Buying PC

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Hi there

For those of you using windows, I was wondering where you buy your desktop computers capable of modern Adobe software, hobby video editing, 3d rendering etc

I’m thinking I’m probably going to end up building one, because why not, but I don’t have a ton of experience w that I’ll be basically just following instructions somewhere.

I’m running a 10 year old machine right now! It’s actually quite capable for it’s age but it’s getting near time. Video card just blew out. First part to go on it since 2008

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I don’t have a desktop, and I bought my last laptop from Microsoft. I realize this doesn’t answer your question, but I just wanted to insert myself into your day.

PS The Surface Studio looks really slick if money is no object.

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Wow those are some expensive devices. Yes, money is an object to me unfortunately, which is why I’ll probably end up piecing one together.

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I built my current windows desktop. It’s the first one I built, and I wouldn’t have done it without the help of a friend. But it turns out, it’s not hard. The hardest part is getting the initial components right (motherboard, gpu, etc.), then it’s kinda like Legos. Oh, drivers can be a pain too.

If I remember, I got everything from either Newegg or tigerdirect. I think I checked out both and determined which was cheaper. This was all years ago too, and it’s still running strong.

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A friend built my current one too, but he’s a homeless crack head now so that sucks. People seem to happily matching up compatible parts at places like https://www.reddit.com/r/buildmeapc/ I was thinking of just copying one of those builds

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You can also look at custom high-performance machines from Falcon Northwest or even Alienware.

I’ve switched over the Mac hardware almost exclusively a few years ago, and I bootcamp (run Windows on a Mac) a lot of the time for work/Windows-related activities. My current setup is a Macbook Pro with two external monitors and a separate mouse/keyboard, and it feels just like my Dell desktop!

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Traitor!

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He’s one of us! :cyborg:

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Oh no, not you too!

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Wait, u run windows on Mac, and I run Mac on windows?

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My bucket list has had building a PC on it for a very long time! One of my goals is to build the quietest PC ever (no fans, water cooling?) :stuck_out_tongue:

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Watch out putting in a new graphic card!

I burned one pc motherboard on a GeForce 210. The speed overdose must have been awesome… relatively.

Mineral-oil in aquarium?

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I ended up buying a cheap video card on amazon and it’s far better and quieter than my old one. That one was so crazy loud it’s laughable now that’s all it took. I also got some bigger ram on eBay. So no new PC for me… which is great, more delay = better machine eventually… Now if I can figure out a way to upgrade this 56k modem

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The old rams are more expensive than new ones. Not sure why? Are they made of gold? There is one processor that contains a lot of gold.

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Yeah I had to find the Largest compatible DDR2 modules, they haven’t been made for a while so they are used and expensive, relative to new ram

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Back when i started this thread i ended up swapping the ram and video card. The old pc stayed fairly capable running adobe cs6, and even functional for unity. Keep in mind this was a 2008 pc !!!

Anyway a few months ago i finally made the move. After reading up on a few different subreddit pc builds. I made this list, ordered from various vendors, all went together smoothly. Been running a few months now super fast.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/fNWVmg

Key features on this media development/gamedev/ video editor budget build for me where ($1400 usd) 12core 3900x amd CPU, 32GB ddr4 3600 ram (2x16) which keeps 2 slots open for an easy 64GB upgrade.

M.2 solid state Samsung evo drive for super fast OS and all software installs.

Mid grade video card ($400 ish) is more than capable so far.

Only mistake i suppose is the case i ordered is HUGE. I wasn’t aware it was such a big box with like 10HHD trays built in (i have no HHDs)

But that doesn’t really matter at all, and it keeps nice airflow.

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As someone who never built a pc, these were very good resources:

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildmeapc/
Although I ended up choosing my own list, there are many ready made solutions here. It was a great baseline for where to start as well as price points.

They are very gamer orientated there. I ended up veering off the general consensus there by tweaking the build a little higher in cpu core count and ram expandability, and bumping down the GPU just a tad… relative to what most people recommend there. This should speed up things like blender renders and compiling I believe, and I don’t need a massive gpu for games.

There are also multiple other subreddits with a similar name…all with great info.

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales/
This was great because once i started settling on parts. A lot of them end up posted here on sale/deal/rebate/promocode. Saved a few dollars. For example EVGA has promo codes for that subreddit specifically. I ended up buying my gpu and power supply from them direct for like 10% off. Also the cpu was posted here $50 cheaper on newegg ebay compared to anywhere else… including neweggs website for whatever reason. Still full newegg return policy.

And finally, for assembly instructions. YouTube! This made it super easy.

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