Buy or build a new PC

[Blue Ghost]

Well, I'm employed once more, only this time with Macy's, selling luggage until something better comes along.

Which means I have income once more. After I get caught up on bills my next big project is to get a new PC. I'd like to build one, but, I saw some very reasonable PCs for under $500. It's gotten to the point where it's almost cheaper to buy a ready made PC than build your own.

Any thoughts?

Thanks much.

p.s. I'm thinking P4 or 5 with 2 gigs of RAM. Not sure about HD size. Any suggestions are welcome.

p.p.s. currently still using my old P4 with half gig of RAM.

 

[Jeffr0]

I convinced that the classic Traveller random life-path type approach to PC generation is superior to the other methods. There's so much interesting background and personality details that just gel when you do it that way-- with very little effort.

 

[dean]

Well, I'm employed once more, only this time with Macy's, selling luggage until something better comes along.

Which means I have income once more. After I get caught up on bills my next big project is to get a new PC. I'd like to build one, but, I saw some very reasonable PCs for under $500. It's gotten to the point where it's almost cheaper to buy a ready made PC than build your own.

Any thoughts?

Thanks much.

p.s. I'm thinking P4 or 5 with 2 gigs of RAM. Not sure about HD size. Any suggestions are welcome.

p.p.s. currently still using my old P4 with half gig of RAM.

I think that there's some really good deals on decent processors out there. That said, the higher priced ones are usually a result of the better graphics capability and more memory. If you can get a cutting edge processor and install a graphics card (PCI-E I believe is the current standard) for improved performance in that area, you'd probably be OK. Of course, you have to be sure the mobo supports upgrades like that, and that it's not one of those small or micro form factor models, or self-upgrading is harder and more expensive...

Good Luck either way!

 

[jfetters]

I'd buy something ready made versus building your own. Just less hassle when you need to have something fixed. On the other hand you have to deal with bloatware most of the time for these out-of-the box machines.

Of course, I built my own about 5 years ago, and it's running fine, but I did have an issue with the video card a couple years back. I was able to temporarily reconfigure the system to use the onboard video, but YMMV.

Ultimately, it depends on what you want to do. If you are not looking to do gaming on the thing, get a decent Pentium with 2 GB of RAM and a nice hard drive. If you want to do gaming, get 4GB and a really nice processor.

 

[savage]

yes

I use to build everything for years.

Now I'd just buy it the savings is minimal. Best thing I ever did was dump microsoft and go with mac, OS X.

Seems this is more of a random static thread?

 

[Supplement Four]

There are some really good deals out there, so shop around.

The pro of buing it already built is that you get it quick, and, as already said, the deals are pretty good.

OTOH, it depends on what you're buying your PC for. The primary use of my machine is PC gaming, so I insist on a great video card and other good parts (quad processor married to a DDR3 motherboard, RAM, etc).

When you build, you have control over each and every part. You know what kind of motherboard is in your machine. You know how far you can upgrade it.

I'm on my second built machine, and I don't think I'll ever go back to buying new ones (unless I discover another type of need besides PC gaming).

I upgrade slow. Processor's good, so I might get some more RAM. Couple of years, I might upgrade the video card. Then, the processor to a better one--that I know I can do because I picked the right mobo to begin with.

Also remember, when you're building, you don't have to pay for the same thing twice.

For example, this keyboard I use, I've had for my last three computers. Same thing for the box, CD/DVD drive and hard drive. I did add a second hard drive, though.

Monitor is the same one I've had for three computers as well.

And, I don't like Vista, so I've kept XP. When you buy a new computer, you're, in effect, buying the OS again. What I did was just give my XP activation and serial numbers to the place that built my last machine (upgraded on this machine with a new mobo without having to change the OS), and they activated XP for me. I didn't buy XP a second (and now, third) time.

So, by keeping and reusing most parts, I just upgrade the specific things I want to upgrade. I bought a quad processor, the new BFG nVideo 280 graphics card, a DDR3 mobo, and 4 megs of DDR3 RAM.

I was able to put the money where I wanted it.

Oh, and I bought a gaming mouse too, one that uses a laser vs. an optical mouse.



So...it really depends on your budget, what's important to you, and what use you have for your PC.

Built machines are great, but some of the deals are so good on retail machines that they're hard to pass up.

 

[jfetters]

Seems this is more of a random static thread?

Agreed, this should be moved.

 

[aramis]

It's fine in Lone Star, since the Poster is asking for advice from his fellow traveller fans.

On to my opinion...
S4 makes some interesting points... and generally, building won't save you money unless you pirate Windows or use linux.

You have to account for that $100+ whack, and remember that on a new build, you might not have "trusted components" unless you go up-price.

 

[Hemdian]

Once upon a time I bought a Gateway PC. Over the years I upgraded it bit by bit until, when I dumped it last year, the soundcard was the only original component.

But building a PC takes time (researching, installing, etc). Time I'd much rather spend on Traveller activities. (I don't PC game.) So now I just use laptops ... I have 3.

As for Windows vs other OSs ... that depends on what you software you want to run.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Many apologies for not posting in random static. I humbly ask for forgiveness.

Thanks for the feedback. I was at Fry's last week, and saw some really small (lunch box sized) PCs that were essentially gaming machines. Those, verse my homebuilt P4 in an Alienware case powering a TYAN Tomcat motherboard.

Quick anecdote; my first homebuilt PC was a Nexgen P80. I built that more or less to play DOOM II. My old 386 required a bit of disk swapping for that game. As time went on I kept buying DOS and window upgrades so I wouldn't have to rebuy the OS. But, two more home built computers later, and it got to the point where I had to install DOS 3, then upgrade to 6.2, the install the Win95 upgrade, then the Win98 upgrade, and DL via dialup that latest upgrade for Win98. And that was just for the OS. Dumping components and upgrading drivers was another chore unto itself.

I would like my next PC to do two things; edit and play a couple games; Crysis and CSS, and maybe BF2142. Ideally I want to make Traveller oriented maps for them, depending on which engine I like best. I was going to edit video on it as well, but the guy I intern for says I can edit my project on his machines.

There's the usual stuff, like word processing, DLing por... er, bikini videos I'm just really tired of going out and pricing components to save money. During the 90s I saved thousands by building my own stuff, but now things are so cheap I'm not sure it's worth the energy and effort.

 

[veltyen]

There's the usual stuff, like word processing, DLing por... er, bikini videos I'm just really tired of going out and pricing components to save money. During the 90s I saved thousands by building my own stuff, but now things are so cheap I'm not sure it's worth the energy and effort.

Definitely. I used to build component wise.

These days I buy a new machine every 3-5 years, and bitwise replace limited components. Things like getting a machine with a couple of spare memory slots (ie 2x1Gb rather then 4x0.5Gb memory layout) can be an idea so you can "pep" up the system at a later date, as well as making sure you have the latest standard video slot.

About the only thing I've regularily updated is video support - about every 6 to 12 months, but that is for a gaming rig and video cards are one of the few things that is still noticeable and quickly increasing in quality.

Screens are interchangable, upgrade when you have the $$, though with the price of decent 19+" LCD's at the moment that also isn't a huge concern. If you want to go the 30+" screen remember that it would also be replacing a TV in that case.

Latest "upgrade" was replacing a mouse that broke. I went for a razer, it is noticably soooooo much nicer, but again, this would be more the case for a gaming rig rather then a general use machine.

 

[far-trader]

Many apologies for not posting in random static. I humbly ask for forgiveness.

Bah! I'm with aramis on this one It's fine in the Lounge. Besides nobody expects much serious matter in random static, and few views. I don't blame you one bit for wanting to post here for the better chance of feedback. Sorry I don't have any to offer, but I'll be pirating all the free advice you get, arrr

 

[Jacqual]

If you go to any decent electronics shop and go for a tower/monitor package you should be fairly ok in the 500 to 700 range for just a basic non-gaming rig. With an upgrade to power supply and video card you can do some games. One of my home PC's cost me 700 bucks with windows vista home premium, 2 Gigs of RAM, and a 22 inch widescreen LCD monitor. I upgraded the power supply and video card for a total of another 250 and I can play World of Warcraft at 40 fps. Just make sure the tower has a PCI Express x16 slot preferably PCI 2.0 compliant and you are good to go. Please remember the prices I have listed are canadian and up here we get slightly gouged on PC prices compared to the US. I do feel for that you should at least get a duel core processor and if possiable a quad core. I do recommend if at all go with intel they are running a little faster for the newer games right about now.

 

[morfydd]

if your going with a P4 id suggest just upgrading ram and video card..
Unless your Heavy into gaming ..that should do you..
If you want to have a high end gaming rig build ..
That being said if you do get a new machine 4 gigs is minimal for Vista to run well ..for a P4/5 machine for 500 bucks you can get a laptop...

 

[morfydd]

It's fine in Lone Star, since the Poster is asking for advice from his fellow traveller fans.

On to my opinion...
S4 makes some interesting points... and generally, building won't save you money unless you pirate Windows or use linux.

You have to account for that $100+ whack, and remember that on a new build, you might not have "trusted components" unless you go up-price.

The windows depends on the lisecne you currently have ( i still have my old 3 user XP disk the liscence says i can have it on any three comps on the same site forever. as long as its on only 3 PC's and the same site (my home)..most older xp pro licenses read the same ..So check what it says ...most of the vista and newer xp liscences say one box and one box only..(no workaround it dosent say one configuaration just one machine ..on a self build that means you can upgrade the same box forever as long as its that box(case) just takes a phone call to tell them "hey i had to swap my harddrive casue it crashed" or" i had to replace componets" or "i just upgraded a couple of componets in my machine"..and voilia your liscence is still good). Just dont forget that call or the op system will shut itself back down till you do ..and get the new config number from MS. (no charge just a long phone call)..

 

[CosmicGamer]

I've retired from the computer consulting business so I won't comment on what you should do but I have a word of caution. There are a lot of companies going out of business. Do a little research or you may not be able to get support in the near future.

Good Luck.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Cosmic; that's a good word of caution.

 

[ThunderChilde]

If you want to go the component route, do a little research, there are some useful sites out there testing components and reporting to the enthusiast community. Tom's Hardware for starters.

I preffer checking weekly at Newegg, and Tigerdirect when I have picked out what I am gunning for. Then I wait for it to go on sale. Recently(since Nov.) I picked up a 22" Acer LCD for $149, no shipping, an nVidia GTX 260 for $184, and from ebay, a pair of 750gig SAS HD's for $200. I nabbed a SAS card last year ($48.00)and have been lurking for a deal, oh and a 36gig 15k SAS too $24.00, gonna be used for my boot disc.

General FYI, if you have never built a PC before, get a friend who has to look over your shoulder and provide the pearls of wisdom that prevetn tears.

 

[Icosahedron]

The windows depends on the lisecne you currently have ( i still have my old 3 user XP disk the liscence says i can have it on any three comps on the same site forever. as long as its on only 3 PC's and the same site (my home)..most older xp pro licenses read the same ..So check what it says ...most of the vista and newer xp liscences say one box and one box only..(no workaround it dosent say one configuaration just one machine ..on a self build that means you can upgrade the same box forever as long as its that box(case) just takes a phone call to tell them "hey i had to swap my harddrive casue it crashed" or" i had to replace componets" or "i just upgraded a couple of componets in my machine"..and voilia your liscence is still good). Just dont forget that call or the op system will shut itself back down till you do ..and get the new config number from MS. (no charge just a long phone call)..

[mini-rant]
Now this is precisely why I haven't upgraded my OS in a very looong time. It sticks in my throat to pay Mr Gates all that money and then have to go grovelling for his permission every time I want to swap a board in my machine. He can stick Vista somewhere very dark...
The older systems do 90% of what I want, and I can do without the rest. One day I'll have time to learn Linux (or it will become intelligible to non geeks).
[/mini-rant]

 

[mbrinkhues]

IMHO there are two options today:

IF you can do some of your own maintenance in case the store dies go to a local store and have THEM assemble a system to your specs. Make sure that you buy the SYSTEM, not the components and have them give you a guarantee that the SYSTEM works. That way it's their job to test components and warn you in case of incompatibilities

If OTOH you don't want that hassle, go to one of the big brands (Dell, Fujitsu, IBM, Acer/PacBell) and buy there. Either a "ready box" or a "configureabel" box. And just because the online store says "Can only get this with OS <insert>" does not mean it's true. Often a short phone call to the customer hotline will be abel to change that.

My current box was assembled using method a) and gave the shop some problems (Bad Memory, non-matching power supplies in the case THEY recommended). Not my problem

Next box (end of this year) will be build using b) and most likely have DELL stamped on front. Partially because they have SOLARIS certified boxes, partially because I like them