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QOTD: How Much Did Your Computer(s) Cost?

by - source: Tom's Hardware US

Big spender? Penny pincher? We want to know.

Yesterday we found out that when it comes to sales of computers costing over $1,000, a whopping 91 percent of that goes to Apple.

Of course, the obvious argument is that many PCs cost under $1,000, while most Mac computers cost over $1,000.

Personal opinions of Apple computers aside, many of you chimed in and said that you've spent more than a grand on your PC, except that you chose to build it yourself instead of buying it built from a business.

This brings us to today's QOTD: How much did your computer cost? Please feel free to tell us about your gaming desktop, your laptop for work or school, or even about your entire server farm that you're running in your basement.

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Tech-Boy 07/25/2009 2:59 AM
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soldier37 07/25/2009 3:01 AM
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-1+

I upgrade components every 2 years, the video card every year and a half now. So overall right now as it stands I would say $3000. Just went quad core and Vista 64 bit. About to upgrade my ATI 4870 1gb to a 5800 series this fall and Windows 7. So theres another $500+ right there. LOL

Tech-Boy 07/25/2009 3:01 AM
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thiswillkillthat 07/25/2009 3:02 AM
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redgarl 07/25/2009 3:04 AM
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1500$ Tower alone... I tend to spend less on the cpu, motherboard, memory and more on the case, sound card, storage and HTPC options.

I don't spend more than 300$ on graphic cards anymore. For exemple, my last build got 2 4850 OC in crossfire... and I paid 165$ for both. That was a terrific deal.

shening 07/25/2009 3:07 AM
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-10+

1200-1300 $ plus upgrades overtime so i'd say around 1500,but my PC >>>>>>>>> ANY Mac anywhere around that price.

mj_mahyar14 07/25/2009 3:09 AM
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LORD_ORION 07/25/2009 3:10 AM
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-9+

This is an upgrade cycle for me, so only $400 for motherboard, CPU and ram.

I usually do it this way. New system... upgrade... new system.

mj_mahyar14 07/25/2009 3:12 AM
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-4+

Well my pc cost $1825 just for the case part. Custom built by me!

Specs are i7 920
EVGA X58
6gb Dominator
EVGA GTX 285 2GB
X-fi soundcard
2 hdds in raid 0
and mush more

with the accesories and the monitor and keyboard it was $2440.

gosefroba 07/25/2009 3:16 AM
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1ce 07/25/2009 3:17 AM
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-2+

Mine's an laptop from 2006 that cost $1300 Canadian at the time...yeah it needs to be replaced with a capable desktop. Laptops have come down in prices so much since 2006. I recall I paid around average, it was not a high end machine.

chinesemafia69 07/25/2009 3:19 AM
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mine costs $3500 AUD, just built last week
:P:P

RahBoT 07/25/2009 3:22 AM
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i spent just alittle over 1700$ on my tower. That doesnt include my 3 gaming mice and 3 keyboards, monitors, table, Drafting Lamp, clipboard for mapped keys for ingame, gaming mouse pad, speakers, just about 12 headphones this year to date. Note I go threw headphones about 2-3 a month. My Next upgrade will cost me just about 800$ or so. My girls pc costed me just about 850$ after it was said and done. Now she is complaining about it being slow. So her next one will be about 500$. I try to use the old parts on a new build if I can other wise family buys them for cheap. Note will be selling my girls pc for 300$

radiowars 07/25/2009 3:23 AM
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1250 for a custom build. Started brand new, got an i7 920 in it, GTX 275, and 1 tb drive.

MDillenbeck 07/25/2009 3:23 AM
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Let see... I have 1 dead laptop (5yrs ago), 1 dead tablet PC (3 yrs ago), 1 tablet pc (1 yr ago) - I tend to not spend more than $1000 at a time, so $500/year on laptops.

Oh yeah, got 2 EEE PC 4Gs when they first came out with SDHC cards and a few other extras - so that was about almost $1000.

I have enough parts at home for at least 5 PCs, but only 3 are up and active. I usually buy a decent all-in-one motherboard ($100-150). RAM upgrades are usually around $75 each round. (I have 8GB in a server, 8GB in a Vista machine, and 2 GB in an XP machine right now... and probably 2-4GB sitting around.) Haven't bought a dedicated sound card in quite a while, and I occasionally buy a video card for $75ish. Hard drives I rarely spend more than $100 for. CD Drives I'll spend around $40 tops, but I did spend $200 on a blu-ray burner. Cases I try to keep under $100 and usually with a power supply, but I'll occasionally drop $50 to $100 for a decent and energy efficient power supply. Go for CPUs under $100 usually, so that typically means AMD. OEM software as needed - $140 on average (which is why I am thinking about going Linux mainly + VMWare player and 1 copy of workstation... but keeping one native windows machine).

So how much do I spend on a system? I don't really know. For laptops, $500-$1000 per year sounds right for an average - but for desktops, I use the "upgrade with a couple of hundred bucks" every 3-6 months. So I really don't know how much I've invested in technology total, or even per year - a lot, but a lot less than the cooks at Denny's seem to sink into customizing their rides. :)

Guess I'll have to start a log of my computer expenses!

Spanky Deluxe 07/25/2009 3:25 AM
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-20+

I spent enough on my computer to make my penis appear larger. I also bought some go faster stripes to stick on the side of my car and bought a three wolf and moon t-shirt to maximise my pulling power.

Not really the best QOTD since not a single comment poster will care in the slightest what other people put...

redeye 07/25/2009 3:25 AM
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955be, 300$; 1000hx, 250$; 750GB, 500GB, 1TB wd, 1TB seagate, 400$; m32a32 240$; hsf for cpu hdds, 100$; 4890 300#; 4GB ram corsair 200$; fans etc 100$; for a total approx of 2000. yet, I was in future shop and they had a gateway with i920, 12GB ram, and 285GTX for 1650.

leon2006 07/25/2009 3:28 AM
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I buid my own PC. Its more expensive and reliable than any brand...Apple, Hp, Dell....etc. I pay premium price for high performance and reliable components.

Regardless of this discussion... Apple components/hardware are always more expensive than regular PC. Just to site an specific example apple's hardware are more expensive and behind.

In terms of cost/performance Apple will always be behind.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3603

giga_bite 07/25/2009 3:33 AM
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-0+

I blew $1200-1300 on my newest box

Core i7 920
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R ATX
XFX Radeon HD 4890 1GB
OCZ 6GB
500GB HD 3Gb SATA 32MB cache
650W PS
Vista Home Premuim 64-bit

Fortunex 07/25/2009 3:36 AM
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-2+

Phenom 720, 4GB RAM, ASUS M4A78-E, Antec 900 (got it on sale, $70), Caviar Black 640, cheap DvD burner, Sapphire HD4850 1GB, CoolerMaster V8.

~$900 CAD.

Sony Vaio (forget the model atm) $1,000 CAD.

Regulas 07/25/2009 3:39 AM
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14" Acer Extensa 2.16GHz running Ubuntu now, $399.

Zagen30 07/25/2009 3:46 AM
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I built my first rig a couple of months ago since I got a $50 rebate on a GTX260 and didn't have any computers with a PCI-E slot (sad, I know, but my family doesn't buy computers unless the old ones die completely, and all of our most recent PCs had been laptops). I spent $530 after the rebate and S&H on it, although I didn't buy a hard drive since my dad had bought one on sale a few years ago that he had never opened. I don't have a ton of money, so I went relatively budget; if I had unlimited money I would have gone a lot crazier. I also don't do that much PC gaming, mostly because I've never had a gaming-quality PC before. Most of the time my computer is running Folding@home.

My rig: Pentium E6300, GTX260, 4GB DDR2 800, Gigabyte G41M-ES2L, Antec 650W PSU, Antec 300 case.

Gradis 07/25/2009 3:49 AM
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I looked at a mac. I was charged $50.

alishaan 07/25/2009 3:55 AM
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I build my computer last month, besides keyboard, mouse and dvd drive all the component were new. It costed me around $1,300.

My machine specs (new parts):
Core i7 920
GTX 275
Gigabyte X58-UD4P
OCZ Platinum 6 GB
Xigmatek Dark Knight Cooler
Antec 900 II
Corsair 650W
Samsung 24"
2 WD Black 640 GB and 1 TB

christop 07/25/2009 3:55 AM
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I have about 1200. e8400 cpu 850 watt psu 4 gigs mem 2 hds one is a 500gb and another 1.5 tb 2 8800 gts sli. asus pn5-d

tlmck 07/25/2009 3:57 AM
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-6+

$225 for my AMD dual core, bleeding edge Linux box, not including keyboard, mouse, and monitor! Liked it so much, I built another to run Win 7.

Anonymous 07/25/2009 3:59 AM
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-0+

1400

UzEEInc 07/25/2009 4:00 AM
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That 91% figure is way off. For over a $1000 grands, most people prefer to build their own PCs.

I spent about $1200 on my recent build and will spend a couple more once Dx11 GPUs hit the market.

dirtmountain 07/25/2009 4:05 AM
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-0+

Of the 3 systems in my home the costs were
$650, $750, $700 not including monitors.

PieceMaker42 07/25/2009 4:09 AM
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I just built a PC a few weeks ago for around $1,600. I also own a Lenovo t61p laptop that cost me a little over $2000 about 2 years ago.

PC:
Asus P6T
Intel i7 920
EVAG Superclocked 275 GTX
2 x 1.5 TB Barracudas
6 GB Corsair DDR3
750 Watt PSU
Blu-Ray Drive
Mid-sized NZXT Tempest
Pre-Ordered Windows 7
23" Monitor

IronRyan21 07/25/2009 4:09 AM
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-2+

$950 For the Tower, Custom AMD Phenom Rig
$200 for the 20 inch Widescreen Monitor


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