Question: reason for building a custom desktop?

[mfenn]

Whoa, awesome!

I completely hear you about dropping 6 gigs to 4; however I want to maintain the 6 gigs of RAM because I dabble in graphic design/3d modeling - yes, I read many thread that would suggest at least an i7 cpu, but I'm not that seriously into it (yet, anyhow) and the i3 seems good enough to handle most things (and I hear it OCs really easily). As I've crashed Illustrator due to insufficient RAM before, I think that should be my priority.

Anyhow, that is really close to the budget, I am genuinely surprised!

I aim to please!

I would say that if you're going to be doing 3d work, you would be better off with the AMD system that I put together since it is a quad core. Check out this comparison. The 530 is better at single-threaded tasks, but the 630 is better at highly-threaded tasks like rendering (check out the Cinebench, POV-Ray, and Blender benches).

 

[lsv]

Won't be able to OC an i3 very much on a shitty Gateway

 

[Schadenfreude]

Won't be able to OC an i3 very much on a shitty Gateway

I guess that just shows how new to all this I am; truth is, I didn't even know that makers restrict OC'ing! My brother is the one who's been doing the PC-building in the family and I've been wanting to start (he's overseas so not a good reference for now) - as for the Gateway I just figured I can have a functional desktop w/ some baseline specs first and make gradual improvements (add GPU, replace PSU, etc.) as I go along!

 

[Magusigne]

I guess that just shows how new to all this I am; truth is, I didn't even know that makers restrict OC'ing! My brother is the one who's been doing the PC-building in the family and I've been wanting to start (he's overseas so not a good reference for now) - as for the Gateway I just figured I can have a functional desktop w/ some baseline specs first and make gradual improvements (add GPU, replace PSU, etc.) as I go along!

The GPU and PSU..just make sure the power supply is a standard ATX size...sometimes they come kinda funky.

Also with building your own you can keep recycling parts. Ie. Case/PSU (As your rig demands)/ HD's. And Honestly..It's not terribly difficult to build your own. Plug and Post most of the time.

Schadenfreude..how much do you anticpate on said gateway? Also..do you even care to do a bit of tweaking around with it (OC'ing etc?) Were you considering getting a warranty on gateway?

 

[Key West]

#1 reason is you can salvage your existing parts and simply upgrade to a far faster system than buying a whole rig.

 

[Schadenfreude]

The GPU and PSU..just make sure the power supply is a standard ATX size...sometimes they come kinda funky.

Also with building your own you can keep recycling parts. Ie. Case/PSU (As your rig demands)/ HD's. And Honestly..It's not terribly difficult to build your own. Plug and Post most of the time.

Schadenfreude..how much do you anticpate on said gateway? Also..do you even care to do a bit of tweaking around with it (OC'ing etc?) Were you considering getting a warranty on gateway?

Weeeell, that's the $64,000 question, innit?

If I were to get the Gateway, I'm thinking I can use it out-of-the box for a very competitive price; I might not be able to game on it initially, but I can use it for other functions and get a discreet GPU for it later, and it sounds like I should be able to customize it later anyways.

I plan on doing the following;

• Generic, all-around family PC that my wife and I can use
• Using as an HTPC; ultimately I plan on hooking it up to my HDTV - higher capacity HDDs are a must.
• Gaming; there are a fair amount of cross-platform games that I can enjoy - esp. if it's hooked up to a TV (using it as a console-substitute and a pc game system) so lower rosolutions (720? 1080?) are a-okay.
• Graphic Design/Illustration; I have a history of messing about w/ these programs, so the more RAM there is, the better.
• 3D modeling; I'm currently dabbling in making boxes and teapots of all various sizes and colors - who knows? maybe sphere and cones are in my near future . . ..
• I'm also hoping it'll last a good 2~3 years as a general workstation/desktop

Outside of that, my wife and I already have laptops, and I'm more of a make-it-and-forget it type of guy; I know that the i3-530 chip can be OC'd to over 4GHz, the X3 440 has the possibility of unlocking the 4th core w/ OC'ing as well and I'd love to tinker with that possibility - but my practical side tells me to prioritize stability so even if I do OC it, to approach w/ caution.

 

[Meghan54]

Why build instead of prebuilt?

I can control exactly what goes into the build, am not restricted to the crippled BIOS' OEM's tend to use, can upgrade at will and not be restricted by underpowered power supplies, proprietary front panel connectors on the motherboard, and simply being able to choose the quality of the components that go into my build.

Don't think you'll find many OEM's using memory like, as an extreme example, Mushkin Redline or Corsair Dominator GT's. And the list goes on.

 

[JimKiler]

I've seen those promotions happen onyl when new versions come out - how often does this normally happen? And how can I, as a working chump, get in on these deals?



.

Do you have an .edu email address? then you can get the student discount of $65 at www.ultimatesteal.com that is how i got mine. I hope i still get can keep email address once i graduate this december.

 

[Fayd]

I don't think you have ever read the OEM EULA.




--

who cares about EULA's?


(fwiw, i'm working on phasing out all the improperly licensed xp installs i have.)


To the OP:

some people care about silence/looks moreso than others. for your bare budget box, then you might as well go with dell. but if you want that system really quiet/looking really good, you can't beat building it yourself.

 

[Magusigne]

Weeeell, that's the $64,000 question, innit?

No price point listed?

again its a sliding scale of getting screwed. Budget of 600 or less AND need a monitor. Sure...go with a gateway or other pre-build. The more you go over that number the more your quality of home-build begins to separate from the gateways "high end" markup on parts.

 

[Schadenfreude]

No price point listed?

again its a sliding scale of getting screwed. Budget of 600 or less AND need a monitor. Sure...go with a gateway or other pre-build. The more you go over that number the more your quality of home-build begins to separate from the gateways "high end" markup on parts.

Oh, forgot to mention that; I do have a LCD monitor/speakers/keyboard/mouse I can use no problem so I would set my budget at somewhere around $600.00 for the desktop box itself.

 

[Modelworks]

One thing you can do with a custom build is buy just what you need to get it going then add on parts as you can afford them . I can buy a good case, power supply , and motherboard with the intention of going dual video card, more memory, more hard drives, etc in the future. Often buying OEM you will find slots missing so no adding more video cards, missing memory slots, small power supplies, nowhere to mount more hard drives.


Don't be afraid to look at refurbs either, sometimes the higher end versions of oem brands have the benefits of a home build but for a lot less.
Like this Asus for $599
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?inv...3-PB-R&cat=SYS

features/Specifications:
Asus Essentio CG5275-AR003 Core i5-650 3.2 GHz Desktop PC

General Features:
Black glossy front panel
Minimalist design
Anodized aluminum bezel and steel chassis
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium pre-installed w/CoA
Intel Core i5-650 3.2 GHz Dual Core 32 nm CPU w/Intel Hyper-Threading
Cores: 2, Threads: 4
2.5 GT/s DMI interface, 4 MB L3 cache
CPU integrated Intel Hi-Def graphics (733 MHz base frequency)
8 GB DDR3 SDRAM
Serial ATA DVD±RW DL drive
1 Terabyte (TB) Serial ATA Hard Drive
Integrated 7.1-channel High Definition audio
Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN
USB Keyboard included
USB 3-button optical scroll mouse included
Multi-in-One Digital Media Card Reader

Supported Memory Cards:
CompactFlash (CF)
Micro Drive
Memory Stick (MS)
Memory Stick Pro (MS Pro)
Memory Stick Pro Duo (MS Pro Duo)
Memory Stick Duo (MS-Duo)
MultiMediaCard (MMC)
MultiMediaCard 4.0 (MMC 4.0)
Reduced Size MultiMediaCard 4.0 (RS-MMC 4.0)
Secure Digital (SD)
Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC)

Expansion Slots:
Four (4) DIMM sockets (occupied)
One (1) PCI Express x16 slot
One (1) PCI Express x1 slot
Four (4) Serial ATA 3.0 Gb/s ports
Two (2) PCI slots

Front I/O Ports:
Three (3) Memory card slots
Four (4) USB 2.0 ports
One (1) Microphone In jack
One (1) Headphone In jack

Rear I/O Ports:
One (1) PS/2 port
Six (6) USB 2.0 ports
One (1) SPDIF out port
One (1) HDMI port
One (1) 15-pin VGA port
One (1) DVI-D (dual-link) port
One (1) RJ-45 Ethernet jack
Line in, line out, microphone jacks
Side, rear, c/sub audio jacks

Case Features:
Two (2) 5.25-inch external drive bays (one occupied)
Two (2) 3.5-inch internal drive bays (one occupied)
400-watt power supply (110-120V ~ 9.0A, 220-240V ~ 4.5A)

Dimensions:
18.1 x 8.11 x 21-inches (H x W x D, approximate)

Regulatory Approvals:
CE
FCC
BSMI
cULus
WEEE
C-Tick
Package Includes:
Asus Essentio CG5275-AR003 Core i5 3.2 GHz Desktop PC
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium pre-installed w/CoA
USB multimedia keyboard
USB 3-button optical scroll mouse
Power cord
Recovery DVD
Support DVD
Additional Information:

Notes:
Model: Essentio CG5275
P/N: CG5275-AR003
UPC: 6 10839 08314 5
EAN: 4 719543 083147

Product Requirements:
Available power outlet
VGA, DVI or HDMI monitor
Speakers, Etc.

No way to beat that and do it yourself.

 

[frostedflakes]

Custom build is probably cheaper for some people, because they re-use a lot of parts. For example case, PSU, optical drives, hard drives, retail OS, stuff like that can generally be carried over from one build to the next. This is what I did a while back, just bought a new board, CPU, and video card. Everything else was reused. If you were building completely from scratch, though, prebuilt would probably be cheaper.

And Win 7 64-bit and 32-bit were free (or rather, subsidized by my tuition, I guess...) since I can take advantage of my university's MSDN AA program.

Plus building has some other advantages. I like being able to build *exactly* what I want and need. I like to buy enthusiast oriented motherboards and parts that tend to have more tweaking options than OEM parts. et cetera. Plus I just enjoy doing research on parts, finding good deals, building the system, all that stuff.

 

[cheap5.0]

I just spent from October to yesterday spec'ing and pricing, and reading, and asking.

Literally, i spent 8-10 hours a week researching...minimum. Not because i had too in order to make a nice desktop, but because i enjoy it.

Also i think when most people "build" a desktop (aside from the first time, and every 5-10 years) they dont buy a new OS, PSU, case, monitor, keyboard, mouse etc....like what i did.

All i need was a CPU, mobo, ram, vid card and a CD drive because mine dumped out after 5 years of use. I got a i7-930, GTX 260, G.Skill 6 gig kit, an open box ASRock X58 mobo, and thermal compound for $650. Im might be missing a part or two, but for a similar dell would be $2000+. Im waiting to go to Win 7 because XP works fine for me now, and my case and PSU are still in great condition. My 20" monitor could use updating, but i dont *need* one. Hell im still using my keyboard from 1998 (thanks dell + parents).

My $0.02 haha

EDIT: And not having to deal with the added software and trialware from dell, HP, toshiba, whatever, is great! Knowing whats eating up my HD space if a nice feature.

 

[mfenn]

I just spent from October to yesterday spec'ing and pricing, and reading, and asking.

Literally, i spent 8-10 hours a week researching...minimum. Not because i had too in order to make a nice desktop, but because i enjoy it.

Also i think when most people "build" a desktop (aside from the first time, and every 5-10 years) they dont buy a new OS, PSU, case, monitor, keyboard, mouse etc....like what i did.

All i need was a CPU, mobo, ram, vid card and a CD drive because mine dumped out after 5 years of use. I got a i7-930, GTX 260, G.Skill 6 gig kit, an open box ASRock X58 mobo, and thermal compound for $650. Im might be missing a part or two, but for a similar dell would be $2000+. Im waiting to go to Win 7 because XP works fine for me now, and my case and PSU are still in great condition. My 20" monitor could use updating, but i dont *need* one. Hell im still using my keyboard from 1998 (thanks dell + parents).

My $0.02 haha

Why did you get 6GB for WinXP?

 

[frostedflakes]

He might be on 64-bit XP, or just went ahead and bought the RAM expecting to upgrade to Win 7 64-bit sometime in the near future.

 

[Lean L]

One thing you can do with a custom build is buy just what you need to get it going then add on parts as you can afford them . I can buy a good case, power supply , and motherboard with the intention of going dual video card, more memory, more hard drives, etc in the future. Often buying OEM you will find slots missing so no adding more video cards, missing memory slots, small power supplies, nowhere to mount more hard drives.


Don't be afraid to look at refurbs either, sometimes the higher end versions of oem brands have the benefits of a home build but for a lot less.
Like this Asus for $599
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?inv...3-PB-R&cat=SYS


No way to beat that and do it yourself.

I ended up with a Q9550, 8GB of ram and a 8800gts 512 for less than $400 when all was said and done. Albeit, I only have 320GB hdd space. No reused parts

 

[Fayd]

e-tailer

maybe he wants someone to tailor his clothes?

 

[JoshGuru7]

Building your own system is definitely a hobby. In order for it to be comparable in cost it requires that you don't put a dollar cost on your own time to research, select parts, and assemble the systems - since you're doing it for fun and not for work. In general you will end up with much higher quality parts at a somewhat higher cost.

If you do build your own, I recommend you start with a decent case and psu. While you can go super cheap on these, they will be the most likely to last through several builds and are worth a bit of extra money up front IMO. Pick a case appropriate for your usage - the HAF is great but probably a terrible idea if you want this to double as a HTPC in your living room.

 

[Deleted member 4644]

A few things:

1) It is similar in cost, especially because I want a system that is quiet, has a HUGE GPU, and runs cool. It is hard to get all of those in a cheapish prebuilt.

2) It is a hobby and I like it.

3) I reuse at least SOME parts in every build I have done in the last few years. (HD at least, usually at least some RAM, the PSU, case, and even CPU). That makes it cheaper.

4) Pre-builts are often VERY hard to upgrade. Shitty cheap as fuck Power Supply, or small case, or few upgrade slots. This substantially limits their life time.

5) I hate all the preinstall BS software that comes on a lot of new prebuilts.

 

[yinan]

It is very hard to find a prebuilt with 20 or so hotswappable drive trays.

 

[Deleted member 4644]

It is very hard to find a prebuilt with 20 or so hotswappable drive trays.

Damn willis, that is a lot of porn!

 

[0roo0roo]

cheap upgrades over time, assuming you rebuild with old parts.

 

[mmntech]

I enjoy doing it plus I get to use the parts I want, now what Dell thinks I want.

 

[hiddensniper11]

My reasons:

a) You get to choose the parts you want (I am a gamer but I don't usually go for the best in performance, I go for those which offers the best in price/performance. Those from Dell or HP tend to ignore what is best in price/performance)
b) I get to learn about hardware (you have to research before you purchase)
c) They are cheaper (or at least that is how I and most others perceive it)
d) You can get some discounts if you build more than one rig (get your friends along to buy at the same time)
e) Customer service tend to be better (if you know the store personnel