Your gaming PC ... did you build it or purchase it pre-built?

[ToySoldier]

So you make more money and then you pay people to do what you can do...Is it me or does that seem incredibly stupid? I hope I never get rich enough to think like that. I don't wanna go broke from paying people to do shit I can do. LOL!

I make a comfortable salary too. Writing a check for $5,000 to $6,000 is not a big deal for me. Digital Storm makes sweet high end systems I don't have the time to make myself. My listed DIY build earlier in this thread will probably be my last for a long time. My hours are crazy... half the time I don't even know what day it is. Digital Storm does a professional job.

Aventum III

 

[ch33zw1z]

@ ToySoldier. That's fine, time is money. I build my own because I like it, and I don't have 5k to blow on a PC all at once.

I know a guy who's a gaming fanatic and has been buying prebuilts since he started pc gaming long ago. That's what he does also, buys a brand new pc every 3 years, junks the old one. I am more than happy to take the quality parts out of the old system and toss the rest. Usually, the PSU is junk, the rest is ok.

Situation is different for everyone.

 

[ToySoldier]

@ ToySoldier. That's fine, time is money. I build my own because I like it, and I don't have 5k to blow on a PC all at once.

I know a guy who's a gaming fanatic and has been buying prebuilts since he started pc gaming long ago. That's what he does also, buys a brand new pc every 3 years, junks the old one. I am more than happy to take the quality parts out of the old system and toss the rest. Usually, the PSU is junk, the rest is ok.

Situation is different for everyone.

When I was a starving entry level PC Tech in the mid to late 1990's... I would have LOVED to have a friend like that. Now I'm 'That Guy'.

I usually would give my old DIY system to my nephews and nieces but the boys are older now and getting into modern PC gaming. Let the girls have the older systems (after format/ fresh install) and buy some Digital Storms for the boys. I'm proud I showed them the POWER of PC Gaming versus the consoles. PC Master Race lives on with their generation. How many 14 or 16 year olds have $2,000 to $2,500 Digital Storms?




*** Edit *** I did teach the 14 year old how to build computers. The oldest had zero interest. So I will send my nephew some funds to build $800 to $1000 systems until he gets more proficient with it.

My first PC was a 386DX25mhz with a wopping 1MB Ram and 20MB HArd Drive... I had to pay extra to install my sound card *rolls eyes*. Oh the joy of configuring Config.sys and Autoexec.bat to make the mouse work after installing the sound card (IRQ jumpers anyone?)... then freeing up enough 640k within that 1MB Ram.




.

 

[Midwayman]

Good gaming systems from places like Falcon Northwest dont do that.
I have no idea about Alienware. I heard that since they got nabbed by Dell they went to shit.

Aside from paying an arm and a leg from those places I've found them built with very little room for expansion. Pulling shit like a PS barely rated enough for what's in there. Only enough connectors on the PS, filling all memory banks rather than using 2 largers dimms, etc, etc. However I never really looking into falcon northwest seriously. There were almost double what I could build it for last I checked.

 

[PBat51]

The last computer I didn't build for myself was a brand new Packard Bell 386. Shit I'm getting old.

Time for the mid life upgrade for my current build.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Been building these rigs since the heathkit/zenith days. It's a fun hobby. I've considered pre-built but the cost premium is usually too high. Even a basic gaming rig is going to have around $300.- price difference between pre-built and what I could build it for. It doesn't take very long to assemble.

I make enough to pay someone to do it but why? So I can have a couple extra hours of gaming? LOL just what I need.....

 

[poofyhairguy]

I always custom build so I can move parts around. What is today my gaming PC might later be part of my HTPC, a server or even my primary desktop. That is also why I only stick to Intel, so that I way I can easily swap around my mobos if needs change or an upgrade at the top causes a waterfall across my systems.

 

[Eric1987]

When I say what I say its in regards to stuff people have interest in. If I had 5-6k to blow building a PC myself would be a dream. Same with a car. If I had tons of money I'd do all the work myself or with a partner. Imagine having a lift and everything! Now building a desk or table? Not very practical. I'd probably do it though if I had the knowledge.

 

[alcoholbob]

I used to buy expensive prebuilt but then noticed the component choices were not as flexible as i liked. I'm OCD about noise so I will actually spend way more building my own computer than a prebuilt.

 

[BurnItDwn]

since 1996
I have owned 1 prebuilt server, and, even that I have swapped chassis, swapped power supply,added hard drives, swapped hard drives, added PATA Raid card, added SATA Raid card, added memory, swapped CPU.

I have owned 3 laptops all were used, all under $300, one was a P3 450mhz, one was a cheap apple to experiment with yellowdog linux, and one was a p4 M at like 1.4ghz. I do not own these any more (apple I gave to a friend in 2002 or 2003. The 450 I gave to kid cousin like 2004 or 2005, and the p4m I gave to another friend a few years back.)

I did at one time buy a couple of dual PPro 200 machines from geeks.com, they were running as home linux servers for a while until I set up my athlon 500 server (which was eventually replaced with the server I bought from Dell described above)

Anyhow, I think I have assembled about 50 or 60 machines over the years for myself, friends, and family. In the last 5 years, I have only done 3, but, in the early 2000s, I was doing something with some computer every month.

 

[Raduque]

Considering I game on a laptop.....prebuilt.

 

[finglobes]

Still rocking the Vista E8600 PC I built around 2008. With a AMD 7850 I haven't had any trouble playing any games on 24" display - that is until Wolfenstein. I need to upgrade to 64 bit for that. Hoping to make it until Skylake second half of the year

 

[Harrod]

.

Those hard lines are pretty sweet, I think I'm going to research how to set those up when I unclutter my system.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I used to buy expensive prebuilt but then noticed the component choices were not as flexible as i liked. I'm OCD about noise so I will actually spend way more building my own computer than a prebuilt.

That's a consideration too. Depending on what you are after you can design a system that fits your needs better than a prebuilt. I build my PC mostly because I don't like bloatware and I can pick the components that overclock well. I mostly do gaming and the most basic of tasks on my PC so it's a toy for me.

Not me. I'd rather do damn near everything myself. Especially if I was rich how fun would that be?

In my view what good is money if you aren't enjoying it? Let someone else deal with the how to's and the hands on. I'm going out fishing. Maybe you enjoy the work and I can't fault that. I don't enjoy it but I do it because I have to.

 

[Eric1987]

That's a consideration too. Depending on what you are after you can design a system that fits your needs better than a prebuilt. I build my PC mostly because I don't like bloatware and I can pick the components that overclock well. I mostly do gaming and the most basic of tasks on my PC so it's a toy for me.



In my view what good is money if you aren't enjoying it? Let someone else deal with the how to's and the hands on. I'm going out fishing. Maybe you enjoy the work and I can't fault that. I don't enjoy it but I do it because I have to.

Maybe I am one of the few people who enjoys work and learning? If I am rich buying it and building it is where all the fun is IMO.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Not me. I'd rather do damn near everything myself. Especially if I was rich how fun would that be?

Believe me, if you're rich or financially very comfortable, you will find far more interesting ways to spend your time than doing all your house/car/etc projects yourself. Unfortunately, no matter how rich or poor someone is, they are constrained by one fundamental limitation - a finite amount of time to do things. If you make a good living, you can effectively buy more time by paying others to do some of your work and you can focus on things you really enjoy.

 

[MongGrel]

Bought a Packard Bell 386 in the late 80's for a gaming PC

Have built very many on my own since then.

 

[sourceninja]

...

 

[Eric1987]

Believe me, if you're rich or financially very comfortable, you will find far more interesting ways to spend your time than doing all your house/car/etc projects yourself. Unfortunately, no matter how rich or poor someone is, they are constrained by one fundamental limitation - a finite amount of time to do things. If you make a good living, you can effectively buy more time by paying others to do some of your work and you can focus on things you really enjoy.

You don't understand. I ENJOY doing stuff myself. I hate relying on other people when I can do the job better. It's just how I was raised.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

You don't understand. I ENJOY doing stuff myself. I hate relying on other people when I can do the job better. It's just how I was raised.

No, I do understand perfectly well. If you enjoy it, great. Not sure how old you are (I'd guess 27 or 28 based on your screen name), but as you get older and responsibilities (and money) grow, you'll probably see what many of us are saying. In my case, my time is too valuable to me to spend on projects where I don't have the tools, experience, or expertise to do them well and in a reasonable time frame.

 

[KeithTalent]

No, I do understand perfectly well. If you enjoy it, great. Not sure how old you are (I'd guess 27 or 28 based on your screen name), but as you get older and responsibilities (and money) grow, you'll probably see what many of us are saying. In my case, my time is too valuable to me to spend on projects where I don't have the tools, experience, or expertise to do them well and in a reasonable time frame.

Yep.

KT

 

[Fingolfin269]

Why do you guys say it's easier than ever to build for yourself now? What has changed in that regard? FYI, last time I put anything together was probably ~2003.

 

[exar333]

No, I do understand perfectly well. If you enjoy it, great. Not sure how old you are (I'd guess 27 or 28 based on your screen name), but as you get older and responsibilities (and money) grow, you'll probably see what many of us are saying. In my case, my time is too valuable to me to spend on projects where I don't have the tools, experience, or expertise to do them well and in a reasonable time frame.

Some folks like to keep learning, even when they get older and have money.

 

[Eric1987]

No, I do understand perfectly well. If you enjoy it, great. Not sure how old you are (I'd guess 27 or 28 based on your screen name), but as you get older and responsibilities (and money) grow, you'll probably see what many of us are saying. In my case, my time is too valuable to me to spend on projects where I don't have the tools, experience, or expertise to do them well and in a reasonable time frame.

I don't want kids and I don't want a relationship. I don't see that changing for the foreseeable future so not much is really going to change.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Some folks like to keep learning, even when they get older and have money.

I'm not quite sure you understand what I'm saying, so I'll quote something I said earlier that you may have missed:

Believe me, if you're rich or financially very comfortable, you will find far more interesting ways to spend your time than doing all your house/car/etc projects yourself. Unfortunately, no matter how rich or poor someone is, they are constrained by one fundamental limitation - a finite amount of time to do things. If you make a good living, you can effectively buy more time by paying others to do some of your work and you can focus on things you really enjoy.

No one said anything like "When you get older and have money, you won't want to learn." On the contrary, as I pointed out, time is a finite resource for everyone and as you get older and make more money, your responsibilities generally grow meaning that if you do everything yourself, you're not going to have as much free time to enjoy things you may REALLY enjoy more. In my case, I have a few different things I enjoy doing with world travel, reading, and other hobbies being more important than spending time on house projects.

Let me give you an example of something I pay someone to do. I have a lot of flower beds around my house and yard. I was generally paying about $150/yr for a big dump truck to deliver a bunch of mulch to my house and I'd spend an hour or two every night after work (weather permitting) moving it to the beds and spreading it. It was dirty, hot, time-consuming, and thankless work. So out of curiosity, I sent an email to a guy I knew. For $210, he'd deliver the mulch and spread it that day. IMO, you'd be insane to want to save $60 by doing this yourself. In fact, I would've been willing to pay the guy even more money to do it and even felt guilty. Other than that, I still do all my own lawn work because even though I generally hate doing it, it is only a commitment of a couple of hours per week and it gets me out of the house, a little exercise, and I can look over my yard for any issues while I'm mowing.

House projects? I can do small things, sure. I can probably do larger things, but the issue is that I lack confidence and patience, would need to buy the tools, and would need to learn to not be a perfectionist . I can't have my bathroom torn apart for a 2-4 weeks to remodel, for example, when I can pay a guy to do it in a few days. Now, granted, if I didn't have the money OR it was something I had to do EVERY year and it was expensive, I'd probably learn to do it on my own. Otherwise, spending $3K to $4K in material/tools and having the thing torn apart for weeks or paying some guy $8K to do it in days for something that would likely last 20+ years isn't a big deal to me.

I don't want kids and I don't want a relationship. I don't see that changing for the foreseeable future so not much is really going to change.

Smart man.