Anyone build their own computer?

[Stench]

Originally Posted by stu929

I used to build one from scratch every 18-24 month. Used to love playing PC games!

I'm still an avid gamer - currently playing Left 4 Dead

Got bored of BF2, COD4, trying hard not to get any new games!

My wife would cringe every time I would get a new game and my PC wouldn't run it....usually about every 18-24 months! My current system (Dell XPS) has lasted me about 3 years....new record!

[roughrider]

I did build my own computers since I was a teenager. I finally got sick of windows OS and hardware issues here and there. I bought a 24" iMac on Amazon (No Tax, Free Shipping) and it was the best computing decision I've ever made. The Apple OS is light years ahead of Windows, just watch some of the video tutorials on Apple's website. I also bought a 3-year applecare warranty on ebay for like $75. Any problems and I let them deal with it.

P.S. I mostly use my computer for Internet, music, video, photography, etc. I don't play computer games.

[Brinson]

Yeah, built my computer a little over a year ago, spent less than $300 on it and won't be upgrading any time soon. Intel e6750 with 2gbs of ram. 2gbs is plenty considering its been months since my system used more than one.

[Brinson]

Originally Posted by roughrider

I did build my own computers since I was a teenager. I finally got sick of windows OS and hardware issues here and there. I bought a 24" iMac on Amazon (No Tax, Free Shipping) and it was the best computing decision I've ever made. The Apple OS is light years ahead of Windows, just watch some of the video tutorials on Apple's website. I also bought a 3-year applecare warranty on ebay for like $75. Any problems and I let them deal with it.

P.S. I mostly use my computer for Internet, music, video, photography, etc. I don't play computer games.

Don't want to sound like a fanboy, but ever tried linux? OSX has adapted much from nix based systems (OSX is based off BDS, which is based off of unix), and nix based systems have mirrored some of OSXs innovations, making much of the two similar or it possible to be made similar.

[Delsana]

I made one for Vista a few years ago, the operating system works perfectly and I've never had any problems with the computer at all either. Unfortunately, due to the fact Quad-Cores were relatively expensive when I made it and "untested", most pre-mades can beat out my computer pretty well :-\, but it's still pretty good, especially if I wanted to game or use high-intensity graphic programs.

However the only problem with building a computer is the pain and duress when things don't work out because of some minor glitch, or misplug, or lack of grounding.

[roughrider]

Originally Posted by Brinson

Don't want to sound like a fanboy, but ever tried linux? OSX has adapted much from nix based systems (OSX is based off BDS, which is based off of unix), and nix based systems have mirrored some of OSXs innovations, making much of the two similar or it possible to be made similar.

Nope, I haven't tried Linux before.

[calhounhusker]

Originally Posted by Hot Stuff x

I think I'm the only person around that likes Vista.

I'm running 64-bit Vista Ultimate with 8 GB of RAM. It's rock-solid.

I like Vista as well.

I build a new system ever year and a half to two years, as I play games and like to be on top of things. Lol. Currently run a Core2Quad with 8GB ram and over 2 TBs HDD space.

[Marnault]

I have be building my personal computers for years now. After doing some research into how to assemble one, I found it was rather easy, and buying parts and building it your self saved a lot of money. I would bet pretty much anyone could put a computer together if they had some basic instructions and a little patience.

The hard part is knowing what parts to buy, as you either need to follow the hardware industry or start doing a lot of reading. Also knowing how to troubleshoot issues such as nothing happening when you hit the power button . But if you have access to the internet you can google your way through just about any issue you have.

I now build my self a new computer, or at least do a major upgrade every year or so depending on what the outlook for hardware is. I usually spend about $500 or so, and this lets me pretty much always have a good enough system to run any game out there at high detail, with a good frame rate.


As for vista, I am a fan of it now. The big issues were when it was first released, and had a few bugs plus poor driver support which wasn't so much Microsoft's fault but rather the people who build the hardware & drivers to support their hardware. But now I have no problems with it at all, even some old games I have work just fine.

But with that said, I have switched to Windows 7 as I am fortunate to have access to MSDN and was able to get the RTM version. It defiantly runs much better than vista, even on older hardware which really surprised me since vista can be clunky with anything less than 2gb of ram.


And as for linux & mac, I don't like it for personal use, but this is only because I am a gamer and very few games are released for these OS's. I do like linux for running servers though, using the command line is much more efficient for these types of operations imo. I don't have any recent experience with macs thouhg, haven't touched them since back in the 90's.