The 'Lets build a PC!' thread

[nupoile]

At the moment this is kinda placeholder text, I will edit this first post as time goes on and people contribute.

This should be a thread for helping people with PC builds and ideas. I imagine there will be lots of links posted as well as specific parts mentioned.



EDITs and posts coming soon!


Should I put up one of those 'under construction' gifs?



Some useful links.  This will be added to and updated over time. Give me hints on what should go here 

Trying to pick out hardware?
http://www.pcper.com/hwlb
http://pcpartpicker.com/
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html
http://www.videocardbench...rk.net/high_end_gpus.html

[Fleach]

This is going to be very helpful.

To get this rolling I have a few questions.

How often should I upgrade my PC or its parts?
Mid Tower vs Mini ITX vs Micro ATX?
Sometimes you can't have someone there with you helping, so what are some good tutorials for newbie builders (video and step-by-step guides)?

[techwizard]

This is going to be very helpful.

To get this rolling I have a few questions.

How often should I upgrade my PC or its parts?
Mid Tower vs Mini ITX vs Micro ATX?
Sometimes you can't have someone there with you helping, so what are some good tutorials for newbie builders (video and step-by-step guides)?

first question: i judge the need for upgrades based on how well the computer can handle the games i'm playing (or whatever else you mostly use it for). when it gets to the point where i'm playing a new game on all low settings, or getting really low frame rate on medium, and anything higher is completely unplayable, that's when i know it's time to upgrade. that's my personal preference though, some people have no problem playing games on low settings, but for me if i'm buying a PC just for gaming i want the games to play smooth and look good doing it.

second question: that's somewhat personal preference, and somewhat based on what you plan on putting in it. i don't know micro or mini ATX well but if they can't handle more than 1 hard drive, you would have problems if you wanted to setup a RAID backup system, or anything like that. most mid to high end video cards are also massive (up to a foot long in some cases), you're not going to fit that in a micro or mini case, even some mid sized towers won't fit that. cooling is also much better in bigger cases. i personally have a full sized tower, the Antec 1200.

third question: i don't have any experience with that but i'm sure there are thousands of good video tutorials on youtube.

[mumboking]

Techquickie has quite a few interesting videos that may help you understand some things: https://www.youtube.com/user/Techquickie
e.g: PC Cases:

[Fokakis79]

Great video, very informative. Thanks mumboking

[SirPsycho]

Always remember Moore's Law. Its why I try to keep my budget for a new build under $1000. I'm in the preplanning stages of my next tower, I probably won't start actually buying parts until next year though. Most of the parts I'm looking at by then will be much cheaper.

[bombatomba]

I think one of the most misleading things about computers is how often they must be upgraded.  The idea that a PC needs to be frequently upgraded is a millstone left over from the late eighties to mid-nineties, when one could count on the computer you just bought to be obsolete within a few months of purchase.  These days things tend to be more balanced, with predictable highs and lows.  While there is not quite yet a "PC cycle" one can depend on upgrading within two to four years of PC purchase (depending on how current and what types of games you want to play), with the bulk of the "reliable" next-gen GPUs hitting the shelves a year after console release.  Count on spending about half of what a current console costs.

CPU: 4-8 years (maybe longer)
RAM: Same as CPU (ultimately depending on trends)
GPU: 2-4 years (depending on what you get initially and what you play)
PSU: Depends on GPU (although the higher wattage PSU you get the longer in between upgrades)

All of this relies on all the parts not actually dying in between upgrades.

UPDATE: Nice, mumboking.  That guy completely nailed it.  Such a confusing subject in only five minutes.

[Fokakis79]

I just looked at Shoboni's rig again, and thinking of building one just like him. It seems he got alot of good stuff for pretty cheap.

[mumboking]

UPDATE: Nice, mumboking.  That guy completely nailed it.  Such a confusing subject in only five minutes.

He also has many more: e.g: Power Supplies

[bombatomba]

I just looked at Shoboni's rig again, and thinking of building one just like him. It seems he got alot of good stuff for pretty cheap.

Awesome!  He got quite a deal.  The only thing I will add to that is to consider a better video card, but that is something I will always say.  I have the same one (GeForce GTX 750Ti 2GB) and will have to think about an upgrade as Elite: Dangerous and Star Citizen slowly approach.  Zelda ALTTP may be on the chopping block...

[Cryptid Collector]

I just looked at Shoboni's rig again, and thinking of building one just like him. It seems he got alot of good stuff for pretty cheap.

I did, I'm getting 44-60FPS on BF4 at 1080(upsamlped from like 900p)/Ultra and High settings. The 750ti is really a beast relative to how cheap you can get it.

[Cryptid Collector]

I just looked at Shoboni's rig again, and thinking of building one just like him. It seems he got alot of good stuff for pretty cheap.

Awesome!  He got quite a deal.  The only thing I will add to that is to consider a better video card, but that is something I will always say.  I have the same one (GeForce GTX 750Ti 2GB) and will have to think about an upgrade as Elite: Dangerous and Star Citizen slowly approach.  Zelda ALTTP may be on the chopping block...

Games have been handing out bloated spec sheets, the list for The Evil Within says I have no business running it but I can play at high-settings and 900p even in it's horrible optimized state. Shadow of Mordor also runs on medium-high from what I've seen.  

Edit: sorry about the double post. I've been posting a lot on a forum that combines double posts and it got me spoiled :b.

[SirPsycho]

I think one of the most misleading things about computers is how often they must be upgraded.  The idea that a PC needs to be frequently upgraded is a millstone left over from the late eighties to mid-nineties, when one could count on the computer you just bought to be obsolete within a few months of purchase.  These days things tend to be more balanced, with predictable highs and lows.  While there is not quite yet a "PC cycle" one can depend on upgrading within two to four years of PC purchase (depending on how current and what types of games you want to play), with the bulk of the "reliable" next-gen GPUs hitting the shelves a year after console release.  Count on spending about half of what a current console costs.

The point is that a top of the line $10k rig is going to cost less than half that in a couple years. And good rigs around $1k can last awhile. I'm approaching 4 years with mine and it still handles a lot of big releases on medium to high settings fairly well despite a bottlenecked GPU and some other reasons. Having 12GB of RAM certainly helps. Anyway, back on topic.

While the perceived physical limitations of wires and transistors in processors becomes an essential brick wall, with current designs already merely a few molecules in diameter, then efficiency and core threading will become more important in wiring designs. Humans will find some way around current limitations, just like they found a way around the high cost and failure rates of vacuum tubes with the bipolar junction transistor, which lead to integrated circuit chips that power everything now.

[techwizard]

bombatomba has it right too, and i disagree that it's a good idea to stay under $1000. unless you really can't afford higher, then in the long run it's actually cheaper to get something a little pricier up front. cheap components are more likely to fail sooner, and many parts of the PC you'll have no need at all to upgrade when you're ready for a new computer. things like a good monitor(s), keyboard, mouse, sound system, tower, etc all have no reason to be changed when you upgrade, so if you spend a little extra up front you're less likely to need to replace these parts in the long run.

i've upgraded nothing in my current PC in the past 5 years, excluding one failed hard drive after about six months (the replacement has been great ever since), and a new GPU fan. i can still play all modern games (that i've tried anyway) with decent frame rate (at least 20-40 FPS). for example Battlefield 4 runs fine on my PC at medium to high settings, 1080p resolution and around 30 FPS. i have no plans to upgrade it for at least another year or 2, though i may need to consider a new GPU sooner than later if i get any new games this year.

i can't remember for sure but i think i had spent around $2000 Canadian. you can definitely get a cheaper PC, but you should expect that with a cheaper one you'll want to upgrade it sooner, the more money you spend up front the more life you'll get out of it (barring any part failures).

edit: just saw psycho's post, by more expensive i don't mean 10k for a computer, that's crazy...anything above $3000 is totally excessive for any gaming needs. but i think $1500 - $2500 is where you're going to get the best bang for your buck in the long run.

[nupoile]

It's funny, I just subscribed to that guy who mumboking has been posting videos of other channel,  LinusTechTips
http://www.youtube.com/ch.../UCXuqSBlHAE6Xw-yeJA0Tunw a week or two ago and have been watching a bunch of his videos. I didn't know about his  Techquickie
channel until now. Looking through it I found this one, which seems right in line with what we are talking about:


6:05 long




A year ago, to refresh me on building a PC, I watched this 1:22:27 long video on how a PC is put together:



That is already a year old but it is it was helpful to me at the time. I bought that motherboard so that is partly why. That channel has newer videos on the same topic but I haven't watched them:

https://www.youtube.com/user/asusrog/videos



Since this is the internet, there are OVER 9000! videos on PC building, those are just ones I know of.