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Should you build your own PC?

I mentioned in my last update how I’d built my new computer. With the seeming adoration we all have for laptops, we seem to have fallen out of love with desktops. Why did I go with a desktop? And why I built my own and not just buy?

Some people work from their couches, beds, on travel etc. and those people need a laptop.


Is that you? Or is your laptop setup at your desk and never moves? If that is the case then a desktop might be better. A desktop doesn’t need the many dongles to hook five devices to one USB port many laptops have now. They come with a plethora of USB ports, and can support multiple monitors easily.


Desktops often are cheaper that a similar equipped laptop. Makes sense, it more expensive to build smaller components into a tight case for a laptop.


And building your own desktop reduces the price even more. And it isn’t as hard as one might think. There is no soldering involved. You not building so much as assembling various components together. You get to pick your own components to make the computer ideal for your own use case. And if you want to upgrade, you can do so by only adding the upgraded components you need. Same too if one part fails, it is easy to swap out the defective part.


Gamers need powerful desktop computers and there are sites now to make it easier for them to choose components and assemble their machines.


YouTube for example, has videos on the overall process and again ones for how to assemble each of the components you might have.


What do I mean by component? You need a handful of components:

  • A CPU, the main microprocessor
  • A graphics adaptor
  • a CPU Fan
  • Memory
  • Power Supply
  • Hard Drive or better yet, a solid state drive (SSD)
  • and a case to put it all in.


Then there are ones you might already have from your prior setup :

  • Monitor(s)
  • Keyboard
  • Mouse
  • Operating System (With Windows you can sometime transfer your license to a new machine)

It used to be complicated. You had to research each part and make sure it would work with all the other parts. If that were still the case, I’d never have built my own.

Sites like PCPart Picker ( https://pcpartpicker.com ) do all the hard part for you. You can start with one of their suggested builds and the modify it by upgrading certain components if you wish.


That’s what I did.


It will tell you if the parts are going to work together or not.

You can order the parts from Amazon, or PC retailers like Microcenter, NewEgg etc.

For my readers in Northern Virginia, there is a Microcenter in Fairfax. The staff will help you choose components. They can assemble them for you if you pay extra. Or if you mess up your own build, they can unsnarl it for you.


A year ago, I would not have written this. The price for graphic processing units (GPU) were through the roof. They are important to mining cybercurrencies and the miners had driven the price up. And the ones that did come into stores were few. People were camping out in front of Microcenter I heard.\


With the recent problems with cybercurrencies, the prices for GPUs has returned to normal.


PCPartPicker has a home office appropriate machine for as little as $474.00 and a starter gaming machine for $431.00, not including the monitor, keyboard, mouse and operating system.


Higher end games will require more expensive systems with better CPUs and GPUs. People doing video editing, flight simulator or race car simulations might also want a faster machine.


If you want advice on your proposed build, sign up for Reddit.com and see their AskBattlestations subreddit for advice : https://www.reddit.com/r/AskBattlestations. They are a kind place to ask. I saw a father asking about building three low end machines for his son and two of his friends to play Minecraft with while in the same room. If they were not going to play together outside, they might as well play together inside. The subreddit participants lauded him as father of the year.


Another time, a single mother was struggling to build a machine on a tight budget for her son who wanted a gaming machine as his only gift that Christmas. Several people volunteered to send her old components that were perfectly good, left after they upgraded their own systems.


If you want to see what people with crazy amounts of money and room design talents build, check out the Battlestations subreddit : https://www.reddit.com/r/battlestations.

I look at that the way other men look at sports car sites.


Building isn’t for everyone. You need to want to do more than save money. This is for the folks who like tech, or learning new DIY skills.


<cross posted at my Substack, familytech.substack.com>

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