Do You Build Your Own Desktop Computer?

I like to buld my computers. My frist computer was an Apple Mac back in the late 80s. But after a while the screen image started shrinking and eventually disappeared. So I bought an Intel 386 [don't remember the brand anymore] with Windows 3.0. My next computer was a Intel 486 that I had built by a computer shop here on the northside of town. By that time I was selling computers for CC and so I was around retail built computers all the time [IBM, Compaq, HP, Digital Equipment, Parckard Bell, etc]. Nevertheless, I mail ordered a Micron with a Pentium 200Mhz processor.

I didn't think much about building my own computers until Intel started its retail employee program, which was a special deal on their latest mainboards and processor combos for those retail salespeople selling Intel based PCs. Their first launch was a PII running at 350 or 400 Mhz. I ordered the PII 350, and I have been building my own computers ever since.

 

I've never built one, to be honest I think I'd probably epic fail attempting it. I've always been more interested in playing around with software.

 

I build them with a little help from some IT buddies. I just received the parts for Teen Snook's new machine and will be building it next weekend.

 

I always build my own PCs. The ones that you can buy as a system invariably do not meet my demands and are often rather unbalanced. Like a pre-built game PC that has a top of the line and very expensive CPU but then has a small HDD and completely mediocre graphics card in it.

I wouldn't trust any computer shop with my PC either. The BBC once did a test of the trustworthiness of PC repairshops with a hidden camera in a laptop they gave them for service. Multiple instances of people in the repairshops going through the user's private files were uncovered and in one case they even went so far as to go look for internet banking logins and such on the laptop.

That is not to say of course that all repairshops are untrustworthy, but I'm not too trusting of people in general and certainly won't trust someone I don't know to not go looking through my private files.

And anyway, I can do it cheaper and faster myself, so why even bother?

As an aside, assembling a computer won't take long, it's usually looking for the best components (not necessarily highest performing components, but best value components within my set of parameters) that takes the longest. But that's ok, I like doing that.

 

My current pc is self-built. I, errr, put it together before Oblivion came out

 

I do build all my computers myself, as a matter of principle. I like to know what stuff is in my system, be it only for the drivers. I have built all my computers myself, the first few with the help of friends (the first one I built was an iirc 90 MHz Cyrix, leftovers when another buddy upgraded to a a 486), the rest on my own (first solo build was a 650 MHz AMD K6, followed by an AMD Athlon 3000+ (i.e 2600 MHz) and after that one my current Intel 9450 quad-core (4x2600 MHz)).

I find computer building almost meditative, intensely relaxing. With my current one I started building it at 18:30 and ended AT 0:30 with my first successful boot. Heaven. I ordered the components from three different vendors, and they all arrived the same day. It was like Christmas.

Apologies in advance for any inaccuracies since I am currently drunk.

 

Good point on the encryption. Unfortunately most people don't use it for their own PCs.

As for letting the shop assemble my own chosen set up, I figure why pay for something I can do myself? At least most shops here charge extra for that.

Another point is that the components I ordered for my computer came from 6 different stores. Some components I just couldn't get elsewhere (keyboard, RAID card, monitors, and the HD5850 was pretty hard to get then too), for the other components I basically looked at two local computer stores for who had the cheapest ones.

 

Do I need to comment?

 

I enjoy building computers, Ive been doing it since I was 17

 

I used to build my own PCs, not to mention many of my friends' PCs. As I've gotten older, and after many years working in IT related fields, I greatly prefer to have someone else build and warranty my PC. If something breaks... all I have to do is pick up the phone to get it fixed. These days, it seems like a much better use of my limited time than to mess with it myself.

I will make an exception to this rule for my eldest son. Once he's ready for his "own" PC, my plan is that we'll go pick out the parts together and build it together. At 8 years old, he's keenly interested in computers, and I think this will be a fun (and educational) project to work on with him.

 

I build them on my own on principle. I may one day capitulate and ask my more knowledgeable sorta-cousin (don't ask) which guts to buy, but I'm still going to put everything together.

In fact, I find few things as relaxing as putting computers together. I sometimes think what if I threw all of this away and opened a PC hardware shop along with my buddy from childhood. Which is pure fantasy because PC shop owners have plenty of trouble with things. I still love to sit on the floor with a screw driver installing new stuff or playing around with aftermarket coolers (like I know anything about physics and airflows ).

 

I select the parts by hand, and I also do all the software - but I actually prefer someone else do the actual process of building, because let's be fair - I'm clumsy and it's a bunch of stress I can do without.