Computer build vs buying....

[Viggen]

I forget who it was but someone on this site mentioned they could build a computer for me.  How does that compare to buying something pre-made/special ordered from Dell or another company?  I have always used Gateway (well for about 10 years now) but from their site it looks like you can't modift the computer in any way, more just mass produced stuff now.

I went to Dell's site & priced out a few options, they allowed me to upgrade certain areas of the computer which I am doing so I can play games. 

[micki]

I just need to have my PC cleaned out and started fresh again! 

[Kenn]

I know we have a few computer geeks on here .

I've been building my own for a little over 20 years now (good lord I'm getting old). Unless you need manufacture support for your pc on a reg basis, Its always better to build. That way you can pick and choose the parts you want (processor, video card, etc)

[yinyang]

to me built one is only way
because when u buy a pre built pc like hp,compaq,dell.they put lots craps like spyware in your computer so they can collect data from u to offset some cost since the computer is not a bigger money maker for the pc company anymore,another thing if u want to play game like bf3 i will built for sure because the retail computer never put high quality power supply into the system,a cheap power supply will cost lots problem for u down the road,the final thing built computer is actual cheap than buy one in the store,most parts all 3 year warranty,memory is lifetime,some video card is lifetime warranty,hard drive is 5 year,if u want buy additional 2 year  warranty for the prebuilt pc it will cost u $200.00 more
so i can say in today i will built a pc any day than buy one

one thing make sure u find someone honest to help u built,because some computer builder all they care is care is make money so they buy cheaper parts to make more money!!

here is the computer  i built for myself




 

[Boonjob]

Viggen I said I can build you a comp, I can make it to do anything you want... you just let me know what you want it to do and how much you want to spend.

Building your own comp will always beat out the mfg...  I provide free support on all the comps I build/or work on.

[Boonjob]

Micki, I can also do that for you aswell... how's the laptop doing?

[Viggen]

thanks everyone for their input..... Boonjob I forgot who it was... thanks... I will send you a PM & we can go from there

Seems like going the DIY route is the way to go... thanks

[micki]

Micki, I can also do that for you aswell... how's the laptop doing?

Seriously???  That would be AWESOME!!!  The CD thingy on my PC is stuck on "out" mode.  Anything that could be done for that?  The lap top os GREAT!   

[Viggen]

Micki... I can hose it out for you if you need it cleaned that way... dust free

[Boonjob]

Yeah we can back up the data and wipe you a clean slate, or we can add to it if you'd like it to do something better.

[Kenn]

not to steal you away from anyone Micki    But I can take a peek at it tomorrow as well when I stop by tomorrow

[micki]

You guys are great!!! 

[Neogenesis]

I agree, build if you can....you'll find that you'll keep your computer around much longer.  I'm actually looking to refresh mine right now, I'm having some trouble with high end games.  I never would have thought that a quad core processor would not be able to keep up already.

[Kenn]

I'm having some trouble with high end games.  I never would have thought that a quad core processor

Over clock that monster   (although you prob already have) usually it the graphics chip thats lagging and not the processor.

[kattz]

Over clock that monster   (although you prob already have) usually it the graphics chip thats lagging and not the processor.

As cheap as high end cards are these days, upgrade!

[Neogenesis]

Over clock that monster   (although you prob already have) usually it the graphics chip thats lagging and not the processor.

I thought that as well, but Battlefiled 3 is crushing all 4 cores, high 90% cpu usage, not to mention it's unstable as hell.  I can only image what overclocking this thing would do to it.  I'm running a ATI 57xx vid card, which handles the job wonderfully.  I'll most likely just replace the mobo/cpu/ram, and call it good for now.  I'm also trying to get EyeFinity up and running, but don't have a monitor that supports Display Port, and the powered adapters I need are in the $100 range...so I'm not sure if I'll get that up and running anytime soon.  I just need to talk my better half into letting me spend some more money, but that's going to be a tough sell since I just dumped some cash into finishing my stand, frag tank, growout tank setup and still need some more light over it.

Current setup is a 2.2ghz quad core, 4 gig of ram, ATI 57xx.

[DarinSchmidt]

I agree, build if you can....you'll find that you'll keep your computer around much longer.  I'm actually looking to refresh mine right now, I'm having some trouble with high end games.  I never would have thought that a quad core processor would not be able to keep up already.

Has very little to do with your CPU. It's your GPU thats most likely the issue. As well as mine. I just bought Battlefield 3 and have to play the game on low-med settings because it stutters like crazy if i go any higher so im looking at getting an nvidia 560 since i can get it for about 150.

Building your PC is the only way to go. There are a ton of options out there so you can make it perform and look any way that you want and can also plan for future upgrades. I was running my P4 3.4ghz pc up untill 2008 and now it's running in the server i mentioned on another thread that I'm building in my garage and throwing ubuntu server on it. Was going to use freenas, but i want something more robust.

[Boonjob]

I agree, build if you can....you'll find that you'll keep your computer around much longer.  I'm actually looking to refresh mine right now, I'm having some trouble with high end games.  I never would have thought that a quad core processor would not be able to keep up already.

Agreed with above postings... BF3 is actually optimized to run with quad core processors(but it still is a cpu heavy game)... What graphics card do you have exactly? there is a big difference in the 5700 series from radeon(first problem btw, go Nvidia  ). The low end of that spectrum would struggle to even run the game on low, the higher end should run it ok... What is your processor and How are you getting your load rating of 90% on the cpu? It could be possible that it is CPU related, but it would be from an outside source(background program, etc). 

[HUNGER]

this sound like foreign language to me

[DarinSchmidt]

yeah, if your CPU is being pushed to 90% it's because your GPU is most likely offloading a bunch of data to it to make up for what it's not able to process. I have a dual core intel 3ghz (if i remember correctly) and an Nvidia 9800gt and my cpu doesnt get close to 90% on low settings.

Eyefinity would be sweet, my friend has it, kind of want to get an ATI card for that, but i donno, i havent had much good to say about ATI cards since the last two i bought went kind of sour......... enough said on that matter.

[Boonjob]

Nvidia > Radeon ... I'm a fan boy and not afraid to say it.

[DarinSchmidt]

this sound like foreign language to me

It's really not hard to understand. Some people like to throw around technical terms and brand models and such which make it seem like its complicated. But if you ge tot know the basic understanding of the parts, then its realatively easy to decide on what it is that you need/want and can branch from there. You really just have to start from the ground up with knowing how the parts work together and then you can pranch even deeper into each part, and go on from there to maybe understanding the logistics behind the parts to who knows what.

it's not complicated, you just have to be able to visualize it in your head.

Nvidia > Radeon ... I'm a fan boy and not afraid to say it.

I was a fan of ATI for the longest time till AMD bought them out and then things went down hill from there for them i think. But then i switched to Nvidia and i have to say that i wasnt sorry for doing so lol, so I'll prob be going Nvidia again even though ATI has the Eyefinity. And i believe one of my other friends spent 300 on an ATI card and it kept crashing the game while playing BF3, though, that could not always be the card since it's a new game.

[Neogenesis]

Agree with what was said above, building pc's is not really that hard, but if your building up a gaming system, it just takes a little research to find the parts that work together the best.

My system is:

AMD quad 2.2ghz
4 gig ram
XFX ATI 5770 1 gig card
Win 7 32 bit

As for my system, it's a fairly recent install of Win 7, I don't have a whole lot installed, so it's not a background program causing high CPU. Idle cpu usage is very low.  I replaced my 9800 GTX+ card with this XFX ATI 5770 1 gig card because I was maxed out on GPU before that, that happened over a year ago.  I've got friends with the identical ATI card who are not having the problems I'm seeing, so I'm pretty sure it's something in the system itself.  The odd thing is that I don't have trouble with any other games......perhaps it just cruddy BF3 code, but I AM crashing a lot more than the friends I play with.

I'm not having trouble with game play, just freezing, crashing, loading....another reason that leads me to believe I've got a deeper hardware issue.


Oh....and if your trying to setup eyefinity and don't have a display port monitor, you will need a active adapter, not a passive one to make it work.  I found that out last night after some digging on the net.

[DarinSchmidt]

Neo, with your issue, my friend is having the same issue and seemed to be resolved once he installed some driver. I'll have to figure out what the deal was, something x.9 driver, i remember hearing them breifly talk about it while i was playing BF3.

[Neogenesis]

Hmm.....latest drivers are 10.2.  I'll have to dig around and see what I find, maybe the older drivers are more stable.  But like I said, I'm crashing a heck of a lot more often than my buddies.  A lot of time I'm getting black screens just while trying to launch, BF's crashes in the middle of the game, when loading between rounds, it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense.  Once in a great while I get a full system lock.  It's just a tough problem to troubleshoot.

There is also a unknown factor here.  I pulled this machine out of a recycling pile.  Someone had turned it in to be recycled.  I'm pretty sure the hardware is good, it's never given me any problems until now, but there is always the unknown factor as I didn't buy any of it new except the vid card.