I’ve been wanting to get a new PC for a while. I’m a moderate gamer, and in general, like most people my age (in my socioeconomic class), I spend a lot of time on the computer. I’ve already got a nice, new monitor, a decent computer (P3 1Ghz, 384 MB ram, a 20 and a 60 GB hard drive, CD and CDRW drives, NVidia GForce2) and a nice set of speakers. But I’d like to upgrade to run the next generation of games, to get a DVD-R, and basically to start over with a new computer free from all the crap and wear and tear my computer has accumulated over the last 4 years. Obviously I don’t need a new monitor or speakers, but what else can I transfer from my old computer to augment a new one? Could I transfer the 60 Gig HD?
Since my need for the new computer isn’t TOO pressing, I’m not looking to spend a ton of money, but my friend suggested that I could probably get a good computer cheap if I built it myself. Is that true? If so, how hard is it to do? Do the savings justify the work? Where would I go to get the parts and what would I need to know to set it up myself?
Also, I’ve been looking at Dell, but I’m wondering if there’re any better places to buy a PC?
From what I’ve gathered, it is definitely cost effective to build it yourself, you will save a good chunk of change. People I’ve talked to all say it is easy. That said, I’m not sure I could do it when I upgrade later this year. One site that a lot of build-it-yourselfers look at for stuff is NewEgg.
At a guess, you can probably save at least several hundred dollars if you do it yourself, more if you are planning in advance and can buy parts that are on sale. However, I can’t help you how to do that, and am sure a builder will be along shortly.
The hard drive you can transfer over, along with some of the optical drives or the floppy drive. You probably can use your current case and power supply as well.
Building your own computer is the way to go if you want to save money; Dells and the like are only cheaper when you are talking about bottom of the barrel machines; anything more powerful than that, and you save money building it yourself. Also, you would get much better parts than you would get with a Dell. All the big manufactors tend to use crappy, low quality parts whenever they can get away with it. The power supplies on most large OEM computers tend to be terrible, in my experience, for example.
For about a $1000, you can put together a machine with an Athlon64 3200+, 1GB Corsair RAM, and a Radeon 9800 Pro video card(make sure to get the 256 bit memory bus version, NOT the 128 bit one), ect, if you buy the parts from www.newegg.com (as Visceramentioned, it best place, I have found.) A comparable system from Dell will run you $500 more.
And putting a computer togther is pretty easy. About the only tricky part is applying the thermal pastes to to CPU & heatsink, other than that it is pretty much plug everything in following the instructions in your motherboard’s manual. And then pray that all the parts work when you turn it on. But if something doesn’t work, newegg.com has a really good return policy.
You will only save money if you do not have to buy software. A copy of Windows XP is expensive. But you may be able to transfer licenses from your other machine or get them cheaply through work (I was able to buy MS Office for $20).
You’ve said that you’re a gamer, so I presume you want to play the latest games like Far Cry.
There are currently two major shifts in the PC marketplace: 64 bit and PCI-X. AMD’s 64-bit chips are generally faster than Intel’s 32 bit CPUs, and Intel is rushing to compete. Intel’s chips also run hotter. 64-bit Linux is available and 64 bit Windows is in open beta. PCI-X is the replacement for PCI and AGP. Both should mature towards the end of the year.
If you absolutely have to buy now, I would buy a SFF PC like a Shuttle with an AMD FX3000 and a mid-range GFX card like a Radeon 9800 or 9800 Pro, or the equivalent nVidia (5750, I think).
You can also buy bare bones systems. This would come with a case w/ power supply. Motherboard and CPU combo. Sometimes memory too. All this you assemble yourself. This is simple because you don’t have to figure out which processor is compatible with what motherboard. Just add harddrive, video card, and other accessories.
The price I indicated above includes a copy of WindowsXP Home. I went to Dell, and a similarly equiped desktop (3.0ghz P4, same amount of RAM, same video card, same sized hard drive, ect) will cost you ~$150 more. And if you build it yourself, you will get much better quality parts- the system I specced at newegg.com has a Antec power supply, and Corsair RAM, for example.
Also, a nitpick, and one of my pet peeves, qts, PCI-X is NOT the replacement for PCI and AGP. PCI-Express is what is going to replace PCI & AGP; PCI-X is an extension of the old PCI standards, used mostly on server motherboards for things like gigabit ethernet. PCI-Express is a competely different standard; here is a good article on PCI-Express.
Also, a Radeon 9800 or 9800 Pro are both much faster than a Geforce 5750 - the nVidia cards with comparable performance would be GeforceFX 5900 and 5900 Ultra, though the GeforceFX cards suffer greatly when running the latest DX9 games. ATI and nVidia are both releasing new cards shortly (the latest ATI cards just became available), but the new cards are very expensive, and right now the best bang for your buck would be a Radeon 9800 Pro - they can be had for $210 at newegg.com.
A computer, with a Athlon64 3000 & a Radeon 9800 Pro is definatly what I would buy right now, if I was getting a new system. And those SFF systems look nice too.
Or, if you have a lot of cash to spend, I would get a dual Opteron SFF system and put a pair of Opteron 250’s in there, with a Radeon X800.
I use to put together computers but got tired of it. Mind you, I was using old parts, so you always had to search for drivers, and nothing ever really fit properly in the cases. These days, I would rather order the new parts I want through a small local store, bring in the parts I want to recycle, and have them put it all together for me. They usually charge a small fee for this, but to me, it is worth it to have the gaurantee that all the stuff works properly and they’ll be the ones who have to deal with any returns. Maybe if it is a store that also sells used gear, they’ll do it in exchange for some of your old components and/or take trade-ins.
Thanks for the corrections, Randomletters, but here in the UK, I’ve never been able to match Dell’s prices for low-end stuff - they have lots of special offers, typically getting rid of old product lines - as the include not only XP, but also a bundle of other stuff, like Works. I’ll handily beat a high-end, dual-CPU, workstation or server, though.
It’s a pity the ZMax isn’t going to be PCI-Express.
Personally, I agree with the “it’s cheaper if you don’t have to buy software” line of thinking. For example, I’ve got what is still partially a Dell Dimension 8100, but I’ve now got an academic upgrade version of XP Pro and a free version of Office 2003 Pro. That right there saved me an easy $300-400. Other changes I made is adding a 120-gig hard drive and replacing both the DVD-ROM drive and the CD-RW. If I were to build a new system off of current parts, I’d be in pretty good shape. I’d want a new motherboard and processor (probably an AMD 64-bit), as well as new RAM, as there is no way I’m ever going with RDRAM again, but I think I’d keep the old 40-gig hard drive to install operating systems on (dual-boot XP and 98SE or possibly even triple-boot and add a Linux distro), as well as both optical drives, the large hard drive, the graphics card (a Nvidia GeForce 32-bit GTS) as I don’t play the games that really require an even better graphics card, the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz soundcard (works nice with my Altec-Lansing ADA855 speakers), the internal 250-meg Zip drive (need to get a PCI adapter card), and so on. Really, for me the expense is in the motherboard, CPU, and RAM, as I’ve already got everything else I could possibly need. Oh, and probably a bigger tower, and definitely a new power supply.
Didn’t notice you were on the other side of the pond, qts - from what I have seen, computer parts are much pricer over there than they are in the States. Here, Dell is pretty easy to beat price-wise, at least in the mid-to-upper end. And I wish that zMax had PCI-Express slots too, but for gaming, there isn’t going to be much difference between AGP & PCI-E cards for awhile - games right now don’t even fully use 4x AGP’s bandwidth, much less the 8x AGP bandwidth. (The 16x PCI-E slots for video cards have roughly twice memory bandwidth of 8x AGP.)
what with the 64bit cpus and new stuff expected end of this year, is it better to get a high end 32bit pc or a low end 64bit one? whatever i do, i am bound to do it just weeks before a huge price drop…
If this is for your personal use, stick with 32bit processors. There is no useful application available for 64bit processors for the typical home or office user coming up for a long time. By then, 64bit systems will be much, much cheaper.
Why buy a $300 processor now that won’t do anything a $80 processor can’t do? Once all the OSes and apps for 64bit processors come out, that 64bit processor will be $100.
And you will have saved on electric bills in the meantime too.
I’ve been building my own since the mid-1990s. My motivation was to have exactly the components I wanted. I’m not sure that it saves lots of money. If you plan to re-use stuff you will probably pay less than for store-bought, and get better stuff.
Some observations:
[ul]
[li]Don’t buy the fastest/newest processor. One or two steps below state-of-the-art will work fine and will cost a LOT less.[/li][li]Choose a reputable motherboard supplier. I personally like SOYO. Get one that at least has built-in networking and USB 2.0 support. Non-gamers might want to get built-in 16-bit sound. Gamers might also want to get advanced heat sensing and fan control[/li][li]Right now, memory is cheap. Buy lots. Windows XP performance depends on physical memory.[/li][li]60 Gb ought to be enough for a hard drive. You might want to consider a motherboard with serial ATA which promises much faster speed. That way you can upgrade later on, perhaps.[/li][li]Unless you want a real carry-along PC for LAN parties, get a tower case. They’re easier to work in, and actually cool better.[/li][li]Set aside about $100 for ultra-quiet cooling technology, then go visit www.quietpc.com.[/li][li]Consider external DVD drives/CD-ROM drives, etc. You can take them to someone else’s computer, swap them out, etc. USB 2 is as fast as IDE.[/li][/ul]
I figure that right now, you can get a 2Ghz AMD processor for roughly $100, a motherboard for another $100, 2Gb RAM for $100-$200, a DVD combo drive for $300, a killer graphics board for $200, and quiet cooling for $100. Case is $100.
Total is $1100, and that’s for state-of-the-art stuff. If your computer case is already ATX and has roughly 300W power supply, you don’t even need a case!
Don’t remember how much Win XP is. You can probably get an OEM deal on it if you buy the right stuff from a dealer like www.newegg.com.
One big note: Going this route means you’re on your own. No HW support line, extended warranty, etc. If a component dies, you’re probably buying a new component. A big culprit is video cards. I’ve had video cards and sound cards die on me.
Other than that, technology is now fairly stable. USB 2 is USB 2, and downward compatible to a USB 1.1 device. Most full-size ATX motherboards support common memory types up to 4Gb. IDE is still alive and kicking, as is PCI and AGP.
I probably forgot many other things that I’ve learned after having 4 (or 5?) homebrew systems from a 486/66 (wow) to my current AMD Athlon XP 2400+.
Definitely agree. In fact, don’t buy the top of the line 32-bit processor, either. The big new thing is always overpriced. In comparison, last year’s big new thing is selling at a discount. For a gamer, speed comes from the video card, anyway. Save your money and buy the hottest vid card. Then overclock it (but get a Zalman heat sink and fan for it, or you’ll have it for only a couple of weeks!)
I would agree that it is best to buy a generation down as far a CPU’s go but I would get the Barton core AMD’s. If you are unsure of mounting the CPU then you can have someone do that for you and test it out so that you are sure it is working. MWAve is a good company and they will do this for you. The rest of the components are pretty easy as building goes. It would be best if there was someone with you that has experience but I just sort of jumped in after reading about how it was done.
The story was written on Jan. 23, so you can most likely upgrade most of the components they have listed for the same price.
The more components you use from your current machine, the lower the cost. But, depending on your situation, you may want to leave your current computer alone in order to start a home network for the fam. This will make it easier to keep them away from your new fast computer so you can play games.
Here is MechBgon’s guide for building a PC. This guide was created by a very knowledgable guy who posts on Anandtech. I’ve built machines for years for friends and family and at work and this is the best guide with pictures that I have seen for a Newbie builder.
Good luck
IME, it’s just not worth it. After the last time I put a PC together I summed up all the expenses and realized I could have just bought an equal machine from Gateway or Dell. You think you are saving money by transferring over a CD burner and a hard drive or two, but in the end it actually ends up costing more to buy the parts than it does to buy the whole machine. (Think of it like buying all the parts to build a car vs. the price of just buying the car itself.)
It’s also more difficult than you think to do it right. If you set a jumper wrong on the motherboard you can fry the whole thing.
I’m no expert, but I have done this a few times and that has been my experience. Save yourself the headache and just buy a machine all built. The prices are so low now that it’s really hard to get ripped off going this route.