Built a computer lately?

My 2001 AMD is about ready to bite the dust. I was a very good budget gaming machine at the time but it's a little out of date.


I should be able to keep the case but that's about it. I don't want to go core i5 or i7 because they're too damn expensive. Looking to find a reasonable AMD combo- proc/mobo/ram.

Not sure yet on power supply requirements- PS wattage has gone way up.

I'd like to keep the hardware under $500 including a graphics card under $200. I just want to be able to finish half-life and fly some flight sims. I yeah, I guess I have to upgrade from XP.....

Any recommendations?

 

You should be able to buy a fairly decent brand new computer for $700.00 down there Rob. Is it really worth rebuilding that tower?

Having said this, last time I tried building a computer NASA's laser beams blew the fuck out of the top of Mount St. Helen's.

 

Having sold literally 1000's of computers, most of them white box clones, over the years my recommendation is to start fresh. Old towers with old power supplies just don't have the latest specs. Not worth limiting yourself. Motherboards need to have latest memory and cpu compatibilities, bus speeds, and graphics card slots. Every time I would price out the pieces, the cost was about the same as a white box from a good integrator, with windows installed ready to go. Only time worth building one yourself is if your are after bleeding edge performance for gaming or graphics work. Everyday computers, especially with an AMD processors are miles above what we had back in the XP days. You would be surprise how many Corps and the Government are still using XP! Hardest part is to stop agonizing about the best deal, and make the commitment, because tomorrow something else is going to come along. Talk to a few small shops, see what they have. I can speak from experience that the computer business has lousy margins, everybody gives the shit away.

For years I sold ACER Open white box clones, good solid machines from one of the largest manufactures in the world. The Dell came along with a white box program and I became a Dell reseller. A lot easier to sell a Dell, than a no name. Easy to work on and great service.

Computers are machines that you buy for a purpose based on your needs, then there are those who buy them as a hobby and want the latest and greatest, always longing for something better. (Sound familiar?)

 

I remember when I built my bleeding edge computer a decade and a half ago. 3.0GHZ (overclocked to 3.55Ghz) hyper threading Pentium 3 gig ram(which was the limit) , 2 X 200 gig had, and a sweet top notch N-Vida video card. Bus speed was overclocked from 266mhz to almost 300mhz at full clock speed and core voltage I could use it as a room heater. For gaming it would kick any consoles a$$ at the time. 6 months later consoles come out with multiple distributed processing, true dual and soon quad core processors came out, everything went to Pci-E bus , memory limit went up to 8 gig (iirc). No longer needing edge for sure but it performed well 10 years later when I finally sold it.
Point is the bar moves so fast that their is a hardly a point measuring with it. Just buy what will comfortably do the things you want it to do as it will continue to do these things until it blows up.

Good thing about building your own and doing a clean windows installed is you avoid bloat ware as well as many of the built in time bombs that waste more and more resources until 2-3 years later things grind to almost a halt.
Problem is the cost of a recent copy of windows eats up any savings versus a pre boxed brand, but for those who can do their own configuration and maintenance you come out ahead to BYO.

 

Any way you cut it, you are going to pay $80 to $100 for OEM copy of Windows. DB is correct about the big companies like HP, Dell etc installing all kinds of extra unwanted software. I usually created at least two partitions on a fresh disk. The C:\ drive for system files and program files (programs will always default to install there) and additional partitions based on usage. Back in the day when disks were small you had to be careful, now with these super huge drives make sure the C:\ has ample space. I made the mistake of thinking 60GB for the C:\ would be ample when I ordered my Dell laptop 3 years ago, wrong!

When I started doing AutoCAD for military hospitals in the late 80's I paid $10,000 for the first 486 25 mhz workstation including a $2000 his-res graphics card and 20" monitor! Then paid another $500 to upgrade the cpu to a 50 mhz 486!

 

I see a lot of people recommending and using this site. Has guides and build info. I am with you. I need a better graphics card to run FSX. Got an I7 processor that is little older but still fast enough to run fine but my graphics card is mainly for HD TV and not gaming. Never thought I would be need gamer quality stuff nor that FSX would require so just put in medium quality card at the time. If you do build, get you SSD for operating system and HDD for storage of data.

http://pcpartpicker.com/

 

Definitely get Windows Pro NOT Home.

Remember too that PC sales are way down, so there are deals to be had.

 

This very quickly went far beyond my scope of knowledge. I will just sit back in the peanut gallery and let those who know do the talking. Now when you start talking oak, cedar or pine board rather than mother board, give me a shout. I might fit in at that point.

Good luck Rob.

 

WTF are you all talking about? I barely know how to turn this thing on.

 

For a custom built computer in the Seattle area, head over to any area near the MS Campus. There are dozens of outfits that will build any sort of computer.

The competition is fierce.

Then ya can join the "mine is bigger than yours club".

 

Thanks for the advice- they're all valid and helpful points.

I bought a HP i5 for my work. Walmart $300. It's very quick but I don't play games at work.
I bought one for myself with more RAM from Amazon. Several serious problems and seller claimed I voided the warranty by upgrading to 10. What a bunch of bullshit. Managed to get my money back.

Yeah it would be cheaper to just buy one and it would probably more than meet my needs but I'm looking over at my old one, with blue bubble lights and clear covers exposing it's innards and I'll miss it. It was my pride and joy for awhile. Hopefully it'll last long enough to plan the next one. Or order the next one...

 

Blue bubble lights and clear covers. You sure you didn't just wake up from a wet dream where you were looking at sex toys from the bed of a madam at a cheap whorehouse?

 

Pretty sure Randy....

 

I think this is a vid of an early version of Robs home computer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUaYy4ds2OE

 

Are you looking for a stationary or a laptop? If stationary I'd say PSU in the 700 watts area, a chassis that fit what you need in it and definitely at least one SSD for programs and perhaps a hard disk for data.

 

This computer is > 4 years old now. A Systemax, built to my choice of specs, via Tigerdirect.
Is still faster than the HP I got for backup last year, so I'm happy with it.

I would not want to try and build my own from parts. But thought some of the key bits were core i5 processor, SSD for C: and separate 1TB optical drive for data, and max RAM. I use it for work and am not much concerned about video quality. Most anything modern is plenty good. But did get a video card so I could run 3 screens. I want quantity. Decide what you need and want.

 

I've built a few Gaming box's in my time. There is a market out there for people wanting a custom box assembled & running made to order, It's become a second job.

This system here is pretty close to ideal for an entry level gaming system. The price is AUS so if you delete the box, should weigh in around $700USD. If you want it a bit cheaper, drop the Video card to a Gigabyte GTX 1050.

http://www.scorptec.com.au/systems/scorptec/25/359

My current box can run as high as 4.3ghz overclocked, but I only usually run it around 3.5-3.6ghz. No need to run it any higher as every game I have hits the 144fps cap of the G sync monitor.
It has 11 cooling fans in total so when they are all going flat out, I have to strap it down otherwise it hovers around the room!

 

Does anyone have a wireless tower that I can strap to a couple of quad copters. That way I can bring a bigass computer along with me while I go back and forth to Wal*Mart.

Nothin like a good game of Pong while riding.

 

Those are some pretty modest requirements. Half Life only needs the following:

You could pretty much by any off the shelf PC and run that with the graphics set to high no problem. Hell, I bet my Raspberry Pi could run that! I used to always build my computers until I got into riding motorcycles. Then it just didn't seem that important to me anymore. The newest computer I have is my ThinkPad and I got 2 of them for $250 off ebay because they were 4 years old. That would be my recommendation. Find a really powerful computer that is about 4 years old. As was already mentioned, performance and capabilities advance so damned fast that you are no longer cutting edge as soon as you get it home.

Also, if you get a computer without an OS, you could always install a linux distribution and WINE then run Half Life on that. Linux is free as is WINE.