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How difficult is it to build your own PC?

kratom luver

kratom luver

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Sep 16, 2008
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I am considering building my own PC to save money and so that I get exactly what I want. I wanted to know, how difficult is it to build one yourself as a novice with a book to guide you through?
 
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its easy enough but you get no warranty so its a crap shoot in a way. if you fuck up, goodluck figuring out whats wrong and shelling out the money to fix it. with the way the economy is currently you can probably find some crazy good deals for good computers.

it also really depends on:
if you intend to use it for gaming (if not don't bother)
if you already have windows (if not don't bother)
and other factors..
 
IMO, it really comes down to what you want to do

Build a gaming PC - you can decide where to cut corners (leave room for upgraded components later), and while expensive, it is less than a store bought gaming rig

Build a basic email and office type PC - You can get cheap versions of laptops or desktops that can do this, with a warranty. Seriously, the money to do this is better spent on buying a pre-built machine unless you already have components laying around that are adequate, and only need to purchase a few key items.

Build a general purpose PC - Some surfing, some gaming, maybe some heavy lifting with image work (photoshop, DVD encoding, etc) ... here, you can come out ahead AND get a step up the learning curve so you have confidence to troubleshoot things in the future...but again you face decisions on what you're trying to do, and where you are willing to cut corners and plan for later upgrades.


Ultimately, the money factor is iffy....because as soon as you target what you want to do and the size of your budget, you'll start finding yourself bumping up your RAM or opting for one step up on processor or video card, and unless you stick to your budget you'll end up spending more than you would with a pre-made machine.

The knowledge factor...that's a different story. Building a PC is *not* hard....if you know how. It's best if you've got a friend with some experience to help you through it, because if you go it alone the first time out, you'll end up with quirky and unexplainable problems like missing a wire connection, a bad piece of h/w, a card that won't fit in your box or worse yet doesn't have a slot on the mobo it can work with. Get help, from someone that can sit down with you as you go thru either tearing one down and putting it back together ... or at least have them sit with you and go thru picking out the hardware YOU need, ordering it, and then putting it all together. Building a PC is a nice ego boost, and in hindsight not that hard to accomplish, but you'd be asking for a lot of late nights scratching your head if you try it alone the first time.

I'll also point out that asking on web sites like this, or even PC builder focused web sites, for "What hardware should I buy" will often degenerate into people's personal preferences. Some like Intel, some like AMD. Some go for nVidia, others stick with ATI. Nearly all will work, and many will meet YOUR needs, but unless you're very careful you could drop money on parts that don't go together - and you need to be building something for YOUR needs, not the preferences or whims of a bunch of natters on the internet. We can help you tell if a mobo you picked out is solid, upgradeable, and will work with the other pieces you want to try out - we might even be able to suggest alternatives for components....just be very careful a) building on your own, b ) under the guidance of forum members...

just my .02
 
It is 'hard' to pick out the right parts to put together, but not impossible.
Perhaps an easy way to tackle this is to simply find one of the many sites dedicated to PCs and find an article on building one within your budget - that way you know the cost, you know the components and they have been proven by professionals to go together.
EDIT: reference maximumpc, anandtech, tomshardware

It is relatively easy to physically assemble those components. Just take care not to 'force' anything.


It is 'hardest' to figure out what went wrong with the assembly and why it's not booting :\
This is where experience comes into play, and a book like you refer to would hopefully have adequate troubleshooting tips. But if you start out with a known configuration, it greatly reduces the chances of things going wrong in unexplainable ways. Logic, for the most part, can help you get thru this phase. Logic, and a lot of patience.
 
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How would you rate your own experience when it comes to hardware? Ever add a hard drive? Any kind of card? Change a processor?

Hardware makes sense, once you've got the basics down they become relatively easy to deal with should things not operate as expected. AND the problems surface immediately.

Then how experienced do you consider yourself when it comes to software? Installed an OS from scratch - even better have you installed the version you are looking to use on THIS PC? Or have you only installed software, with minimal issues of it operating properly? Again, S/W can be relatively easy, depending upon which OS you pick and how stable it is. But it has a LOT more areas of something not working right and being tricker to troubleshoot than H/W - at least in my experience.
 
I'd at least buy the processor already mounted on the motherboard. It's been like 10 years since I built PCs, but I remember my BF used to drop the processor on the MB so I didn't fuck it up. LOL

Like LoveBandit said - it's really not that hard.
 
I would say it's easy enough to build your own PC that you could watch a few demonstrations on youtube and be very likely to succeed on a pile of selected parts put in front of you.

The main thing to keep in mind is what type of connection each component makes to the motherboard. If you choose a certain CPU (processor, instruction core, whatever you call it) then you want to look at the specifications for that CPU and see what kind of Slot or Socket it's designed for. You then must look for a motherboard that supports that type of interface connection.

When you choose a hard drive, you must check the motherboard specifications to see if the drive has the same interface type (ATA or UltraDMA or EIDE are all different terms to describe the same interface, whereas SATA has a different connector and different cables, and SCSI is yet another common interface). You must make sure the hard drive or the motherboard comes with the correct cable for that connector type, or otherwise order the cable.

When you choose a video card, you must ensure the motherboard has a connector of the correct type (PCI, AGP, PCI-Express) and take note of what kind of video output interfaces it offers (DVI, HDMI, VGA, S-Video). When you choose a monitor, you must go back to that note and make sure the monitor supports that video type. Once again, check the monitor and video card descriptions to be sure they come with the correct type of cable.

For choosing RAM, I would use www.crucial.com as a resource. They should allow you to enter in the make and model of the motherboard you chose, and generate a list of RAM products which are known to be compatible. Most online computer parts stores carry some Crucial RAM, but you can also choose another brand with the same interface (SDRAM, DDR, DDR2, etc.), same number of pins, clock speed, PCxxxx rating, and CAS latency.

And definitely check out the three websites that TheLoveBandit referred you to.
 
aanallein said:
its easy enough but you get no warranty so its a crap shoot in a way. if you fuck up, goodluck figuring out whats wrong and shelling out the money to fix it. with the way the economy is currently you can probably find some crazy good deals for good computers.

it also really depends on:
if you intend to use it for gaming (if not don't bother)
if you already have windows (if not don't bother)
and other factors..
Click to expand...

Bullshit dude. All the parts you can buy will have a manufacturers warranty. It's also really hard to fuck up unless you're a total imbecile--there are plenty of walk-through guides you can follow to the letter.

Actually, I'm calling shenanigans on every point in your post.

OP, I'll craft a response when I get home from work.
 
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^ 1st comp I built turned out fine. 2nd one was a pain in the ass.

I built it and it started up great, worked for exactly 1 day, then refused to start up. I figured that the psu had gone but did it take the mobo with it? I had no way to check. I didn't have a spare psu for that form factor around and I didn't have a spare mobo either so I had to call a tech to come out and check and sure enough it was the PSU (antec even) but I was lucky and no other parts were compromised. So I sent the PSU back and got a replacement. same thing happened. psu blew but the rest of the parts did not. keep in mind my friend had recently built a computer with the exact same parts (had same budget and goals as me) and his was running fine. so i got a thermaltake psu and now it works fine.

so while i got the computer i wanted i had to go through a shitton of effort and have a tech come up to run some diagnostics on my computer to get it all sorted out. if i had bought a prebuilt i would have got a computer in the mail that was preassembled and already tested to make sure it ran properly. yes it didn't cost me much (only thing i had to pay for was the 1 hour of tech sevice guy's time to diagnostic everything) but that's not the point. i spent hours putting it together and then having to rma 2 psus simply wasn't worth my time or effort.


Notice in my original post I specifically said its easy enough. fuck if u can build a lego set you can build a computer, its just a matter of putting the parts where they belong. the hard part is that you are dealing with roughly 7 or 8 electrical components produced by different manufacturers with hundreds of individual components each. things CAN go wrong and as a random no nothing person you have zero recourse to figure out what precisely is the problem and just sending shit back to the manufacturers willy nilly is a huge huge pain in the ass that most people don't want to go through.

but sure say i'm full of shit.
 
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I agree with anallein. I've built PCs as a business and with the small volume I did, and low cash on hand, it was always a pain in the ass to have to pay for shipping the items back, waiting for the RMA procedure, or having to order a replacement shipped overnight and wait a while to receive a refund from the vendor. It's even worse as an individual, when comparing to the price of a pre-built manufacturer PC.

If you get shipped bad parts when you try to build a computer, and you don't have a computer parts inventory in your basement or at work or whatever, it's going to start costing you a bit more time and money. If you have to call a technician to help diagnose which parts are bad, you instantly lose the price advantage.
 
^ hey atleast we can agree on this if not the drunk driving thing :)

oh and how can you be at palin's house when i'm here!! lol
 
Building your own system is trivial these these. Every connection is labeled (although you have to pay VERY close attention to make sure all your components have the right connections to work with your motherboard). It's fairly hard to screw up. If you do get a faulty component it may be hard to figure out which one is to blame; but some motherboards have tons of diagnostic lights that tell you where the problem is.

I have no idea where Lysis buys his parts but it's always cheaper to build your own system, ESPECIALLY for a gaming rig. It's only when you hit the low end that prices become the same for pre-built systems. What places like Alienware sell for $3000 you could build a system with identical hardware for half that.

I spent a total of $1800 on my system/22" lcd (not counting external things like printer/scanner, speakers), and anything comparable from any manufacturer is in the $3000-5000 range. Maybe Lysis can find a pre-built system with $280 case, 800W modular PS, 2.8GHz dual core CPU, 8GB RAM, 2.5TB storage, 9800GT 512MB, TV tuner, 7.1 channel dedicated sound card, and Blu-ray for under $2k. Or maybe not. Always cheaper for mid range and up.
 
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I just made the decision to buy a mid-range computer from Dell for £499 ($727.018 USD) and wanted to ask you guys whether it is powerful enough for computer gaming. If it needs an upgrade in order to handle games sufficiently well enough, what should I change?


PCSpecs.jpg


If I upgraded it, by adding more memory so that it has a total of 4GB DDR2 RAM and changed the graphics card to a Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 card which has a core clock of 625MHZ, a memory clock of 993MHZ, 512MB GDDR3 RAM, would this make it good enough to power decent 3D game graphics?

I have already gotten advice of someone else before I purchased this computer, but am just asking you guys for a second opinion.
 
What games?


Civ 4 - you're fine.
FarCry2 - don't even think about it, you can't cram enough in there to make it perform.

Comes down to what kind of games you intend to play.
 
I think you saved some money and potentially a week of trouble-shooting and RMA'ing bad parts buying the Dell. Something almost always seems to go wrong when you build your own for the first time. You will still be able to learn and tinker with it and upgrade certain parts.

I am not a gamer, but with your rig's specs, you should be able to play any new game. If there is a problem, and I've never played FarCry4, but can't you lower the resolution or the frame rate settings in the game and still get it to play acceptably well? And the same should go for any other graphics-hungry game.
 
I think you saved some money by buying inferior hardware that comes with a crappy Dell warranty, but whatever works. You should be able to play most games, especially with the settings lowered if needed.
 
Had he bought all high end hardware with the same specs, wouldn't he have spent a lot more money? And even a more expensive computer will still be obsolete as far as playing the newest high-end games in a couple of years anyway.
 
Probably more, but I wouldn't say "a lot". There is something to be said for knowing exactly what parts you have put into a machine, which you never get from a manufacturer. Who knows what POS motherboard Dell is building that thing with.
 
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