Help me convince my dad to let me build my own gaming computer!
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So, my dad is one of those old school guys who believes Dell is a great brand for any computer you would ever need; oh, and that Best Buy is the epitome of technological knowledge (they are basically anything but that, in my opinion). Anyway, I want to a build a computer for Christmas, and he says no. He said he will spend up to $1,000 on a computer from a "brand-name" manufacturer like Dell or Gateway. However, he is basically 100% against me building my own system because "what if the parts break son? You will have nowhere to send it to." I use Newegg and their quality guarantees as examples, but he refuses. I even showed him how much you get price gouged when buying an Alienware, but he is still resisting. Do you guys have any tips, web site, statistics, etc to help me persuade him?SkyCommandI think you should let him get a cheap dell or a gateway or w/e. If his budget is $1000, tell him to get a $700 or so computer and let you buy a graphics card with the rest. This way you can kind of show him that you know what you are doing. Then, in a few years when he thinks you have had a bit more experience with buying and installing various parts, he will most likely let you build an entire system. I was in the same position as you a few years back, except my father was worse.
EDIT: Lol just read your last post.
Does it have to be a brand name? If not you can always by a pre-built custom PC from a computer store.
So get an extended warranty and assembly from Fry's. Sure, you're still getting screwed on the price, but at least Fry's has decent hardware on the shelves.
Personally, I just go for hardware from Evga (or similar) with lifetime warranties. I use a Macbook for everything critical (I have an Apple Store in town, for immediate repairs), so if I lose my gaming PC for a week or two while I wait for parts, I'll survive.
I think you should let him get a cheap dell or a gateway or w/e. If his budget is $1000, tell him to get a $700 or so computer and let you buy a graphics card with the rest. This way you can kind of show him that you know what you are doing. Then, in a few years when he thinks you have had a bit more experience with buying and installing various parts, he will most likely let you build an entire system. I was in the same position as you a few years back, except my father was worse.[QUOTE="SkyCommand"]So, my dad is one of those old school guys who believes Dell is a great brand for any computer you would ever need; oh, and that Best Buy is the epitome of technological knowledge (they are basically anything but that, in my opinion). Anyway, I want to a build a computer for Christmas, and he says no. He said he will spend up to $1,000 on a computer from a "brand-name" manufacturer like Dell or Gateway. However, he is basically 100% against me building my own system because "what if the parts break son? You will have nowhere to send it to." I use Newegg and their quality guarantees as examples, but he refuses. I even showed him how much you get price gouged when buying an Alienware, but he is still resisting. Do you guys have any tips, web site, statistics, etc to help me persuade him?Iantheone
EDIT: Lol just read your last post.
As soon as I posted, my room mate told me this same thing. That is a great idea. After we buy the initial system (most likely from HP, as I have a personal vendetta against Dell), I could upgrade the video card, and show him that I actually do know what I am doing. I mean, I have built systems in the past, but he never saw them. Out of sight, out of mind I guess? :)Do you know how to build a PC.
I'm told that it is not that hard.
I was considering buying a book called "Building a PC for Dummies" to help me in my building of a computer from scratch.
Here is a little advice, have him buy the basic Alienware Aurora ($1,199), they are design to be upgradeable. You should have a better chance of convincing your dad that you can upgrade a couple of components rather than building from scratch. I know, when I installed RAM on my old laptop, all I did was remove it from box, snap into laptop, done.
If he does not agree to spend an extra $200 on his own son, then he isn't a good father IMO.
If his only concerns are the what if it break, every pieces you buy have a waranty usually lasting a few years.
My computer has been built from NCIX and newegg, if it can help convince your father, here is my experience with what happens when a part break.
1st week i got my brand new computer, i fried my processor due to a lack of air flow, being on the 30 days waranty i sent it back to NCIX and they shipped me a brand new one at no cost.
About 6 months ago, my 8800 GT broke, filled in a ticket online despite the waranty being over for 2 weeks and they accepted it. Sent it back to EVGA and they shipped me a 9800 GT, again at no cost.
my dad's just the same except my dad loves HP prebuilts,but those prebuilts cant play any of the recent releases so i went along and got a job,saved the money and built it myself..now he seems shocked that my pc is so much faster than the hp crap..
Yesterday I built my first computer. I'm a junior in mechanical engineering at University of Wisconsin-Madison (#14 on USWeek for the program) and I'm not saying I'm smart, but I'm definitely not dumb so when I say building a computer for the first time is a bit of a challenge I mean it. Now you certainly CAN do it, BUT you need A LOT of patience and persistence (even reading the instructions occasionally!). You won't save a TON, but what you will get is a much better understanding of something you most likely use many hours everyday. It also will enable you to upgrade in the future instead of getting an entirely new computer. Your dad may be more willing if he were interested/available to assist you. Another option is going to a site where you pick out your components and they assemble it for you (there are a lot on ebay though I don't know how much the mark up is). Also be aware that actually putting it together is the easy part and the challenge is when you try and boot it and do everything in the software things don't work. Hope this helps.Zcrimson07I'll be "that guy" and disagree with you here. Building a computer is very logical, well documented on various websites, and is an overall painless experience. As long as you ensure that your pieces match up, it's very much like playing with legos (or maybe a 10-piece puzzle). Nowadays everything can only go in one way and in only one spot, so the only thing you really need to do some research on is making sure everything actually works together. Generally this just means finding a good motherboard and building from that (or finding a video card and building from that... or RAM... or anything! I recommend the mobo though!).
The second point I'll disagree with, because I'm apparently in a disagreeable mood, is that "you won't save a TON." You certainly will save a ton, especially if you avoid buying something as price-gauged as Alienware! As long as you are smart and buy the components at good prices (I generally recommend Newegg for an easy one-stop shop for PC components), you should save yourself a fair amount of money. After everything is connected (and the PC actually turns on!), finding drivers is easy enough to do. I would say the only difficult part in building your own computer is when you begin to mess with overclocking, and even then that process has become, in some cases, as easy as finding the option and changing some settings in a GUI.
I don't want you to feel like I'm calling you out or anything, Zcrimson07. Maybe I feel this way about building computers because I've grown up with them my entire life. I just wanted to offer the other side of the story, from my personal opinions only. No hard feelings. Don't go gunning for me in MW2 or anything :(.
With all of that said, I'll simply echo the other posters and say that "it's his money, play by his rules." That's the way it goes, unfortunately, despite the fact that you do appear to have a logical argument against buying straight from a vendor. Unless you have the $1000 you can repay him if you mess up with your computer build, I'd say do some research online and find a good prebuilt PC to tide you over until you get some spending money of your own. Then the sky is the limit... until your wallet is empty!
[QUOTE="Zcrimson07"]Yesterday I built my first computer. I'm a junior in mechanical engineering at University of Wisconsin-Madison (#14 on USWeek for the program) and I'm not saying I'm smart, but I'm definitely not dumb so when I say building a computer for the first time is a bit of a challenge I mean it. Now you certainly CAN do it, BUT you need A LOT of patience and persistence (even reading the instructions occasionally!). You won't save a TON, but what you will get is a much better understanding of something you most likely use many hours everyday. It also will enable you to upgrade in the future instead of getting an entirely new computer. Your dad may be more willing if he were interested/available to assist you. Another option is going to a site where you pick out your components and they assemble it for you (there are a lot on ebay though I don't know how much the mark up is). Also be aware that actually putting it together is the easy part and the challenge is when you try and boot it and do everything in the software things don't work. Hope this helps.ParkCarsHereI'll be "that guy" and disagree with you here. Building a computer is very logical, well documented on various websites, and is an overall painless experience. As long as you ensure that your pieces match up, it's very much like playing with legos (or maybe a 10-piece puzzle). Nowadays everything can only go in one way and in only one spot, so the only thing you really need to do some research on is making sure everything actually works together. Generally this just means finding a good motherboard and building from that (or finding a video card and building from that... or RAM... or anything! I recommend the mobo though!). The second point I'll disagree with, because I'm apparently in a disagreeable mood, is that "you won't save a TON." You certainly will save a ton, especially if you avoid buying something as price-gauged as Alienware! As long as you are smart and buy the components at good prices (I generally recommend Newegg for an easy one-stop shop for PC components), you should save yourself a fair amount of money. After everything is connected (and the PC actually turns on!), finding drivers is easy enough to do. I would say the only difficult part in building your own computer is when you begin to mess with overclocking, and even then that process has become, in some cases, as easy as finding the option and changing some settings in a GUI. I don't want you to feel like I'm calling you out or anything, Zcrimson07. Maybe I feel this way about building computers because I've grown up with them my entire life. I just wanted to offer the other side of the story, from my personal opinions only. No hard feelings. Don't go gunning for me in MW2 or anything :(.
So i did buy an expansive mobo and the result? Sure it turns on and works but it throws bluescreens and i cant seem to possibly be able to fix it. So i assembled my old crap rig with cheap ass mobo and it works.As for the new one? Good luck finding wherever its a faulty cpu or mobo or ram since i bought them all together.
Right now i wish a had a prebuilt!! So its all fun and easy till you run into a problem you cant fix and you become open to the idea to trade the buggy monster you build for a simplier system that actually works!!
I'll be "that guy" and disagree with you here. Building a computer is very logical, well documented on various websites, and is an overall painless experience. As long as you ensure that your pieces match up, it's very much like playing with legos (or maybe a 10-piece puzzle). Nowadays everything can only go in one way and in only one spot, so the only thing you really need to do some research on is making sure everything actually works together. Generally this just means finding a good motherboard and building from that (or finding a video card and building from that... or RAM... or anything! I recommend the mobo though!). The second point I'll disagree with, because I'm apparently in a disagreeable mood, is that "you won't save a TON." You certainly will save a ton, especially if you avoid buying something as price-gauged as Alienware! As long as you are smart and buy the components at good prices (I generally recommend Newegg for an easy one-stop shop for PC components), you should save yourself a fair amount of money. After everything is connected (and the PC actually turns on!), finding drivers is easy enough to do. I would say the only difficult part in building your own computer is when you begin to mess with overclocking, and even then that process has become, in some cases, as easy as finding the option and changing some settings in a GUI. I don't want you to feel like I'm calling you out or anything, Zcrimson07. Maybe I feel this way about building computers because I've grown up with them my entire life. I just wanted to offer the other side of the story, from my personal opinions only. No hard feelings. Don't go gunning for me in MW2 or anything :(.[QUOTE="ParkCarsHere"][QUOTE="Zcrimson07"]Yesterday I built my first computer. I'm a junior in mechanical engineering at University of Wisconsin-Madison (#14 on USWeek for the program) and I'm not saying I'm smart, but I'm definitely not dumb so when I say building a computer for the first time is a bit of a challenge I mean it. Now you certainly CAN do it, BUT you need A LOT of patience and persistence (even reading the instructions occasionally!). You won't save a TON, but what you will get is a much better understanding of something you most likely use many hours everyday. It also will enable you to upgrade in the future instead of getting an entirely new computer. Your dad may be more willing if he were interested/available to assist you. Another option is going to a site where you pick out your components and they assemble it for you (there are a lot on ebay though I don't know how much the mark up is). Also be aware that actually putting it together is the easy part and the challenge is when you try and boot it and do everything in the software things don't work. Hope this helps.dakan45
So i did buy an expansive mobo and the result? Sure it turns on and works but it throws bluescreens and i cant seem to possibly be able to fix it. So i assembled my old crap rig with cheap ass mobo and it works.As for the new one? Good luck finding wherever its a faulty cpu or mobo or ram since i bought them all together.
Right now i wish a had a prebuilt!! So its all fun and easy till you run into a problem you cant fix and you become open to the idea to trade the buggy monster you build for a simplier system that actually works!!
Heh, there certainly is a lot of truth to what you are saying. Part of the building process comes with a learning curve. One thing I have never done is, as you seem to have done, buy a mobo / RAM / processor combo. I've always purchased them separately. This way you have already put the pieces together, so you can easily take them apart again and test each component to find the culprit. I'm not saying computer building is the easiest thing in the world, as my post may have implied. I am saying that it becomes a much, much easier process if you have done the smallest amount of research online to know what works with what. For example, when I built my first PC, I found a well-reviewed MOBO and started searching for the things that were compatible with it. Building from there I was able to find the correct components for my MOBO and was able to put everything together fairly painlessly. As a result, after so many years of upgrades and new builds, it's easy to "test known good" parts with "assumed bad" parts to find the problem piece. Anyways, these are all just my experiences. As you have seen first hand, it's not all sunshine and rainbows.
Your father is under the illusion that PC's are a whole unit and it's pre-build companys that enforce the idea.
You just need to convince him that Pre-builds are designed to be throw away PC's. The whole goal from such manufactures are that you'll buy another from them 4 years later. Where as with a custom build you can upgrade the Motherboard, Processor, PSU, and Memory at half the cost of buying another complete Dell system. And lets not forget how fast technology moves when it comes to PC's..... The only PC money pit, worse than a pre-built Desktop is a laptop.....
As for all the talk about custom build difficulties of DOA and faulty parts, the OP has stated that he's build two.... I doubt any of these custom build warnings are a factor to him.
As for upgrading a Dell.... remember. Dell doesn't equip there PC's with huge PSU's. And lots of todays high quality video cards require just that.... And Normal PSU's won't fit in a Dell without some major modding on your part. Which...will kill the warranty that your Dad is so keen on, to begin with.
I'll be "that guy" and disagree with you here. Building a computer is very logical, well documented on various websites, and is an overall painless experience. As long as you ensure that your pieces match up, it's very much like playing with legos (or maybe a 10-piece puzzle). Nowadays everything can only go in one way and in only one spot, so the only thing you really need to do some research on is making sure everything actually works together. Generally this just means finding a good motherboard and building from that (or finding a video card and building from that... or RAM... or anything! I recommend the mobo though!).[QUOTE="Zcrimson07"]Yesterday I built my first computer. I'm a junior in mechanical engineering at University of Wisconsin-Madison (#14 on USWeek for the program) and I'm not saying I'm smart, but I'm definitely not dumb so when I say building a computer for the first time is a bit of a challenge I mean it. Now you certainly CAN do it, BUT you need A LOT of patience and persistence (even reading the instructions occasionally!). You won't save a TON, but what you will get is a much better understanding of something you most likely use many hours everyday. It also will enable you to upgrade in the future instead of getting an entirely new computer. Your dad may be more willing if he were interested/available to assist you. Another option is going to a site where you pick out your components and they assemble it for you (there are a lot on ebay though I don't know how much the mark up is). Also be aware that actually putting it together is the easy part and the challenge is when you try and boot it and do everything in the software things don't work. Hope this helps.ParkCarsHere
The second point I'll disagree with, because I'm apparently in a disagreeable mood, is that "you won't save a TON." You certainly will save a ton, especially if you avoid buying something as price-gauged as Alienware! As long as you are smart and buy the components at good prices (I generally recommend Newegg for an easy one-stop shop for PC components), you should save yourself a fair amount of money. After everything is connected (and the PC actually turns on!), finding drivers is easy enough to do. I would say the only difficult part in building your own computer is when you begin to mess with overclocking, and even then that process has become, in some cases, as easy as finding the option and changing some settings in a GUI.
I don't want you to feel like I'm calling you out or anything, Zcrimson07. Maybe I feel this way about building computers because I've grown up with them my entire life. I just wanted to offer the other side of the story, from my personal opinions only. No hard feelings. Don't go gunning for me in MW2 or anything :(.
With all of that said, I'll simply echo the other posters and say that "it's his money, play by his rules." That's the way it goes, unfortunately, despite the fact that you do appear to have a logical argument against buying straight from a vendor. Unless you have the $1000 you can repay him if you mess up with your computer build, I'd say do some research online and find a good prebuilt PC to tide you over until you get some spending money of your own. Then the sky is the limit... until your wallet is empty!
No hard feelings here, I guess I've just been having trouble trying to set up raid 0 and win 7 because I needed to install xp first and it's just been a big time suck though not particularly difficult. So yes it's NOT that difficult even after you get stuff assembled but for a a n00b such as myself, trying to do anything beyond simple os installation can be a bit of a challenge. And I do suppose you will save more in the long run because of the ability to upgrade. For ME I think it was worth it to build my own computer because I've learned a HELLUVA lot of interesting stuff and I feel proud of it. But obviously those incentives aren't there for someone who's just footing the bill.Erm...bluescreen problems are most of the time software-related...if you're trying to solve them
by changing random pieces of hardware you're doing it wrong!
:) Is that why i bought i new hardrive and installed windows and i still get bluescreens on a brand new Install? Is that why i cleared CMOS and updated bios and even set to optimized and failsafe defaults? Seriously if you got a solution then just let me know, but as far as i can tell its not a software or file system/registry mess up so it gotta by hardware or i wouldnt get a freaking bluescreen in my 4th installation of windows, and thats during the installation not afterwards!!Erm...bluescreen problems are most of the time software-related...if you're trying to solve them
by changing random pieces of hardware you're doing it wrong!
djcalotta
Building a computer is easy...you are just plugging cables for the most part,installing a heatsink and turning a few screws. I can understand if someone has never done it before they may think it's hard. But putting together the diy computer desk is far more trouble and pain in the arse. Anyway try and persuade him,show him all the parts. Explain the procedure and just give him confidence that you know what you are doing. If he still says no then you will just need to get an overpriced and crappy brand name computer i guess.
Yeah, my main fear about buying pre-built was voiced in this thread: the fact that most prebuild companies put their proprietary parts in there (like small power supply units or wholesale mobos) which make it a pain in the ass to update parts later on. What do you guys think about the custom towers they can build at Fry's? Even though the parts are independent, I would hope Fry's would stand by their PC's if something were to fail on it. Does Micro Center also build systems?SkyCommand....One world. Alienware gaming PC and you wont have to worry about anything.
Convince him you know what you are doing even if you dont? Lets just say the TC builds the pc and for some reason eg faulty hardware, it does not work properly, his dad is gonna be seriously mad and say " I told you so" Seriously TC isnt there anyone you know to build a pc for you?Building a computer is easy...you are just plugging cables for the most part,installing a heatsink and turning a few screws. I can understand if someone has never done it before they may think it's hard. But putting together the diy computer desk is far more trouble and pain in the arse. Anyway try and persuade him,show him all the parts. Explain the procedure and just give him confidence that you know what you are doing. If he still says no then you will just need to get an overpriced and crappy brand name computer i guess.
Astaroth2k
[QUOTE="SkyCommand"]Yeah, my main fear about buying pre-built was voiced in this thread: the fact that most prebuild companies put their proprietary parts in there (like small power supply units or wholesale mobos) which make it a pain in the ass to update parts later on. What do you guys think about the custom towers they can build at Fry's? Even though the parts are independent, I would hope Fry's would stand by their PC's if something were to fail on it. Does Micro Center also build systems?dakan45....One world. Alienware gaming PC and you wont have to worry about anything.
Convince him you know what you are doing even if you dont? Lets just say the TC builds the pc and for some reason eg faulty hardware, it does not work properly, his dad is gonna be seriously mad and say " I told you so" Seriously TC isnt there anyone you know to build a pc for you? Of course there is. I know how to build a PC...dad has just never used one of the one's I have built. So, he thinks it's all voodoo magic to build your own system I guess :PBuilding a computer is easy...you are just plugging cables for the most part,installing a heatsink and turning a few screws. I can understand if someone has never done it before they may think it's hard. But putting together the diy computer desk is far more trouble and pain in the arse. Anyway try and persuade him,show him all the parts. Explain the procedure and just give him confidence that you know what you are doing. If he still says no then you will just need to get an overpriced and crappy brand name computer i guess.
Astaroth2k
Alienware are an absolute rip off. Don't go near them.
Why is there no edit button? Anyway to add, there are sites that allow you to pick parts and they will build the computer for you, it's usually a bit more expensive but not much. I only know of ones in the UK but some american members may know one or two of these sites im talking about.
Bottom right of your post is a drop down box. Edit is in there.Why is there no edit button? Anyway to add, there are sites that allow you to pick parts and they will build the computer for you, it's usually a bit more expensive but not much. I only know of ones in the UK but some american members may know one or two of these sites im talking about.
Astaroth2k
It usually is at the bottom right...it isn't the now, all i get is quote and reply. Hasn't been there for a few days now. Using firefox 3.5.5...strange. Ahhh crap i had noscript blocking something that wouldn't allow it :) silly me!
Get a professional to do one.
Time to share a little wisdom on my end that I've learned through experience as well:
1. Almost all error messages (including BSODs!) give error codes. Google these. You'll find a specific area where to start and the most common culprits. Eventually, you'll start to understand the BSOD error codes and what they mean.
Here's a resource I found a couple of years ago and find it very helpful:http://www.aumha.org/a/stop.php
2. There's a book series called Upgrading and Repairing PCs written by Scott Mueller. I picked up the 17th Edition (2 years old and now obsolete) and when I started reading it, my knowledge on how PCs work exponentially grew. I heavily heavily recommend this book series, as it explains every.single.little.part. The 19th Edition comes out in 10 days:http://www.amazon.com/Upgrading-Repairing-19th-Scott-Mueller/dp/0789739542/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260548275&sr=8-1. Just look through the "Click to look inside!" option via the picture and look at the table of contents to see just how much information is packed in that book. It's outstanding.
3. When building, never ever rush. Sometimes you can cause the system to short out at boot when you don't put on the mounting screws to raise the motherboard from the case, or you can forget to not plug in a heatsink fan. Always make sure you do everything in a steady order, and if you need it, follow every step in every manual.
Picard (subtly curtly): Thank you, Data.Time to share a little wisdom on my end that I've learned through experience as well:
1. Almost all error messages (including BSODs!) give error codes. Google these. You'll find a specific area where to start and the most common culprits. Eventually, you'll start to understand the BSOD error codes and what they mean.
Here's a resource I found a couple of years ago and find it very helpful:http://www.aumha.org/a/stop.php
2. There's a book series called Upgrading and Repairing PCs written by Scott Mueller. I picked up the 17th Edition (2 years old and now obsolete) and when I started reading it, my knowledge on how PCs work exponentially grew. I heavily heavily recommend this book series, as it explains every.single.little.part. The 19th Edition comes out in 10 days:http://www.amazon.com/Upgrading-Repairing-19th-Scott-Mueller/dp/0789739542/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260548275&sr=8-1. Just look through the "Click to look inside!" option via the picture and look at the table of contents to see just how much information is packed in that book. It's outstanding.
3. When building, never ever rush. Sometimes you can cause the system to short out at boot when you don't put on the mounting screws to raise the motherboard from the case, or you can forget to not plug in a heatsink fan. Always make sure you do everything in a steady order, and if you need it, follow every step in every manual.
PunishedOne
Picard (subtly curtly): Thank you, Data.[QUOTE="PunishedOne"]
Time to share a little wisdom on my end that I've learned through experience as well:
1. Almost all error messages (including BSODs!) give error codes. Google these. You'll find a specific area where to start and the most common culprits. Eventually, you'll start to understand the BSOD error codes and what they mean.
Here's a resource I found a couple of years ago and find it very helpful:http://www.aumha.org/a/stop.php
2. There's a book series called Upgrading and Repairing PCs written by Scott Mueller. I picked up the 17th Edition (2 years old and now obsolete) and when I started reading it, my knowledge on how PCs work exponentially grew. I heavily heavily recommend this book series, as it explains every.single.little.part. The 19th Edition comes out in 10 days:http://www.amazon.com/Upgrading-Repairing-19th-Scott-Mueller/dp/0789739542/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260548275&sr=8-1. Just look through the "Click to look inside!" option via the picture and look at the table of contents to see just how much information is packed in that book. It's outstanding.
3. When building, never ever rush. Sometimes you can cause the system to short out at boot when you don't put on the mounting screws to raise the motherboard from the case, or you can forget to not plug in a heatsink fan. Always make sure you do everything in a steady order, and if you need it, follow every step in every manual.
SpaceMoose
Yes, now that I think of it, I did ramble like Data.
:)
Thats where the big problem appears. I dont get the bluescreen all the time but it happens randomly. What can i do now? By new ram and test it, if its not that by a new mobo, and if its not that buy a new cpu!! :( See how it turned to be expensive and require resources? My old rig does not have compatable parts to test. So my only course of action is to somewhow acquire parts and spend some time with them to ensure that i wont bluescreen again!!! A huge pain in the neck and waste of free time. Right now i would stick to a prebuild since they are meant to be pretty stable and compatible!!dakan45
UBCDhttp://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
You can boot to that and run memtest x86+ to check the memory it will return an error. There are a number of different HDD utils on UBCD also to do a surface scan of sectors or to see SMART reports if you think it might be a swap space HDD failing issue.
If you are running XP and getting random blue screens turn off the auto restart on bluescreen so you can see the message, check the event logs, if it makes a mini dump you can see about reading the info in it. Generally the machines give you an idea of where the problem is.
To the OP topic, not sure how you are going to convince a parent to spend money on something they don't want, there is a bit of convenience with a pre-built system. Also if you have 0 parts, nothing at all, and are building a machine from scratch you can not match the price on pre-built systems. You save nothing doing it yourself, you can however ensure that you get the quality of parts you want. You can get a decent prebuilt machine and drop a video card in it and have a good gaming rig, sure nothing spectacular but good none the less. Machines touted as "gaming" are always over priced I wouldn't even consider that to be an option. With a machine you build yourself though at least most users once the machine is built you only spend some money here and there to occasionally add/upgrade parts, which is cheaper.
Troubleshooting issues if you have any is the most time consuming difficult part of a new build, the installing hardware portion of the build is easy.
Dude, you're getting a Dell.SpaceMoose
dude your getting a dell!OntainDude, he is totally getting a Dell!
[QUOTE="SpaceMoose"]Dude, you're getting a Dell.SpaceMoose
dude your getting a dell!OntainDude, he is totally getting a Dell! Hell no :) I wonder if he would let me get one built at a local computer store? Because their warranty is very good. That way, it would be better parts with a good warranty. I'll have to go buy and ask them how much they charge for custom builds.
Hell no :) I wonder if he would let me get one built at a local computer store? Because their warranty is very good. That way, it would be better parts with a good warranty. I'll have to go buy and ask them how much they charge for custom builds.SkyCommandI'm not entirely sure you got the reference. Just to clarify, that was an old ad campaign. I wasn't knocking Dell computers or anything. I'm pretty Dell-neutral. :P
Hi, I'll just give you my experience.
When I first built my computer (1st year university) it was a learning curve, and a steep one. Basically it wasn't as simple as I imagined, not to mention the Windows XP install was crashing, got lots of beeps, and the first time I powered the monster on, turned on and just turned off after a sec. I gotta tell you my heart almost stopped, lol. Played around with the cabling a little more (forgot to connect the 12v). After-wards went onto the next problem the Windows install, did some research found out I needed an SP1 install disk to properly work with a 500gig hd. Then you have to play around with the bios. Once you finally get into windows, you have to waste a good few hours on drivers and optimization. And after all that once everything is working like a Swiss watch, it's a feeling like no other.
After that build, all the computer in my house hold are custom now. Saved lots of cash and not to mention the performance is much higher then any futureshup prebuild. Also every new build goes smoother and smoother, not to mention, now that every part is made like a lego piece, makes things soo much simpler.
Things you gotta ask your self:
1) Hows your computer knowledge? I mean really, how do you use the computer? Do you like tinkering in it? Do you like diagnosing problems, errors? So you like optimizing the computer, changing settings, configurations, and all matter of options?
If not custom building is not for you.
2) What IF something goes wrong as it most probably will on your first build? Do you have the patience to go through every thing? Do you have the software knowledge to config the bios? Do you know how to test for dead parts? Remember custom parts can be DOA.
3) Do you have a second PC to run tests on??
Lots of things to take into account.
My tips:
1) TAKE YOUR TIME, do it slowly, make sure all the screws are in, all the pivots are up, make sure the HEAT SINK IS CONNECTED!!!
2) Skim the manual, I know it's unmanly but some motherboards are picky, when they say connect to socket 1 they f*&cking mean connect to socket 1.
3)BEWARE of prebuilds, when in futureshop tell them to open up the case, if the PSU is anything lower then 450WATTS its useless if you want to upgrade the video card. At which point the upgrade will need to be new PSU and new video card. If your upgrading the PSU MAKE ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY sure its using standard ATX form factor and power spec.
4) learn from it, have fun an build a kick a$$ rig.
BTW your old man sounds like the usual guy on the street. Normal people look at a computer they don't see a logical binary switching machine, they see a mystical box that does stuff by means of some demonic voodoo. And the prettier and louder the case the better it must be. You can't break that mentality. Do your HW, pick out a good pre build, then with your money do a nice custom build in the future.
I'm not entirely sure you got the reference. Just to clarify, that was an old ad campaign. I wasn't knocking Dell computers or anything. I'm pretty Dell-neutral. :P Oh I definitely remember that ad campaign. DUDE! You're gettin' a Dell! :P I just despise Dell, as every Dell I have had has been ripe with problems after only a year or so.[QUOTE="SkyCommand"] Hell no :) I wonder if he would let me get one built at a local computer store? Because their warranty is very good. That way, it would be better parts with a good warranty. I'll have to go buy and ask them how much they charge for custom builds.SpaceMoose
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