Custom built PCs

[Reframmellator]

how much do you think you saved vs buying one ordered to spec?

I have not recently gone through the exercise of spec'ing out my PC through a custom builder, because I tend to be very hardware specific when I put a build together, and it's not always easy to get those specific components without going to a local builder. When I was able to compare buy vs build for a specific hardware list - and this was maybe ten years ago - it was about 10-15% cheaper to build my own. It's easy to build one, I enjoy it, and so I have not looked into it again.

Compared to buying on comparable performance - custom build vs a less expensive standard model available in the Big Box stores - I see three advantages to building my own:

1. I get exactly the components and levels of performance I want.
2. Superior build components and quality. I bought two mass-produced models from one of the two biggest suppliers of consumer PCs at two different big box stores. The first was a Media Center PC with all kinds of connectivity, a killer CPU and graphics card, and a terrific price. What I didn't know was that the manufacturer cut costs by using a proprietary motherboard with inferior components, specifically, the capacitors. Two years into ownership, a capacitor failed and that was that. The repair costs were almost the same as replacement costs. The second PC was more general purpose, but the manufacturer cut the lengths of the power supply cables so short that the power cable to the hard disk drive would not stay connected. I returned it on the last day of the return period. Manufacturer's margins on mass market desktop PCs are razor thin, and that's after cutting every possible cost.
3. Durability. My homebuilts have lasted a minimum of seven years. This year I upgraded my home server and sold the old (2013) AMD motherboard on eBay for almost what I paid for it new. A family member is using my 2011 build for internet and mail.

 

[Canadan]

That still blows my mind. I don't have a gaming rig. But, part of me wants to throw one together to try. The thing is, I can buy a console that I would be perfectly happy with for the cost of the video card alone.

I was so shocked when I saw that price, especially with all the spec comparisons.

I was expecting 700+

 

[Canadan]

Yep those are his exact words haha. He has done his research. He's looking at the RTX 3070

I'm an EVGA sucker - love them haha

 

[Reframmellator]

Funny this popped up. My son has decided to give up the Xbox and start gaming on PC. He is planning on building his own and has picked out his components already. This should be fun

When my son was 14, we did our first PC Build together, using some new parts and some cannabilized components. It was a great experience.

 

[Canadan]

I think we also decided that having a warranty and tech support was worth its weight in gold haha

 

[jdtox]

When my son was 14, we did our first PC Build together, using some new parts and some cannabilized components. It was a great experience.

Thats awesome. Exactly what I'm going for here. I'd be doing it that way if I had my way but some of his mothers family have offered to help pay for it so we will be doing all new parts. He wants it to rival or beat his best friend and cousins NZXT pre-built.

 

[JB]

I think we also decided that having a warranty and tech support was worth its weight in gold haha

You werent going to be tech support?

 

[Canadan]

 

[jdtox]

Since we are chatting anyone see anything missing or wrong with this build my son has hand picked?
AMD Ryzen 7 3700x (processor)
AS Rock B550 Pro White (motherboard)
Corsair 750X (power supply)
RTX 3070 (graphics)
G Skill Trident Z Royal (4 x 8gb Ram)

 

[Canadan]

Since we are chatting anyone see anything missing or wrong with this build my son has hand picked?
AMD Ryzen 7 3700x (processor)
AS Rock B550 Pro White (motherboard)
Corsair 750X (power supply)
RTX 3070 (graphics)
G Skill Trident Z Royal (4 x 8gb Ram)

check out pcpartpicker and put it all in there - it will tell you whether it's all compatible, AND show you where to get it cheapest (newegg, amazon, best buy, etc) and the price over time to show if it's a good deal.

Being in here listening to me say no to AMD and G Skill will do you no good lmao

 

[chile]

Since we are chatting anyone see anything missing or wrong with this build my son has hand picked?
AMD Ryzen 7 3700x (processor)
AS Rock B550 Pro White (motherboard)
Corsair 750X (power supply)
RTX 3070 (graphics)
G Skill Trident Z Royal (4 x 8gb Ram)

i would probably go 64gb ram minimum...maybe go with a 570 mobo as well.

 

[Canadan]

i would probably go 64gb ram minimum...maybe go with a 570 mobo as well.

64gb?! Good lord.

I'd agree that going 2x16 if you want to get there eventually is a good plan starting out, but 64gb seems like a lot. I'm on 16 right now and much bogs.

 

[chile]

64gb?! Good lord.

I'd agree that going 2x16 if you want to get there eventually is a good plan starting out, but 64gb seems like a lot. I'm on 16 right now and much bogs.

yeah, with the way things are going....gives you more headroom. buy once, cry once?

 

[etakmit]

This was me up until a few years ago... my last build is still sitting next to me but I haven't powered it up much lately. Seems I'm all about the portability these days. I used to remote into my desktop when on the road but now it seems to much trouble when I can just grab the macbook and have everything with me wherever I go.
I've never looked into trying to build my own laptop before. Is it even cost-effective these days?

It's never really been cost effective. And the options are far more limited than building a desktop as you might expect. Even to the point where in many cases it can be very hard to actually get one built.

 

[TRyan]

i would probably go 64gb ram minimum...maybe go with a 570 mobo as well.

64GB is beyond overkill.

 

[radiman]

It's never really been cost effective. And the options are far more limited than building a desktop as you might expect. Even to the point where in many cases it can be very hard to actually get one built.

There are a lot of Chinese based companies that make chassis. They will basically be the meat and potatoes of the machine. Screen, motherboard, CPU, keyboard, all of your I/O ports. Everything will be integrated. Essentially, you could customize the RAM and storage. There is very little cost savings to be had. Actually, would probably cost you more than just buying from a larger OEM that these companies actually design and build for.

 

[blueonblack]

I've built a couple towers when I was younger. Had gone to school for I.T. and of course you had to build your own computer.
It was cool as I knew nothing of computers when I started school.
My jobs over the years so often involved retrofits of older PC's that I would take apart and upgrade the guts on when they should have been retired 5 years ago already, or the components would just clunk out and need replacement.

Its probably part of why my hands are such a mess now. I ordered a laptop this time.

 

[1ironrocks]

Make sure everyone votes.

 

[Reframmellator]

Since we are chatting anyone see anything missing or wrong with this build my son has hand picked?
AMD Ryzen 7 3700x (processor) - awesome price/performance in a 65W CPU. One is running this PC right now.
AS Rock B550 Pro White (motherboard) - I wanted something more in the media content realm, so my needs differed and I went with the pricier X470 series motherboard. These guys are generally well regarded for value. The B550 series of motherboards have a lot of nice features like PCIe 4.0 for NVMe. Looks like a solid value pick, although I assume he has looked for "best picks" in B550 motherboards. I did not see this one in the few lists I checked. That may mean as much as making or not making the Golf Digest Hot List. The B550s do not require a cooling fan for the chipset, as mine does, but it hasn't been a big deal for me in terms of added noise.
Corsair 750X (power supply) - big fan (as it were) of Corsair power supplies
RTX 3070 (graphics)
G Skill Trident Z Royal (4 x 8gb Ram) - to get max performance from the Ryzen 7s, RAM selection is critical. Check the Qualified Vendors List for your MoBo, and read up on recent articles on the current sweet spot for RAM in Ryzen 7s. It's not just the size, it's the speed and timing. Those things may have only a 1-3% impact, but he's spending the money, and in a gaming rig, that 1-3% matters. The QVL doesn't list every RAM stick that will work - it just lists the ones they tested that did work. The other important consideration is that he might be better off with a 2x16 configuration rather than a 4x8. There are two ways to wire the RAM slots in a motherboard. In one, the circuit lengths to the two banks of RAM are the same, and so a 4x8 configuration works fine. In the other, the circuit lengths differ slightly and so a 2x16 configuration gives better results. Again, we are talking small differences, but in gaming, as I understand it, you're looking for every possible advantage/$. I personally like G Skill (sorry, @Canadan.)

Should be a nice rig. If it's the mobo I saw when I tried to find it, it's sharp looking and no doubt part of what he's going for. A lot of what I said, above and below, are aimed at squeezing that last few percent of performance out of a gaming build.

My comments above are based on a lot of research when I did this build a year ago. The B550 is new to me, and I just scanned an article on what it offers. He may want to dig into the RAM piece if he hasn't already. Part of the fun of building your own is doing the research on what to buy and why. Again, this is a year old, but an article like this can be a good jumping off point.

Ryzen Above: Best Memory Settings for AMD's 3000 CPUs, Tested

Is Ryzen 3000 optimized for DDR4-3200? What if we want more? We examine everything from frequency to rank count to nail down optimal settings.

www.tomshardware.com

IMHO he should also look for an aftermarket air cooler. I say air rather than water because even though water is sexier, air is a better price/performance value. Noctuas are considered by many to be the gold standard - I like mine - but even fanboys admit they are ugly, which I suspect your son would not want. There are other, high performing, decent looking coolers (like be quiet!) to choose from.

Good luck, and keep us posted.

 

[radiman]

Make sure everyone votes.

Are PC components on the ballot this November?

 

[JB]

Make sure everyone votes.

We have asked repeatedly to keep politics off the forum. Regardless how people think, party allegiance or anything else. This will be the last time it is mentioned before we will have to remove from the forum.

 

[jdtox]

Well we did it and everything works surprisingly hahah. I haven't built a a pc in about 15 years so it was fun to do it together and he is happy as can be. The only area we skimped on was the video card because he really wants the 3070 when it drops at the end of the month but needed something to hold him over for now. Even picked up a pretty sweet 27" curved monitor.

Here is what we went with

AMD AMD RYZEN 7 3700X WRAITHP

MICROSOFT WIN HOME 10 32-BIT/64BIT

WD 1TB WD BLUE SN550 NVME

MSI GTX 1660 GAMING X 6G

NZXT KRAKEN Z73 LIQUID COOLER

GIGABYTE B550 AORUS ELITE ATX

G.SKILL 32GB 2X16 D4 3200 TRZ RGB

G.SKILL 850w 80plus Gold power supply

AOC 27" LED C27G1 MONITOR/G

RAZER MAMBA ELITE

DUCKY MECHANICAL ONE 2 MINI

And this is what it looks like installed, its pretty cool actually. Its a little big because of the case he wanted but I had we had fun, so much so I think I'm going to build a mini one for myself at a much cheaper price

 

[Reframmellator]

Nice rig!!!

 

[fuffle master]

Well we did it and everything works surprisingly hahah. I haven't built a a pc in about 15 years so it was fun to do it together and he is happy as can be. The only area we skimped on was the video card because he really wants the 3070 when it drops at the end of the month but needed something to hold him over for now. Even picked up a pretty sweet 27" curved monitor.

Here is what we went with

AMD AMD RYZEN 7 3700X WRAITHP

MICROSOFT WIN HOME 10 32-BIT/64BIT

WD 1TB WD BLUE SN550 NVME

MSI GTX 1660 GAMING X 6G

NZXT KRAKEN Z73 LIQUID COOLER

GIGABYTE B550 AORUS ELITE ATX

G.SKILL 32GB 2X16 D4 3200 TRZ RGB

G.SKILL 850w 80plus Gold power supply

AOC 27" LED C27G1 MONITOR/G

RAZER MAMBA ELITE

DUCKY MECHANICAL ONE 2 MINI

And this is what it looks like installed, its pretty cool actually. Its a little big because of the case he wanted but I had we had fun, so much so I think I'm going to build a mini one for myself at a much cheaper price

View attachment 8969416

Very cool. I remember doing the same with my son his senior year before heading to college.

Building a personal computer is a fun project. You can get so personal versus the box types at the stores.

 

[copenhagerman]

Well we did it and everything works surprisingly hahah. I haven't built a a pc in about 15 years so it was fun to do it together and he is happy as can be. The only area we skimped on was the video card because he really wants the 3070 when it drops at the end of the month but needed something to hold him over for now. Even picked up a pretty sweet 27" curved monitor.

Here is what we went with

AMD AMD RYZEN 7 3700X WRAITHP

MICROSOFT WIN HOME 10 32-BIT/64BIT

WD 1TB WD BLUE SN550 NVME

MSI GTX 1660 GAMING X 6G

NZXT KRAKEN Z73 LIQUID COOLER

GIGABYTE B550 AORUS ELITE ATX

G.SKILL 32GB 2X16 D4 3200 TRZ RGB

G.SKILL 850w 80plus Gold power supply

AOC 27" LED C27G1 MONITOR/G

RAZER MAMBA ELITE

DUCKY MECHANICAL ONE 2 MINI

And this is what it looks like installed, its pretty cool actually. Its a little big because of the case he wanted but I had we had fun, so much so I think I'm going to build a mini one for myself at a much cheaper price

View attachment 8969416

Good looking rig, but if that radiator is front mounted you might want to to put the hoses at the bottom or you could get some pump whining in a couple months. Again nice looking system. Nice parts as well.