Opinions on custom computer builders

Sirus7264 · May 5, 2020

LoicFarris said:
Yeah you're right you can do a solid machine for less than $1600.00. If I'm doing a brand new build, including case and power supply, I spend a little extra dough on the case. The one I have is around 350 - 400, but it's really solid and will last multiple builds for decades until the form factor changes. Now if I took case and power out of a new build and was just replacing the guts of my box including storage, I could easily do it for 1-1200 bucks.

That 5 digit build that was posted earlier is for rich kids or people with more credit than sense, their warranty isn't worth it either. I've RMAed maybe 2 parts in over 20 years of building PCs. 2I mean I'm glad there are people who pay premium for parts, they drive the cost down for me, but don't fool your self into thinking that fancy build is a smart buy. As mentioned earlier, give it a few years and it'll be worth 1/10 the price. I made the mistake of buying parts on the higher end of the price curve once, way back when and to this day I won't make that mistake again. :)

If you're new to building a PC, I would say this, set a budget, if you already have a monitor, keyboard and mouse, then $1500.00 bucks is a reasonable start for a system that will easily last you 4 years before you NEED to upgrade. If the person helping you can't do it for that price then ask somebody else for help. If you need the extra stuff, then budget $2000.00 minimum.

To add onto this PCparkpicker has alot of builds created by other people on there that are current, work extremely well for low mid and high range PCs pretty much just print the list and order the parts they recommended you might need 1 or 2 more small things but usually its pretty cut and dry for a working good PC.(the essentials) for periferals i prefer to use Amazon Warehouse and look for "Used Like New" you can usually get a fancy discount on things like Keyboards etc for like 50% because someone just didnt like them god bless the amazon gods.

@LoicFarris I got a case from my coworker for my next build from the trash lol so my case for my next build is going to be free(maybe i'll customize it to make it look cool couple cans of spray paint some LEDS and possibly tempered glass hints of wood? Aliexpress has some pretty silly childish looking cases to haha but aliexpress is hit or miss but sometimes that 30 usd is worth every penny.

Sirus7264 · May 6, 2020

Aramsolari · May 6, 2020

Sirus7264 said:
View attachment 15767

Brilliant. Liquid Nitrogen cooled rigs eat your heart out!

Sirus7264 · May 6, 2020

Phantomoftruth said:
Thank you all. Build commencing in approximately 195 days.

AMD Threadripper 3960X 3.8 GHz 24-Core Processor
Deepcool CASTLE 360EX WHITE 64.4 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
MSI Creator TRX40 EATX sTRX4 Motherboard
G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory
Kingston A2000 250 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive
Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB NITRO+ SE Video Card
be quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 Rev. 2 ATX Full Tower Case
SeaSonic PRIME Ultra Titanium 850 W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit
3689.75

what time of the year is 195 days? btw if its that far out might want to wait to see whats out by that time unless the 195 days is the day of the completed build and you are going to be buying components up to that time. btw why do you want so many cores are you planning on doing video editing or streaming of some type?

Thalstan · May 6, 2020

My wife and I build all our own desktops, but our current laptop is from origin (2-3 years old). We are both happy with it and will probably use them again when the time comes to upgrade the laptop.
falcon NW is overpriced imo, but they will build you a dang good machine with pretty much exactly what you want If it is at all possible. If I wanted the very best and price was no object, I would look at them. If I wanted good machine for a reasonable (but not rock bottom) price, I would go with Origin.

I would not go with any of the budget builders as you usually get what you pay for.

Since I enjoy building computers, I plan on building my family‘s future desktops. But if I could not do so anymore for some reason, I would probably go with Origin based on my experience with their laptop. That said, my buying experience is 2-3 years old, so take that into account. They could have changed.

For example, we used to get Alienware computers pre-dell, but now we won’t consider them. It is our one Post Dell Alienware computer that soured us there

KRDucky · May 6, 2020

DontTouchMyHoHos said:
If you are talking about the configure option that isnt the price of the GTX that is the price increase over using the gtx 2060. Which will roughly come out to 1.2k. Also the price of those desktops is absurd. Just increase to a gtx 2080ti puts the computer for their mid tower with the cheapest option its 3.6k. 1000% can build something better and cheaper. 1.2k for a gtx 2080ti leaves me with 2.4k to build the rest of the computer.

can you build that with a threadripper for that price? Keep in mind, I am not seriously saying it is worth spending that kind of coin on your PC but if you have to choose a PC Building company and have the money to throw around, Falcon-NW is my go to. If you want a Linux based build with good quality, System76 is my recommendation.

KRDucky · May 6, 2020

Thalstan said:
My wife and I build all our own desktops, but our current laptop is from origin (2-3 years old). We are both happy with it and will probably use them again when the time comes to upgrade the laptop.
falcon NW is overpriced imo, but they will build you a dang good machine with pretty much exactly what you want If it is at all possible. If I wanted the very best and price was no object, I would look at them. If I wanted good machine for a reasonable (but not rock bottom) price, I would go with Origin.

I would not go with any of the budget builders as you usually get what you pay for.

Since I enjoy building computers, I plan on building my family‘s future desktops. But if I could not do so anymore for some reason, I would probably go with Origin based on my experience with their laptop. That said, my buying experience is 2-3 years old, so take that into account. They could have changed.

For example, we used to get Alienware computers pre-dell, but now we won’t consider them. It is our one Post Dell Alienware computer that soured us there

I second your decision about Alienware. I used to work for Dell as a phone support technician. I was the level 2 tech and part of Dell's YTT (Your Tech Team) program that people were suckered into paying $249/year for where they got 4 software issues and unlimited hardware issues. Alienware machines were horrible. Bad build quality, overpriced, Dell focused more on aesthetics than quality.

Richard Bong · May 6, 2020

Phantomoftruth said:
i've not built a machine in over 10 years and i've been exclusive to laptops for about that long too.
I'm looking at a few builders and seeing upwards of $1000USD difference in price

I'm looking for a machine built around a Threadripper.

anyone use Xidax, ibuypower, origin, cyberpowerpc, Digital Storm?

Some of these are crazy level premium and i'm not sure reliability of ibuypower.

For a laptop, go to the source for most of the "custom laptops" get a Sager.

A Trusted Brand for Gaming Laptops | Sager Notebooks

DarthMunkee · May 6, 2020

Building your own system is fine. Buying a prebuilt from a builder is fine. They both have their pros and cons. If you build your own, you are going to save money but you aren't' going to get an overall warranty on parts and labor, just whatever warranty you get on the parts themselves. If you go with a builder you are going to be covered if something is messed up and they might even have some people on staff to help you troubleshoot. Go with whichever option works for you.

All of that being said, DO NOT buy one of those Wal-Mart PCs, they are total garbage.

DontTouchMyHoHos · May 6, 2020

KRDucky said:
can you build that with a threadripper for that price? Keep in mind, I am not seriously saying it is worth spending that kind of coin on your PC but if you have to choose a PC Building company and have the money to throw around, Falcon-NW is my go to. If you want a Linux based build with good quality, System76 is my recommendation.

Building a computer yourself is always a better and cheaper option in every regards. The only reason you dont make your own computer is because you are afraid to do it yourself. There is nothing more beneficial in any regards outside of not being able to build it yourself to buy a prebuilt computer. Can I build a computer with a threadripper, sure. Newegg has one for 500$.

DontTouchMyHoHos · May 6, 2020

DarthMunkee said:
Building your own system is fine. Buying a prebuilt from a builder is fine. They both have their pros and cons. If you build your own, you are going to save money but you aren't' going to get an overall warranty on parts and labor, just whatever warranty you get on the parts themselves. If you go with a builder you are going to be covered if something is messed up and they might even have some people on staff to help you troubleshoot. Go with whichever option works for you.

All of that being said, DO NOT buy one of those Wal-Mart PCs, they are total garbage.

If you buy good parts they all have great warranties. EVGA parts come with a 3 year warranty. Hardware parts dont come with shitty warranties.

Sirus7264 · May 7, 2020

Phantomoftruth said:
roughly October 20. i'm keeping my eye on components. as to the cores, Single machine Play/Stream. means I should also think about more RAM.. yes I tend toward overkill.

if you plan to use a single machine then i think you are in the right direction 24 cores though may still be to many for what you are doing. let me do a bit of research for you when i have spare time to see whats out there for AMD and what other streamers are using in single system setups. as for video card are you dead set on amd for that as well?(Nvidea really does have the market there and for good reason)

ColdDog · May 7, 2020

Do not buy Alienware, my son got a Alienware for Christmas and it leaked corrosive lubricant from the cooler all over. Alienware (Dell) would not replace the motherboard even though the lubricant already started eating it away. My advice, build your own.

Sirus7264 · May 7, 2020

Thalstan said:
My wife and I build all our own desktops, but our current laptop is from origin (2-3 years old). We are both happy with it and will probably use them again when the time comes to upgrade the laptop.
falcon NW is overpriced imo, but they will build you a dang good machine with pretty much exactly what you want If it is at all possible. If I wanted the very best and price was no object, I would look at them. If I wanted good machine for a reasonable (but not rock bottom) price, I would go with Origin.

I would not go with any of the budget builders as you usually get what you pay for.

Since I enjoy building computers, I plan on building my family‘s future desktops. But if I could not do so anymore for some reason, I would probably go with Origin based on my experience with their laptop. That said, my buying experience is 2-3 years old, so take that into account. They could have changed.

For example, we used to get Alienware computers pre-dell, but now we won’t consider them. It is our one Post Dell Alienware computer that soured us there

Isn't Origin pretty much old Alienware? i forget who i heard that from years ago when dell bought the brand name. I was on the fence with Dell's alienware at first to then i decided ok i'll give them a shot and see how well they work. To this date 6 years later my alienware still holds strong. It's been dropped at least 100 times from 3-4 feet high by my son and myself busted the power port still worked. then it came time to either replace or fix it i elected to fix it and it only cost me 50 usd to do it myself.(lots of dissasembly guides and part numbers out there) Now its just like new again and it's still holding strong. To date its the best laptop ive owned.

As for desktops on the other hand i never see a reason for a prebuild unless i want to just gut it for the parts(case, pw supply etc). because the components from system to system are going to be the same thing you can buy yourself and assemble in like 30 minutes.. the only thing you really get from them is their prebuilt windows and backup drive which if you google you can make that yourself also after your install is complete(i highly recommend you do this i can't tell you how many times i have used my USB rebuild drive to reset my entire system fresh). just do research see whats actually good why each brand is good and what are you truely aiming for. Not to mention there are nerds all over the internet who are more than willing to part their expertise to you because its fun for them to see you grow and learn how to do their favorite hobby.(Reddit)

Sirus7264 · May 7, 2020

KRDucky said:
I second your decision about Alienware. I used to work for Dell as a phone support technician. I was the level 2 tech and part of Dell's YTT (Your Tech Team) program that people were suckered into paying $249/year for where they got 4 software issues and unlimited hardware issues. Alienware machines were horrible. Bad build quality, overpriced, Dell focused more on aesthetics than quality.

I never used support techs and i do admit the prebuild of windows was bad. The system quality for me though was good and solid but thats because i know what im doing with a computer and i fixed all the stupid things the original system had.(Bloatware)

Sirus7264 · May 7, 2020

DarthMunkee said:
Building your own system is fine. Buying a prebuilt from a builder is fine. They both have their pros and cons. If you build your own, you are going to save money but you aren't' going to get an overall warranty on parts and labor, just whatever warranty you get on the parts themselves. If you go with a builder you are going to be covered if something is messed up and they might even have some people on staff to help you troubleshoot. Go with whichever option works for you.

All of that being said, DO NOT buy one of those Wal-Mart PCs, they are total garbage.

The parts warranty is usually longer than the builder warranty anyhow in most cases. The RTX 2080TI, Ryzen 3690x, and a Gigabye motherboard all have a 3 year warranty from These companies are also going to know alot more about their products than some builder who slapped the machine together. Then if you look at digital storm's warranty its also 3 years so you are not really getting a longer warranty just another middle man. As for the other items they will have different warranties depending what they are but those are the big 3 that actually matter.

Sirus7264 · May 7, 2020

Phantomoftruth said:
roughly October 20. i'm keeping my eye on components. as to the cores, Single machine Play/Stream. means I should also think about more RAM.. yes I tend toward overkill.

sorry for 4th post everyone in a row i suck at reading everything first before i make a huge post........

ANYHOW i forgot to mention something super important. with more cores you do not get more speed overall the more cores you get the slower the base clock and turbo boost are going to be. most games do not utilize all of the cores of the system to perform differnt operations of the game so it does not benefit your gaming at all it hurts it sadly. This is why many streamers go with a 2 computer setup. Not only is it overall an overall faster machine but its cheaper. The downside is now you have double the power usage and it requires more space overall the benefits outweigh the negatives.

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