quote:

Originally posted by Tavman:
Just want to clarify.. My I'll do it was intended as I'll do it for free.

lets talk about this - I appreciate the offer - I really do. Email inbound.

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:

quote:

Originally posted by Tavman:
Just want to clarify.. My I'll do it was intended as I'll do it for free.

lets talk about this - I appreciate the offer - I really do. Email inbound.

Life is short...you guys go for it!

I've been working in IT for the past 20 years.

I assembled my first PC from parts maybe 25 years ago.

In the interim, I've assembled several dozen for myself, friends, & family.

I stopped doing it about 10 years ago. It's quite simply not worth the headache. Parts sometimes don't fit together properly (I once had a home theater PC that I couldn't put the lid on because the video card was 1/4" too tall), there are unexpected heat issues that are a nightmare to track down, driver incompatibilities make life miserable, hardware warranty is through the individual component manufacturers, etc etc.

Buying something off the shelf that meets your needs is what I'd recommend. You don't save any money these days building your own (you used to, which is why I started doing it), and the convenience of "one throat to choke" when something doesn't work is, IMO, priceless.

Not to mention that as I age, I find myself wanting every more powerful AND portable machines, and those are simply too difficult or impossible to build.

I'm currently typing this on a Microsoft Surface Pro 4. Ridiculously fast and portable. Using it right now with a Microsoft dock, driving 2 24" monitors and a pair of Klipsch speakers.


I'd just find something you want, and buy it. Much easier. For all but the most specialized applications (where pre-built would be far too costly - think workstation-class machines), it's the way to go these days.

quote:

It's quite simply not worth the headache.

This.

The OEMs do a shitty enough job of system integration, and they ship millions of units. Trying to choose the pieces and hope the BIOS (ACPI) and support chips properly support what you want is just asking for annoyance.

It's not like it was 20 years ago: It's harder to choose a good main board, have that mainbard properly support your processor choice, and on and on.

Grab any system on Amazon that's got good ratings and you'll be faaaar ahead of rolling your own.