Questions to Ask Yourself.

[TheSlamProgram]

Out of curiosity:

What are some of the questions you ask yourself when you start looking at a new computer for you or a friend?

 

I've only built three computers in my lifetime, and I've only put one together for a friend once. I just so happened to know exactly how he would be using his rig because he had been my best friend for nearly a decade at the time.

I've never assembled a computer for someone that I didn't know exactly what their use case would be before, and people have lately been asking if I would be willing to build their next computer for them. 

 

I'm curious to know what everyone's thought process is when trying to put together a new rig, especially when it's for someone else. What kind of questions do you recommend asking someone before selecting the parts that you'll be putting into a new rig?

 

Some more obvious ones I've thought of so far:

• What's your budget?
• Are you comfortable buying used parts to stay under budget?
• Will you be playing a lot of games?
• Do you like to multitask on your PC?
• What do you want the PC to look like?

 

I'd love to know if everyone has any other questions they would ask before putting together a new build!

[Aytex]

Whats your budget

Air cooling or water cooling

color scheme

which cpu

which gpu

lets check pricing on the new pc parts

research benchmarks

then more benchmarks

then research the technology behind it

eat

sleep

die

repeat

_{its 4 am in the morning i should go pass out}

[Tech_Dreamer]

For me i kinda ask these to myself before building a budget PC

• What performance does he need on his PC a year from now
• is he/she being too restrictive spending on certain components thinking it's too expensive
• Will the extra port/feature will be used by him/her
• what will he/she ask me to get for him in the next 6 months or in about a year
• what do they know  & what do they don't know & what are the things they were lead to believe that is right for them
• will they be happy with spending an extra to a component
• what are their absolute budget  limit ,beyond what they're uncomfortable
• How do you see it in your mind (small/big/flashy/quiet/moderate etc )

Those are some of the things i ask myself & a few to them before i lay a ground plan on the build & connect the dots to their liking but tighten it up to my perf standards & look

[Mark77]

* what can you re-use (ie: mouse, keyboard, LCDs, etc.)

* what are your future plans (ie: is this a machine you'll only use for a couple years, do you want it to last longer)?

* do you want 'proven' hardware and software, or are you willing to go with the newer stuff even if it has some shorter-term problems?

* who is going to be maintaining/servicing it if things go wrong?

*  how much will it be running?  Are electricity costs or air conditioning an issue?

*  whats your tolerance for data loss or down-time?  Should we be selecting redundant components throughout?

*  what sort of upgrade path is required in terms of CPU and storage for the applications in question?

*  what sort of networking does it need?

[FanBlade]

Can you buy used

Your use case

Pricing/availability 

How much storage do you need

Budget

Any form factor you need

Does your mom know your getting a pc

What can you reuse