Build or Buy a Desktop?

[chesney-93]

I'm looming at getting a new system in the next month or so but while doing my research thought I would ask you guys if it's worth building one? For a decent unit these days it's not much money but can money be saved buying one or building one? Least with building it I should have better parts in side.

I have never built a pc before but have a rough idea, a few websites and it should be fine. Lol

[Chris]

I have never bought a premade computer in my life yet (except C64 and Amiga, but these simply had no customization options). I think you save at least 25-30% this way (plus you will get better components), althrough it might be country dependant, plus I have hardware maniac friends who usually build it for me so maybe it is why it is so much more cost efficient.

[133794m3r]

Just use this. It's the simplest/easiest way to maximize your power whilst minimizing your costs. It's very accurate and is updated regularly.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/af150/The_FalconO6/CurrentLogicalPCBuyingGuide/Guide.png

[Chris]

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/af150/The_FalconO6/CurrentLogicalPCBuyingGuide/Guide.png

I have several objections (as usual ) to that list.

Nowadays anything below 2TB HDD is not optimal, the difference in price between 1TB and 2TB is just too low (compare prices for Seagate ST1000DL002 1TB sATA II 32MB and Seagate ST2000DL003 2TB sATA III 64MB).

RAM, if you have 32 bit CPU get *exactly* 4GB (2GB costs almost as much as 4GB, above 4GB is wasted since 32 bit CPU can't address it); for 64 bit CPU I would go for above 8GB, probably 16GB. Also note that you have to buy your memory at once, you *can't add memory later*, it simply gets outdated fast and they won't produce the current one anymore and if they do it will cost so much (the older outdated RAM chips are always more expensive than better but the current ones, contrary to conventional logic) it will make no sense to upgrade, also RAM chips have the highest incompatibility issues (there are relatively high odds you will be forced to throw away your old chips because these would be incompatible with your older chips, of course before that you might be forced to throw away your motherboard for the same reason which means you will be forced to throw away your CPU as well because they chnaged the socket in the meantime which effectively means you will end up with your keyboard, mouse and the case - so do yourself a favour and get all the RAM you will ever need from the start

CPU, from my observations of the CPU utilization monitor I would say 3 cores are enough, anything above won't have any effect (does not apply to 3D artists, 3DSMax/Maya quite likely can utilize all the cores you can feed it and it will still want more).

GPU, you can get a cheap one for starters (or even stick with the onboard one for a while), this is one of the very few things which you actually can upgrade later (also, if you are reading this forum it probably means you are a programmer so you don't need a cutting edge CPU anyway, so no point wasting money on it).


Final note, never buy any hardware/components from a general purpose supermarket, go to a specialized computer store (which you will find via google), the differences in prices/quality will be more than significant.

[gnoh]

I'd get the cheapest gpu that will let you have 2-3 monitors if you're not programming just as a hobby,   other than that Chris is pretty much spot on imo.   
I would also get/use more cores but that's mainly to bring down GWT compile time and for use with other tooling.

[Chris]

Tell something more about multi monitor setup, I'm working on a single monitor but I'm thinking of trying multi monitor solution. Can you use two non identical monitors (different resolution)? What is the best practical setup?

CPU, yeah, right, I was coding recently only in interpreted languages so the compilation time is always zero, but for C I can see a use for 8-12 cores since obj can be compiled separately.

[133794m3r]

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/af150/The_FalconO6/CurrentLogicalPCBuyingGuide/Guide.png

I have several objections (as usual ) to that list.

Nowadays anything below 2TB HDD is not optimal, the difference in price between 1TB and 2TB is just too low (compare prices for Seagate ST1000DL002 1TB sATA II 32MB and Seagate ST2000DL003 2TB sATA III 64MB).

RAM, if you have 32 bit CPU get *exactly* 4GB (2GB costs almost as much as 4GB, above 4GB is wasted since 32 bit CPU can't address it); for 64 bit CPU I would go for above 8GB, probably 16GB. Also note that you have to buy your memory at once, you *can't add memory later*, it simply gets outdated fast and they won't produce the current one anymore and if they do it will cost so much (the older outdated RAM chips are always more expensive than better but the current ones, contrary to conventional logic) it will make no sense to upgrade, also RAM chips have the highest incompatibility issues (there are relatively high odds you will be forced to throw away your old chips because these would be incompatible with your older chips, of course before that you might be forced to throw away your motherboard for the same reason which means you will be forced to throw away your CPU as well because they chnaged the socket in the meantime which effectively means you will end up with your keyboard, mouse and the case - so do yourself a favour and get all the RAM you will ever need from the start

CPU, from my observations of the CPU utilization monitor I would say 3 cores are enough, anything above won't have any effect (does not apply to 3D artists, 3DSMax/Maya quite likely can utilize all the cores you can feed it and it will still want more).

GPU, you can get a cheap one for starters (or even stick with the onboard one for a while), this is one of the very few things which you actually can upgrade later (also, if you are reading this forum it probably means you are a programmer so you don't need a cutting edge CPU anyway, so no point wasting money on it).


Final note, never buy any hardware/components from a general purpose supermarket, go to a specialized computer store (which you will find via google), the differences in prices/quality will be more than significant.

Well as it said, it's a general purpose guide used as a platform for you to go on. And Newegg is a specialized store here in america. All they do is deal in computer hardware. Also fry's is kind of good, but honestly you cannot beat newegg on prices(unless you see a deal on something at fry's)

Also I believe the ram used in the guide was optimized for the CPU build. I didn't see any 32bit cpus using 4GB of ram. Also you cannot actually really use all of that 4GB. even with \LAA flag in windows. You can only use 3.7GB maximum for the system itself. So you'd be wasting .7GB, also why would someone go with a 32bit cpu? That's just crazy. Also where would you find a CPU with only 3 cores at? I've only seen them in even increments.  Anyway, since he is a programmer, you are going to need a decent CPU and a decent amount of ram.

I have 16GB of ram on my system, and I mount a 6GB ram disk and put all of my IDE stuff, all of the code, web browsers ... on it and use it for better speed when working with it. Also when I got my ram it was 10$ more for 16GB than 8GB and I felt like having more than enough ram for years to come. On the storage space thing, I don't think this guide has been updated since the floods in thailand. Before that a 1TB hdd was next to nothing. I got a 3TB for 80$ and there's no reason to not get it if ti's that cheap. Right now, of course, if you don't need the storage keep the size low due to the insane price jumps that are still in effect.

On the issueof multi-monitor setups it depends on your operating system. I know that windows 7(no idea about vista) can have two monitors of different resolutions, and even different brands and use them. Linux can do it too(as long as you've updated in the past two years). On apple devices... I have no idea. But then again, I doubt that anyone who's going to be using a multi-monitor setup would spend the money on apple hardware.