Buying a new Gaming PC

Professor S · 08-11-2011, 11:09 PM

I ordered the AMD version and after ebates.com discounts and a promo code I basically got shipping for free. Thanks to everyone for their help.

KillerGremlin · 08-11-2011, 11:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Professor S

I ordered the AMD version and after ebates.com discounts and a promo code I basically got shipping for free. Thanks to everyone for their help.

Gives us updates yo.

Also I haven't seen such epic derailment in a thread in a long while. Good job guys!

Blix · 08-13-2011, 11:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KillerGremlin

Gives us updates yo.

Also I haven't seen such epic derailment in a thread in a long while. Good job guys!

That's the side effect of bringing the Ati or Nvidia debate to any thread.

TheSlyMoogle · 08-14-2011, 01:20 AM

Uhm about that static electricity thing with the motherboards, I've probably built about 15 computers now for myself and friends throughout the years since I graduated high school and I've never grounded myself and never had an issue with the motherboard.

Anyone else have any input?

KillerGremlin · 08-14-2011, 03:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheSlyMoogle

Uhm about that static electricity thing with the motherboards, I've probably built about 15 computers now for myself and friends throughout the years since I graduated high school and I've never grounded myself and never had an issue with the motherboard.

Anyone else have any input?

Provided you weren't standing around on carpet or touching any volatile areas of the mobo, you probably were okay. You also ground yourself by touching the case so...

manasecret · 08-12-2011, 12:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Professor S

I ordered the AMD version and after ebates.com discounts and a promo code I basically got shipping for free. Thanks to everyone for their help.

You shoulda priced the parts and built it yourself. Not a good price. And didn't even include an SSD drive at that price.

But I guess convenience trumps quality yet again.

Professor S · 08-12-2011, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by manasecret

You shoulda priced the parts and built it yourself. Not a good price. And didn't even include an SSD drive at that price.

But I guess convenience trumps quality yet again.

You underestimate my lack of confidence and skill, lol.

I did price the parts (on new egg), and I paid about $100 extra (part for part) to have the computer built by professionals for me instead of my fumbling ass putting it together. That $100 probably saved me half a day or more of cursing and stress. That's half a day I can spent fragging noobs or smoking cigars.

Also, it's 10 times the PC I would get for the same price at Best Buy.

Time is money, my friend. Also, not frying my MB with static electricity is a blessing as well...

manasecret · 08-13-2011, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Professor S

You underestimate my lack of confidence and skill, lol.

I did price the parts (on new egg), and I paid about $100 extra (part for part) to have the computer built by professionals for me instead of my fumbling ass putting it together. That $100 probably saved me half a day or more of cursing and stress. That's half a day I can spent fragging noobs or smoking cigars.

Also, it's 10 times the PC I would get for the same price at Best Buy.

Time is money, my friend. Also, not frying my MB with static electricity is a blessing as well...

Lame excuses honestly which deprives you of very useful information and experience going forward in both life and career, but I understand and I am not free from making the same lazy choices. Every time I go to a mechanic, I wish I would just learn to do it myself. That is, if it isn't summer in Houston at the time. I don't have the will power to learn to fix my car in 100 degree weather.

(That's 100 degree temperature, btw, NOT heat index. Add 114% humidity to that... and that week long heat wave of mid-90 degree temperatures that hit the east awhile back can bite me. Houston IS a perpetual heat-wave.

)

Professor S · 08-13-2011, 01:10 PM

It may make sense for you to spend hours fussing with building a computer. I have a 1 year old, a wife, a full time job, a house to care for, etc. It makes no sense for me to waste a day building a PC when it costs me $100 extra for a professional to do it right and ship it to me for free. Building a PC is simply not high on my list of priorities.

Don't confuse lazy with smart. Stupid people work hard for no reason, and at the expense of things they care about.

Vampyr · 08-13-2011, 01:15 PM

I think it's fine for people not to build their own PC's...if you don't know what you're doing, and if it doesn't boot up correctly the first time (which is usually the case), it's going to be a stressful few hours while you try to figure out what's up. That will be the case even if you DO know what your doing.

manasecret · 08-13-2011, 06:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Professor S

It may make sense for you to spend hours fussing with building a computer. I have a 1 year old, a wife, a full time job, a house to care for, etc. It makes no sense for me to waste a day building a PC when it costs me $100 extra for a professional to do it right and ship it to me for free. Building a PC is simply not high on my list of priorities.

Don't confuse lazy with smart. Stupid people work hard for no reason, and at the expense of things they care about.

If it's not laziness then it's a lack of understanding of how building your own computer gives you a leg up versus everyone else in the market doing your same job (assuming it involves computers in any way). While someone else would be stuck waiting for someone to fix their computer or, worse, spending money to have someone fix it (and it's almost always something exceedingly simple to fix), you would be saving time (which as you said is money) and actual cash by fixing it yourself right away. And you would get more work done.

I also think everyone should learn basic programming skills, because it will make you vastly more efficient over others in whatever job you're in when you realize you can have a computer do most of your computer work more efficiently and with far fewer errors.

That is, unless you're the CEO and your time really is worth $500/hr+... then in that case it really is a waste to learn. Just pay others to do everything for you.

By the way, I'm not trying to be a dick here. I honestly believe this stuff, and especially for someone that I respect like you (or anyone else on these forums). Computers rule the work world. You're better off knowing as much as you can about them, and the BEST way to learn is to build your own.

Vampyr · 08-13-2011, 06:49 PM

I don't think you learn that much about computers by building one. :\

It's really just the equivalent of putting together some large lego blocks.

Vampyr · 08-12-2011, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by manasecret

You shoulda priced the parts and built it yourself. Not a good price. And didn't even include an SSD drive at that price.

But I guess convenience trumps quality yet again.

I have an SSD at work, and one one hand I love the speed and snappiness of it.

On the other, they are much, much more prone to failure, and I live in constant worry it's going to die.

I think for a home PC I'd just go for a 7400 RPM drive. You'll also get a lot more space that way.

manasecret · 08-12-2011, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vampyr

I have an SSD at work, and one one hand I love the speed and snappiness of it.

On the other, they are much, much more prone to failure, and I live in constant worry it's going to die.

I think for a home PC I'd just go for a 7400 RPM drive. You'll also get a lot more space that way.

Eh I think the failure rates are overrated. Hard drives fail all the time, too. And you can put a hard disk at 10,000,000,000,000,000 RPM, and it will never match the latency of an SSD drive. The arm will always have to lurch over from spot to spot no matter the RPM. The beauty of SSD is in small, random read/writes, which is what makes using it so snappy.

And you get the SSD for the main local drive. Any other large programs and files go on the regular hard disk.

KillerGremlin · 08-12-2011, 04:44 PM

Yup...my best friend has an SSD drive and it's insane. He uses it solely for the OS and games he installs. All his music and video gets stored on external 1TB Hard Drives. Games load like butter. It really is insane.

Right now the cost of the SSDs is still high, so if you get one use it as a main drive and do mass storage on regular old fashioned HDs.