Building a PC - Worth it?

ancapailldorcha

So, after posting a fair bit in the XCOM 2 thread I mentioned that I might look into building a gaming PC. It's something I've wanted to do for years now ever since I saw a previous flatmate's rig render various games at 1080p @ 60fps or more. I think I'd be able to afford it at this stage but my employment contract runs out this year and I need to sort out something else so I thought I'd post this and do some research though there are a dazzling range of bits to choose from.

TLDR, did ye feel that spending the time and money on yer rigs was a sound investment or a waste of time, money and space? I strongly suspect answers of resounding satisfaction.

dreamers75

definitley worth consult the building upgrading forum from start to finish and you be fine.

ancapailldorcha

dreamers75 wrote: »

definitley worth consult the building upgrading forum from start to finish and you be fine.

Absolutely, that was always going to be the plan. However, I want to wait until my situation improves a bit regarding space and capital before engaging their time and expertise.

Digital Solitude

Really depends on how much you will use it, and the budget, but I'd recommend it

Head over to the other forum and ask away, there are no stupid questions, and we've no obligation to post so its not really wasting our time :pac:

You'll have to play The Long War after it being hailed in the XCOM 2 thread too

challengemaster

If 1080 @60fps impresses you then you're in for a treat :pac: In all seriousness, that can be done for fairly cheap these days.

ScumLord

I'd say it's worth it. I'd also say it's worth spending good money initially as it will save you down the road. IE: Get a good quality case, it saves so much hassle in the long run. Get a good motherboard thats got some space for upgrades (although, depending on where the current line up of processors is, there may not be a chance to do that). Buy a good CPU and it can last you a long time. I skimped on the graphics card on my initial build but it's the only upgrade I've had to make (bar an SSD). I've been getting a good 10 years out of a build with just two graphics card updates.

Now is probably a bad time to buy, it would be worth seeing what happens once VR comes out and GPU/CPU manufacturers come out with solutions to VR high processing demands. I think VR should bring some new graphics cards out this year, so at the very least it will drive down the cost of whats currently available.

CraigM84

Absolutely worth it, after building my first gaming rig many a year a go i've never looked back, can be pricey depending on what you are after but worth it

Nody

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

So, after posting a fair bit in the XCOM 2 thread I mentioned that I might look into building a gaming PC. It's something I've wanted to do for years now ever since I saw a previous flatmate's rig render various games at 1080p @ 60fps or more. I think I'd be able to afford it at this stage but my employment contract runs out this year and I need to sort out something else so I thought I'd post this and do some research though there are a dazzling range of bits to choose from.

TLDR, did ye feel that spending the time and money on yer rigs was a sound investment or a waste of time, money and space? I strongly suspect answers of resounding satisfaction.

Always worth it because you get what YOU want and you pick the parts while saving money. Most "gaming PCs" tend to seriously lack in one or two parts and by picking your own parts you know you get the good stuff that works for your needs. A decent gaming PC will also last you quite a while (esp. if you drop another 250 EUR in two or three years time for a new graphic card to extend it's shelf life).

ShadowHearth

Short answer: yes


Long answer: yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees

Skerries

even more so as once you fork out for the initial gear now, then for the foreseeable future you will only need to upgrade the GPU every 3-4 years as the rest of the system won't be a bottleneck, unless you go VR

goz83

After a couple of years of putting it on the long finger, i bit the bullet and build my own pc, with a shopping provided here on boards. I went overkill every way I could and have no regrets. Went for an i7 processor and 32ram and 2 monitors and a nice big case with loads of usb connections and i added more to it. The graphics card I got is the only piece of kit i didn't spend on, because i dont game. I use the pc for regular work stuff, web building and general browsing. A decent mechanical keyboard and roller ball mouse were also excellent investments.

Skerries

goz83 wrote: »

The graphics card I got is the only piece of kit i didn't spend on, because i dont game. I use the pc for regular work stuff, web building and general browsing..

why so overkill for a PC that you could buy in PC world?

Digital Solitude

Skerries wrote: »

why so overkill for a PC that you could buy in PC world?

He wanted 32gb :pac: I remember the thread, I specced it very overkill after misunderstanding his uses, he kept the 32gb, then a 32 bit version of Windows

ancapailldorcha

challengemaster wrote: »

If 1080 @60fps impresses you then you're in for a treat :pac: In all seriousness, that can be done for fairly cheap these days.

In hindsight, it may have been more than this. Before I saw it, I used to think the difference couldn't possible be THAT much. How naive I was indeed.

ScumLord wrote: »

I'd say it's worth it. I'd also say it's worth spending good money initially as it will save you down the road. IE: Get a good quality case, it saves so much hassle in the long run. Get a good motherboard thats got some space for upgrades (although, depending on where the current line up of processors is, there may not be a chance to do that). Buy a good CPU and it can last you a long time. I skimped on the graphics card on my initial build but it's the only upgrade I've had to make (bar an SSD). I've been getting a good 10 years out of a build with just two graphics card updates.

Now is probably a bad time to buy, it would be worth seeing what happens once VR comes out and GPU/CPU manufacturers come out with solutions to VR high processing demands. I think VR should bring some new graphics cards out this year, so at the very least it will drive down the cost of whats currently available.

Cheers. I have no intention of skimping on parts or anything like that. I think I want a high end machine without spending silly money on diminishing returns. I might wait until VR becomes mainstream before delving into that. I might leave it for now.

Nody wrote: »

Always worth it because you get what YOU want and you pick the parts while saving money. Most "gaming PCs" tend to seriously lack in one or two parts and by picking your own parts you know you get the good stuff that works for your needs. A decent gaming PC will also last you quite a while (esp. if you drop another 250 EUR in two or three years time for a new graphic card to extend it's shelf life).

Indeed. I'd be worried about PC manufacturers skimping on who knows what just to list fancy parts on the box or charging a premium of hundreds or even a grand.

Skerries wrote: »

even more so as once you fork out for the initial gear now, then for the foreseeable future you will only need to upgrade the GPU every 3-4 years as the rest of the system won't be a bottleneck, unless you go VR

Oh wow. I remember my old flatmate's being a few years old. He only replaced the GPU but everything else seemed fine. Heck, the GPU was fine for most games as well but he wanted everything shiny and new.

I also think I would enjoy the actual building bit as well. While I'm not an electronics engineer by any stretch, I did use to do some maintenance work for an electronics firm and I quite liked taking things apart.

TerrorFirmer

It does depend on the budget but with at least €500 you can have a really nice starter gaming PC that will runs games well at 1080p and can be easily upgraded as required.

One of the main things to consider is that over time, games are way cheaper on PC than they are on console, so over time, you will save hundreds if not thousands this way.

ancapailldorcha

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

It does depend on the budget but with at least €500 you can have a really nice starter gaming PC that will runs games well at 1080p and can be easily upgraded as required.

One of the main things to consider is that over time, games are way cheaper on PC than they are on console, so over time, you will save hundreds if not thousands this way.

Well, I use the laptop at the moment but it's not going to be able to play XCOM 2 by the looks of things. In addition, I have a fairly large Steam library with the likes of Bioshock Infinite, Dishonoured, Far Cry 3 and so on that I want to get to. I'd probably be looking at a budget of about £750-£900 with another few hundred to pick up a keyboard, mouse, copy of Windows, etc....

goz83

Skerries wrote: »

why so overkill for a PC that you could buy in PC world?

Well, I hate PC World for a start. Worst customer care I have had the pleasure of dealing with. And i wanted the experience of building my own rather than being stuck with a prebuilt pile of sh1te which is always missing something. I added 5 drives into mine, including 2 ssd drives.

Digital Solitude wrote: »

He wanted 32gb :pac: I remember the thread, I specced it very overkill after misunderstanding his uses, he kept the 32gb, then a 32 bit version of Windows

:pac: so i can blame you for filling my nugget with ideas of grandeur. The 32 bit was only a temp issue after dialling back from W10 to W7. All working great now.

challengemaster

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I also think I would enjoy the actual building bit as well. While I'm not an electronics engineer by any stretch, I did use to do some maintenance work for an electronics firm and I quite liked taking things apart.

If you've played with lego as a child you're enough of an engineer to build a computer. That's about as complex as it is, you don't have to sacrifice 7 goats while hopping on one foot to get it to work . Every part only has one place it can actually go.

No doubt you'll get enjoyment from building it yourself - that's always half (most) of the fun. But there's no reason to actually be afraid of it

TerrorFirmer

Just watch a youtube video or two beforehand, and you'll be grand. It's very easy overall.

The more you build, the better you'll get at clean builds, hiding and tidying cables, etc - but for a first build it really is very easy once you've a vague idea of what goes where and how it all works. It's nowhere as big a mystery or challenge as people tend to think.

goz83

challengemaster wrote: »

If you've played with lego as a child you're enough of an engineer to build a computer. That's about as complex as it is, you don't have to sacrifice 7 goats while hopping on one foot to get it to work . Every part only has one place it can actually go.

No doubt you'll get enjoyment from building it yourself - that's always half (most) of the fun. But there's no reason to actually be afraid of it

until you install your first cpu that you've spent several hundred euro on and you hear that worrying (but normal) crunching sound as the pins sit into place.

TerrorFirmer

It's yet another aspect that Intel trumps AMD, it's incredibly difficult to damage Intel CPU's or sockets due to the pinless design. AMD processors are far more delicate.

Have spent a fair few sweaty moments straightening out bent pins on processors with a needle. Not fun.

pawrick

I put together my first pc around xmas - it was a simple enough task once I began but which I probably over researched. I did have a slight panic when I couldn't get it working though but it turned out to be a minor setting I wasn't aware of and boards pointed me right.
Had been using gaming laptops prior to that but after my last one burnt out and it wasn't cost effective to repair it out I decided to try my hand with a pc, the main draw being able to upgrade it easily compared to a laptop and better value from the start.
I went over my initial budget, it's very hard not to when you start getting in to the specs of what you need and what you would like but what I have now is far better than anything pre built for the same price + it was something interesting to do in my spare time over xmas and I won't be worried about upgrading it myself in the future. I reckon anyone into pc gaming even if casual like me then fire ahead it's worth knowing how to do it at he very least.

pawrick

I put together my first pc around xmas - it was a simple enough task once I began but which I probably over researched. I did have a slight panic when I couldn't get it working though but it turned out to be a minor setting I wasn't aware of and boards pointed me right.
Had been using gaming laptops prior to that but after my last one burnt out and it wasn't cost effective to repair it out I decided to try my hand with a pc, the main draw being able to upgrade it easily compared to a laptop and better value from the start.
I went over my initial budget, it's very hard not to when you start getting in to the specs of what you need and what you would like but what I have now is far better than anything pre built for the same price + it was something interesting to do in my spare time over xmas and I won't be worried about upgrading it myself in the future. I reckon anyone into pc gaming even if casual like me then fire ahead it's worth knowing how to do it at he very least.

ancapailldorcha

challengemaster wrote: »

If you've played with lego as a child you're enough of an engineer to build a computer. That's about as complex as it is, you don't have to sacrifice 7 goats while hopping on one foot to get it to work . Every part only has one place it can actually go.

No doubt you'll get enjoyment from building it yourself - that's always half (most) of the fun. But there's no reason to actually be afraid of it

I'd be a bit worried about things like missing drivers, unexplainable errors, inadequate application of thermal paste, etc....

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Just watch a youtube video or two beforehand, and you'll be grand. It's very easy overall.

The more you build, the better you'll get at clean builds, hiding and tidying cables, etc - but for a first build it really is very easy once you've a vague idea of what goes where and how it all works. It's nowhere as big a mystery or challenge as people tend to think.

I have a habit of over-complicating things. I insisted someone supervise me for booking my first flight 6 years ago.

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

It's yet another aspect that Intel trumps AMD, it's incredibly difficult to damage Intel CPU's or sockets due to the pinless design. AMD processors are far more delicate.

Have spent a fair few sweaty moments straightening out bent pins on processors with a needle. Not fun.

This is the sort of thing that's good to know. I always thought AMD was better for gaming but that was based on a book I bought years ago.

Gehad_JoyRider

Built my first pc 3 maybe 4 years ago.

I did it because I wanted to play Day z and i needed a photography processing unit other then a mac book pro.
I built it my self watched a few videos on you tube and went with the tek syndicates building guide. literately worked my way through the entire build.

all you need are zip ties, a few screw drivers and a bit of time. I swear the satisfaction of switching on your pc for the first time that you've built is nothing short of awesome and while yea it could be considered simple but its just a really nice feeling.

Honestly every one should build there own pc at some point,

As for gaming hell yea it will change your opinion vrs consoles... Do it.

Digital Solitude

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I'd be a bit worried about things like missing drivers, unexplainable errors, inadequate application of thermal paste, etc....

You can download all the drivers you need

Unexplainable errors are rare and not to be worried about IMO

Thermal paste is all pre-applied

I don't know if you've checked out the other forum but we literally give you a list of stuff to buy

nesf

It's fine now, you can have a Youtube video explaining how to do X playing on the laptop beside you as you're putting the machine together. Again if there's an error after booting you can just google it on the laptop or ask for help on B&U on it. Etc.

So long as you don't decide to put in a custom GPU watercooling loop or something you'll be fine. It's much, much more straightforward these days in most respects compared to a few decades ago.

ancapailldorcha

Gehad_JoyRider wrote: »

Built my first pc 3 maybe 4 years ago.

I did it because I wanted to play Day z and i needed a photography processing unit other then a mac book pro.
I built it my self watched a few videos on you tube and went with the tek syndicates building guide. literately worked my way through the entire build.

all you need are zip ties, a few screw drivers and a bit of time. I swear the satisfaction of switching on your pc for the first time that you've built is nothing short of awesome and while yea it could be considered simple but its just a really nice feeling.

Honestly every one should build there own pc at some point,

As for gaming hell yea it will change your opinion vrs consoles... Do it.

Same here, save for the catalyst is XCOM 2.

I was initially bemused at people spending so much money when they could buy a console for so much less. Then I saw my housemate's rig running games and that was it. I actually saw his original GPU in Maplin, a Radeon HD5850 for about £29.99. Obviously obsolete but it seemed to handle an awful lot for such an old card.

Digital Solitude wrote: »

You can download all the drivers you need

Unexplainable errors are rare and not to be worried about IMO

Thermal paste is all pre-applied

I don't know if you've checked out the other forum but we literally give you a list of stuff to buy

Ah yeah, I think it's more that I'm trying to imagine scenarios which will mean that I've wasted a pile of money. I've seen the forum and seems like a great spot. I'll wait until I've sorted myself out with regards to physical space and other things which hopefully won't be too much longer.

nesf wrote: »

It's fine now, you can have a Youtube video explaining how to do X playing on the laptop beside you as you're putting the machine together. Again if there's an error after booting you can just google it on the laptop or ask for help on B&U on it. Etc.

So long as you don't decide to put in a custom GPU watercooling loop or something you'll be fine. It's much, much more straightforward these days in most respects compared to a few decades ago.

Seems to be a growing market from what I can tell. You can even pay a premium for manufacturers to assemble the thing for you now but that would be part of the experience gone for me I think. I was in Maplin yesterday and they sell motherboards with the CPU and RAM pre-installed.

nesf

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Seems to be a growing market from what I can tell. You can even pay a premium for manufacturers to assemble the thing for you now but that would be part of the experience gone for me I think. I was in Maplin yesterday and they sell motherboards with the CPU and RAM pre-installed.

Maplin are very, very expensive and sell old tech (or at least they did the last time I was in there).

ancapailldorcha

nesf wrote: »

Maplin are very, very expensive and sell old tech (or at least they did the last time I was in there).

I've no intention at all of buying anything from them. I just like looking at all the tech.

degrassinoel

nesf wrote: »

Maplin are very, very expensive and sell old tech (or at least they did the last time I was in there).

got a really decent price on a logitech joystick off them last year

But yeah their components are generally over what ye'd pay for elsewhere, same as peats used to be before they went bust, though i do miss peats