Slow build economics

[Orwellian]

Hello all.

I'm going to do a slow build over 6-10 months for a gaming computer prolly around 1k budget give or take.

Question is, what order should I buy which parts? Thinking about newer versions, drop in prices, compatibility, etc...

Starting with

Case/PSU

I figure the vid card would be close to the end since they drop in price pretty fast (i think?) but am curious about other things. hard drive, mobo/cpu, LCD monitor(optional, prolly after everything else) >>OPERATING SYSTEM???<<< RAM and on and on.

Any specific products you think are screaming to be in this abacus evolved, please include. The last rig I built was this one and I made a few mistakes.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

how are you going to run your system over the span of 6-10 months without a video card or cpu if u get tem in the end. if you're not planning on using it then why not just wait all at once cuz by the time u finish the price of the psu or case that u got first would have dropped in 6 months time.

 

[Orwellian]

ur prolly right, but that assumes I can keep that amount of money around instead of buying 360 games or my wife needing something expensive I will prolly save and buy a few things together at the end. Thats why I was curious about the things that have the least price fluctuation

 

[Orwellian]

and I will either stick new parts in this rig or just go 100% ground up new and give this one to wife. I have something to play on while i build.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Set up a special account in the bank for the PC...

You sound kinda poor... cos I make $7 an hour and I can afford my PC @ once

XD

 

[pkme2]

Lian Li PC-60USB B2
Main reasons for this case:
100% aluminum, great cooling and better yet if you go AMD CPU. Cooler overall.
Solid, well designed and engineered, Lian Li Website
removeable mobo tray,
front fans/harddrive cooling, no need for harddrive cooling later. Great engineering sense.
no sharp edges,
plenty of space,
removeable 3.5" drive rack, hdd rack.
You can get Yate Loon 120mm/80mm fans off eBay at $4.99, 28dBA. (replacement fans for total quietness)
You see later why the stock fans are replaced.

Seasonic S-12 600W PSU
or
Seasonic S-12 500W PSU
I prefer the 600W version because if you ever decide to use dual 7900GTX, it calls for minimum 450W PSU.

The Seasonic is so quiet too. I use the AMD HSF because its quiet and with the excellent cooling characteristics
of the LL case, cooling is an after thought.

This my opinion that will give you the best foundation to start with. Your actual choice will depend on
whether you buy with facts or emotion. Still, its your choice.

 

[Orwellian]

not to sound like a smart ass, but I would be hard pressed to feed myself and keep a house over my families head for 7$ an hr... much less build a computer.

Your house payment must be 100$ a month?

 

[newuser]

Case, keyboard, monitor
PSU..make sure will work with likely vid card
monitor
OS
hard drive
optical drives
-decide on mobo/cpu/vid card selection
mobo
cpu
ram
vid card

 

[Orwellian]

is it really necessary to get a 500-600 watt PSU? they seem a bit pricey. I would like to play newer games at decent settings not necessarily maxed out. I can prolly afford a cheap 19" lcd. will it take a top line card with lots of juice from a PSU to run a 19" at decent res?

 

[pkme2]

Then do as you said, wait and buy the best deal on eBay like some of us. Its your money and I'm, like the others here just wish you the best.
As a newcomer, reading the other threads, and especially the Hot deals and For Sale Forums would be a good start.

 

[obeseotron]

Setup an online savings or money market account specifically for the PC and pay into it a little at a time. ING, HSBC, Paypal and dozens of others make this pretty easy. If you look around you can usually get over 4% interest and a small bonus for opening an account with a few hundred bucks. It takes a few days to transfer back to a normal checking account, so hopefully that would prevent too many impulse buys.

 

[Lonyo]

Case/PSU
Monitor
RAM/HDD
Mobo + CPU (get them together)
Graphics card

 

[Zepper]

Yes, you need to find a way to impose a saving discipline on yourself so you'll be able to buy the major parts all at once (or at least enough to be able to boot up and test for proper operation). Otherwise you'll need to find a way to test each active part as it arrives because you will have a limited time frame in which to either resolve any issues or do RMAs in the case of defectives on each part. Also your total shipping costs may be significantly higher doing it a piece at a time. And your choices might have changed at the end of the period from what you thought you wanted at the beginning.

Of course if you buy everything at once, there may still be problems that prevent doing testing on the build machine so alternate testing sites (friends, etc..) need to be arranged for either way.

.bh.