Building PC

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My faithful desktop has taken a dump on me. I've since been using laptops for months now but I just miss the feeling of a good ole desktop and sitting at a desk. While I've always been a computer guy and every computer I've own has been "built" I'm well past my "prime" and am no longer current on the technology. I don't know whats a good deal and what to look for anymore. I see some of the desktop computers and honestly to me, they seem to be a decent deal. When you figure in costs for every component and then operating system.
I do my fair share of gaming, but do not need the most cutting edge specs. I hardly ever play just released games. Most games I play are already several years old.
While I am "able" to use Linux I really do prefer Windows. I'm no longer a college student with access to free CD keys, and my days of piracy are behind me and not worth the trouble, honestly.
I've got a decent graphics card that I will use in whichever setup I go with, also a monitor. otherwise everything else will be brand new. Which PC brands offer the most flexibility in terms of upgrades? I remember years ago Dell and HP were notorious for preventing the user from performing upgrades.
Can a decent PC be built for a comparable price to a tower in a big box store?
 
I personally would look at building a pc. Sadly new Graphics card prices are insane at the time due to the mining market. Ram prices are also high due to price gouging and such going on. But it partially depends on what all you want to do with your pc. The PC build I am linking below sounds like it would fit your needs perfectly. Just add a copy of windows and you would be good to go. This would more than likely be better than any other pc you would be able to find at a similar price.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/CvbtnH

If you have any questions feel free to ask away! This is my job and my hobby!
 
I'm gonna say no off-the-shelf desktop PCs are upgrade friendly. Let's say you use your current video and assuming the power supply from the off-the-shelf PC, which is not that great, can power everything. Will the video card fit in the case? What about cooling?

You gonna reuse the video car then the next thing I would say is decide which power supply you want, then the case, RAM and SSD are easy to decide.

You don't really need a CD key anymore with Windows 10. You can prepare a USB installation ahead of time and use that to do a fresh install.

If you want Linux you can also make it dual boot but that of course depends on how you partition your SSD/hard drive.

If you spend just a little time looking at the parts you need, it's not that hard to figure out what you need. What you want is more difficult to figure out.
 
You can get an OEM win10 license for cheap, first site I checked was like $40 cdn or $30 or so usd. OS not such a big investment unless you plan on a lot of upgrades over time.

The fact that you have the graphics card makes it tempting to buy a off lease or new rig and then just swap the graphics card as that seems to be the weak link in a lot of systems. I've seen suggestions of used workstations on this board a few times now. I know there are some server CPUs that are beasts and would be sufficient to play games on.

Building a computer is so fun though, and no one will care about assembly as much as you assembling your own rig.
 
PowerSpec PC's from Microcenter use off the shelf components and are easily upgraded. Microcenter is a computer super store with brick & mortar stores in several states. They also sell other brands too, of course.
http://www.microcenter.com
 
You could always start with the basic, the AMD Ryzen 5 2400G has graphics built in so you can skip the graphics card. Not as good as a separate card, but if you're not really gaming, should save a little money on a build. The drawbacks with the off the shelf stuff is the custom design. Usually you can't change the power supply or the motherboard, it's all a non standard form factor. When you build your own, you can get something like a gold or platinum power supply and some of those have a 5-10 year warranty. Plus I'd also go SSD, maybe an M.2 drive. Sometimes you find deals on Windows 10 for $20-$30.
 
Go minimum GTX1050Ti for a video card.
16GB Ram
500GB M2 or more capacity if you can afford it - I like Samsung Pro line - 970Pro is out now
700 Watt powersupply
Asus Motherboard
Intel i7 processor, fastest you can afford
My 2 cents from building PCs for many years.
 
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Take a look at the dell outlet, they always have coupons on business class laptops or desktops.

For the price they are tough to beat, most include 3-4 year warranty, and W10 Pro.

You can not build one for as cheap as they sell them for.

If you like to build a pc then that is another thing.
 
I thought about building my own. But after checking out http://www.digitalstorm.com/ I bought one from them.
They built me a killer unit for less then I could with best value for the money hardware. Has assume warranty too.

And later on you can upgrade to the moon if you choose.
 
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I went through the same range of thoughts and ended up with a P410 workstation from Lenovo. It's a killer machine at a basic price.
 
ibuypower.com has everything from the tower to the OS. Incorporate your graphic card. I've used them a couple times and have been pleased with the price and service.
 
From time to time, I build my own PC's. It's not really cheaper anymore to purchase a collection of parts and assemble. Unless you already have some of the stuff needed. Remember, Costco and others often have really good deals on desktops with good internal components.

However, as mentioned above, the Big Box store computers often use proprietary components and upgrades/repairs can be more difficult.

I recently purchased a Dell 4K laptop and an Asus 4K laptop. Both failed and needed to be returned, most likely due to low quality components. My home brew Intel based gaming PC's are always trouble-free and easy to upgrade.

In fact, I'm currently writing this on a 2005 gaming PC I built, it's still good enough for web based stuff, even after all this time! I have a few others, including an unlocked, overclocked, 4K i7 gaming PC.
 
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For what I do with a pc I just buy another core 2 duo for sub $100 stick With 7 maybe upgrade ram and call it a day, excluding modern games anything 10 years old or newer does photoship and basic office and web browsing

As for Win 10 you can take that flaming pile and stick it in your pipe, I use it at work and it does nothing I want


My dos games box is an antique Win9x rig with lots of dos, classics windows games and emulators.

I have a real IBM 5150/ 5153 / ega for stuff that won’t run on anything else and a C128 for the chiptunes
wink.gif


Further my antique expensive hardware protected software won’t run on anything after Windows 9x

Ah well
 
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Originally Posted By: Walmill
My faithful desktop has taken a dump on me. I've since been using laptops for months now but I just miss the feeling of a good ole desktop and sitting at a desk. While I've always been a computer guy and every computer I've own has been "built" I'm well past my "prime" and am no longer current on the technology. I don't know whats a good deal and what to look for anymore. I see some of the desktop computers and honestly to me, they seem to be a decent deal. When you figure in costs for every component and then operating system.
I do my fair share of gaming, but do not need the most cutting edge specs. I hardly ever play just released games. Most games I play are already several years old.
While I am "able" to use Linux I really do prefer Windows. I'm no longer a college student with access to free CD keys, and my days of piracy are behind me and not worth the trouble, honestly.
I've got a decent graphics card that I will use in whichever setup I go with, also a monitor. otherwise everything else will be brand new. Which PC brands offer the most flexibility in terms of upgrades? I remember years ago Dell and HP were notorious for preventing the user from performing upgrades.
Can a decent PC be built for a comparable price to a tower in a big box store?


You need an elite laptop that you can pretend is a desktop and just never move it.
 
Originally Posted By: Walmill
My faithful desktop has taken a dump on me. I've since been using laptops for months now but I just miss the feeling of a good ole desktop and sitting at a desk. While I've always been a computer guy and every computer I've own has been "built" I'm well past my "prime" and am no longer current on the technology. I don't know whats a good deal and what to look for anymore. I see some of the desktop computers and honestly to me, they seem to be a decent deal. When you figure in costs for every component and then operating system.
I do my fair share of gaming, but do not need the most cutting edge specs. I hardly ever play just released games. Most games I play are already several years old.
While I am "able" to use Linux I really do prefer Windows. I'm no longer a college student with access to free CD keys, and my days of piracy are behind me and not worth the trouble, honestly.
I've got a decent graphics card that I will use in whichever setup I go with, also a monitor. otherwise everything else will be brand new. Which PC brands offer the most flexibility in terms of upgrades? I remember years ago Dell and HP were notorious for preventing the user from performing upgrades.
Can a decent PC be built for a comparable price to a tower in a big box store?


What OS was your old rig running?

Yes, you can piece together a board/chip/RAM combo and Newegg usually sells combo's that are pretty decent and decently priced. Can you reuse your existing case? How old is your present PSU? You can recycle a number of parts from your old rig assuming they are current enough to still be of value, driving the cost down even further.
 
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