Should I build my own?

E

ecory

New Member
I have never built a computer from scratch before and I'm afraid that I won't be able to get it to work! That said, I would really like the flexibility and price benefit of building my own. How difficult is it? am I likely to run into many problems getting the OS and drivers installed and working properly with the hardware?

I've been out of the computer market for a few years so everything is like a foreign language to me again but I went to my local electronics store and looked around and asked questions and came up with this preliminary build:

-ABIT IP35 Pro C2D/Quad Motherboard
-PC2-5300/6400 (667/800 MHz) DDR2 SDRAm-2GBx2
-Nvidia 8800gt OR
ATI Radeon HD 3870, 512MB/MO GDDR4 Graphics Card
-E6550, 2.33GHz 333SB, 4M cash Processor
-1TB 7200RPM Seagate Hard drive
-24x DVD/CD WR drive (brand?)
-Windows Vista Ultimate (64 bit)

I will be doing a lot of 3d modeling and rendering with this system.

Thoughts?
 
Newegg.com, much better prices than any electronics store by far. My next build ill be doing in a couple weeks will have everything from them.
 
If your in the US, i use newegg.

If you can find one in your budget, i would get a E8200 or E8400.

Thats not a bad motherboard, i would also recommend the P35 DS3/DS3R in that price range.

I would personally get the 3870, from experience, i have used both cards and i decided to purchase the 3870. But for a single card setup the 8800GT or the 3870 would be a great choice.
 
Thanks for all of the input. I don't have a straight answer about my budget. from the store it would have cost almost 2000 (including a 22" samsung monitor) which is more than I'm willing to spend. My original budget was about 1000 but I quickly realized that I can't get a machine I'll be happy with for that. I'll say somewhere between 1500 and 1700. Is that unreasonable for the type of system I'm looking at?
 
Do you have to buy it from a store? online, you can get everything in my sig including monitor / os for about $1,650-$1,700. If you bought it from a retail store, it would cost nearly twice as much :(
 
For 1500 you can have a hell of a nice custom (gaming, entertainment, 3dmodeling, or whatever) desktop, not the case if you buy a retail one though.
 
ThatGuy16 said:
Yeah, build your own. You will wind up paying twice as much for less if you bought one "pre-built"
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Basically sums up retail comps. lol. Ive never owned one, but i know they are expensive because i sell them. and trust me, they are shit, they are made to break so that you have to go back and buy another one i a year. Customs never go bad. they are cheap, and its really easy to build.
 
Abit is a good company with solid products, but *lots* of people have had issues with that MoBo. I would suggest looking at other Boards of theirs and maybe steer-clear of that particular model.
 
You should ALWAYS build your own computer from ground up, half the fun is assembling it and at the end of the day press the button and everything just springs to life, the euthoria from that is just amazing. Not only do you get enjoyment you are helping your hip pocket, if you assemble you own, it would ALWAYS be cheaper than getting a prebuilt one, and when you custom build, you are IN CONTROL, you know what is going to your computer, not generic parts which most companies give you, especially DELL.
 
elitehacker said:
...and when you custom build, you are IN CONTROL, you know what is going to your computer, not generic parts which most companies give you, especially DELL.
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Yes, my laptop is a DELL and I've had it with them. Never again.

imsati said:
Abit is a good company with solid products, but *lots* of people have had issues with that MoBo. I would suggest looking at other Boards of theirs and maybe steer-clear of that particular model.
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This is good to hear. The person at the store I went to told me the opposite...that she'd never had a problem with one and it was her favorite mobo.

twitchtwice said:
Basically sums up retail comps. lol. Ive never owned one, but i know they are expensive because i sell them. and trust me, they are shit, they are made to break so that you have to go back and buy another one i a year. Customs never go bad. they are cheap, and its really easy to build.
Click to expand...

Irksome planned obsolescence
 
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