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RE: Self Building

retro — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:17:22 GMT

after reading this it reminded me of a conversation with my gf, she asked me what building a computer meant i had to do. after asking her what she meant she said " i thought you had to solder all the components on to the motherboard yourself and 'literally build' the computer from scratch", after much laughing i told her you just slot it all together even she can do it so long as she got the 'right' parts that work with each other.

ask for advice on these forums and im sure youll get friendly informative replies to answer all your questions, with a bit of careful planing anybody can build a computer. maybe you could end up showing your sons a thing or two :)

RE: Self Building

The VFM (Value For Money) Addict — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:21:51 GMT

I think the point being missed here is, "overclockability", so to speak. Overclocking is what provides a massive price advantage for the self-build system. Meaning you can get a far more powerful machine for your money than if you were buying a complete, off the shelf, system.

Overclocking these days is (a) Safe when using Core 2 Duo's due to their Thermal Throttling - and - (b) As easy as setting up a modern car radio.

To ensure overclockability you need to select the right (i.e. overclockable) components. In other words self-build.

When all of the above is taken into account, self-building (assumming mild to moderate overclocking) can still save one hundreds of pounds.

Cheers,
vfm

RE: Self Building

ChinaTown — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:51:39 GMT

I agree Jason. :) And half of pre-build computers offer cheap trashy components. (I.E. Go out of date quicker...) :angry:

RE: Self Building

BJM — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:28:25 GMT

I would argue the exact opposite to BigRon.

Low spec machines (and I don't mean simply refurbishing old bangers) are the hardest market to compete in. £350 - £400 will buy a system that even 2 years ago we would have killed for, including all the peripherals, a TFT monitor, operating system, 12 months warranty and "easy" credit terms.
That is damn near impossible to match, and a saving of 10% on components only amounts to £40.

It is at the other end of the spectrum where it is possible to compete on price. A high-end gaming rig will cost (prebuilt) upwards of £1,000 all in, and in this market it is still possible to put together the same level of system for up to 30% less.

Unfortunately those sorts of system only come up once a year or so (at least, they do for me)

(Oh, and thanks for the paragraphs Ron :D )

RE: Self Building

Dwynnehugh — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:01:00 GMT

I agree that it is very difficult if not impossible to undercut the big boys on price etc. However a good local computer builder can beat them hands down on service and aftercare which many people look for.

I tell my business clients that if it goes wrong at 3am and YOU HAVE to use it - give me a call and I WILL turn out - try that from one of the big retailers.

Am I daft in saying that - NO - to date I have had very few breakdowns and my clients prefer support that is local & immediate - to saving a few ££s in big shops. Support to local businesses means more than a few quid in savings - PCs are claimable against Tax - lost time isn't.

But I do agree that it is very difficult to compete in any way with the High Streert retailers - buy now pay next year, free offers, free upgrade etc. etc.

Really it's a case of "you gets what yer pay fer!":)

RE: Self Building

BigRon — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 15:36:17 GMT

While it [i][b]used [/b][/i]to be otherwise, nowadays it's hard to buy the parts of a "self-build" for less than a major manufacturer can sell a complete machine.

There's one exception to this situation: where the spec of the desired machine is quite low (a machine needed for college, perhaps a pensioner wanting to "dip their toe" in the IT Pool... My local college seems to specialise in putting wrinklies through the "European Computer Driving License") The price of "ex-corporate system boxes" is more than reasonable; they offer lowish specs, but they're going to be used for email, wordprocessing, and not much more - almost certainly not games!

Adding some appropriate RAM, reinstalling the (often provided inclusively) operating system and generally sprucing the system up with a new keyboard and mouse (and a recycled CRT monitor?) Is one of the few areas where it IS still possible to "undercut the big boys", by exploiting the growing gap between what the user [b]needs [/b]and what the vendor wants to sell. My 80 year old Mum, for example, happily uses a 1000Mhz Athlon, with a gigabyte of RAM. It does everything she wants it to do - "window shop on the web", book flights online, send and receive Email, and do a bit of wordprocessing and image manipulation (i.e. removing "red eye" from snapshots!)

The only area where you can still walk into a highstreet store and get a relatively underpowered (and appropriately underpriced!) system is.. laptops. The Asus EEE and the (interesting looking) new sub £100 Elonex laptop address the [b]lack [/b]of need for power... but there seems to be nobody addressing the same problem with desktop systems.

RE: Self Building

John H White — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:28:53 GMT

As I said before, Planeman, Computer building is not one of my hobbies; although I do admire people like you and my sons, when I can get hold of them, who are so helpful with their expertise.:)
Cheers,
John.

RE: Self Building

John H White — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:23:00 GMT

I couldn't agree more Dwynnehugh. Around 25 years ago, when I was much more into photography than I am now, I built myself a giant 10"X 8" horizontal enlarger, that could enlarge a whole 35mm proof sheet in one go, with a 4'X4' adjustable sticky board for the paper. I'm sure I enjoyed building it( including making a 12" square 2' long bellows) much more than I ever did using it, which only happened 2 or 3 times before I had to dismantle the whole thing on emigrating from London to the Isle of Wight. However, being a complete ass at anything involving the technical side of computers, I'd rather specify what I want and let someone else do the dirty work for me.
Cheers,
John.

RE: Self Building

PlaneMan — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 18:06:16 GMT

I started tinkering with 'puters through necessity, I was given an old machine and wanted to get on the internet so I had to learn how to upgrade it (I was on a very limited budget).
Now I help friends/ family with their problems and once in a while do a build for someone else. I would never buy an off the shelf desktop unit now.
For me it's peace of mind, I know what's in the machine, not what some salesman tells me is in the machine.
If your hapy to buy pre-built, good luck to you.

RE: Self Building

Dwynnehugh — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 17:23:32 GMT

Hi John

Some of us might say that "the pleasure is in the journey and not the arrival";)

RE: Self Building

John H White — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 17:18:45 GMT

Ah yes gentlemen, but computer building is not one of my hobbies:laugh:! Some years ago, in my late 60's, I took up the violin. If I'd decided to build my own instrument, which might have been quite fun, I'd probably be still on the building stage and would never have got round to learning to play the thing!:)
Cheers,
John.

RE: Self Building

Dwynnehugh — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 11:10:15 GMT

Hi BigD

Quote /"Most of my fun with 'puters is putting them together and taking them apart again."/unquote,

Yep there's nothing more like fun than having built and switching on - it WORKS!!! until you do it the next time and then it's ..... "@@###$$$&&&***~~~~ computers":D Blood on sharp corners (must buy more decent cases) inaccessible screws, taking it out is so much more difficult than it was putting it in for the first time, the book says it will???, ........ etc. etc.:Whistling:

We "computer builders" must have some underlying tendency towards masochism;)

Still it keeps us off the streets;)

RE: Self Building

bigdaddy — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 07:23:56 GMT

I agree with Jason. Most of my fun with 'puters is putting them together and taking them apart again. The rest is just a bonus.:D

RE: Self Building

Jason — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 21:59:54 GMT

I think the main benefit of building your own is that you can specify exactly what you want. You can choose every last component. That's never the case with a pre-built system, even from those companies that offer you the opportunity to mix and match various parts. The cost savings these days are negligible.

Self Building

John H White — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 21:55:33 GMT

Dear Editor,
Whilst I have found the current series on building one's own computer most interesting; with one of your advertisers offering quite a high spec. machine for around £600, I cannot see how it is possible to save money, buying new components individually. I suppose it could be argued that we pay extra for the fun of building and setting up our own computer. However, for a complete novice of 76 like myself, this could result in a lot more pain than pleasure.:(
A few months ago I attempted a motherboard/processor/soundcard transplant on my existing machine. This resulted in 2 of my sons having to spend quite a few hours putting right what had gone wrong. The poor fellows had thought they had just come to visit us to join me in the annual cycle ride round the Isle of Wight, where I now live!
A bit of gentle upgrading like adding memory might be all right but, for me, a complete home build looks decidedly out of the question:(.
Cheers,
John H White.