Lich98's New Computer v1.1

[lich98]

So this build is redone from my last one. Check it out, slightly pricer build but thats ok...

[Grauniad]

Dude, you are all over the place.

You went from a <$200 video card to a $375 card. That's after you told me to recommend a card in the $200-$250 price range.

I don't really want to spend time just randomly putting stuff together. I spend a fair amount of time looking up the components, but then you just change them all.

You are back to a retail hard drive, which I think is at least $50 more expensive than it should be - enough that you can really buy a caching SSD to speed up a slower drive and get overall better performance.

The PSU is not modular. Cables will look horrible in the case.

[lich98]

Dude, you are all over the place.

You went from a <$200 video card to a $375 card. That's after you told me to recommend a card in the $200-$250 price range.

I don't really want to spend time just randomly putting stuff together. I spend a fair amount of time looking up the components, but then you just change them all.

You are back to a retail hard drive, which I think is at least $50 more expensive than it should be - enough that you can really buy a caching SSD to speed up a slower drive and get overall better performance.

The PSU is not modular. Cables will look horrible in the case.

Then I shouldn't just start... I should have started improving the one I had, I'll do that next time...

[Grauniad]

When I want to build a computer, I define the two or three things that I know I "need".

1. How powerful a processor. Knowing that I probably wont get the fastest on the market and htat near the top, increasing performance by 10% costs more than a 10% increase in price.

2. How much hard drive storage do I need. I usually double up on what I had in my last build and then during th elife of the computer, I double up once more.

3. Video card? I aim for just above the middle of the market. Knowing that video card manufacturers spend a lot of money figuring out what the market needs and can afford, I figure if I buy slightly better than half the  cards out there, I should be able to do most things. Then I also keep in mind the same rule as for the processor, that towards the top, small increases in performance has huge increases in cost.

Sometimes I break these rules, like when I built a computer for my sister. In that computer, my objective was to provide a good platform for photographic processing, but I know she plays no games. I spent more time finding a good monitor and making sure the video components supported 10-bit wide color and was fully supported by Photoshop.

Anyway, now I can figure out the stuff like case and power supply. Then I find a motherboard that fits the case, my processor and my video card.

Then I look for extra stuff to boost performance, such as SSDs, etc.

Once I have a list, I start browsing sites. Newegg, Amazon, NCIX, Tigerdirect, Micro Center, eBay and a bunch of other places. I get an idea of the base prices for my components. I visit the nearest Micro Center. (I don't like Fry's anymore, so I don't include them in my trips or price comparisons).

I start over two months to collect components as they become available on specials. Then on a major holiday (Such as Thanksgiving/Black Friday) I will finish out my build and get the last components. You can always wait, knowing that hard drives, PSUs and memory will most likely be on sale. Same for video cards and motherboards. So basically, you can probably just wait and swoop in on the last day of the sales and buy everything. I just play it different.

I end up with maybe slightly different components (maybe a Seasonic PSU rather than a Corsair, for instance) but they are all good components and I know I will be happy with them. By the time I buy the stuff, I've read 100s of reviews and user feedback. I never buy anything that has a substantial portion of low user feedback in the last 6 months.