Personal computing discussed

Moderators: renee, JustAnEngineer

 
greenmystik
Gerbil First Class
Topic Author
Posts: 114
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2011 10:20 pm

Building new system

Fri Dec 28, 2012 1:20 am

So I'm about ready to try my hand at building my first computer. I don't have all of the money I need to buy it all at once, so I wanted some feedback to see if it's smart to buy it in pieces. I can probably swing 1-2 parts a month. Is this a good idea???
If practice makes perfect, but nobodies perfect, then why practice?
 
MadManOriginal
Gerbil Jedi
Posts: 1533
Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2002 7:00 pm
Location: In my head...

Re: Building new system

Fri Dec 28, 2012 1:30 am

Possibly, depending on what you have to work with already. Are there any parts you'll be carrying over from another PC, even if they are quite outdated? If you have absolutely no parts to carry over then the easy answer is no, save up until you can at least get the core of a system (motherboard, CPU, memory, storage, case, PSU) but there are ways to work partial buying even then.

What will your uses for the PC be?
 
greenmystik
Gerbil First Class
Topic Author
Posts: 114
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2011 10:20 pm

Re: Building new system

Fri Dec 28, 2012 1:35 am

The only part I would carry over is my 6670. It will be used for transcoding movies, gaming, and your everyday web surfing. I do want to start learning how to use photoshop as well.

Not going for anything to beastly. Probably in between the Econobox and Sweet Spot.
If practice makes perfect, but nobodies perfect, then why practice?
 
mortifiedPenguin
Gerbil Elite
Posts: 812
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 7:46 pm

Re: Building new system

Fri Dec 28, 2012 2:38 am

MadManOriginal wrote:
If you have absolutely no parts to carry over then the easy answer is no, save up until you can at least get the core of a system (motherboard, CPU, memory, storage, case, PSU) but there are ways to work partial buying even then.
Absolutely agreed. Many PC components drop in price every couple months as the generation gets older and new competing parts come out. If you can't use it now, don't buy it yet as chances are that when you finally get around to using it, the same part will be cheaper or a new better part has come out at the original price point. If you can, buy the core (CPU, MOBO) and salvage what you can from your old system as a stopgap measure until you have enough cash to buy the other components. You can probably reuse your existing GPU, PSU, HDD, optical, case, sound card, and possibly RAM depending on the age of your system.

You may be able to skirt the above statement on items that are on sale and you're reasonably sure the usual price decreases won't fall below the current price. I did this on my Force GT 120 over a year ago and it STILL hasn't gone below the price I bought it for.
2600K @ 4.8GHz; XSPC Rasa/RX240/RX120 Phobya Xtreme 200; Asus P8Z68-V Pro; 16GB Corsair Vengeance 1333 C9; 2x7970 OC w/ Razor 7970; Force GT 120GB; 3x F3 1TB; Corsair HX750; X-Fi Titanium; Corsair Obsidian 650D; Dell 2408WFP Rev. A01; 2x Dell U2412m
 
kumori
Gerbil Team Leader
Posts: 298
Joined: Sun Dec 18, 2011 12:11 am

Re: Building new system

Fri Dec 28, 2012 2:48 am

Buying all of your system over a month is not a bad idea, especially if you're flexible as to the specific brands of your parts, because you can catch items on sale.

Buying one to two parts per month means you stretching the buying process out over five or six months which is not such a good idea because that is enough time for the non-sale prices to drop.
 
Arclight
Gerbil Elite
Posts: 768
Joined: Tue Feb 01, 2011 3:50 am

Re: Building new system

Fri Dec 28, 2012 3:30 am

Imo you could do it for many of the parts that don't lose value over time, like PSUs (which have gotten really cheap lately, even the platinum rated are offered at incredible low prices), RAM (pretty much dirt cheap and it's been so for a while, the only way it can go is up really), case (there are a slew of good ones out there offered at reasonable prices, there is no paradigm shift here, you can buy it whenever), fans/fan controller, CPU cooler, HDD and that's pretty much it.

The rest, CPU and mobo should both be bought at the same time. Storage (SSD, if applicable) and video card should be last items bought as they usually go down in price as times goes. Just don't wait too much after you buy the CPU and mobo, otherwise you will feel a bit of buyers guilt if a new platform comes out and you feel like you could have done better with the money.
nVidia video drivers FAIL, click for more info
Disclaimer: All answers and suggestions are provided by an enthusiastic amateur and are therefore without warranty either explicit or implicit. Basically you use my suggestions at your own risk.
 
JustAnEngineer
Gerbil God
Posts: 19673
Joined: Sat Jan 26, 2002 7:00 pm
Location: The Heart of Dixie

Re: Building new system

Fri Dec 28, 2012 9:26 am

greenmystik wrote:
I don't have all of the money I need to buy it all at once, so I wanted some feedback to see if it's smart to buy it in pieces. Is this a good idea?
In my opinion, no. Because newer parts become available and older parts tend to go down in price, you don't want to buy something until you can use it. Almost nothing seems to depreciate faster than computer components that you've purchased but not yet installed.

Your existing Inspiron 560 isn't incredibly ancient, so you could add new parts to it as you purchased them. Otherwise, my advice is to wait until you can buy enough components to assemble a working PC.
· R7-5800X, Liquid Freezer II 280, RoG Strix X570-E, 64GiB PC4-28800, Suprim Liquid RTX4090, 2TB SX8200Pro +4TB S860 +NAS, Define 7 Compact, Super Flower SF-1000F14TP, S3220DGF +32UD99, FC900R OE, DeathAdder2
 
greenmystik
Gerbil First Class
Topic Author
Posts: 114
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2011 10:20 pm

Re: Building new system

Fri Dec 28, 2012 12:06 pm

Thanx for all the input. Seems like it would be a better idea to wait. I just hate waiting, but i guess if i parted it out i would still be waiting.

Pretty sure Ill be back in a couple months for some more advice on my components. Until then....
If practice makes perfect, but nobodies perfect, then why practice?
 
DPete27
Grand Gerbil Poohbah
Posts: 3776
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2011 12:50 pm
Location: Wisconsin, USA

Re: Building new system

Fri Dec 28, 2012 1:02 pm

You may consider buying an SSD to tide you over. When I started feeling the upgrade itch from my E8400 system, I bought an SSD which made a substantial improvement in system responsiveness. That ended up giving me the patience to wait 6-7 more months until Ivy-Bridge came out. SSD prices are low right now, but they have been lower. A few months ago you could get a good 120GB SSD (not asynchronous Sandforce SSDs) for $80-90. Now the going rate seems to be more in the $115 range, but that's still not a bad price IMO. Heck, the same SSD I bought a little over a year ago for $185 on sale with MIR is now selling for $115 even without a rebate.

Also, when the time comes, if you're in the US, figure out how far you are from a Microcenter. They have the absolute best deals on CPU + mobo combos.
Main: i5-3570K, ASRock Z77 Pro4-M, MSI RX480 8G, 500GB Crucial BX100, 2 TB Samsung EcoGreen F4, 16GB 1600MHz G.Skill @1.25V, EVGA 550-G2, Silverstone PS07B
HTPC: A8-5600K, MSI FM2-A75IA-E53, 4TB Seagate SSHD, 8GB 1866MHz G.Skill, Crosley D-25 Case Mod

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest
GZIP: On