New custom computer or just buy one?

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frankyk

Gawd
Joined
Jan 30, 2004
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I'm looking to get a new desktop computer, but I'm not sure if I should custom build it or if I should buy a fully completed one.

I recently bought a 256 GB SSD hard drive but besides that the rest of my computer parts are around 2-5 years old.

What do you guys suggest?

Here's what I do:

1. Watch a lot of TV/movies on my computer, downloaded shows, Hulu/NFLX, Mlb.tv
2. Lots of web surfing
3. Occasional video editing
4. Casual gaming (maybe a game like DOTA 2 or SC2 for 1-2 hours a week)
5. Some music
6. A ton of Excel with very complicated spreadsheets that take a lot of time to process currently on my current desktop computer
 
Hah, okay, I'm open to that for sure.

I'm thinking $500, what do you guys think that will get me?

Can I put something together that is pretty good with that budget? I need everything new: Case, PSU, MB, RAM, Video Card, etc.

Any suggestions on parts?

Question... Are IDE hard drives a lot different now vs. 5 years ago? I have a few that are still working great it seems. I know SSD wipes out IDE drives in which I have the 256 GB one, but I figure I'd just re-use my other ones if they're still good.
 
1: Stats on your current computer.
2: Maximum budget
3: Preferred budget ($500 apparently).

As for IDE. You're not going to see a lot (or possibly any) IDE ports on current motherboards. Everything's SATA and/or SAS now for general connectivity with M.2 offerings and the like starting to poke their heads out.
 
Chas said:
1: Stats on your current computer.
2: Maximum budget
3: Preferred budget ($500 apparently).

As for IDE. You're not going to see a lot (or possibly any) IDE ports on current motherboards. Everything's SATA and/or SAS now for general connectivity with M.2 offerings and the like starting to poke their heads out.
Click to expand...

Stats:

Coolermaster Centurion 5 | G-Skill 2x2 GB DDR2 800 RAM | Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L MB | Intel E6300 @ 2.8 Ghz | Nvidia GeForce GT 610 | Samsung 22x DVD Burner | 256 GB SSD and a few SATA HD's.

Oh, sorry, I meant SATA HD's, not IDE HD's. Has anything really changed there? I'd like to perhaps buy a 1 TB HD or something but also use my other drives in the other disk bays.

Maximum budget is $750 I'd say but let's shoot for closer to $500-600 if possible unless the incremental $150-250 will add a lot more bang for my buck.
 
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
6) Will you be overclocking?
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

As for SATA drives, the biggest changes has been performance and size. In other words, more than likely a new 3TB hard drive these days can outperform any 500GB drive or smaller that was made over 5 years ago.
 
Your type of main application (spreadsheets) suggests that the most important is good monitor. Start with thinking about 32" 4K monitor, buy graphics card supporting it and then the rest is not so critical.
 
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

-- Chicago, IL (Curious why this matters)

6) Will you be overclocking?

-- Nope

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?

--1920x1200 (27" and 24")

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

--Perhaps next 3 months

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.

--SATA, USB 3.0, that's about it

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

--Windows 7 32-bit, I'm going to buy 64-bit though since I didn't realize that you can't get more than 4 GB with 32-bit :(
 
windows 7 will recieve a free upgrade to windows 10.
3 months is too far away to ask about build advice as prices will change and new hardware will be available.
 
I'm open to buying it now, not an immediate need but if the price is good, might as well.
 
frankyk said:
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

-- Chicago, IL (Curious why this matters)
Click to expand...

The good news is that you live near a Micro Center, which is a physical retailer that has deals and specials comparable to what you'd find at NewEgg or Amazon. If you can head there and buy all of your parts from there, you could save some money and a bit a time (compared to waiting for parts to be shipped to you).

frankyk said:
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

--Perhaps next 3 months
Click to expand...

frankyk said:
I'm open to buying it now, not an immediate need but if the price is good, might as well.
Click to expand...

I'll come up with something a bit later tonight.

frankyk said:
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

--Windows 7 32-bit, I'm going to buy 64-bit though since I didn't realize that you can't get more than 4 GB with 32-bit :(
Click to expand...

Is your copy of Windows a retail version or an OEM/Systems Builder version? That's important because the End User License Agreements for Windows 7 have different rules compared to Windows 8/8.1. (In short, the OEM copy may not be legally transferable.)
 
Chas said:
As for IDE. You're not going to see a lot (or possibly any) IDE ports on current motherboards. Everything's SATA and/or SAS now for general connectivity with M.2 offerings and the like starting to poke their heads out.
Click to expand...

Not entirely true.

IDE can be SATA or PATA. What you're thinking of is the old parallel (PATA) ports on motherboards that practically don't exist anymore.

What replaced IDE was AHCI. Since you can still run a SATA drive in IDE mode, although it's highly recommended to use the newer, faster AHCI mode.
 
The Windows 7 I have is from Microcenter, one of their OEM's I think.

Here's a question.

I have a Mac Mini from late 2014 (http://www.apple.com/mac-mini/specs/, it's the $999 one, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB Fusion Drive, 2.8 GHz).

If I were to install Bootcamp and install Windows 7 64-bit, would that be an adequate replacement for a desktop for the next few years where I could swap between my desktop and mac? It appears the specs are pretty good on the mac mini.
 
frankyk said:
The Windows 7 I have is from Microcenter, one of their OEM's I think.

Here's a question.

I have a Mac Mini from late 2014 (http://www.apple.com/mac-mini/specs/, it's the $999 one, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB Fusion Drive, 2.8 GHz).

If I were to install Bootcamp and install Windows 7 64-bit, would that be an adequate replacement for a desktop for the next few years where I could swap between my desktop and mac? It appears the specs are pretty good on the mac mini.
Click to expand...

I don't know how the integrated Iris graphics hold up for gaming, but other than that It might not be a bad idea, I'm unsure though if you would benefit enough from more logic cores to warrent the cost of a build. Regardless of you path you'll need a new copy of windows, so I would get that and then try bootcamp out and see if you think it's enough. Worst case you'll be building anyways :)
 
For quick reference, "the woman's" Mac is a 2.8 i5, 8gb, with Iris Pro graphics etc.

I occasionally play Dota 2 and Diablo 3 on it, but it is not the most pleasant of experiences.

Now, don't get me wrong, it works and is fairly fluid but compared to my rig at home it's just shameful.
 
horrorshow said:
For quick reference, "the woman's" Mac is a 2.8 i5, 8gb, with Iris Pro graphics etc.

I occasionally play Dota 2 and Diablo 3 on it, but it is not the most pleasant of experiences.

Now, don't get me wrong, it works and is fairly fluid but compared to my rig at home it's just shameful.
Click to expand...

Lol.

I'm not a hardcore gamer, so not sure if I really need anything too powerful, the IRIS graphics aren't great but they work okay for most games I've attempted so far. I prefer a PC much more than a MAC, so this could be interesting. I'll report back based on how this goes.
 
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