwise.

 

I know the general view is price to performance, which a lot of people use generally when recommending to others because most universally people want to save money and get the most they can performance wise out of a system. But in my eyes you have to look at what you can work with, with minimal compromises, to get an overall better system, not just a better performer.

Silent fans, a passive psu, lots of upgradability has more value to me.

Cyberpunk 2077 will run on current 2c/4t processors and a gtx 1060 without issue, can you live without 4K or ray tracing in exchange for a silent, cool and easy to work with build over the long term?

 

My other one is that if you’re on a budget, never buy new low end. If you have 500$ yeah you can buy an Athlon 200ge or whatever but dont, buy an old office pc and upgrade it a little. A haswell i7 optiplex doesn’t cost much and will be a much better budget system.

[Radium_Angel]

11 minutes ago, 8tg said:

budget system.

For me, it's stability over performance/bling any day.

RGB is the Devil's lightshow.

Dual Xeons or nothing.

ECC RAM only

 

Last gen (or older) saves money, especially since I"m not a gamer.

 

[charlie_root]

I care more about quality than performance, so I tend towards server components, like Xeon boards/CPUs, ECC RAM, enterprise drives, RAID 1 for OS volumes, etc.

 

Though I just bought a prebuilt that has none of those things because these days I just don't have the energy to build a PC.

[ProjectBox153]

I get whatever fits my needs in the performance and quality departments and mostly ignore the looks. That's why I use old workstation machines and office machines for most things. 

[Speedbird]

When building systems for others, I generally aim for price to performance. Most don't care about what their case looks like or don't intend to overclock, so I can save a lot on a case and motherboard. For power supplies I get one from a reputable brand, but don't really go high on the tier. No one has had parts fail so far. With this methodology I was able to upgrade a friend's build from an i5 to an i7, with almost no change in price.

 

As for storage, you can always expand that later, as with RAM. I don't put 32GB RAM in a system "in case they need it in the future", because they can always add more. Same with storage, I see no point getting a 2TB SSD for example if you currently only use 500GB or so, just get a 1TB one now and upgrade if needed.

[thrasher_565]

so price to performance will take alot of time looking for the best deals. most cant wait so they pay more. never buy the new stuff its cost the most with the new tax. used is the best way to go athow these days new stuff can sell for the same price or even more...so its confusing. max in socket is going to have the collector tax regardless of its performance

 

now the case it self is fore looks and proformace depending on what you like. if you dont care about the case then any case will work and can mod it for good air flow or hell make a test bench.

 

if you go big on the cpu cooler and get a good brand like nutua they i think will give you free socket upgrades for it if it can fit that is so $150 cooler can last a few sockets. but you can save a bit and get good profmace too.

 

if your a cheap ass and dont play multiplayer then you can buy old stuff for cheap and buy games when there %75 off steam. you might be a decade behind but you spend like $100 and full pc upgrade. who says pc gaming has to me expensive?  and gtx 580 can still game it can even play cryses...just saying.

 

looking at builds on here makes me what to buy upgrades...ya i hate lltforms...im poor

Edited January 4, 2021 by thrasher_565

[Guest]

It can be built for cheap, takes very little time and runs well. 

 

Lucky I got into pc gaming at a time where you didn't need the latest and greatest to have any fun. 

I only use new stuff because well... Why bother with old tech when new tech is being updated. 

Not to say a pc that's 15 years old is immediately garbage, but if I'm configuring a new computer, might as well use new parts. 

[PriitM]

You dont need a tempered glass side panel, RGB, CD drive. You dont even need an internal platter HDD anymore. 

 

Lots of surface area for CPU-GPU coolers. M.2 SSD motherboard. Case without the CD/HDD rack. External 2-4 TB HDD drive. 

 

2-3 fans for intake, 1 for exhaust.

 

Dont cheap out on power supply or power delivery components. Newer CPUs/GPUs have nasty voltage/current spikes (most notably with GPUs)

 

Personally, I designed a plywood case from scratch to offer overkill cooling capacity with minimum noise (relative). Currently designing rev.3 of it for the upgrade to RX 6800 XT. Not that rev.2 is bad, just the newer hardware requires a different approach to cooling. 

[Harrison D]

On 1/3/2021 at 8:25 PM, 8tg said:

I want to know what your general philosophy on pc building is, because it seems to vary a lot from person to person, what is the goal is and what influences part choices for you?

 

For me I see a custom assembled PC as more of a long term thing, I think that regardless of budget you should omit the high end core components for lower tier ones and instead spend that money on a platform which is better for upgrades in the long run.

What I mean by this is let’s say you can afford an i7 10700k and an RTX 3080, but in doing so you end up with a 212 evo or other 120mm tower cooler, a smaller ssd and an acceptable but not great motherboard, case or power supply.

Long term a larger upgrade would involve a better psu, maybe a better cooler, you might need to add more storage space or have trouble working in the case you chose.

My philosophy on the matter is to drop your core components and spend money on better components for the rest of the system. Get an i5 10600k, or even the i3 10100, get an RTX 2060 or a used 1080ti. Spend the rest on a really nice case, high efficiency power supply and something like a dark rock pro 4, get the best motherboard you can, get a big nvme ssd if not two or more.

Then when you go to upgrade you toss in that 10700k, RTX 3080/3090 or whatever is in the future, and then you have a system which is overall very high end rather than great core components on a mediocre build otherwise.

 

I know the general view is price to performance, which a lot of people use generally when recommending to others because most universally people want to save money and get the most they can performance wise out of a system. But in my eyes you have to look at what you can work with, with minimal compromises, to get an overall better system, not just a better performer.

Silent fans, a passive psu, lots of upgradability has more value to me.

Cyberpunk 2077 will run on current 2c/4t processors and a gtx 1060 without issue, can you live without 4K or ray tracing in exchange for a silent, cool and easy to work with build over the long term?

 

My other one is that if you’re on a budget, never buy new low end. If you have 500$ yeah you can buy an Athlon 200ge or whatever but dont, buy an old office pc and upgrade it a little. A haswell i7 optiplex doesn’t cost much and will be a much better budget system.

Definitely budget but upgradability was a huge factor as well. Getting a motherboard that supports multiple (future) generations of CPUs, quad channel memory (4 RAM slots) M.2 support (heckin fast hard drives mounted directly to the MB), etc. Most besides that, most components can be easily upgraded or replaced down the line. For example if you start with two RAM sticks, you can simply add two more down the line. Graphics cards are easy, and with time and research so is the CPU.

Happy Building!

[WaggishOhio383]

On 1/4/2021 at 3:19 AM, PriitM said:

You dont need a tempered glass side panel, RGB, CD drive.

Sure you don't need a glass side panel, but if you have a large enough budget in your build to care what it looks like, you can probably afford the little bit extra to get it. It's just an aesthetic choice that some people really like. Same goes for RGB, which I don't get why people think is so expensive. I priced out my whole build using equivalent parts with and without RGB, and it only cost me $20 extra to get RGB in my PC, which is a small amount in a $1000 build. The only thing that can get expensive are RGB case fans, which I upgraded to later.

 

CD/DVD drive also depends on what you use a PC for. There are still many people for whom a DVD drive is an essential item in their PC. And plugging in an external drive whenever you need one can be a pain.

[freeagent]

Its easy to become snobby about your pc when you throw a ton of cash at it.

 

It really depends on your needs. If you need something to surf, and do internet stuff, you don't need to spend a ton.

 

You set out a budget and work with it. If money isn't a concern, then you just buy what you want.

 

In the end its just a hobby.. How far you want to take it depends on your wallet, like every other hobby.

[LloydLynx]

I like to stick to enterprise equipment because of the reliability. I have an Optiplex for a desktop, and a Thinkpad for a laptop. Anything past 4th gen Intel makes me a bit uncomfortable. It was the last gen to have socketed mobile CPUs and not require firmware blobs on Linux.

[whm1974]

Build to last. You may not have the money when it is time to upgrade.

[RaddedMC]

Honestly, if you don't go for the highest refresh rates and resolutions, you can save a lot of money with components.

Although my rig is six years old, it still runs numerous games at mostly high settings at 1080p60. A card like a GTX1660/ti is probably honestly going to run almost everything if all you care about is 1080p60. As for a cpu I'd mostly focus on cores and overclocking as I do a lot of video work and have an AIO.

[NineEyeRon]

Airflow, neat, hidden.

 

I just need an on button, monitor and other peripherals. 
 

The less I see of my actual PC the better.

[kaiju_wars]

It used to be something that performed good but still looked decent.  Now it's performance all the way, in a sense.  

I save money where I can, but still get decent components.  Do I need a 1000W PSU that's 80+ Gold?  No, I'll step down, still a good PSU, but one I'm not overpaying on.

Do I need a 1TB SSD?  No, it'd be nice, but a 500GB SSD will do me fine.

Do I need the latest Ryzen 9, or can I step down to a Ryzen 7, or maybe even last gen ryzen?

I'll get a decent motherboard, not the best thing on the market, but I'll get the best, probably mid range, motherboard I can.

Get the best looking case with decent airflow in my budget.  I don't want an ugly POS that's difficult to work in.

Then I spend whatever is left of my budget on the GPU.

[dizmo]

I build it as "cheap" as I can, from 1 generation old used parts.

I find going to a site and picking parts rather boring. It's much more exciting to hunt for deals, and see what kind of rig I can build that way.

Generally, I either buy bulk lots of products, sell the rest and keep one for myself, or buy entire PCs for a single component, then part out the rest.

It usually results in a near-free PC, or one that's actually made me money to build.

 

Granted, with recent releases it'll be a bit tougher to get the same value, but that just makes it a bit more challenging

 

A few things about your build philosophy confuse me:

• When it comes to coolers, why not just save a little more? Coolers, in the grand scheme of a build, are cheap. If you're buying an i7 and a 3080, and you can't afford an extra $60 for a proper cooler, you can't really afford the build.
• I get spending more on the case, but why on earth would you buy a high end motherboard? Motherboards are one of the few things that you can save money on, as the higher end ones don't really add anything but features. A low-mid tier motherboard will generally do just as well as a super high end one.
• PSU efficiency doesn't really matter unless you're paying obscene amounts for power. The couple percent difference will save you pennies.