When we priced it out 6 months ago due to the high prices of RAM and video cards, building a PC was in most cases more or about even vs buying a pre built. You have to factor in the cost of the windows OS into your price also. Maybe things have changed but here is a good site if you want to price out a custom build: http://pcpartpicker.com

 

27 minutes ago, Howard said:

So how much is the mega machine you are looking at and where are you getting it?  A complete machine or components to build?  I ask as my machine may be toast and I am looking for something new to do photo processing on that needs power.

i was originally looking at a machine that was gonna cost around $1900. settled on one for $900. both from micro center. the lesser of those 2 is still worlds ahead of the 11 year old machine i'm running right now. also....that one is shitting a brick. last night it was moving slower than an old 286.

 

9 hours ago, SW9racer said:

You do better directly from the cyberpowerpc website. You can mod the machine with name brand parts as well. 

i went on their site, and "built" one........started off at 1500, landed around 1900 and change......

It may cost more to build your own, but you also get to select the components. For example, off the shelf systems are not as likely to have memory with faster memory timing - something I have opted for since my first performance pc had pc100 RAM. It costs more, and most people wouldn't notice, and most people would think 16gb is 16gb, but there is a small difference in performance.

The downside is compatability - if I select memory that doesn't like my motherboard, thats on me to deal with it. There is only manufacturer's warranties, so I would have to talk to Asus or Corsair or whoever to deal with the problem.

I hate the bloatware installed on prebuilts. I dislike the often built-to-a-price specs and components of prebuilts. They do get volume pricing for everything and I do not, but I will spend more for quality I know will last.

Obviously a high spec pre built machine these days will be pretty decent, but I will still always build my own. That is one reason I hate laptops, damn things always die in a few years, are typically underpowered (at least compared to same gen desktop cpus), and I can't easily go in and fix things. To me, building the system is one of the best parts of getting a new PC.

right now, i'm still on the old machine, 'cause i just got home.

 

 drove up there again, 'cause this one's literally on its last legs......slow, cutting out, etc.  anyway....i bought the lower one, 'cause it should still run aces high easily, and it's lightyears ahead of what i've got now.

 

 they kinda almost made up for the bs. tech guy sat there with me setting up the machine, helping me make an account(fucking stupid idea if ya ask me) so i could log in to windoze. seems like it's gonna be pretty hot. i liked what i saw there. hopefully i like what i see here.

ok. this thing's screamin' along nice. only got 60fps in offline mode on aces high though. had trouble with the throttle/stick/rudders. calibrated, then mapped the buttons, then launched. went wonky.....calibration was off. re-cal'd, but then all the buttons were mapped wrong.......

60fps?  Do you have VSYNC on?

i don't know? where/how do i find that?

in a 1-1 dogfight, that would remain the same.....but once i go online, if i get into a furball(and i always do), that'll more than likely drop.........

Look in the graphics card settings - make sure vsync is turned off.  Nvidia settings if it's a Geforce Card.  Otherwise do it via the AMD util.

it's a gtx 1060 pcie. i'll check tonight. thanks man

On 7/18/2018 at 8:15 AM, carl_g said:

When we priced it out 6 months ago due to the high prices of RAM and video cards, building a PC was in most cases more or about even vs buying a pre built. You have to factor in the cost of the windows OS into your price also. Maybe things have changed but here is a good site if you want to price out a custom build: http://pcpartpicker.com

 

When you buy a prebuilt computer, you are almost always getting cheated out of components somewhere. Remember, many of these pre-builts come with the "chip set" of the component they advertise, but the component itself is usually a cheaper made version. About the only thing that is equal when advertised is the actual processor. 

16 minutes ago, JackDaWack said:

When you buy a prebuilt computer, you are almost always getting cheated out of components somewhere. Remember, many of these pre-builts come with the "chip set" of the component they advertise, but the component itself is usually a cheaper made version. About the only thing that is equal when advertised is the actual processor. 

I guess I should have been more specific. While we were talking about gaming rigs, the ones I was looking at were "boutique" pre builts from people like Digital Storm, Xidax, Origin and Cyberpower(on the lower end) Most of these systems you knew what you were getting as compared to something like Dell and HP.

i've owned 1 dell computer ever. had crappy luck with it.

 

I should stop by here more often.   I custom build machines all the time (2 this week!) for work, self and friends.   I buy so much for work I get a decent vendor discount(nets out around 10%) off everything.    I have been building PCs since the late 80s and had my own corporation for 5 years in the early 90s until I just couldn't compete any longer.

These days, motherboards and memory timings are immaterial to real world performance and only matter if you're chasing benchmarks, just buy the rated spec for the motherboard and be done with it.   SSDs are a must, preferably NVME and M.2s are just cleaner in the case.    CPU is about the only genuine bottleneck these days so buy up to your budget.    Unless you run 4k, a GTX1060 is enough, preferring 6GB but most people won't ever use that until games get way more complex.

 

 

 

 

 

 

41 minutes ago, Malsua said:

 

I should stop by here more often.   I custom build machines all the time (2 this week!) for work, self and friends.   I buy so much for work I get a decent vendor discount(nets out around 10%) off everything.    I have been building PCs since the late 80s and had my own corporation for 5 years in the early 90s until I just couldn't compete any longer.

These days, motherboards and memory timings are immaterial to real world performance and only matter if you're chasing benchmarks, just buy the rated spec for the motherboard and be done with it.   SSDs are a must, preferably NVME and M.2s are just cleaner in the case.    CPU is about the only genuine bottleneck these days so buy up to your budget.    Unless you run 4k, a GTX1060 is enough, preferring 6GB but most people won't ever use that until games get way more complex.

 

 

 

 

 

 

IF I'D have known you build em, i'd have paid you for one. the machine i'm replacing was built for me by another AH gamer.

On 7/20/2018 at 3:35 PM, 1LtCAP said:

IF I'D have known you build em, i'd have paid you for one. the machine i'm replacing was built for me by another AH gamer.

And I'd do it as well.    I think you're in my general region. 

For what it's worth, I had to build a machine this week and I need a case.  I often just re-task old cases and put new guts inside.

I'm out of cases at the moment, so I found this case on Newegg.  It was discounted $20 bucks with a $25 mail in rebate(which I hate, but it is $25).

It's this thermaltake V21 Cube.  It's only for Micro ATX motherboards which are quite small motherboards, so instead of spending 20 seconds looking at the specs, I bought it.  Not my money anyway, but meh, how bad can it be.

HOLY SHEEP DUNG this thing is HUGE!!  It's like a double wide mini-tower case.   It has brackets for 21 fans. Yes, you read that right, 21 fans.  I guess it's for mining crypto currency or something.  GEEZUS.

 

 

 

 

 

Those "cubes" are designed for high end gaming believe it or not. They started getting bigger to mount radiators for liquid cooling and the larger video cards that typically dont fit. 

I have a Mid Tower from Thermaltake and it might as well be a full tower.