Computer Builds Thread...please provide feedback!!

[totalPCTechs]

Original Post...

I think we should have a computer builds section since after all most of us have computer stores and do sell computers. It can used to be to help others with configurations, overclocks, or budgets. For instance if i have a customer that wants to spend $500 and wants a somewhat decent gaming computer i can post my build and others my notice a way to save money with a video card that might benchmark higher than the one i listed and for a cheaper price. We are humans and do overlook things at times and getting help from others will help. This forums already covers many aspects of running a store from legal advice, marketing and repairs, but why not go one step further. There is many things that others may not know that will help out with builds like for instance anything over 1333 ram on a AMD platform is overclock.

I hope technibble takes this into consideration as it will help out our fellow members. They can also use it for reference when they just want a quick build that's been verified by a member instead of searching for a build configuration online.

This is bryces reply....

I generally create new forums based on necessity. If lots of threads are being created on a certain topic, then it needs its own forum. I havent really seen any builds threads.

Ill make you a deal, start a thread for custom PC builds, if it picks up and maintains good momentum, I will create a forum for it, move the one big thread to the new forum and split the posts as if they were originally posted in separate threads.

So to make this happen in the next day i will be posting a computer build on here and i want as much feedback as i can get lol. I will be doing a budget gaming build...which helps out the enthusiasts that want a gaming rig but dont want to spend $1200+ on a quality performance gaming rig

 

[totalPCTechs]

Case – elite 430 – reason for using it is because it’s a pretty budget case but still maintains the nice balck finish inside - $49.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119227&Tpk=elite 430

Motherboard - ASRock 880GM-LE – supports ddr3 and am3 socket for $59.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157199

Processor – I went with the AMD Phenom II X4 955 since its overclockable so the end user has the ability to make this system even more powerful $144
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103808

Power Supply – 600w $49.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817339025

Hard Drive – Sata 500g WD – Good and Reliable $49
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073

Video card - GIGABYTE GV-N460OC-768I GeForce GTX 460 $164.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125334

Ram – 4gb ddr3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231190

So far this build costs $567.93…I left some room for improvement but lets say this customer doesn’t want to spend more than about $700 and wants to be able to play CoD4 and WoW and some other mid performance games. Remember We still need windows 7 and a cd drive which is about $14. What would you do to improve it so I makes it out the door and still brings in profit??

Through the build i have kept the consistent black look to be more visually pleasing aswell!

 

[muncherw]

What about the monitor? Most non-technical people I know expect a monitor as part of a new computer. So even if you don't use a particular model it might be nice to just tack on some amount to show what the total amount is. While it's not important to the build it does seem important to the bottom line so I'm not sure if it's really on or off topic.

 

[Kitten Kong]

If your client doesnt want to spend any more than $700 on it, and you still need win 7, which looks like its $99.99, less the $14 for the dvdrw, so your telling me, your going to put all this together, and install windows, for less than $20??

I realise this is a make believe quote for a pc, but, I for sure wouldnt be charging my client anywhere near the $700 for this machine.

If they only had the 700 to play with, I would seriously scale down my costings..

 

[totalPCTechs]

What about the monitor? Most non-technical people I know expect a monitor as part of a new computer. So even if you don't use a particular model it might be nice to just tack on some amount to show what the total amount is. While it's not important to the build it does seem important to the bottom line so I'm not sure if it's really on or off topic.

True especially with LED coming down in price to about $120 a screen plus keyboard/mouse would be a nice option for the custom and to make some extra money in the process.

 

[totalPCTechs]

If your client doesnt want to spend any more than $700 on it, and you still need win 7, which looks like its $99.99, less the $14 for the dvdrw, so your telling me, your going to put all this together, and install windows, for less than $20??

I realise this is a make believe quote for a pc, but, I for sure wouldnt be charging my client anywhere near the $700 for this machine.

If they only had the 700 to play with, I would seriously scale down my costings..

Well thats the reason i want to start this thread i want people to be involved so bryce would open up a computer builds section...what would you do to cut costs and still be able to provide a good build

 

[silvano]

Also, for a midrange gaming pc, you can get away with a much nicer dual core AMD processor, for about half of that price. Also, while I like the price on that PSU, I'm not sure I trust the brand, as I've never heard of it. For the $100 or so bucks your spending on that case and powersupply, I'm willing to bet you could get a more reliable and trusted combo from the likes of Antec.

 

[cyain]

Take a look at this case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133094

Its has free shipping, is 5 bucks cheaper, and imo has better airflow.

Edit: I've used HEC cases and PSU's in my builds and they seem reliable....

 

[totalPCTechs]

Also, for a midrange gaming pc, you can get away with a much nicer dual core AMD processor, for about half of that price. Also, while I like the price on that PSU, I'm not sure I trust the brand, as I've never heard of it. For the $100 or so bucks your spending on that case and powersupply, I'm willing to bet you could get a more reliable and trusted combo from the likes of Antec.

A dual core would still be suited for gaming, especially if you get one similar to the one below for $89. Its a dual core 3.2ghz black edition and has the ability to be unlocked to 4 cores although i would run stress tests to make sure they are stable

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...846&cm_re=phenom_II_x2-_-19-103-846-_-Product

This brings our build down to $512 at newegg.

 

[totalPCTechs]

Take a look at this case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133094

Its has free shipping, is 5 bucks cheaper, and imo has better airflow.

Edit: I've used HEC cases and PSU's in my builds and they seem reliable....

Nice i didnt even notice it when i was searching...i do like the case and it is alot more gamer oriented.

That brings the build price down to $507.93

 

[Kitten Kong]

Well thats the reason i want to start this thread i want people to be involved so bryce would open up a computer builds section...what would you do to cuz costs and still be able to provide a good build

In a case like this, I wouldn't even dream of building a gaming rig for $700 (£450). The costing you have in this, I would put at a med range home use pc, not a gaming rig.

Therefore, my gaming rings start at £700+ ($1000).

Gaming rings imo are supposed to be top notch. When I build pc's no matter who or what the use is, I have a spreadsheet, which I enter the total costs, add on my gross profit; then add an extra £80 to build the machine.

So in this case, I would seriously higher the selling price of the machine.

 

[Kitten Kong]

Have you even factored in your labour in this build?, also the cost of 7?, as that will add another $100 to the cost.

 

[totalPCTechs]

Have you even factored in your labour in this build?, also the cost of 7?, as that will add another $100 to the cost.

As off right now the build is costing $607.92 with windows 7 home premium if u decide to charge $120 for labor it comes out to $727.92, which the customer wanted to spend about $700 so its profitable at the moment.

Cuts can still be made for additional profit. I know the starting point of an ideal gaming PC is much higher than i posted but not every customer is going to be able to spend $1000 on a gaming rig for their kid. I would post something similar to this build on my website just to get customers in and maybe someone will even purchase one.

 

[ATTech]

In a case like this, I wouldn't even dream of building a gaming rig for $700 (£450). The costing you have in this, I would put at a med range home use pc, not a gaming rig.

Therefore, my gaming rings start at £700+ ($1000).

Gaming rings imo are supposed to be top notch. When I build pc's no matter who or what the use is, I have a spreadsheet, which I enter the total costs, add on my gross profit; then add an extra £80 to build the machine.

So in this case, I would seriously higher the selling price of the machine.

There is a common misconception for gaming machines that EVERYTHING needs to be top of the line. That's simply not true. The important part is to plug up the most common bottlenecks, which are the GPU, and Storage Drive. Most middle-of-the-road CPUs can easily handle gaming, and any modest amount of RAM can handle it too. My 4ish year old Quad-Core, 2GB, 7800GS handles Cataclysm without issue. When I built it, it was easily less than $500.

 

[muncherw]

There is a common misconception for gaming machines that EVERYTHING needs to be top of the line. That's simply not true. The important part is to plug up the most common bottlenecks, which are the GPU, and Storage Drive. Most middle-of-the-road CPUs can easily handle gaming, and any modest amount of RAM can handle it too. My 4ish year old Quad-Core, 2GB, 7800GS handles Cataclysm without issue. When I built it, it was easily less than $500.

That's interesting that you say that as I have a machine that is easily 4 years old but has a nice graphics card and does quite well with Guild Wars and StarCraft 2.

That is what's good about this thread; that it might help make builds that go against conventional wisdom but instead use proven technical experience to make machines that really maximize what bang for buck.

I'm curious to see if others agree with your assessment, ATTech.

 

[ATTech]

That's interesting that you say that as I have a machine that is easily 4 years old but has a nice graphics card and does quite well with Guild Wars and StarCraft 2.

That is whats good about this thread ; that it might help make builds that go against conventional wisdom but instead use proven technical experience to make machines that really maximize what bang for buck.

I'm curious to see if others agree with your assessment, ATTech.

I'm in the process of building an extremely low profile (Atom based) HTPC. I plan on trying to play games on it to see if it can handle it. I'll be posting my findings.

 

[KompuKare]

First these are all US price which makes it hard to get a handle, but anyway.

Motherboard - ASRock 880GM-LE – supports ddr3 and am3 socket for $59.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157199

Power Supply – 600w $49.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817339025

Hard Drive – Sata 500g WD – Good and Reliable $49
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073

Not the biggest fan of ASRock, I'd rather spend more on Gigabyte or Asus or go a lower end board.

As others have said, the PSU looks a bit poor. Just ran your spec through the Antec Power Calculator (http://www.antec.outervision.com/PSUEngine) which only came back with 384W. Now that may be a bit low, but I'd rather spec a good quality 450W than an unknown 600W+. If savings have to be made I'd rather use a cheap case than a cheap PSU: a cheap case mat rattle and cut the assembler but it should not be able to damage any other components by blowing up.

And, for another $20 I'd get a 1TB drive.

 

[jwarren]

Well having built about a bazillion gaming pc's (not really just being funny), I can build a nice little screamer for around $500, which I have done many times, even when prices were higher, although the same money buys alot more power now of course.

A good dual-core cpu, decent GPU (which can be had for around $100) and the 4gb ram are my main points, I would not be as concerned about hdd size as I would be about its performance, I would rather have a small drive if its specs out higher on performance.

Sure you can go hog wild and spend alot of money, and alot of people do, or want to, but I always look at the cost of each item and what is really needed to make the machine perform well for the money being spent.

That being said game machines are something I would price carefully depending on the customer and the money they want to spend. The problem mainly being that you should really research each major component if you want to extract the most performance for the lowest price, and yes I am aware that takes some time.

I could write a quote right now but as we all know some of the prices change on a weekly (sometimes daily) basis.

 

[ATTech]

And, for another $20 I'd get a 1TB drive.

Better yet, a SSD. Gaming PCs don't inherently need a lot of room; enough for the Operating system, and any games needed. External or network storage can be used for documents, music, etc.

 

[jwarren]

Better yet, a SSD. Gaming PCs don't inherently need a lot of room; enough for the Operating system, and any games needed. External or network storage can be used for documents, music, etc.

Now thats the thinking I use