Features - QOTW: Do you self-build or buy built?

[guru]

Self build for me. For some strange perverse reason I enjoy losing a weekend every 18 months or so swearing, trapping fingers, pulling hair, loosing screws, screw drivers etc as I build my own spec machine. I think half the fun is researching the best bits, i.e. Noiseblocker PL2 fans are amazing and the other half is the satisfaction you get from going all bespoke. For sure the reason is not saving money.

Ha, so true!

Self built for me too, in fact I rebuilt my rig last night.

[wasabi]

Selfbuilt. Piece of cake nowadays when NIC / sound is onboard, nasty ATA master/slave cables replaced by SATA, no DIP swithes on most systems etc etc. Saves a lot of money if you're prepared to recycle a bit and add midrange/2nd-hand parts, or you can send more and tailor the rig to your very specific requirements. In my case extreme noise obsessiveness simply isn't available as a prebuilt fanless decent-PC.

[MilesPebody]

I've not read all the posts - has any one not self built? I bought a prebuilt PC once - a 486 machine, I forget the speed - 60 MHz I think. Beofre that I had built my 8MHz 9-286 AT with 1MB RAM and a Hercules graphics card. Since then I've always built AMD based machines stating with a 200 MHz K6-2. My last PC was Intel though - AMD dont seem to offer the value/performance/efficnecy that they have for the last 20 years or so.

But I do it becuase its fun to choose the bits and put it all together and know that you have a more effective system than anything off the shelf for the same money.

[Shavaunt]

I like to self build, I enjoy the actual building process itself. And I like to choose what I have so i have fine tune to my needs... all I need is a couple of GTX 690s I think....

[KBEscalona]

Self Build is the way too go! Especially with Money is tight.
Also, Its Fun!

[sez]

Always self build. I've built so many rigs for myself, families, friends, I can't even remember.
I can choose every parts which can suit the needs, budget, etc.
And I enjoy building, it's fun.

[EasterEEL]

Self builder since 1998, many of my family and friends still have systems built by me the oldest being circa 1990 now running XP. My current water cooled CPU & GPU Windows 7 Pro 64-bit system is:

Intel i7 930 @ 3.85GHz
Asus P6X58D-E Bios0701 CPUv1.2000 QPI/DRAMv1.2250
PNY GTX580 C900MHz/M4220MHz/S1800MHz
Corsair 3x2GB XMS3 12800 @ CAS8 (TR3X6G1600C9)
Intel 160GB SSD X25-M Gen2 Samsung 1TB F3 LG Blu-ray RW BH10LS30
Hazro HZ27WA LED S-IPS TFT 2560x1440
Seasonic X-Series 760W 80+ Gold
Cooler Master 690 II Advanced

[Agrippa]

Self builder since 1992, if the upgrade kits for the Commodore Amiga which required soldering and case modification counts. The only pre-assembled computers I've bought have been laptops.

[Sacred]

Always done pre-builds but with companies that allowed me to choose all of the components. Kinda get the best of both as you get exactly what you want and someone else has done the hassle of getting it all working.

That said going to have a try and building my own with my next upgrade later this year.

[Dareos]

I self build myself, have done for past few computers and will continue to do so for the forseeable future. The only thing that makes me consider prebuilt would be overclocking as I dont have a clue about this, will need to research it soon.

[Jonj1611]

Self building since the 386 days, ah the days of dip switches, what a pleasure they were lol

[shayr1992]

I go self build nowadays as it's way cheaper and far more reliable. Prebuilt manufacturers tend to have the worst PSUs and motherboards that always seem to fail in the first year.

[dokdek]

I just recently built a system for my friend as my first self built system, and it was so good, I'd never expect that much performance from a system so cheap. I'm definately an advocate for self build now, it didnt take much time to learn also.

[Jedibeeftrix]

always build.

[OilSheikh]

Nice to see no one has beat my 30 mins. assembling time.

[bing_raga]

I always build my own systems, and I also build for my friends. I always love the fun part - watching every component put together, cable management, overclocking, and I mod my chassis sometimes. I also tend to be brand-conscious, that I always wanted my components to be of the same brands, have the same color, etc. Though I wanted to have one of those awesome pre-built gaming systems, their price range doesn't fall somewhere within my budget. Maybe I would rather get my self a console. But, WTH, I'm not a console junkie.