Questions, questions, always questions. This week we want to know about your PC-building habits. Don’t build PCs? Tell us! Just use a laptop? We need to know. There are few questions below, so please do us a favour and fill them in. It’ll take mere seconds, and you’ll probably be reward in PC gaming heaven. Probably.
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Do you build your own gaming PC from seperate components?
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Do you upgrade internal elements of your PC (memory, 3D card)
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I have bought a 3D card in the past...
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Do you use a laptop for playing new, 3D games? Aka: do you have a modern gaming laptop
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Build your own is great fun and easy. Better parts for less money, and the educational benefit of trial and error.
I dont know why more people who want gaming machines dont do it themselves, or at least get a nerd mate to do it for them.
Always build my own. had my 8800GTS replaced a few months ago by a HD4850X2. This was because the 88’s memory malfunctioned. Got the 4850 free under warranty.
My laptop is mostly for work in the train and on school. So that i always carry my files with me in a workable condition. But i do play games like Unreal Tournament 2004 and Half-Life 2 on em. Runs pretty decent. Also OpenCiv 2 and games that are more playable in the train.
I had a friend build my original gaming machine. it was never quite right tho, and when one day it died i decided to just do it myself.
ive had so many components through this system now i cant even remember everything, started with a skt 939 and now on skt 775. i’ve decided to give this generation a miss as my overclocked Q6600 is pulling its weight very nicely and i just dont need i7, as tempting as it is.
the next upgrade is an SSD and a nice new 24in IPS panel. I pretty much always have my eye on something on the horizon
I’d personally pay 10% over the odds, just so I could build it my self, I enjoy doing it that much, it takes me to my happy place.
(At one point, in a progressively more fucked up relationship the only way I could get to sleep was rehearsing in my mind how I would assemble my next PC)
Mind you, I used to work for a pc manufacturer (Evesham micros, sorry), so in all I’ve probably built about 2500 and something machines, most of them were the same though, but I did learn that ESD is not a problem, and that the biggest thing to worry about is bending the pins on the CPU.
Also, that motherboards will still work even if you accidentally knock a capacitor off. Well, it worked long enough to install windows and shove it out the door….
phuzz you bastard! That’s why my mum’s Evesham PC was a pile of poo!
Agree with others that self-built is best if you can stomach the work. Nothing beats booting your new rig for the first time and throwing the most intensive sparkly new game at it and seeing how it does.
Normally choose the components and get it built for me, though I have built up Desktops in the past. What I did this time though was choose what I roughly wanted (4870, quad core etc) and then waited till it was on a pre configured sale, was still built the next day for me but I saved about 100pounds and actually came to less than if I bought the components separately and built it myself.
Build them myself. I am considering getting someone else to put together my next one, as I fear I screwed up my thermal pasting/choice of heat sink. Heat and fan noise are my biggest issues with my current machine. Of course, only time will tell if I let someone else near my innards.
I choose “other”, as I have been using a mixed approach over time. First I bought cheap assembled PCs on sales, cherry-picked the good components, and slapped a new graphics card and maybe a bit extra ram.
For my latest PC, tough, I bought all the components individually, and had a friend that works in IT come over to help me assemble it. Since then I’ve built a low-performance rig for LAN parties from old parts and I feel pretty confident that I will be able to fully assemble my next machine.
Also love my 2 year old laptop, still boots like its a fresh install even though its chock full 2years of uni files and loads of other stuff, still not to bad for games for whenever I’m out and about, visiting the parents or if I’ve got a friend round an we fancy a bit of TF2
I’ve built the last three PCs myself. Gaming on a laptop – other than very simple games like Peggle – is unthinkable and even a little comic to me.
I consider quitting PC gaming for good, but I guess I will always have some mean to play my old PC games.
@ Fixxxer667
You’ve just given me a stomach punch of nostalgia there. My first PC was an AST machine with a Cyrix 5×85 chip. Trying to keep that thing competitive certainly earned my ‘I VOID WARRANTIES’ T-shirt too. After abandoning a very circuitous route to give it USB support I invested in a bunch of kit based around an AMD K6 and built my first first custom rig. It had an ATI Rage Fury :) I got a lot of miles out of that card. It went into three subsequent machines between myself and a friend.
I can’t fathom a pre-built machine. I enjoy putting them together far too much. My only complaint these days is that all the fun is over too quickly… though I have found myself putting extra effort into careful placements of components and wires for better airflow and such… but I’m really just milking the experience. I should probably get myself some mechano sets instead.
@ DarkNoghri:
It’s an AMD X2 2.6GHz chip. I figured in a thread about building custom machines that readers would figure out the maths for themselves.
@ FiXXXer667
You’ve just given me a stomach punch of nostalgia there. My first PC was an AST Vision with a Cyrix 5×86 cpu. Trying to keep that thing competitive certainly earned me my ‘I VOID WARRANTIES’ T-shirt too. I eventually abandoned a very circuitous plan to give it USB support in favour of investing in a bunch of kit based around an AMD K6. It was my first custom build. It gave it an ATI Rage Fury card. :-) I replayed all my old games on it for comparrison, Deus Ex and Jedi knight showing the greatest improvements. That card lived on into three subsequent machines between myself and my friend.
I personally can’t fathom buying a pre-built machine, I enjoy putting them together myself far too much for that. My only complaint these days is that the fun is over far too quickly. Thogh recently I’ve been putting extra time and effort into careful postioning of components and wires for improved airflow and what-not, but I’m really just milking the experience.
@ DarkNoghri
It is an AMD X2 2.6GHz. I figured in a thread about custom PC builds that readers would figure out the math for themselves.
Gah! Wordpress ate my first post but now I see its there. Could someone please remove this comment and the duplicate message please. thank you.
I got my first PC when I was 16. A 486 DX33, and whilst I didn’t assemble it myself, I did install a CD-ROM drive in it.
(A single spin CD-ROM drive that cost something like $800 Australian).
I think I probably caused my parents a fair amount of frustration fiddling with and upgrading the family PC (both before and after getting one of my own). However, the skillset learned got me a part-time job doing desktop support and started off my IT career.
So don’t get too mad if your teenager wrecks your/their PC (save it up for when they’re 22, have just dropped out of business school, and it’s clear that it didn’t have any positive benefits).
Anyway, Whilst I can appreciate the “I have too little free time and enough income to not bother” sentiment, these days if I do hardware stuff at work it’s mostly on high end server gear, so I find that building my own PC or putting together something for my family/friends lets me keep abreast of what is going on in desktop land. I’ve just learned to steer clear of building stuff for anyone incapable of doing their own tech support after the fact (except my parents, I figure I owe them some competent tech-support)
Have built all my own for the last 10 years (it doesn’t seem that long). My warrenties have only lasted long enough for me to get all drivers, patches etc installed. I have only owned one graphics card over the last 10 years that kept its original heatsink (6800GT flashed with 6800 ultra bios, stock heatsink was good enough to hold up under the incresed Vcore to the GPU and a 15% overclock)
ditto like a lot of people; pick and buy the parts (right down to the case) and have the store assemble it for free. most in my TO neighbourhood toss it in. will probably upgrade the memory card in 6 months.
I built one PC and made a lot of bad choices, the thing was riddled with problems. My current PC is a laptop just for the portability (I traveled a lot last year). I want to build another PC now that I know what not to do but I’m still squeezing some use out of this lappy.
I’ve built every PC I’ve ever owned apart from this one, my gaming laptop.
I find the cheapest, easiest, least likely to fuck up path is to buy a Dell model that’s on sale then trick it out at home. My current PC is a Dell with the memory and graphics card replaced, I’ve been meaning to get a new one, though. Looking at the site, I can get one with an integrated graphics card, but a Core 2 Quad and otherwise modern hardware for less than $650. Can’t beat that.
I have built every desktop PC I have owned since college.
I used to build them for friends and family too back when it was way cheaper to build them from parts. However, when budget PCs could be had for $500 or less it became harder to justify building one for word processing and Internet usage.
I bought a gaming laptop recently (XPS 1330) but, if I were to go the desktop route again, would build another in a second.
What really sucks is that my main PC gaming self build just blew up two days ago. Now I’m looking at replacing the ram, mobo, cpu and PSU. Spending that much money will not be fun.
I bought a customised a Sager NP9280 from XoticPC to use as a DTR in Japan. Wish I actually had a desktop though…