My builds and a small rant.

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LittleJess

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I'm generally a person who buys second hand computers, or build budget rigs, I only really started building my own rigs around 2011, I did before but I mostly could only afford second hand computers, so I would go with second hand computers. (for example I would get a core 2 duo machine, and slap in more ram or a mid range GPU) now I have to admit a core 2 duo is perfect for me.

Now, when it comes to building computers, you always have that one "expert" who loves to tell you what to get, what I mean is a lot of people who go tell you what parts you should get, generally tell you to go overboard. While I know my shit, I generally confirm with others just in case.

Now my first "proper" modern computer build is as follows

4GB DDR3 1333 mhz
Asus P8H61-M LX R2.0
Intel Celeron G1610
A crappy generic PSU, came with the case.
AMD 5450 (just for photoshop and stuff)

Now at the time that was all I could afford, so I did the best I could, well obviously it's shit compared to a 4th gen I3, but it kicked the crap out of my mothers laptop.

I remember the time someone is like

You should get a I7 and a GTX 750... are you kidding me.. not realizing I'm going for a budget build, and trying to tell me my PC was going to be shit.

Well guess what, It did what I wanted it to, and did it perfectly, didn't even use it to it's full intentional, did some light gaming with it, used it mostly for programming and school work.

At the time I wasn't going to spend any more than $250, because that's all I had at the time, and needed something that would last me a couple years.

So on my birthday in 2015 I built a better up to date rig, due to my old motherboard bricking and went with the following.

Intel Celeron G1840
8GB DDR3 DDR3 1333 MHZ
Cosiar 350 watt power supply
Some cheap generic computer case from china.
Motherboard H81M-DGS R2.0
TL-LINK wifi card.

Now I got all that for $300ish, was the perfect rig, used it all the way though tafe, eventually in mid 2016 I upgraded it.

I3 4170 3.70 ghz
AMD R7 360 OC
120 GB Kingston SSD
and a 550 Watt Thermal Take power supply.

Still to this guys standards, the PC was "shit", well here is my logic when it comes to PC's I build them for my NEEDs, not someone elses.

I can live with a $300 dollar pc or a second hand core 2 duo machine, I don't care, but at the time I had the money, and decided to spend some more to upgrade it. Though the guy is the type of person who would go out and buy a gaming laptop, because normal laptops aren't good enough lol. despite what most people make out, the ivy bridge, haswell etc celerons are very good processors.

With me I'm not going to spend money I don't have, on "extra" power I didn't need at the time.

Just like to share my little rant and the rigs I built in the past.
 
At that price, what you built sounds half decent and can probably even run most all games out there (just not at max video rendering). I'd recommend doubling the memory when you can, you'll notice the improved speed. SSD is also great, but is probably too small to have much on it. Of course you can always add a second, older drive for storage and such, so again at least half decent. Certainly not "shit" though.
 
That seems just fine if you don't play many games on it... and it can still play some games. I used cheap laptops with lower specifications until I started playing lots of PC games. My current laptop is very cheap, but not my desktop. I'm hoping my PC will last a long time... even if it eventually means I'm playing the newest games on low settings years from now.
 
I tend to steer away from talking to people who are into PC building because I often experience that, I guess it can be a competitive thing, some people seem to want nothing more than to tell others how crap they think their computers are and how much better they reckon their own is ;)

I used to try to keep up with the competition but now I take pride in getting the most out of low end/old hardware and holding onto gadgets for as long as I can even when they're years out of date, my current PC build is approaching 14 years old and it still does everything I need it to.
 
Milko said:
I tend to steer away from talking to people who are into PC building because I often experience that, I guess it can be a competitive thing, some people seem to want nothing more than to tell others how crap they think their computers are and how much better they reckon their own is ;)

I used to try to keep up with the competition but now I take pride in getting the most out of low end/old hardware and holding onto gadgets for as long as I can even when they're years out of date, my current PC build is approaching 14 years old and it still does everything I need it to.

Ya so much this. I am the same way. I tend to try and make use of my computer for as long as possible. Not into the whole ... competing or buying things just to gloat about it.
 
Milko said:
I tend to steer away from talking to people who are into PC building because I often experience that, I guess it can be a competitive thing, some people seem to want nothing more than to tell others how crap they think their computers are and how much better they reckon their own is ;)

I used to try to keep up with the competition but now I take pride in getting the most out of low end/old hardware and holding onto gadgets for as long as I can even when they're years out of date, my current PC build is approaching 14 years old and it still does everything I need it to.

Practically this, I've seen people shun budget rigs because in there eyes anything less than the "latest I7 etc" is shit, or that $40 dollar card you want for hdmi and to watch youtube videos is shit.

IMO they tend to be Diluted and more aimed towards bragging, for example why would you slap a I7 in a basic web surfing machine, or a $800 dollar hex core.

i've personally witnessed this occur with a mate whos mother wanted to play the sims, the idoit slapped in a $160 dollar GPU at the time and wondered why it bottled necked on a processor that is equivalent to a pentium 4 and wondered why it bottled necked so badly.

Instead of upgrading to cpu to a cheap $60 dollar core 2 duo, he buys a $300 dollar processor slaps that in, than upgrades the god damn graphics card to a $300 dollar card.

Seriously the amount of money he wasted, he could of just built a low end Celeron PC with Integrated graphics and it would play the sims 3 fine and do basic web browsing.

The stories I tell are great aren't they :p

If these people were people who were fascinated by cars, they would practically call anything that isn't a 1 million dollar car shit, and then tell granny to buy a sports car, even though she just wants to do her weekly groceries shopping.

These type of people also tend to shun any os other than windows, because they won't run "GAME X" or what not.

Even gets to the point where they catorgrize all mac users as idiots or "sheep"
 
Binary said:
Practically this, I've seen people shun budget rigs because in there eyes anything less than the "latest I7 etc" is shit, or that $40 dollar card you want for hdmi and to watch youtube videos is shit.

IMO they tend to be Diluted and more aimed towards bragging, for example why would you slap a I7 in a basic web surfing machine, or a $800 dollar hex core.

i've personally witnessed this occur with a mate whos mother wanted to play the sims, the idoit slapped in a $160 dollar GPU at the time and wondered why it bottled necked on a processor that is equivalent to a pentium 4 and wondered why it bottled necked so badly.

Instead of upgrading to cpu to a cheap $60 dollar core 2 duo, he buys a $300 dollar processor slaps that in, than upgrades the god damn graphics card to a $300 dollar card.

Seriously the amount of money he wasted, he could of just built a low end Celeron PC with Integrated graphics and it would play the sims 3 fine and do basic web browsing.

The stories I tell are great aren't they :p

If these people were people who were fascinated by cars, they would practically call anything that isn't a 1 million dollar car shit, and then tell granny to buy a sports car, even though she just wants to do her weekly groceries shopping.

These type of people also tend to shun any os other than windows, because they won't run "GAME X" or what not.

Even gets to the point where they catorgrize all mac users as idiots or "sheep"

Yeah, some of my old school friends would have insanely long conversations about who's computer was better and what computer you should get. Granted it can be difficult to guage upgrades to play a game (IMO EA seriously understates the system requirements for Sims, particularly Sims 2) spending crazy amounts on upgrades for simple stuff is ridiculous. Oh and the good old Mac debate, I disagree with everyone who thinks Macs are just for people who don't know anything about computers and get attracted like fish to the shiny hardware, OS X is my favourite operating system and even though I'm critical of Apple these days and the almost complete non-upgradeability of most of their machines, I still love the platform.
 
The thing with extreme budget rigs is that while you may save yourself a few hundred in the short term, you'll end up having to upgrade sooner than you would had you spent a little bit more, and the upgrade tends to be a tad more expensive because there are less parts worth re-using.

Not that I'd ever recommend an i7 in a web browsing PC (or even the vast majority of gaming builds for that matter). It's just that my experience has always been that the price/performance curve is very non-linear, and there's definitely a sweet spot somewhere in the middle. A few months ago I was targeting $350 for a neighbors PC, but found if I upped it to $400 I could swap the i3 for an i5 and drop the dedicated graphics card for the intel integrated one (which had equal performance according to the benchmarks). I suspect that computer will last them until they die (they're in their 80s).

Then there's the hex core AMD system I built over 6 years ago. It was a mid to high range CPU when I built it, and I game on it to this day. It still has the original ram/motherboard/cpu/case, all that's really changed is a few hundred dollars worth of video card upgrade every 2-3 years.
 
irnub said:
The thing with extreme budget rigs is that while you may save yourself a few hundred in the short term, you'll end up having to upgrade sooner than you would had you spent a little bit more, and the upgrade tends to be a tad more expensive because there are less parts worth re-using.

Not that I'd ever recommend an i7 in a web browsing PC (or even the vast majority of gaming builds for that matter). It's just that my experience has always been that the price/performance curve is very non-linear, and there's definitely a sweet spot somewhere in the middle. A few months ago I was targeting $350 for a neighbors PC, but found if I upped it to $400 I could swap the i3 for an i5 and drop the dedicated graphics card for the intel integrated one (which had equal performance according to the benchmarks). I suspect that computer will last them until they die (they're in their 80s).

Then there's the hex core AMD system I built over 6 years ago. It was a mid to high range CPU when I built it, and I game on it to this day. It still has the original ram/motherboard/cpu/case, all that's really changed is a few hundred dollars worth of video card upgrade every 2-3 years.

Yes, I think most people tend to factor that sort of stuff in when building on a budget. The opposite is true as well. The more expensive you go, the less it's actually worth it for the performance and life span increase. The sweet spot is always best to hit when building a PC and that is where I tend to try and hit. But for the most part, I beleive that sweet spot is actually what most would consider low budget anyway.
 
irnub said:
The thing with extreme budget rigs is that while you may save yourself a few hundred in the short term, you'll end up having to upgrade sooner than you would had you spent a little bit more, and the upgrade tends to be a tad more expensive because there are less parts worth re-using.

Totally. I upgraded my old PC by buying a huge case with plenty of fans and getting a decent PSU. Then, on the day the Core i7 chips were released, I upgraded the CPU, motherboard and RAM.

The PC cost about £800 in total, but it's still running perfectly more than 8 years later. It's still one of the fastest PCs I've ever used.

I upgraded to 12GB RAM and got a PCIe SSD to speed things up a bit, and a mate donated a half-decent graphics card... so the machine should last at least another 4 or 5 years, I should think.

And when I do need to upgrade, the only components I'll need to change are the motherboard, chip and RAM. So I'll get a new PC for a fraction of the cost of a new one from a High Street shop, and it'll be a much higher-spec.

I think there are two ways to hit the "sweet spot" of price vs. performance: either you focus on price and get the cheapest PC that is just fast enough and throw the whole thing away every few years... (e.g. you can get Core2Duo PCs on eBay for £50) or you focus on longevity and reusability -- a decent case, PSU, drives and monitor will last for a few subsequent PC-builds.

I know a few people who buy pre-built "off the shelf" PCs, and although they're cheap up-front, they never perform as reliably as a self-built PC and become unusably slow after a few years anyway. And they come bundled with load of preinstalled bloatware and you don't get a clean copy of the OS.
 
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