New Computer
I've had my laptop now for two years and it was bought second hand [in very good condition] so tack on another year or so to that. It's still purring along nicely, but I run it pretty hard and I'd rather have a new setup in place and running instead of having this one eventually crap out on me completely and be totally fucked.
I'm gonna stick with PCs and I think Intel's chipset at that. I want a big honking desktop. I want to build it myself. I have a vague idea of what I want to put into this system. But I gotta price everything out and pick a case to house it all. And I want a bitchin LCD monitor in the 1400×1050 or larger area. I've been spoiled by my laptop's 1400×1050 screen and I don't want to downsize from it. Widescreen would be cool to have more stuff up on screen, but I wouldn't use it to watch movies or anything, I have a nice television for that.
Anyone have any experience building their own boxes? Advice? And note, "advice" excludes advice like "buy a Mac" so fuggetaboutit.
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May 24th, 2006 @ 3:10 pm
Why don't you buy a Mac? You know they run Windows now right? ;)
Seriously, even if you don't want to buy a Mac there is very little reason to build your own. You won't save much money (if any, since places like Dell get huge discounts on parts that you won't get).
I suppose you might just want the experience of bulding your own box, but I think it is overrated (and I have built a few myself).
With all that being said, Dell has great prices on LCD monitors (they use the same panels as Apple does).
May 24th, 2006 @ 8:16 pm
my brother built mine – if you have specific questions – I can ask him.
May 24th, 2006 @ 8:48 pm
I built my own, and would be glad to help you out.
The son of a friend told me a few months ago that building your own computer is part of the nerd-quotient you need to have a superhero secret identity. So there is that.
May 25th, 2006 @ 8:25 am
Build you own box Albert! Its good for you. Not only will you learn allot you'll increase your love for learning itself. Its true it can be hella frustrating sometimes. But overcoming a challenge can be VERY satisfying. Plus assembling a PC isn't too hard.
Make sure you have a few sizes of Phillips screw drivers around. Spend time researching parts. You need to know about each one. Case, RAM, CPU, motherboard, HD, fans, cables, power supply, video card, etc.
I really liked – and came to trust – newegg.com. It has lots of stuff and a favorites feature. That way you can create your parts list online. I found that lots of places might have a part you need from $5 to $20 cheaper but they don't always have it in stock and the shipping may not be reliable.
Those Dell LCDs are nice. Big 1680 x 1050 for $400. We just bought two at work. They're nice!
Keep asking questions via your blog and we'll answer them.
Oh yeah… we've be working with the Intel Mac Book Pros and iMacs. They do run windows mighty well. :)
May 25th, 2006 @ 9:59 am
If you want to start researching prices, the best place to start is pricewatch.com. Good luck!
May 25th, 2006 @ 2:00 pm
I'd second Brian's recommendation of newegg.com as a great place to buy parts, but I'd also second Scott's thoughts that home-built PCs are not as cheap as they once were and often not as satisfying. I've built a couple of machines, and while they work, without the OEM testing involved with all the different components, they're not the most reliable boxes.
My next computer is definitely gonna be a new Macbook Pro. Throw Parallels Workstation on there and you've got yourself a pretty sweet PC too.