Why did you build a PC?

[Mark Kaine]

On 4/6/2024 at 10:12 AM, Eigenvektor said:

Finding a pre-built that contains exactly what I want will take a ton of time.

 

On 4/6/2024 at 11:14 AM, filpo said:

Prebuilts are rarely a good option, DIY is more fulfilling imo and you get much better value 

 

my friend bought a pre-built with an 11700f a 3070 dual channel 16gigs nvme drive for 1200 bucks, when a 3070 alone would have cost 1200 bucks at the time so i call bs on better value and sure you can choose parts but you gonna pay out of your nose for that privilege. 

 

pc is still going strong after 2-3 years btw, never had an issue either.  

[Eigenvektor]

1 hour ago, Mark Kaine said:

my friend bought a pre-built with an 11700f a 3070 dual channel 16gigs nvme drive for 1200 bucks, when a 3070 alone would have cost 1200 bucks at the time so i call bs on better value and sure you can choose parts but you gonna pay out of your nose for that privilege.

Yeah, a pre-built can often be cheaper. That was especially true during the pandemic/crypto boom when GPU prices went to the moon. But the premium you pay for DIY isn't usually that much higher.

[Mark Kaine]

5 hours ago, Eigenvektor said:

Yeah, a pre-built can often be cheaper. That was especially true during the pandemic/crypto boom when GPU prices went to the moon. But the premium you pay for DIY isn't usually that much higher.

yeah i was just saying it can actually be a good value option, granted if you can find one!

 

(there was a gn review and it was basically perfect and that's what we got then just even cheaper, like $200 off, don't remember the name *not* skytech, maybe chronos, was something newegg exclusive perhaps...)

[filpo]

3 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

maybe chronos

sounds like one of Origin PC's offerings, but the SFF version. Weird that that's good value since origin pc is normally overpriced 

[Mark Kaine]

33 minutes ago, filpo said:

sounds like one of Origin PC's offerings, but the SFF version. Weird that that's good value since origin pc is normally overpriced 

nah that's the thing they were all around 1000-1500, even with a 3080 iirc, which at that point was incredibly cheap.  and apparently good build quality. 

 

can't find the gn video... there are tons but not the right one strangely. 

[Mark Kaine]

36 minutes ago, filpo said:

sounds like one of Origin PC's offerings, but the SFF version. Weird that that's good value since origin pc is normally overpriced 

probably was this..

abs

 

i mean for that price?? looks really good imo! i don't think you could diy that at this price? 

 

 

ps: his isn't a lenovo... all standard parts  Gigabyte board/gpu, etc.

 

[filpo]

6 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

probably was this..

abs

 

i mean for that price?? looks really good imo! i don't think you could diy that at this price? 

 

 

ps: his isn't a lenovo... all standard parts  Gigabyte board/gpu, etc.

 

What are the specs? Is it a 4070? It only has one stick of ram and that cooler doesn't look amazing

if it is a 4070...

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE ARGB 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($35.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: MSI B650 GAMING PLUS WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard  ($169.00 @ MSI) 
Memory: *Silicon Power Value Gaming 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  ($94.97 @ Amazon) 
Storage: ADATA Legend 800 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($63.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: Asus DUAL OC GeForce RTX 4070 12 GB Video Card  ($539.00 @ Amazon) 
Case: Montech AIR 903 BASE ATX Mid Tower Case  ($65.00 @ B&H) 
Power Supply: MSI MAG A850GL PCIE5 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($89.00 @ MSI) 
Custom: 7500F ($128.00)
Total: $1184.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-04-08 08:04 EDT-0400

 

if you spend a bit more you can add some P12 ARGBs

[Mark Kaine]

1 hour ago, filpo said:

What are the specs? Is it a 4070? It only has one stick of ram and that cooler doesn't look amazing

if it is a 4070...

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE ARGB 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($35.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: MSI B650 GAMING PLUS WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard  ($169.00 @ MSI) 
Memory: *Silicon Power Value Gaming 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  ($94.97 @ Amazon) 
Storage: ADATA Legend 800 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($63.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: Asus DUAL OC GeForce RTX 4070 12 GB Video Card  ($539.00 @ Amazon) 
Case: Montech AIR 903 BASE ATX Mid Tower Case  ($65.00 @ B&H) 
Power Supply: MSI MAG A850GL PCIE5 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($89.00 @ MSI) 
Custom: 7500F ($128.00)
Total: $1184.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-04-08 08:04 EDT-0400

 

if you spend a bit more you can add some P12 ARGBs

yeah... but isnt this lacking a cpu?

[filpo]

13 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

yeah... but isnt this lacking a cpu?

 

1 hour ago, filpo said:

Custom: 7500F ($128.00)

click on the pcpartpicker link, then click on the 7500f name and copy that link into the search bar and you'll see it

[GarlicDeliverySystem]

On 4/6/2024 at 9:04 AM, okkee said:

And so, for that type of money, what's the reasoning behind it? As an aside, would you recommend building a pc over just getting a console? 

It is a hobby, not only the gaming aspect but also building it and tinkering with it.

 

Leaving any professional or job-related uses of a PC aside, there are still quite a bit of things PCs can do that consoles can't. Modding games, running older games (which are also pretty cheap, most of the time) and consuming content/social media with more flexibility of a proper browser. Teaching yourself things like programming can also be much better on a PC.

 

Now, I could get a console for gaming and a laptop for the other stuff. It would have some advantages, such as portability and my gaming system being independent. But it would also mean more costs than getting one system that can do both.

 

The question of getting a PC over a console is not an easy one, at least in my opinion:

• In a contest console vs tower the console should win most of the time, simply because the hardware is subsidized to get you into the ecosystem and make money on the sale of games/subscriptions.
• This gets even worse when you have to not only buy the tower, but also the monitor and peripherals; maybe you even need an extra desk and chair?
• Things change though when you consider starting from scratch on both, and you otherwise don't need a TV (i.e. consume most/all content on a laptop or monitor anyway already). Then you need to factor in buying a TV as well. Granted, this scenario is not very likely, but I know first hand that it does happen.

So the question is really whether you want to "just game" or have any other uses for a PC or the peripherals (i.e. connect a work laptop). If you already have a TV or plan on getting one and just want to play some games on your couch, then just get a console.

 

[Drvulcanlord]

I built a PC from free or scavenged parts because I didn't have enough money to buy a console at the time and wanted to play video games. 

[thevictor390]

It's the freedom. I had old cobbled together PCs as a kid and still there was so much you can do with one that you couldn't on a console (especially back then). Abandoned old games, emulators, freeware, if it fit on my Pentium II's 10 GB hard drive I probably tried it.

[wasab]

 

On 4/6/2024 at 12:04 AM, okkee said:

I think it's been debated to death already but just wanted to guage your temp on this question. PC mag regularly bills a budget build at about a thousand pounds. And so, for that type of money, what's the reasoning behind it? As an aside, would you recommend building a pc over just getting a console? 

counter question, why a console when you can get a cloud gaming subscription that allows you to game for 5 years for less than the cost of a console that you need to upgrade every 5 years on average? 

[atxcyclist]

Back in 1994 when I was still in elementary school, I really wanted to be able to do school work and learn computing on my own machine, so I pieced-together an IBM XT from pieces in a relative’s basement. I enjoyed it so much I’ve been doing it ever since.

[it_dont_work]

seemed like a good idea at the time 

[silenttwalker]

you can get deals on individual parts you won't get in a build, eg my first build gave free RAM with every board and at the time RAM was unbelievably expensive, way more than a board cost.

 

My current and last build, well one part every month until I had a PC that worked and could add more to later or save for that one big buy that ends up with the risk of no money saved as a home crisis swallows all the saved so far cash.

 

Guess saying its easy to build a PC and I'm male isn't a reason in a woke world?

[jimm_eh]

I like being my own tech support, configurator and sysadmin. Even if I'm not particularly skilled at any of those tasks, when there is a problem I'm always on call and my availability is 100%.  And the service warranty never expires. 

I also couldn't do Houdini/Redshift on a console. 85% of my builds are work machines. Before the game box I built in January, the prior box was assembled in 2012 from parts on super sale as posted on slickdeals (which was *the* place for deal alerts in 2012).

I've only had my own builds since 1988, with one exception - a 1996 Pentium Pro built by a friend for a screaming good deal.

[Kisai]

On 4/6/2024 at 12:04 AM, okkee said:

I think it's been debated to death already but just wanted to guage your temp on this question. PC mag regularly bills a budget build at about a thousand pounds. And so, for that type of money, what's the reasoning behind it? As an aside, would you recommend building a pc over just getting a console? 

The underlying reason why people build their own PC, is because pre-built systems often scimp somewhere (usually the power supply, or chassis fans) that results in it being loud, or scimp on the performance parts (like the above with the WD Blue and no chassis fans.)

 

Usually a "pre-built" system is fine if you "just need" a computer when you don't have one, but techy people will usually build a mid or a full tower to fit all the stuff they want to use. Like you may not believe it, but chassis that came out before the GTX 1080, won't fit a GTX 1080, and before the Nvidia 30 series, few chassis and motherboards would fit 30-series GPU's because they require 3 consecutive slots spaces.

 

Many chassis are so cheap that they vibrate and rattle when the fans spin up, and there are also many materials, aluminum, steel, plastic, and glass. 

 

Like for me, I wound up buying a $350 chassis because I want a quiet chassis, and the past three chassis I've had either rattle, or I had to modify (bloody 3.5" drive trays) so they would actually fit the drives. The current mid tower chassis I have, I had to cut the center plastic nub off because none of the 7200RPM drives would fit in it. 

 

 

[aggie113]

Because my dad brought home a Compaq Portable II from the office and showed me it had games "installed" on it.  Been into computers since then...