Building Desktop PC - where to start?

Started by Atelier, Tue 02/03/2021 08:55:47

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Atelier

Hello all! Hope you're keeping well.

I'd like to build my own desktop PC, but I don't have a clue where to start. I mean, quite literally no clue.

In terms of specs, it doesn't have to be anything particularly high-end. To be honest, I mostly wanted to play some of the old war sims like Total War or Mount and Blade on it (maybe the new one too). I've also been messing around in Blender and Unity recently on my laptop, and would like something much more capable to make a walking simulator I have in mind.

I will do some other research on where to start as well, but I thought it would be good to hear some impartial advice from you guys on what the suitable components etc are (please disclose if you own a components company).

The practical skills and tools to actually put something together won't be an issue.

WHAM

What is your main reason for wanting to build your own PC?

If it's because you want to have the fun and challenge of learning to do it yourself, then I might be able to give some suggestions based on past experience, as well as suggest some resources you might want to look into. For instance, websites like cpuboss and gpuboss provide a good way to practically compare those components, and should give you the tools you need to decide between items in your price range.

I'd also suggest going Intel / Nvidia instead of the cheaper AMD / ATI manufacturer route when selecting components. You might get slightly less bang for your buck, but both my personal and professional experiences, as well as anecdotes from friends in recent years, suggest that you're far less likely to run into reliability and warranty issues with the slightly more expensive option here.

However, my experience nowadays is that if you can afford a proper desktop PC, especially if it's one kitted out for even medium-tier gaming, then the price of having it professionally assembled and installed is the least of your concerns, and might well save you some trouble down the line. At least in my part of the world the assembly costs a fraction of the price of components, and provides a 3 year warranty that covers all hardware issues, whereas if you build the machine yourself and it breaks, a lot of the troubleshooting is left up to you and only individual components can be replaced on warranty, after you have identified the problem, removed the faulty component and sent it back to the place you bought it from.

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chip

Hello, I would recommend to start with a case as a base, Fractal design, because i own two of them (define r5 & r6) and am very happy with it, dust filters plenty of space, modularity, sound absorption.. you wont regret it

For inner parts there are enough places on the web that recommend builds for bugdet, midrange or high end setups

total war can be quite demanding, if your going into huge battles

eri0o

My experience with desktop PC parts is that their costs vary a lot depending on the exact place you live, and things like cases have expensive shipping. Overall I would figure out what is the price of things locally first and find out where other people in your area are getting their parts - there may be some not that famous place that sells parts at an affordable price.

Building your own PC can become a more expensive hobby than Magic the Gathering.  (laugh) Have fun.

WHAM

Quote from: eri0o on Tue 02/03/2021 10:54:59
My experience with desktop PC parts is that their costs vary a lot depending on the exact place you live, and things like cases have expensive shipping. Overall I would figure out what is the price of things locally first and find out where other people in your area are getting their parts - there may be some not that famous place that sells parts at an affordable price.

Building your own PC can become a more expensive hobby than Magic the Gathering.  (laugh) Have fun.

Precisely my reason for recommending looking into local PC stores that might be able to recommend parts, configurations, and provide the service of building the thing for you. Sure, if you enjoy the experience of building a PC (which, I admit, has a lot of the same charm as building Lego) then picking and choosing a case, a power supply, a motherboard and all the rest and putting it together with your own hands can be a fun experience, but if you're just looking to be practical and frugal, then a paid service might well serve you better in the long run.
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Atelier

Thank you for your helpful replies!

Quote from: WHAM on Tue 02/03/2021 10:32:14
What is your main reason for wanting to build your own PC?

This is a good question. Well, a friend suggested that it can be cheaper - I took his word for it, but he's been wrong about a lot of things in the past :-D Second, I would also find it very fun and challenging.

But right now considerations of expense outweigh how much enjoyment I would get out of building my own :-D So if generally-speaking it is more expensive, I would happily elect to purchase a pre-assembled PC. The warranties are also something that I hadn't considered.

As I say, I am an utter noob - I've had the same laptop for 8 years now.

The only thing I'd be worried about with an assembly service is being sold a lemon, because it would be very easy to take advantage of my noobness.

Quote from: eri0o on Tue 02/03/2021 10:54:59
My experience with desktop PC parts is that their costs vary a lot depending on the exact place you live, and things like cases have expensive shipping.

Good point eri0o. I believe accessibility and range of parts won't be too much of an issue, as I live in a big city.

Quote from: chip on Tue 02/03/2021 10:41:13
total war can be quite demanding, if your going into huge battles

Ahh that's fair enough... and I do like that!

WHAM

Especially if you are considering expense as a high priority, then some pre-built gaming PC is likely your best option. Sure, you might not get the most absolutely optimal rig, but the key with pre-built mass produced gaming PC's is that the fact they are produced in bulk makes them cheaper than the sum of their components would be if bought separately.

Here's what I'd do in your shoes: find a couple local electronics stores and pay them a visit. Know what your price range is and tell them this, and that you want a gaming PC (I am guessing a desktop PC, and that you already have mouse, keyboard, speakers and a monitor? If not, consider these as added expenses.) Get a few recommendations, have them print these out for you or email them to you, and take a couple days to think and compare. I can even take a look if you get some recommendations, point out potential issues and give suggestions. You can also look at the computers they recommend, list out the components and go online to see how much it would cost to buy them separately.

Another thing to consider: pre-built computers come with a Windows operating system included. Unless you planned on pirating one or already have a license, this is also a considerable expense when building a PC separately.
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Atelier

Thank you so much for the help, WHAM. Yes, that sounds like a good idea to me too.

I will make some calls in the next few days and let you know how I get on!

WHAM

The best part about asking for quotes and saying you'll take some time to think is that the folks trying to sell to you will sense that you'll be comparing their offers to others.  ;)
Depends on the store in question, but they might try to make some special offers and cut you a good deal, though don't expect miracles here. PC hardware has notoriously low profit margin for retailers, so the most common way they try to entice customers is to offer discounts on extra stuff, like peripherals or games or such, since these have a far bigger profit margin they can afford to do discounts on.
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eri0o

#9
QuoteI believe accessibility and range of parts won't be too much of an issue, as I live in a big city.

It's not exactly about accessibility, but more on return on investment and price, like someone on YouTube or an international forum may tell you something like Thing A price is lower than Thing B, so you should go with Thing A, but this may not be true to your region. Like, where I live specifically, I can usually find a nvme SSDs priced much more reasonably and this gives me an incentive for going with one of those, despite having not as much benefit from a sata one that are usually much cheaper in other places. A weird thing also happens with CPU, where AMD CPUs are usually not cheaper than the Intel equivalent here. A Silverstone case here can be priced insanely, but I can get some unknown local ones people machine in their own shops, and they are just as good.

Ah, other thing I think may be important is to consider peripherals, like, a nice monitor, good keyboard and mouse, headphones, all these things have a price, so if you like nice things, it's usually a good idea to consider these things. Desktops usually don't come with bluetooth, so you may need a dongle to use a headphone you may already have. Also networking, if your motherboard doesn't come with WI-FI, you will need ethernet cables or to aquire a WiFi card, some WiFi cards will require a PCI Express X1 slot and not work in others, and if your form factor is really small (like mini-itx or smaller), then your videocard - which will probably use two slots in space) will eat that space.

So, I usually build from how I want the thing to look, have some potential cases in mind, note then down and observe their prices. In the meantime, the case will constrain my motherboard options in size.

Now I select the CPU (these days I would always go with AMD), and CPU constrains more the possible motherboard.

Then select some range of motherboards that would work with those, figure out how much RAM and storage - and which storage. Find a good power supply. Figure out if I need fans - like, a tiny build will usually need to buy some silent fans. Get some price of things, figure how much I want to spend, cut things I don't need, narrow more the parts, figure the peripherals and then go on. Some times I buy things ahead of time if there's a sale that is too good to pass on a part I have been eyeing on.

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Crimson Wizard

#11
Here's an advice based on my subjective experience: buy a suitable prebuilt PC, in 4-5 years it will become outdated more or less, then you will get a reason to upgrade it part by part, which is simplier and less stressful than building from zero when you have no idea what you are doing :D.

Atelier

Thank you for the replies everybody, I really appreciate the helpful advice.

So I made some phone calls to PC builders in my city - a fair few. They've either scaled back to just doing repairs because of lockdown... or stopped building custom PCs because of the global graphics card shortage... I didn't realise that was a problem. One of the guys I phoned said there's no point them taking orders for custom PCs, because they haven't been able to get their hands on graphics cards ("gold dust").

I won't give up on custom builds just yet. But it's starting to look like my best bet is to acquire a second-hand PC, and think about swapping components when circumstances are more ideal... This is essentially what Crimson Wizard suggested :-D

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