What type of computer to buy?

[Pags]

So how hard is it make your own and what are the risks?

I'm fairly technically competent but for time management I'd kind of like it to work out of the box. If it's just screwing cards in to the case and plugging in jumpers that's ok but if I have to start from complete scratch that sounds like something that will end up in pieces on my workbench or will always be something I'm troubleshooting while my wife glares at me and says stuff like "do you feel like youve saved any money?"

 

[Mos]

My 8yr old iMac is dying and it's time for a new desktop. I'm fairly out of the loop when it comes to what modern specs I should be considering. Use case is internet, email, office suite, kids homework, and the occasional non-graphics intensive game (think civilization). I don't want another Mac but I still want a traditional experience such as internal storage and commonality with available programs so I think that leaves me with Win10 and leaves out Chromebooks (but I could be wrong). I've been looking at things like the Intel NUC but am not sure how much of a processor I'd really need. Budget is under 1k and I have a monitor and other peripherals.

I have a surface book pro 4 that does everything you've listed (including play civ 6), but it's a tablet/notebook instead of a desktop PC. Haven't used a desktop in 3 years. Has about 128 gb of ssd storage but you can get them with bigger drives.

 

[Mos]

So how hard is it make your own and what are the risks?

I'm fairly technically competent but for time management I'd kind of like it to work out of the box. If it's just screwing cards in to the case and plugging in jumpers that's ok but if I have to start from complete scratch that sounds like something that will end up in pieces on my workbench or will always be something I'm troubleshooting while my wife glares at me and says stuff like "do you feel like youve saved any money?"

It's not difficult. I built a desktop (which I don't use anymore, see above) by googling "build your own PC" and just followed the guide I found. Built one for my parents not long after. I think the main pitfall when buying parts is getting parts that are compatible, but you can find build guides that have already been checked for compatibility by computer nerds. As for actually putting the thing together, I think the trickiest step was setting up the processor in thermal paste and heatsink (you can potentially damage the processor or set it up to fail if you're not careful), but pretty much everything else was just plugging cards/cables into slots, securing things with screws, etc.

 

[squorch2]

risks: zero systemic support; dealing with a wide variety of warranty/RMO dates and processes.

upside: cheap

 

[nittany03]

As for actually putting the thing together, I think the trickiest step was setting up the processor in thermal paste and heatsink (you can potentially damage the processor or set it up to fail if you're not careful),

Even this is not hard. Put thermal compound the size of a rice grain on the CPU, spread with some scrap packaging plastic, mount cooler fan. I've built my last 3 PCs and don't see why I'd ever buy a desktop again. Other gotchas are be careful mounting the CPU so you don't bend the pins on the motherboard's CPU socket. Also goes without saying but ground yourself from static.

TL;DR, if you can Google how to build a PC and were competent enough to fly a helo, you can build a PC.

Edit: I guess squorch is right that you also have to deal with each part warranty individually as opposed to a warranty for the whole box, but meh.

 

[Rocketman]

I always kept a desktop at home but this last time I decided to try a laptop as my primary device. Great decision for me. I bought a high end Dell XPS with a fast processor, tons of memory and storage. It has a great 15in monitor. Been running like a top for about 2 years now. I won't be going back

 

[squorch2]

Totally about the mindset: are you a DIYer or do you like turnkey solutions?

Both are equally valid.

 

[Brett327]

Honestly, the new AMD Ryzen CPUs are slaying Intel right now and are significantly cheaper. I'm not super savvy on the laptop side of things, but Ryzen desktop CPU price/performance is not even close to i7 or i9. If I were building a machine today, that's what I'd get.

 

[FormerRecruitingGuru]

What percentage get Apple instead of PC?

 

[exNavyOffRec]

What percentage get Apple instead of PC?

42%!!!

I couldn't resist

 

[Brett327]

So how hard is it make your own and what are the risks?

I'm fairly technically competent but for time management I'd kind of like it to work out of the box. If it's just screwing cards in to the case and plugging in jumpers that's ok but if I have to start from complete scratch that sounds like something that will end up in pieces on my workbench or will always be something I'm troubleshooting while my wife glares at me and says stuff like "do you feel like youve saved any money?"

Are you looking for a laptop or desktop? I've only built desktops, so I don't know if that even an option for laptops. Building your own really only enables you to customize components. It will usually cost more to build yourself, but it's not difficult at all.

The AMD chips are all available in pre-built machines.

 

[Pags]

Desktop. After what Mos wrote about installing CPUs I'm a tad gun shy on going home built. If it was a computer for just me to use and I had time to kill I'd totally look into it. But since the family will be using it it needs to be relatively bug free and mostly ready to go out of the box.

I appreciate the guidance from the forum on what specs I should be looking at for a modern computer. I didn't even know there was a difference between SDD drives for and what not prior to this discussion. It's certainly helped to narrow my research and the field at the stores.

 

[Pags]

Totally about the mindset: are you a DIYer or do you like turnkey solutions?

Both are equally valid.

I've done enough DIY to know that it usually ends up in never ending tinkering and a project that's never really done (and never quite works). I burned enough days and nights as a kid and in college making boot disks, tinkering with BIOSs, installing CD-ROM drives and updated video and audio cards (soundblaster!). I bricked my family's computer a couple of times and managed to get it back. Tried a Linux box in college for about a week and then realized I needed to do homework and not figure out how to get a word processor to work on Gnu. Doing this stuff now sounds very educational and exhausting. Maybe I'll save it for when one of the kids wants to upgrade their raspberry pi to something more robust.

 

[nittany03]

Desktop. After what Mos wrote about installing CPUs I'm a tad gun shy on going home built.

Your call, but I'd also add that modern CPUs are made such that if they detect potentially harmful core temperatures, they'll just shut down. So if you build one and are really paranoid, just download one of the many freeware apps out there that monitor CPU temps. Worse comes to worst and you totally fuck it up, you'll just be wondering why your computer is randomly shutting down and going to the app to check the temps. Solution? Buy some more thermal paste (it's cheap), clean the CPU and heat sink off with a paper towel and some rubbing alcohol, and re-mount the heat sink. Most modern motherboards come with CPU mounts that contain springs on the screws, so you can't overtorque the screws and crush the CPU without really, really trying. The CPU temp problem is mainly the province of overclockers, who bypass safeguards to get extra performance. There, you really have to know what you're doing; overclocking is like deciding to mount an aftermarket turbo or supercharger on your car engine. If you know the bounds, you're cool, but if you don't, you just blew up something expensive.

Like I said above, a person of winged-aviator-level intelligence who does the research is probably going to have to try harder to fuck it up than to actually build the PC right. But if it's not your thing, cool, rock on.

 

[BigRed389]

Just have a NMCI laptop find its way home. They’re actually pretty fast once you wipe off all the NMCI bloatware. Even faster if you take RAM off a second machine to plus up empty RAM slots.

Your call, but I'd also add that modern CPUs are made such that if they detect potentially harmful core temperatures, they'll just shut down. So if you build one and are really paranoid, just download one of the many freeware apps out there that monitor CPU temps. Worse comes to worst and you totally fuck it up, you'll just be wondering why your computer is randomly shutting down and going to the app to check the temps. Solution? Buy some more thermal paste (it's cheap), clean the CPU and heat sink off with a paper towel and some rubbing alcohol, and re-mount the heat sink. Most modern motherboards come with CPU mounts that contain springs on the screws, so you can't overtorque the screws and crush the CPU without really, really trying. The CPU temp problem is mainly the province of overclockers, who bypass safeguards to get extra performance. There, you really have to know what you're doing; overclocking is like deciding to mount an aftermarket turbo or supercharger on your car engine. If you know the bounds, you're cool, but if you don't, you just blew up something expensive.

Like I said above, a person of winged-aviator-level intelligence who does the research is probably going to have to try harder to fuck it up than to actually build the PC right. But if it's not your thing, cool, rock on.

More seriously, agree with this. DIY nowadays is pretty much idiot proofed. If you have even a basic comprehension of how a computer works, it's really really hard to screw the build part up. And DIY has levels to it...you can burn days doing research and nuking out the build....or you can just find some recommended builds on line and just buy the parts and you're just putting Lego pieces together.

For a normal use computer, I'd say it comes down to whether you enjoy DIY or prefer the convenience. Run of the mill pre-built machines benefit from the economy of scale of large sales volumes.
DIY only becomes a more objectively strong case when you get into higher performance builds.