is it worth building your own pc?

[Sh0wers]

i wanted to buy a pc for gaming becouse i have a teible lapstop but like what are average things i need ai know i need a good prosser like i5 or i7 but like in terms of grathic cards what are the good ones

[upcoast]

Ya for gaming an i5 3570k is what you want.

If budget is tight AMD FX 6300/8320/8350 are alternatives.

http://www.techspot.com/reviews-software.shtml

Some ^^^ useful info on cpu/gpu .

GPU, if budget is an issue 7870/7950 red side and gtx660/660Ti on the green side.

If $$$ no matter, go for the top gpu on either ati or NVidia.

[banzaigtv]

If your budget is very high, you could opt for an i7-3770K or i7-3820 quad-core for extreme gaming, video editing, art studio work, etc. and a GTX 680 or HD 7970. If you want to get even more serious, you could go for cutting-edge performance with an i7-3930K six-core and a GTX 690 or dual HD 7970s in crossfire. But don't go for the i7-3970X Extreme Edition unless you are doing heavy-duty studio work which involves rendering 4K videos in stereoscopic 3D; that CPU is overpriced.

[rotNdude]

Here is a good benchmarking site

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/2
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU12/372

Look at those benchmarks to get a feel for what is best and then starting looking at prices for the CPU and GPU. If you're in the US, you can get relative prices from many different web sites. A lot of folks use newegg

http://www.newegg.com/

[ironbender800]

Yes its very worth it. Building your own has tons of advantages over buying pre built. You can build a decent midrange gaming pc for 800-1000 dollars. If your just looking to mainly play games and browse the internet id go with either an amd piledriver series FX 6300 or 8350 OR the intel 3570k. I7's arent really needed unless your a professional editor or just have the extra money to spend and want the best. For gaming tho they offer NO additonal benefit. GPU wise i wouldnt get anything worse than a 7850 or gtx660 otherwise your gonna have to upgrade soon when the next gen of games come out designed for improved hardware.

Make sure you pick a quality motherboard ecspecially if you plan to overclock. As well as a quality power supply from a repuatable brand like corsair, seasonic, etc.

Dont skimp on things now trying to save money cause it will just cost you more later.

[KillerKoala78]

It is worth it so you can custom design a computer to fit your needs but honestly if you don't know your knee from your elbow when it comes to computer parts it's going to be tough to know what you need. I would suggest some computer knowledge before starting.

[_I_]

if you are near a microcenter or frys, they often have good combo deals for parts
and you can talk with a sales associate to see what they recomend

they will aslo do assembly if you buy all the parts from them
http://www.microcenter.com/site/stores/default.aspx
http://www.frys.com/ac/storelocator/index.jsp

[Adamisk]

Newegg.com

Buy the parts seperately, match compatability.
Then it's like an adult's lego set.

[Gianni]

For your money a GTX 660 ti is very good, just recently like last week nvidia released the new 650 ti boost which ill be purchasing this gpu is amazing. It is 170 dollars for the 2gb model. Look it up if you interested. Here is the link to it on newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130909

[Trevor]

Yes it is.
What are you going run on the pc and do on the pc E.G. video editing ?
Are you going to OC?

[Seseorang]

With building it yourself, you use parts that are made to industry standards.

Your case (if the right size) will accept close to every board out there (unless it's for a pre-built, then that's a different kettle of fish)

The parts you choose can be replaced easily. If one part fails, it's easy to find a replacement. It's possible to find an exact model to replace should you want.

Pre-builts usually use low quality PSU's. Ever wondered why they only give wattage only? Being cheap and generic, this could cause damage to your components if it fails.


I've built all my computers apart from one. But that didn't last long, I was up again building another for myself.

[Spectre]

It is worth building your own pc. You can choose what parts you want in your computer. With pre-builts, you can't really do a whole lot with it. I've bought couple pre-builts before. The space inside the case is limited. The only things I have done with it are replacing rams, installing certain graphic cards, and replacing power supply units.

For building your own pc, the most important thing is choose a motherboard first. The rest will fall into place once you've chosen your motherboard.

If you've any old peripherals like a keyboard with a PS/2 connector, your old keyboard might not be able to connect to your new motherboard. When I looked and bought the Asus Sabertooth z77, it didn't have any PS/2 ports but it had 3.0/2.0 USB ports so I had to buy a new keyboard.

When you planning to buy a CPU processor, be sure that it can FIT into the motherboard. An i7-3770k won't fit into a motherboard that has a 1156 socket, but it will fit into a 1155 socket.

Also be sure to have the proper tools for the job like anti-static wrist band or a service kit. http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102871&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=PPC&utm_term=2102871&utm_content=Exact&utm_campaign=PLA&cagpspn=pla&gclid=CODYq5_atLYCFSYPMAodS3EAAA&gclsrc=ds
You may want to look up on how to assemble your computer.

Aside from what the other have already mentioned above, there is also tigerdirect.com

[EternalMagus]

I have been looking into this issue for quite a while- yet thus far only as an intellectual exercise as I have never done it. There is so much information out there- for the uninitiated such as myself it always seems like I am missing something e.g. there appears to be controversy as to the value of raid builds or quality of liquid cooling et al.; however I have found one website that seems to have some of the best latest pc build information. This is the primary hardware site that I have found. URL:

http://www.build-gaming-computers.com/high-end-gaming-computer.html

You can look at each pc build at low(er) to higher price ranges, then look up the hardware reviews on Amazon.com et al. wherein there may be suggestions (in the individual reviews) about possible uses of each component with other hardware. At the bottom of each build in each individual price range the author explains somewhat why he regards each component as worthwhile in that price range. You will note that this link shows the high end/ extreme gaming pc build for February 2014.

[Rove]

Building your own PC is more than worth it for the savings, quality, customization, performance and experience. If you aren't into it yet it's something great to get into.

Some useful websites are:
PC Part Picker: http://pcpartpicker.com/
A parts selection and comparison website to find the best parts at the best prices. Has a handy system building tool so you can see how much it will be all total and really get your plan going on a build. Here is my saved builds on it:
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Rove/saved/

Logical Increments: http://www.logicalincrements.com/
A gaming PC building website full of lots of advice and a very handy chart. In my opinion the chart is not perfect but it is still a good resource. Sometimes you can find stuff on PC Part Picker cheaper than this chart says and I would probably do it a bit different if I made it. All in all though a very nice resource.

And of course the 3 biggest CPU & GPU manufacturer websites so you can get your information about their products directly from them which is the most reliable (though perhaps biased) way since they are legally obligated to represent their products accurately. Just be warned that their standards of various subjective adjectives like "great, stunning, fast, amazing" and so on when related to their products may potentially be substantially different then your standard of the same term.

Intel product database, CPUs and CPUs with integrated GPUs, other stuff also:
http://ark.intel.com/

AMD Products, CPUs, GPUs, APUs (a special kind of CPU + integrated GPU that also functions to allow the GPU to assist the CPU in certain applications when it's idle via "GPGPU computing"), various other odds and ends of technology:
http://www.amd.com/us/products/Pages/products.aspx

Nvidia products, GPUs and some mobile products:
http://www.nvidia.com/page/products.html

Generally the only thing you want for gaming from Intel is a CPU or a CPU with a integrated GPU which you nontheless intend not to use since you'll need a separate GPU card to game properly either way.

Generally the only things you want for gaming from AMD is a CPU, GPU or APU since some of the A10 line of APUs have good enough graphics for some light gaming on their own and can have a dedicated GPU added in later.

Generally the only thing you want for gaming from Nvidia is a GPU if you'd rather get one from them instead of AMD. Either company makes good cards if you pay enough for them.

[EternalMagus]

@Rove Why do people who build their own pc's generally seem to not know anything about either hybrid or raid drives.

My understanding is that the bottleneck in most pc gaming is usually in the drives; do they (those who build their own pc) simply opt for SSD and forget about it? Is building a hybrid or a raid setup difficult; if it is- what is difficult about it? The bios?

In customize options and/or pre-built desktops major manufacturers have (raid and hybrid drive builds) them- yet I never see any "build-your-own custom desktop" specifications for them. How advantageous is a raid drive. I know a hybrid oftentimes has the OS on the SSD with the "storage" drive connected to it somehow yet it is only listed as an option in either a pre-built or customize your own pc such as costco hp customize.

To keep my gaming desktop relatively reasonably priced- yet to circumvent this purported bottleneck- I was thinking of either a hardware raid 6 or 10 with enterprise class WD one terrabyte drives. If not I will just get a single one terrabyte SSD and forget about both raid and hybrids. Here is the drive I would possibly get: URL

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BQ8RM1A/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00BQ8RM1A&linkCode=as2&tag=buildg-20

I noticed when I clicked the link that it did not go to the 960 GB version- yet that is the one I was thinking of; the price is $449.00 with free shipping.

[_I_]

hybrid drives are not worth it imho, they have a small ssd cache and most of their speeds are slow as a spinning drive and they cost more

raid isnt really worth it for spinning drives anymore, since with a raid 0 array (2 drives for speed and space no redundancy) if 1 is lost/damaged all data is lost

for ssd vs hdd its a price/size/performance battle
if you can afford an extra $100+ for a ssd and need speed its wroth it for a boot drive
if your budget is tight, putting the $100 tward a better gpu will give more fps