What’s the point of building a computer yourself? The answer is very simple for me: for every single part of the computer, I get to pick the exact hardware that I want. That’s pretty much all there is to it. No compromises. My way. There are very few things in life where you have complete control. Building a computer is one of them for me.
I think people have several misconceptions regarding my decision to build a computer. I’d like to address them.
Building a computer yourself is cheaper.
Not at all. Maybe in the days before the Dells and Gateways, but not anymore. You can find a decent computer for dirt cheap now. Just go to Dell and buy their budget rig for $500. The price of this computer was pushing $3,000. That ain’t cheap. To be fair, of course, those cheap Dells don’t have anywhere near the specs of my computer, but I’m just pointing something out here. A Dell built to the specs (or near) those of my computer would be pretty expensive, and almost assuredly more that $3k. But that’s besides the point. Even if it were cheaper, I still wouldn’t buy it. There’s no way to get the exact brand and model of every single part you want if you get it pre-packaged.
I like to build things because I’m a gadget geek.
Not true. This is probably the most common misconception among my family and friends. Building a computer is a pain in the ass. You’re house gets all messy, you run into annoying issues here and there. Not to mention transferring all your data over and installing everything all over again. It’s quite stressful, and I don’t enjoy it. But that’s the tradeoff. You’re miserable for a couple of weeks, but in the end you have a really sweet rig. Sure, it’s slightly rewarding, but not enough to make me do it just for the fun of it. I have plenty of other things I’d rather do for fun. I’ll write later about all the headaches I ran into because of this project.
I bought a lot of luxury items that I don’t really need.
Nope. This was actually brought up in the DC forums by a concerned member, but it’s completely false. Yes, I got some pretty sweet parts, but I feel they were all chosen responsibly. I know that this computer is going to last me several years, so I have to make sure that my parts have enough room to age well. What may seem luxurious now will be old in 3 years. But if I choose wisely, all of this equipment should run satisfactorily and smoothly 7 years from now. Remember, I’m not a gamer. I don’t do things that require the most bleeding edge stuff. All of my hardware choices were made from the standpoint of a “best bang for the buck” value. Of course, I didn’t spend so much as to hurt me financially in any way. The point is that the choices were made wisely.
I hope this makes my intentions pretty clear. I just want the thing done exactly the way I want. Unfortunately, the only way to do that is to build it myself. Other than that, there aren’t many good, fun reasons to build a computer. Sure there are certain “moral victories” gained by going through the process like learning a lot about the guts of a computer and discovering solutions to problems. But none of these other reasons would motivate me enough to actually build the thing. I have enough trouble finding time to do the things that I consider fun and enjoyable. This is definitely not fun. If I were really rich, I’d just make a list of parts I want and pay someone to build it for me.
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aram, i suppose it’s too late…but i’ll leave you with some thoughts. i built my own computer a while ago and ever since, i’ve had nothing but problems. it could have been my choice of components – incompatibility between the hardware. i’ll really never know…
my motherboard died…had to return it. next my memory was bad…had to return it. now my computer decides to shut down when the room gets warm. bach says it’ss maybe my power supply that’s dying. when i open the case up, i notice that the power supply fan is not even running!
i paid many a pretty penny for this computer too! 24″ dell lcd, amd 2.2 dual core (forget exact specs), asus 939 socket mb, 2 gb ram, pci-e video, etc. all i’ve had were problems. there was only about a 4 month span when everything just FLEW! maybe i took the bleeding edge stuff (back in 2005 standards) but i don’t think it was worth the breakdowns and $ i’ve spent.
that’s why i’m planning on jumping to MAC. aside from $$$ aspect (that’s a huge part), i think i’ll have less issues with one.
Jay, I’ve been building computers for 15 years. So I probably have much more experience dealing with it. Yeah, there are a lot of things that can go wrong. Normally, it should be fine. In your case, it may have just been bad luck. I’ve only had one case a few years ago where several parts went bad. The problem ended up being a bad power supply, which makes sense because a bad power supply has the rare potential to ruin a lot of the equipment. Ever since then, I make sure to get excellent power supplies. I will never skimp on the PSU ever. I’ve also had dead hard drives in the past also. But overall, I have to say that in the end, my system is always better than a pre-packaged unit.
Going Mac may be a great idea for you. I am a huge proponent of Macs for people who don’t want the headache of maintaining a pc. A Mac is very simple and user-friendly: you just turn it on and go, and they work pretty good for the most part. I don’t recommend PC’s unless you are planning to get geeked out on it. That is, you should prepare to get into the nuts and bolts of things, tweaking the hardware, tweaking the software. If you don’t have the time or desire for that, Mac’s are a good alternative. I used to be a Mac hater, but I definitely see their value now from a user-friendly level. They get it right as far as making the experience as pleasant as possible.
Top level components for each individual component probably don’t work that well together if they aren’t compatible. I am not sure what your other counter parts pushed you towards, but I’d probably build around the intel Core i7 processor. The consumer friendly version beats the top performing quad core in many benchmark tests. Maximize on RAM by running a 64 bit operating system. Install a solid state hard drive, and have multiple western digital raptors in a RAID 0+1 array for data. Be sure to purchase some high quality cables and a good cooling system. Ensure the ability to overclock the RAM and the CPU by flipping switches on the motherboard. Grab a copy of maximum PC, read anandtech.com and tomshardware.com for information on compoments.
If you were a real baller, you wouldn’t care about the hardware specs of a computer. It’s what you can DO that will make you truly L33t. You could run variations of linux to create a music/video/media server for your entire house. Have a separate rack system to serve files and crunch numbers via an array network. Install fiber optic cabling around you house to get a superquick network. Have one of those racks to run an intranet, and be the router to the internet. Get a variant of the netbook to control your entire system and tie the system into your environmental control system to adjust based on monitoring of your biometric life signs.
Well, these days, compatibility isn’t much of an issue except in rare circumstances. Also, you’re a whole other level of “baller” (as you say) than I am. For my computer needs, I’m a practical person. You are a certified gadgetaholic and you know it. If I left it up to you, I’d be hurting for some $6k at least. You’re crazy! Believe me, one day, when I’m rich, I’ll let you spec out my computer.
I thought about core i7 but it was too expensive for the mobo and the cpu. And I’m not creating a server system in my house, although now I’m considering it (don’t give me any more ideas!!). Fiber optic? Rack?? Linux?! Go away!! You’re evil!
You can get a good Core i7 machine with 12gb’s of RAM, 24 inch monitor with a couple of 500GB hd for $1500 – $2000.
I know you value your data and music collection, so have 1 fast drive for your applications and a couple of drives mirroring themselves for your data.
I have stopped building machines myself since I just don’t have the time. I do suggest that you look at doing something different in your case selection. I know how you like to be exclusive, so build it out of some old music keyboard parts, or buy and old organ and throw your motherboard in there. We should be able to determine proper ventilation requirements, since we do this HVAC thing.
Cmon now, Bert. There’s no way I could build an i7 machine for $2000. Get out of here! 12GB of ram would be at least $200, if not more for the ddr3 type. With the kind of redundant backup I do, I need at least 3 hard drives, preferably 1 terabyte, which is what I got. That’s almost $500 right there. The mobo+CPU would be around $500 as well. So, basically, you’re insane. Now I know how you convince yourself to buy all your gadgets. And I’m not building an ASHRAE certified case.
I actually have the whole list of parts and prices listed on the donationcoder forums, I just haven’t posted it on my website yet. In a future article, I’ll show the list of eveything I got and how I came to choose each part. Then it will make more sense.
Well I just emailed you a Dell system from less than 2Gs… You might add something, but at 1649 with 12GBs memory and so on, it meets the minimum specs.
You purchased the system already?
i got a macbook (non-pro) on sunday. it’s perfect for what i need. internet, photo editing, etc. and when i need extra screen real estate, all i need to do is hook up the dvi cable to the port and i can use both the laptop screen (a bit small) and the 24″ dell that i got when i built that pc. it was very expensive, but i do like the way it works. it’s really no brainer compared with pc’s.
i built my computer and had to do a lot of hardware and software configuration. that was the fun part. even setting fan limits and temperatures. of course, us engineers like that kind of thing…but when all that stuff just goes to $#!+, it ain’t worth it anymore!
stay away from bert. he likes to spend our money…live vicariously through us since he’s about to have his kid. he’s probably the reason why i actually bought this computer. he kept coming by and bugging me and begging me. now he’s writing in your blog to get enjoyment out of spending your $. the bastar*!
I don’t view it as spending someone else’s money, I view it more as enhancing another person’s lifestyle.
Money comes and goes.. gadgets last at least until the next generation replaces it, and some are more useful than others.
As far as Jay and his macbook, he was already going to purchase one anyway, it was just a matter of time. Now that he has a macbook, he has developed an emotional attachment to it.
Currently my next dream project would be to outfit my parent’s house with a central media server…