Mid level computer build.

[Mike Painter]

Has anyone put together a mid level system from scratch recently?

If so what was the approximate cost and how long did it take.
If you could include the time from initial order to completion that would help.
Have you done this before or was this a first time event?

PM me if you have any questions.

Thanks

 

[Coaster]

It really all depends on what you want the computer to do.

If you're not into gaming you can build a really nice/fast system for ~$500-$600 assuming you have a usable monitor.

If you want to play games add another ~ $150 for a good video card.

Ordering everything from Newegg I can spec a system and put the order in Monday, and have it together and going by Friday.

It's really only an hour or two at the most of build time unless you have a horribly bad case. Then another hour installing Windows and then a month to download all the patches.

 

[HarryN]

Hi Mike,

I patched together a low end unit from pieces late last year for a cnc project, but it was hardly a new build.

Every time I look at a home built and add up the parts, I just cannot beat dell or hp for a similar unit, esp if you watch their web sites for just slightly older CPU models. The local office depot dumps some of their desktops periodically just to keep fresh stock.

The only price point that a DIY made sense for me was if I wanted very specific graphics boards, or wanted to equip a board with the "fastest ram version" it would support.

 

[Wattnot]

I've been building my own systems for the past decade. I LOVE being able to choose each and every part. Every time I take a peek to see if the "custom" builders can do it better, I always find a crappy case or Power supply or no-name something somewhere in the loop.

The most important thing is that the motherboard, memory and processor are paired properly. There is 1.8v memory and 2.1v memory and that alone can mess you up if you don't know what you're doing. Memory is the most complicated and critical choice. You usually can't go wrong with Kingston. Good motherboard brands are Asus, Abit, MSI, Gigabit and others. Many folks like Intel motherboards but I had a horrible experience with them and never again for me!!

There are many, many sites for people who want to do this. My favorite is www.anandtech.com then click forums. No need to post. Just poke around there and look for someone asking the exact same question and copy the popular recipe and order from Newegg.com. They are about as close as you can get to a one-stop shop. You might be able to beat their price on one or two of the items but not by much and it's not worth the hassle.

DO NOT SKIMP ON THE POWER SUPPLY. I cannot stress that enough. Antec, PC Power and Cooling, OCZ, Seasonic are some of the best but there are others that are good too. Avoid Cooler Master and Rosewill and any one that seems too cheap. If unsure look at the weight and compare it that way. The heavier the better.

 

[geepondy]

I agree with the advice posted. The satisfaction of building your home pc is nice but it's not anymore economical then buying a Dell, especially for non-gaming use. As far as possibly cheap components in a Dell, I work for a company where we've purchased hundreds of Dells now and they hold up very well. In my gosh more then 15 years now of having office PCs, I had a hard drive crap out on me once and in the various lab machine's I've used, a power supply went in one but have used dozens without any problems.

I do love building my own. The last one I built, I made an effort to make a "green" system. I picked a 430W 80+ certified power supply which means it's certified to be at least 80 percent efficient and I picked an AMD Athlon X2 "Brisbane" CPU which only uses 65W. Using my Killowatt meter, my total system power including 19" LCD monitor was only about 150W. I have since added a gaming video card so I'm sure that's gone up some.

Timewise, if you've put them together before, you can whip them up pretty quickly, particularly if you have a tool less case. It took me longer to load Windowx XP and install the updates then it did to physically put the system together.

 

[Mike Painter]

That's pretty much the conclusion I came to over ten years ago, especially in building a system that would be used mostly for playing DVD's.
I did the Newegg thing today and just picked pieces and parts. It came to around $800.00 with a monitor, 4Gb of RAM decent video card and a legal OS.

We have been waiting for close to two months for a computer built by the son of an "executive" and this is just another in a long line of things not getting done.

Thanks to all.

 

[jayflash]

Don't some mass PC producers like Dell use customized versions of some components which are incompatible with "regular" RAMS, video cards, HDs, etc?

 

[Mike Painter]

Don't some mass PC producers like Dell use customized versions of some components which are incompatible with "regular" RAMS, video cards, HDs, etc?

I think for the most part, they have gotten away from that.
I have replaced all you mentioned and more in my current Dell with no problem.
Margins are too thin to spend money designing and building special parts.

Most of the difference comes in designing cases that make it easy to put together on an assembly line and this does not always translate into making easy changes at a later date.

The old IBM PS2 was an exception. You could start with a closed case, a quarter and no other tools, take it completely apart so just the bare mother board was sitting on the table and then put it all back together again.
In about two minutes.

 

[jayflash]

Thanks, Mike, my old, 2001, Dell 8100 had the (once fast) Rambus memory sticks which were "special" and IIRC some other parts were custom made for Dell.

Glad that's no longer the case.

 

[geepondy]

The only downside with a Dell, at least the basic cheap ones is that they run a bit slower for a given setup then something you could build yourself. They tend to use slower memory, conservative timing and a BIOS that doesn't allow much user input. On a positive note, their cases are pretty easy to get into and work on.

 

[raggie33]

i think my pc uses like 75 watts while surfing the net but thats with a quad core cpu