Benefits of building PC and step-by-step tutorial

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NotionCommotion

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My daughter and I are thinking of building a PC (used for gaming and animation). No firm budget, would would like to be under $700 complete with monitor. While a bit over budget, using http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3029966/600-build-wits-end-dealing-price-management.html#17808077 plus monitor and keyboard seems close enough. Questions:


    1. Other than the trill of building one's own PC, what is the benefit? Do we really save any money? Yes, we can select the exact parts, but is that really a benefit?

    2. Is there a good tutorial to do so? I found http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/274745-31-step-step-guide-building, but is it still relevant given the age?
 
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USAFRet


-You have full control over exactly what parts go into...
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turkey3_scratch

turkey3_scratch

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1) Yes you do save money, and the parts are higher grade. Prebuilt companies use the cheapest power supplies, motherboards, and if there even is one, graphics cards they can get their hands on. All which are very important components.

2) That Tomshardware one is a great tutorial and is still relevant.

I'm just confused as to what computer you're looking to build from that other thread.
 
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NotionCommotion

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Thanks Turkey3,

We will read that tutorial in detail, and strongly consider building.

You mean this post? http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3030332/computer-recommendations-year-techie-artsy-daughter.html. If so, we decided on a windows 10 desktop.

 
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NotionCommotion

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Probably not as well defined as they should be. Specs are:

    1 Cheap ($600 to $700)
    2 Good enough for what a 13 year old will need for a couple of years (suitable for higher end animation software and of course some gaming)
    3 Reliable
    4 Maybe ability to upgrade in the future.
    5 Desktop
    6 Windows 10 operating system
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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-You have full control over exactly what parts go into it. Rather than whatever cheap stuff they have on the shelf that needs to go out. Typically, the PSU is suspect.

-You have full control over the actual construction. Rather than relying on the [strike]Professional builder[/strike]19 year old intern, with 2 weeks on the job, nursing a Monday morning hangover.
There was a case here last year. A brand new PC from CyberPower, overheating. Brand new as in 2 days old.
Why? The aforementioned [strike]"Professional Builder"[/strike] idiot failed to apply the thermal paste on the CPU properly.

-You'll gain an intimate knowledge of how things work and go together, so if it does break down, you'll be a lot closer to fixing it, rather than sending it back.

-It may or may not be 'cheaper'. But I'll take quality over saving a couple of dollars anytime.

-And it is a LOT easier than it looks. Any semi-intelligent person (with the desire) whose age has reached double digits can do it.
 
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Barty1884

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USAFret's covered off the reasons & benefits why. Understanding the somewhat inner workings of a rig will help you dramatically in the future. Upgrading, troubleshooting etc. You know exactly what's in there.

Most of the time customer builders use components they need to get rid of, generally lower quality PSUs and Motherboards - OEM rigs can be even worse, with no documentation regarding quality of either the PSU or motherboard.



Animation software really isn't a strong suit of mine, so perhaps others can chime in - but I would suspect your best option for those uses & longevity would be either an i7 or Xeon, probably best paired with a nVidia GPU (as I believe a lot of software capable of utilizing the GPU are designed more for nVidia than AMD).

Obviously, this is a bit over budget & can be scaled back a bit, but I believe this would be an ideal rig for your daughter (although adding an SSD would be great too!).

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($67.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: PNY Anarchy 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($29.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($45.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card ($194.99 @ Micro Center)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($55.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($85.49 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Asus VX228H 60Hz 21.5" Monitor ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $860.20
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-13 13:21 EDT-0400


If this is more of an occasional animation use, and predominantly a gaming rig, this gets closer to the budget and will be able to run the software - I wouldn't recommend as low as an i5 for frequent software use, but occasionally, it'll do just fine.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($194.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI H110M Gaming Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($45.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 950 2GB Video Card ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($55.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($85.49 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Asus VX228H 60Hz 21.5" Monitor ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $747.30
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-13 13:24 EDT-0400
 
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James Mason

James Mason

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The Tom's guide isn't bad, because building a PC hasn't really changed much in the last decade, but I've got a couple videos that are a bit more recent, and being videos can show you a bit better what it's like. They're long, but that's because they go very indepth to show you the real details of putting a system together.

Building your own computer is easy. Building it takes 2-3 hours, and installing windows takes about 30mins to 45mins, and after that downloading and installing drivers takes another 30-45 mins. After all that, have it download windows updates at night, it may take a 2-4 passes to get them all.

Building a PC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIF43-0mDk4
Installing Windows:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zAdwedmj1M

Protip for installing drivers safely, install them one at a time and restart the computer after each install to avoid breaking the OS, which can happen if you try to install them all at once.
 
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