Chrispy_ wrote:Ah, you just want to build for the fun of it?
If you don't already, get all your home data on a NAS or permanent server somewhere and just mess around with your PC's at home. That way you get to tinker and when you get bored of it you should sell it and start new with the budget. Losing money (if you don't break even) doesn't feel like a problem when you're always on the latest and greatest tech, and you rarely have to worry about stuff getting old that way.
I build hundreds of PC's a year still, even though that' hasn't been my focus for over a decade, and yet I still tinker at home with a couple of PC's on a regular basis (like, monthly). The attraction is optimising stuff, I actually have access to a modelshop where I can easily make complex-shaped air ducts out of acrylic and perspex. My favourite project was a "passively-cooled" 7950 and 4.5GHz where the near-silent 180mm case fan did all of the work.
I tend not to buy motherboards/processors very often. They just seem to last forever, but I do go through cases, storage (expansion and consolidation), cooling and most of all, graphics cards with alarming regularity. My next project is to create a massively soundproofed supsended DAS box that connects via a SAS PERC card by cannibalising an old Dell MD1000 from work. I want my 10TB of drives to not be in my HTPC where it's too cramped for serious soundproofing or physically decoupling the drives from the chassis
As for offers dictating your build, I assume you're checking the "today only/this week only" at places like SCAN and OCUK but I'm finding that failing or fresh-startup companies often make stock errors or have previous model stock, so I often go hunting on Google product search and it's extra fun trying to work out if a barely-reviewed site you've never heard of before is legit, or whether that too-cheap-to-be-true offer is actually a scam.
Not only do I check the UK sellers but also the German ones. Alternate.de and mix-computer.de for instance.
Now here's a coincidence, just before I looked at your reply I bought a Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 Vapor-X. At £238 it was just too good a bargain to resist.
I haven't built many systems for other people in recent years. I am just not willing to make foul compromises to achieve a price. I am not willing to build a system that would break my heart to put together. So mainly my response has been, "No", when I have been asked to either build or recommend a computer below a certain price.
I grew up in the family business over in Germany and here is a picture of what we "cobbled together" over thirty years ago.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Idstein_-_Altstadt.jpgI am referring to the cobble-stones we laid down. After three and a half decades it still looks immaculate. Quality has its price and it is not only what you see on the top but also how the ground is prepared underneath the cobble-stones which is vital for the durability of the surface over time, especially when heavy delivery trucks regularly drive over it. That is not cheap and this philosophy I learned from my grandfather guides my attitude with regard to building a system.
Even today with my cousin running the business (it is now in the sixth generation) our family business still turns down requests for it to get involved in projects where the specifications are
below our standards - we don't do "good enough".
There is something that comes to mind. Back when I was studying Psychology at Bonn University I took shelter under the McDonalds that was in the centre of town (Friedens Platz) and I saw a guy in front of me trying to break basalt cobble-stones to fit around a large round drain. The guy was having a spectacular lack of success and obviously had not the first clue with regard to what he was doing. Basalt has a grain, just like wood, and if you try to split it against the grain then all you get is splinters. He was looking up at the sky and like me realised it was going to rain heavily soon.
So I went over to him and discovered that he hardly understood any German, but with hand gestures I made it plain that I wanted his hammer. He handed it over, I picked up a cobble-stone, looked at it, struck it once and had two evenly sized triangular bits. I did this for another ten or so stones and handed him back the hammer (not just triangles but also splitting the square cobble-stones into rectangular halves) . The look of amazement on his face which then turned into a big smile made me very happy. He got the stones laid around the drain and managed to get under cover beside me just before the rain came down. The one thing I remember was standing there beside him smoking a cigarette with him and the look he kept giving me and then looking back to where he had just been working. I mean, what are the odds right?
I don't do any modding simply because I have no artistic talent whatsoever. I admire the work of those who do have that talent immensely.
With my own personal system I get it right the first time and don't need to tinker, just add stuff; or replace something to upgrade them when something better comes along at a price I am willing to pay such as the Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 Vapor-X to replace the XFX HD 5770 which has been running in the system since I first built it around three years ago.
I don't go with "the latest and greatest" tech simply because I think the phrase, "Never touch a running system" has a lot of validity. My system is a workhorse on which I also like to play games. As chance would have it the games I prefer aren't as heavy on the GPU as they are on the CPU (X3 Albion Prelude for instance). I was going to go with the Sapphire HD 7870 but then decided that the 7950 was worth the extra £50. I especially don't buy any hardware that has not been out in the wild for at least three months, no matter what the reviews and the benchmarks say. I am not a gamma tester.
CoolerMaster HAF X, i7-990x, Gigabyte X58A-UD3R, 24GB Corsair XMS, Sapphire 7950 Vapor-X, Corsair Neutron 128GB, 3*Seagate HD (3TB), Seagate HD (1.5TB), Hitachi HD (2TB), Plextor DVD + BluRay, StorageWorks DAT 72, 29160 SCSI Adapter, Corsair H80