[Poll]How do you select computer components for a build?

[Trik'Stari]

So, I've got a build coming up soon. It's going to be an expensive one, and I'm just doing some shopping and it got me to thinking.

 

For those of you who build regularly or frequently, how do you select your components? Particularly things like the motherboard. Particularly in regards to quality. What methodology do you use?

 

This question is more about "ensuring you don't get DOA parts, or parts that burn out or break in 3-6 months.", and less about specifications or overall usage requirements.

[ThinkWithPortals]

I use a little bit of everything. I read reviews and select a group of high-quality and well-reviewed parts, then narrow them down to ones that look good to me, then narrow that down to reasonably-priced options, then select one.

[malon]

I am personaly a mix of i buy the cheapest that meet my minimum specs and lots or research, it realy depends on what the build is for and the budget available.

[Joshua Norris]

dont cheap out on the psu, get a mobo from asus, gigabyte, msi, asrockat least 150 dollars etc, dont overclock too heavy, get air cooling for reliability 

[farhanorakzai]

About ensuring that you don't get DOA parts thing, the power supply I have now (AX 860), I bought for the sole purpose of reliability. It is also, coincidentally the only power supply to ever die on me 

[Bouzoo]

I always look what my budget is, then I make a build (in excel, because why not) that should be of higher quality components, not the highest, but around my budget, that I would be happy with. Naturally, the sum is always above my budget, so then I try to pick few different, cheaper components that won't impact the performance a lot, and try to fit that into the budget. If that doesn't work, then it's deciding what Is less important and sacrificing this and that. 

My advice would be to do a build, something that you think would be exactly what you're looking for and you're happy with, see how much it costs, and then decreasing the cost bit by bit until you can afford it, with prioritizing components you deem more important.

[kameshss]

For CPU: I see the client's requirement and then decide on it. If it's like gaming and has a low budget, I'd select an i5. But I always go for the latest gen. For eg: I go for 7th gen now.

For Motherboard: If it's a K CPU, I'd get the cheapest Z series board; mostly from Asus. I'd check the features difference between brands if I had to purchase an expensive one to check if it's worth the extra money. If it's not the K CPU, I'd get a H110, H170 board from Asus or Gigabyte. Because they're cheap most of the time and work very well. If the client has so many USB peripherals to connect, B150/B250 is the next choice.

For GPU: AMD vs Nvidia. Same tier, if it costs cheaper and performs better than other one I'd go for it. Mostly, for Nvidia I'd get the Asus or Zotac card. Gigabyte card is much expensive here. EVGA not available in the local store neither online. If it's there, it's expensive.

For PSU: I go through @STRMfrmXMN PSU whitelist and get the cheapest one with wattage requirement in mind.

[LabRat]

I figure out what tasks i need to do and research a cpu first. then I build around it.

[Trik'Stari]

8 minutes ago, kameshss said:

For CPU: I see the client's requirement and then decide on it. If it's like gaming and has a low budget, I'd select an i5. But I always go for the latest gen. For eg: I go for 7th gen now.

For Motherboard: If it's a K CPU, I'd get the cheapest Z series board; mostly from Asus. I'd check the features difference between brands if I had to purchase an expensive one to check if it's worth the extra money. If it's not the K CPU, I'd get a H110, H170 board from Asus or Gigabyte. Because they're cheap most of the time and work very well. If the client has so many USB peripherals to connect, B150/B250 is the next choice.

For GPU: AMD vs Nvidia. Same tier, if it costs cheaper and performs better than other one I'd go for it. Mostly, for Nvidia I'd get the Asus or Zotac card. Gigabyte card is much expensive here. EVGA not available in the local store neither online. If it's there, it's expensive.

For PSU: I go through @STRMfrmXMN PSU whitelist and get the cheapest one with wattage requirement in mind.

I did not know he had a whitelist. I tried viewing it and nothing shows up.

 

Edit: Found it, bookmarked it.

[Kantor]

I dont tend to do full builds my pc's are generally updated over time i often find the next thing that is slowing me down and upgrade it i sometimes build systems from the accumulated parts i try to read reviews whenever i can i also plan the future out in advance. this has lead to the ad hok addition of drives and ram as i need them as for the cpu if im going to upgrade that ill generally get a new mobo at the same time preferably from megabyte or Asus as for the cpu Intel preferd. if im buying a power supply ill defiantly read the reviews before ill even think of actually buying it. As for DOA parts i have a number of local shops i buy from and have never really had a problem with returns i dont like to order parts because the plases i would order from are close enough to me that ill get them in person so why pay postage. ill order sometimes when i can get a really good deal but not often

[Trik'Stari]

1 hour ago, Kantor said:

I dont tend to do full builds my pc's are generally updated over time i often find the next thing that is slowing me down and upgrade it i sometimes build systems from the accumulated parts i try to read reviews whenever i can i also plan the future out in advance. this has lead to the ad hok addition of drives and ram as i need them as for the cpu if im going to upgrade that ill generally get a new mobo at the same time preferably from megabyte or Asus as for the cpu Intel preferd. if im buying a power supply ill defiantly read the reviews before ill even think of actually buying it. As for DOA parts i have a number of local shops i buy from and have never really had a problem with returns i dont like to order parts because the plases i would order from are close enough to me that ill get them in person so why pay postage. ill order sometimes when i can get a really good deal but not often

You're lucky to have local places to buy from. I have to get everything online. Mostly through Amazon or Newegg (mostly it's been through Newegg though)

[Dash Lambda]

My two primary focuses are quality and performance, but it really is a mixture.

For instance, my AIO coolers are always Corsair, not because everyone agrees that Corsair is the best, but because they perform very well and I'm a bit loyal to the brand (Though I'm looking at the EK Predator).

My motherboard I bought not because it's the best, highest quality option, but because it was the cheapest option that people said was good.

I got the 950 pro over something like the SM951 mostly because of the black PCB.

 

So, yeah, it varies and it's usually somewhere in-between the given answers.

[Prysin]

5 hours ago, Trik'Stari said:

So, I've got a build coming up soon. It's going to be an expensive one, and I'm just doing some shopping and it got me to thinking.

 

For those of you who build regularly or frequently, how do you select your components? Particularly things like the motherboard. Particularly in regards to quality. What methodology do you use?

 

This question is more about "ensuring you don't get DOA parts, or parts that burn out or break in 3-6 months.", and less about specifications or overall usage requirements.

Here's a suggestion for the new build:

VEGA 

FREESYNC 2

And kaby lake cpu,  cuz Ryzen is going to be shit anyway. 

 

Get a 256gb nvme boot drive and 2x 1TB Samsung 850 Pro for games. 

 

For psu get a EVGA 650w G3 or Corsair rmx 650

[Trik'Stari]

10 minutes ago, Prysin said:

Here's a suggestion for the new build:

VEGA 

FREESYNC 2

And kaby lake cpu,  cuz Ryzen is going to be shit anyway. 

 

Get a 256gb nvme boot drive and 2x 1TB Samsung 850 Pro for games. 

 

For psu get a EVGA 650w G3 or Corsair rmx 650

Wasn't really looking for suggestions. I was just curious how everyone else does their component hunting.

 

But yeah I'm going X99 and VEGA depending on how good VEGA turns out to be. Definitely going to get some SSD's

[Prysin]

3 minutes ago, Trik'Stari said:

Wasn't really looking for suggestions. I was just curious how everyone else does their component hunting.

 

But yeah I'm going X99 and VEGA depending on how good VEGA turns out to be. Definitely going to get some SSD's

I go purely for price vs performance. No need to go with anything else 

[Okjoek]

I chose a mix of those options. When it comes to CPU + GPU I like them to be the same brand (even though I haven't had it that way in a while) Unless we're talking about iGPU I go with either Intel or AMD, but when I have a discrete GPU I would prefer if it was an all AMD build. It's not that I have a deep hate of Intel, but it's one of my quirks I have in PC building that CPU and GPU be from one producer.

 

Most other parts I'm less picky about and will base my choice better on the quality of deal.

 

 

[BuckGup]

Usually I find something highly reviewed and that goes hand in hand with a higher premium. But I am one to buy something nice once and use it for a long time rather than a bunch of cheaper options.

[Guest]

Year 2017: I just find anything that has RGB in the name. 

[Froody129]

20 hours ago, kameshss said:

For CPU: I see the client's requirement and then decide on it. If it's like gaming and has a low budget, I'd select an i5. But I always go for the latest gen. For eg: I go for 7th gen now.

For Motherboard: If it's a K CPU, I'd get the cheapest Z series board; mostly from Asus. I'd check the features difference between brands if I had to purchase an expensive one to check if it's worth the extra money. If it's not the K CPU, I'd get a H110, H170 board from Asus or Gigabyte. Because they're cheap most of the time and work very well. If the client has so many USB peripherals to connect, B150/B250 is the next choice.

For GPU: AMD vs Nvidia. Same tier, if it costs cheaper and performs better than other one I'd go for it. Mostly, for Nvidia I'd get the Asus or Zotac card. Gigabyte card is much expensive here. EVGA not available in the local store neither online. If it's there, it's expensive.

For PSU: I go through @STRMfrmXMN PSU whitelist and get the cheapest one with wattage requirement in mind.

Cheap and PSU don't belong in the same sentence

[kameshss]

3 minutes ago, Froody129 said:

Cheap and PSU don't belong in the same sentence

you didn't see the PSU whitelist I mentioned before that  I'd only buy that's in PSU Whitelist.

[Trik'Stari]

16 hours ago, Froody129 said:

Cheap and PSU don't belong in the same sentence

Seasonic or bust. (usually)

 

Although this time around I'm gonna go with EVGA since I plan on having an EVGA card, that way if there are any issues with power delivery like I had with my GTX 660, I can get the same, admittedly astounding, customer service.

 

Had GTX 660 FTW edition, it did not like the "unstable" power supposedly coming from my 750w Seasonic PSU, at least according to EVGA, and this caused problems on startup that would require hard reboots to fix.

[kameshss]

4 hours ago, Trik'Stari said:

Seasonic or bust. (usually)

 

Although this time around I'm gonna go with EVGA since I plan on having an EVGA card, that way if there are any issues with power delivery like I had with my GTX 660, I can get the same, admittedly astounding, customer service.

 

Had GTX 660 FTW edition, it did not like the "unstable" power supposedly coming from my 750w Seasonic PSU, at least according to EVGA, and this caused problems on startup that would require hard reboots to fix.

This is for your personal rig? What are the parts?

[Nup]

A mix of reading and getting bang for the buck. Although the entire process is usually made of up compromises, because of shipping. A good deal usually isn't worth something that initially appears marginally worse.

 

So a mix of options two and three. 

[Praesi]

Quality - Power - Features - Looks - Price. I dont waste money and i only upgrade when needed.

[x Princess Leliana x]

It's a mixture of aesthetics, cheapness, and which is most effective.