Building a PC

[Al B. Sure!]

My Asus G73JH has finally started to get a bit long in the tooth (Fallout 4 crawls on it) so I'm thinking about buying a gaming desktop.

When I compared these $2000 and $2500 builds with the same components through a custom PC builder, paying a company to build the PC results in prices 60-100% higher than assemblying myself.

Are computers a real challenge to assemble or are they mostly snapping components in? Is thermal paste a challenge? Any advice or recommendations either way?


Thanks

[C0ckney]

computers are pretty easy to build and you can find all the instructions you could ever need online should you get stuck.

[Dinner]

Computers are very easy to assemble these days as everything is plug and play. The hardest part is plugging everything in on the mother board but as long as you can follow directions and remember to ground yourself then you will be fine. I have built around six PCs over the years.

Find a place like Fry's Electronics which has a good selection and a price matching policy. Then decide exactly which parts you want out of what they have on hand before finally using Google to find the rock bottom lowest internet price. They will price match, you will not have to pay for shipping, and if you need to exchange anything you just go back to the store.

[Bereta_Eder]

If thermal paste is not pre-applied (if all components are new, it will probably be) just put a small drop in the middle of the CPU before locking in the fan. Not a line, not a cross. Just a dot in the center

[onodera]

Logicalincrements.com

[onodera]

The greatest challenge is mounting the CPU fan. They are sharp, heavy, and their fastenings are tight.

[DaShi]

It depends. Are you planning on building from scratch?

[Jon Miller]

The purity of sand is very important.

JM

[onodera]

I think the best option would be to find a friendly neighborhood geek to assist you with your first build. That will cost you a few beers and a pizza.

[The Mad Monk]

What do Russians typically put on their pizzas?

[dannubis]

Wodka.

[The Mad Monk]

Vodka sauce? That's a cream sauce, not a big fan of those on pizza.

[Al B. Sure!]

I'd like to have something 4K capable and be relevant for the next 5 years. I'm also looking at sub-28" 4K monitors.

This is what I'm looking at based on the site I linked to earlier:

Six-core i7-5820K
Asus X99-A/USB3.1 Motherboard
EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Hybrid 6GB
Corsair 4x4GB Vengeance LPX DDR-3000 Black
Samsung 850 Evo 1TB SSD (or the 950 Pro 512GB, which is faster but has less space for the same price)
Toshiba 3TB HD


One recommendation I've received was to go with a cheaper GPU now to wait out for AMD's Arctic Islands and Nvidia's Pascal GPUs.

[The Mad Monk]

ASUS Motherboards are great; I haven't looked at that one yet, but given the SSD and Toshiba I take it you're going to use the SSD to cache the HD?

[Dinner]

That looks like it would be a kick ass gaming rig. WRT waiting for a new video card, I wouldn't bother as it would mean buying two cards (a cheaper one now and a more expensive one later) and there is always a "better" one just around the corner. Usually they are only marginally better.

What is the build price on that? Take each part and type it into Google shopping and you will quickly find the lowest price on each component.