Building my own PC (How to build it and What should I get)

[Jaysds1]

Hey all,

As the title says it, I want to build my own PC but I don't know what to get.

Here's what I'm looking for,

I am trying to pay less than or equal to $500, and I want like an everyday use computer that I could use to play games, record games, edit videos, and code.

That's all I'm looking for.

The site I was trying to use to look for computer parts is TigerDirect.

Edited September 27, 2014 by Guest

[ixjf]

PCPartPicker is a nice website to make a build. Also, users can share their builds and receive feedback. Anyway, it kind of depends on how heavy the games and video editing are, but don't expect too much for $500. Also, does that budget include peripherals?

[Mr.ShariQ]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... G1403#spec

This is monster piece to me. this is going to run everything you want and its under your budget

[Jaysds1]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4959021&Sku=C477-G1403#spec

Thanks ShariQ, I think I might buy this later then

Does that budget include peripherals?

Yup

[ixjf]

Pre-built desktop PCs are usually overpriced and unbalanced, clearly that's one of them. I would not recommend buying one.

Is the monitor part of the peripherals, or just keyboard and mouse?

[Jaysds1]

no, the monitor isn't, but I should include it.

Maybe I should be looking for $600 budget.

[ixjf]

Do you need an hard disk or SSD or do you already have storage? Also, do you need an operating system too?

[Jaysds1]

SSD and Windows 8.1

[ixjf]

Yeah, you're asking way too much for $600. If you want peripherals, operating system and an SSD with $600 you'll have to buy low-end components.

[jhxp]

The Geforce GT610 is a really low-end card. You might not be able to play resource intensive games on it (as in, any modern game released in the last 5 years or so), as it will give you terrible performance.

With that kind of budget, you might be better off looking for an aftermarket build or parts if you're aiming for performance.

[ixjf]

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/QBYvsY

The case, keyboard and mouse (and even monitor) are more of a personal choice, you may change it if you want.

This includes peripherals, but it does not include operating system and storage. If you really need those things, you're gonna have to stretch that a lot. If you already have an hard disk and wanted a SSD, you may temporarily use the hard disk for the OS and later buy an SSD (or were you thinking in using an SSD to store all your files too? SSDs with 120GB are already as expensive as an 1TB hard disk - that's not a lot of space). Can't you get the operating system from a friend? Also, don't you have any components or peripherals laying around you might be able to reuse? Like an hard disk from another computer that isn't being used, a monitor, or even a keyboard would already make a difference.

[qaisjp]

go here bro: http://reddit.com/r/buildapcforme

i did this about three weeks ago, http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcforme/c ... ing_build/ - one week later, I have a PC

To build it, just watch a video on youtube and ask someone who knows what they're doing on the internet in IRC (i.e, buildapcforme IRC)

[Jaysds1]

Ok, so what if I want to upgrade my PC later on in the future for better GPU and SSD?

Is there a compatibility issue I might need to watch for? Like a certain SSD can't go with a certain RAM card?

[qaisjp]

i sincerely doubt that any ssd's have incompatibilities with any RAM

[ixjf]

SSDs have nothing to do with RAM, so that certainly won't be a problem. Now, PCI Express has always been backwards and forward-compatible, so as long as PCI-E is not discontinued and compatibility is not broken, graphics card incompatibilities shouldn't be a problem.

Being forced to upgrade hardware to be able to use new technologies is something everyone has to do once in a while. You can be smart and choose technologies that you know will stay in the market (e.g. Intel announces that there will be a new CPU generation using the same socket) or you can be dumb, but with $600 and with everything you want, you don't have many choices. In fact, you can't even fit the requirements in your budget, which to me seem like just random choices.

[Mr.ShariQ]

I am running 256 GB SSD on core i3 (first generation) with 2 gb ram only using windows 8.1. SSD is running great and boosted laptop battery life also startup is really fast. system shutdown in only 10 sec.

ixjf is right, SSD have nothing to do with ram

[Jaysds1]

Thanks all,

So now I know that I should upgrade my PC parts once in a while, and now I found a new site for getting parts with my own budget.

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/QBYvsY

I think I wont need the keyboard and mouse anymore.

[Jaysds1]

I also have another question,

I currently have a computer and I didn't build it my self, but I want to know is it possible if I could just buy more RAM and just add it to my computer or do I need to know if it's compatible with it?

[ixjf]

You'll need to know if it's compatible. If it's an old PC, it might use DDR2, which is very expensive right now. You also should see how many sticks are in use and how many slots are available - modern desktop motherboards only support dual channel (2 RAM sticks working as a single one). If you put three sticks on a dual channel board, each stick will work independently and you'll lose performance, although you might not even notice it. It seems 4 sticks on a dual channel board will work though, each pair working as a single one.