# Build or buy?



## fish2keel (Sep 11, 2011)

Hey guys,

Im looking for some help. I am good with electronics but have no clue really what I need for a gaming system. Im looking to run the new counter strike global operations and was wondering what you all thought I should do. Would it be better to build my own computer by piece by piece or is there a computer desktop platform that is good?

Thanks guys

F2k


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## jdbassin2003 (Sep 13, 2011)

Build if you are confident in your abilities, Most desktop commercial systems are designed to perform mundane tasks such as e-mail and word processing very efficiently but not so much when it comes to 3d rendering and such. You can put together a more than adequate gaming rig for a lot less yourself than buying a commercial gaming machine. Right now, Tiger Direct and New Egg both have Barebones systems with quadcore processors, case, MB, 8 gb ddr3 ram, Optical Drive and decent hd for $299, you would only need to add a quality graphics card (or Two  ), os and perhaps faster hd to have a better than avg gaming rig. 


Jeff
BSIT Web Dev.


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## fish2keel (Sep 13, 2011)

Thanks jeff! 

I have a desktop computer its a dell but its slower than christmas itself and doesn't run much of anything well. Is there any way to use this platform and upgrade the components within it? 

Thanks

F2k


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## jdbassin2003 (Sep 13, 2011)

Depends on how old it is, Not likely though, Dell tends to use proprietary cases and such, You can likely upgrade the RAM but not always, and if there is a open slot you may be able to upgrade the video card. It's not likely you can do much with the CPU, The hard drive is always upgradable but It may not be worth it depending on if it is Parallel ATA or Serial ATA. If you can send me the model/specs I can let ya know what you can and cannot do.


Jeff


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## LOWEBIGJON (Sep 13, 2011)

Get a bare bones PC and start from there..


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## fish2keel (Sep 13, 2011)

Yeah im thinking about just getting a bare bones and starting over and just using the dells moniter since its a brand new flat screen. 

What are some components you guys would use for a gaming rig?


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## zeedogg (Sep 14, 2011)

pentium i7
latest geforce card
8gigs of ram

Depends how extreme you want it to be, or the budget allows...


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## jdbassin2003 (Sep 14, 2011)

Like zeedog said it depends on how extreme you wanna get, CS, global ops I don't believe is due to be released til 2012, That said at a min I would go with

Intel i5 or AMD X4 - at a min i7 or Phenom x6 top of the heap
8gb of the fastest ddr3 ram your mainboard will support
The choice of Nvidia or ATI graphics cards is more of a personal choice, the latter being better suited for a AMD setup - For upgradability look for a mainboard that supports multiple video cards, these are running up to 2 gb onboard ram or more now, though you can get by on much less and still have a good rig

a solid state drive would be ideal but a couple of good 7500rpm HD would suffice though potentially be a limiting factor

and don't skimp on the power supply and cooling

You can have a decent setup for gaming for as little as 400-500$ a really great one would potentially run in the 2-3000$+ range

My suggestion would be to look for a good mainboard first that offers plenty of room for upgrade and build from there as your budget dictates. A cheap board with maxed out specs will be good for now but will quickly be outdated with no room to grow.


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## MDFisherman57 (Sep 14, 2011)

Yea I built my computer with little experience and it was fairly easy. I bought the amd 6 core cpu which was the highest and it runs bf2 on highest setting without hesitation. You must make sure you have a faster northbridge chipset on your motherboard to run them.


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## fish2keel (Sep 14, 2011)

I didn't see but what motherboard would yall run? Not looking to run cad or anything atleast not at the moment just looking to having a solid gaming computer for CS. Not play much more than that plus I have my laptop for emails and music


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## jdbassin2003 (Sep 14, 2011)

Well, I didn't mention it earlier but the new amd APU socket fm1 mainboards are out. i would take a serious look at those, The processors are fast, 4 cores and a built in graphics solution, they are also multiple vid card compatible. If you look at tigerdirect's website under socket FM1 a8 mainboards, any of those are a really nice format to build off of.


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## zeedogg (Sep 14, 2011)

asus 55 sabretooth i think is the one i built last year? i forget which one. but i always build asus mobo's


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## fish2keel (Sep 14, 2011)

Wow you guys are a great help! Im running completely off of what yall are telling me! So keep it coming! 

What size fans are yall thinking will 3 120mm work?


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## KillerKilgore (Sep 29, 2011)

If you a system already built for gaming and money is no object then you need one of these
https://www.falcon-nw.com

best system I have ever worked on.

If you want to get by as cheap as you can go to the dell website and get a system or configure one online that you like and then go to a tech website zipzoomfly newegg or tigerdirect and by the components and build it yourself.

As far as the OS goes. there are FREE Linux distros out there that are very user friendly.

I am running a dual boot XP / Linux Mint 11 (am on Mint right now no viruses on linux  ) with 4 500 GB SATA drives with ASUS Striker II MB. ThermalTake 11 bay liquid cooled Intel core 2 dual core processor and Nivida liquid cooled video 4GB Ram ect...

download and try a live Mint CD. you can boot your existing computer off the CD rom and run everything off the CD just to try linux. give it a chance all you have to do is download the live CD burn it to a disk and start with the CD in the computer. most computer nowadays will boot from CD. if you don't like it just shut down remove the disk and start windows again. all you have to lose is 1 CD.

Linux can also run windows programs with Wine.

hope this helps

KillerKilgore


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## DocWatson (Oct 3, 2011)

Another quality pre-built gaming system maker is _Ailenware_.


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## breachless (Oct 25, 2011)

zeedogg said:


> asus 55 sabretooth i think is the one i built last year? i forget which one. but i always build asus mobo's



I second this: I have always used Asus for my Motherboards. I actually JUST finished building a pretty sweet gaming setup early this summer that I am completely and totally in love with.

My suggestion is to pick what's important. I put the Sandy Bridge i5 CPU in and it's fantastic. Check out the specs to see how it compares, but I like it because it's crazy fast for the price, and it runs cool. Get the unlocked version and you could easily overclock it to i7 speeds (though it's really not necessary). Do NOT skimp on your power supply. Get a 750 watt or better, and get a good one (budget power supplies will ruin your day more than once if you are using them to power something like a gaming rig).

Here is a list of the stuff I built mine with. You don't have to go quite as overboard on some of the stuff I did, but it's a good baseline:

Here is the case I chose. The Video Card BARELY fits, but I like it because it looks neat, has good cable management, and if you felt how heavy the pc is when it's done, the handle is nice if you ever have to move it. I also like the location of the USB ports on the front: nice and easy to access if it sits on the floor:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119196

This is the motherboard I picked. I like it because it allows me to run my RAM at higher speeds than what is considered stock, and it supports SATA3:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131705

For the Video Card, I went with this and I can't tell you how much I love this thing. It's spendy, but it's about as good as it gets for a single GPU setup:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130590

Here is the Power supply. I picked this one for the modular hookups so I don't have a bunch of unused cables mucking up my case and preventing good airflow:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139011

And here is the processor:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

I also elected to grab this since the stock coolers with CPU's tend to be a joke (and a loud joke at that...) It keeps the i5 nice and cool, and easily enables overclocking if I want it...
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

This is what I used for RAM. I actually bought two of these kits for a total of 16 GB (TOTAL overkill, but for the price, I thought why not. Plus, it runs at 1600 MHz, which is supported natively with the Motherboard I bought: no overclocking necessary):
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428

Finally, I went with a 1 TB Western Digital HDD that I had laying around for storage, and then I threw this 120 GB SSD drive in for the OS install (since again, my motherboard supports SATA3 speeds):
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227706

Keep in mind though: not long after building this PC, we had a lot of PC's at work with the cheaper OCZ SSD drives experience frequent problems. If I could do it all over again, I would get an Intel SSD instead. More spendy, but they seem more reliable. I have had no issues with my OCZ drive yet, and it IS blazing fast, but I never stop worrying about it going bad on me...

I elected to just go with a regular DVD drive. The details aren't important enough to list on here. Any drive will do.

Added up on Newegg, it still comes out under $1500 (I bought some parts from Microcenter for cheaper than Newegg, and I got others during sales with Newegg and Amazon so I probably paid closer to $1300 in the end).

I can tell you it's a fast PC, and I have yet to find anything that really seems to make it work very hard. All the newest games will run at high settings with 1080p resolutions, and it should stay good for at least awhile. At some point when the price comes down I may buy a second GTX580 to run SLI, but I don't see a need for that for awhile. I hope some of that helps, and if you want help, just ask!


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## kingdavid2012 (Aug 2, 2012)

Built it yourself if you have the time and energy!

There are guild books on this stuff available on the net.I have many links myself but have no access to it for time being. 

Resort to experts in this field whenever you run into trouble.


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## WaltR (Aug 3, 2016)

It largely depends on what you want to do. I can usually find a prebuilt basic system for less or close to what it would cost to buy myself. I just concern myself with key specs and shop and compare. One advantage to buy is that you have one warranty if something goes wrong. 

I've only built my own for special purposes like when I built my virtualization lab. My problem with build your own is choosing all the components. A good bare bones kit is good if you want a good base without having to make a lot of decisions. I did that for the A+ class I taught for Delaware Tech. The cost was a bit more than a cheap retail box, but standard components, and can keep upgrading components forever. Just go with an ATX or mini ATX motherboard and a mid tower case and your options should be pretty wide. 

New Egg and Amazon reviews are helpful. I've bought most of my components from New Egg over the year.


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## RiverBottomOutdoors (Dec 8, 2016)

Would you build your own TV, even if you could? That's how I answer that question when someone asks be should they build or buy. Computers are a commodity now. Buy one, use for a few years...throw it away and buy another one.


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## richg99 (Dec 8, 2016)

Isn't this, mostly, a 2011 post? I'll bet some of the suggestions made on the first page are antiques now. 

rich


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## JMichael (Dec 11, 2016)

richg99 said:


> Isn't this, mostly, a 2011 post? I'll bet some of the suggestions made on the first page are antiques now.
> 
> rich


Went back and looked at the first page again, and I'd say it's all still pretty applicable. There's better and faster processors out now and solid state drives and such, but the advice would still be the same I think.


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## Fire1386 (Dec 12, 2016)

Building your own computer has advantages and disadvantages. If you enjoy the challenge, try building one. Some like to build their own fishing rods, some don't. Some like to find boats in bad shape and bring them back to life, some just like to buy ones already rebuilt or new ones......


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