Building a rig paycheck to paycheck

[rza]

I don't know about the rest of you but I am a normal guy with a normal life. I live paycheck to paycheck with very little savings on the side. I don't come from a wealthy family nor do I expect to come into a lot of money anytime soon.

My question is; if you were building a system which core components (CPU / RAM / GPU / MOBO) would you buy first?

I ask because it seems that no matter which part or brand there is always a review that says DOA or RMA. I don't want to buy a MOBO today and in a month from now get a GPU and find out the MOBO was bad, and now past the return policy.

Which parts have a higher DOA/RMA %?

Through my penny pinching I have acquired all parts except CPU / GPU / RAM / MOBO - see my sig (if I did it right) for other parts that I currently have.

 

[rza]

Well my sig didn't really work out - still new to forums.

This is the rest of the stuff I have....
Case: CM690 Black
PSU: Corsair 750TX
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB
OD: Asus DRW 24X DVD Burner
Monitor: Asus 23.6" 1080p 60hz/5ms
HS: Xigmatek Balder
OS: Win7 64bit
MISC: Logitec speakers / mouse / keyboard

 

[swifty_morgan]

Things drop in price quickly sometimes. Building a machine over time will upset you a little when you do this. From experience all the hardware I've purchased in the past 3 years has been good as far as I can remember. I wouldn't let myself get worried over that.
I do try to but the ram, processor and mother board as close to one another as possible. So I would purchase the other stuff first unless a really god deal come along. Right now I have a hard drive for my next build that I bought a year ago. A mother board and ram I bought 2 month's ago. An opsys that I bought 6 month's ago. You gotta have faith.
Why the long jump between purchases..... I've built a lot of machines. I don't rush through it any more..... I look at this stuff as "extra" parts if I ever need anything. But I used to do what you're doing.

 

[Griffolion]

The best way is to get as much together as possible for the reasons above.

Stuff gets better, drops in price over time and it can be annoying that you get a part at say £100 but 5 months later its £80 when (if you'd have done 5 months saving) you could have gotten that and a lot more at better prices.

I know the paycheck to paycheck situation is a big issue, but if possible, start putting back now and put up with your machine now until the time comes to do a mass purchase (obviously with informed decisions from us all at TH)

 

[jefe323]

put aside $$$ each month for your build and buy all those components as close together as possible to avoid any return woes

 

[jsc]

jefe has the best reason for why not to do what you are doing.

Have you tested the hard drive yet? I mean, if it doesn't work; well, you can always contact Samsung. But let's say you bought everything at one time from newegg. Or the PSU? Corsair makes good PSU's (I own three), but an occasional lemon slides through. Much quicker to RMA to the egg.

Something doesn't work, it's much easier (and quicker ) to deal with newegg.

 

[thegoat]

I agree with jsc and jefe.
If you can afford to buy each component paycheck at a time, then simply make a new savings account and deposit the equivalent into it without buying the piece. Once your done you might find that you saved a lot of money by waiting.

 

[False_Dmitry_II]

Or of course use neweggs financing department and get it all right now. They don't charge interest for like a year so you'll have it payed off and no actual interest will have been paid by the time that's done.

 

[TheWhiteRose000]

my build.

Processor: Intel Quad (2) 9550
Motherboard: GA-EP45T-USB3P
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws 2x2 4gig.
Azza Dynamo Power Supply 650 Watt's.
ASUS DVD Burner

Recycled.
Hard Drive.
Graphics Card.

All in all it worked for me.
Mind you still going paycheck to paycheck I've added a lot more upgrades in.

6 Kingston V-series SSD's.
2 Raedon 5670's crossfired together.
1 Creative Championship series sound card.

:3

 

[rza]

Best answer selected by rza.