Building your own computer : a thing of the past ?

[Dominique_K 10,156]

For the last 25-odd years, I have built my computers and my wife’s.

The enduring penury of components makes me wonder whether this will be possible in the two or three years to come. 

Today, I caught myself red handed browsing the Dell site 😁 !

Edited June 26, 2021 by Dominique_K

[bic 44]

Those are good if you don't have the time.

I care for environment and wanted to "save money".  I upgraded 4790k to 10700k.  I was able to keep Noctua cpu fan, case, drives, power supply, and video card besides peripherals.  I just got new cpu, motherboard and memory.  I used pc part picker.  Reviewed https://www.build-gaming-computers.com/how-accurate-is-pcpartpicker.html

 

[martin-w 3,289]

57 minutes ago, Dominique_K said:

Today, I caught myself red handed browsing the Dell site 😁 !

 

Sacrilege!!!!!!! 😡😡😡

You are no longer a member of the PC Master Race!  

😁

Don't worry, building your own PC will be a thing for  a long time yet. The demise of the pastime has been pondered many times before. 

Edited June 26, 2021 by martin-w

[Dominique_K 10,156]

24 minutes ago, bic said:

Those are good if you don't have the time.

 

 

Not a question of time, there is hardly no CPU or GPU on the market except from scalpers. And the predictions are not encouraging, the market shouldn’t get back to normal before 2023.

[SlowFlyer 78]

Just my take. I hope PC building doesn't go the way of the dodo bird. I built my recent PC about 6 months ago. I was thinking about what parts to get a year ago (June 2020). 

I have tried for over 10 months (?) or so to get either an AMD 6800 or NV 3080 at a price that's not 3 times over MSRP, no luck. I am even on EVGA's waiting list since Nov 2020 for any 3080 or 3090 that comes available...no luck yet.

Luckily, I was able to snag a 5700 XT for $450 at BestBuy in early January after repeatedly searching all day long for any video card that I could find at a decent price. This allowed me to finish this new PC build by late January 2021. I am very glad I was able to get the 5700 XT. Today, the price of the 5700 XT goes for 2 - 2.5 times what I paid for it.

I have to say it was a breeze to put this PC together. The last one I built was over 10 years ago. The only thing I re-used was the case.

Everything plugged in easily; windows 10 installed like a well fitted glove. No issues whatsoever. And with fast internet speed, and an SSD for windows, installing Windows 10 took like minutes! I had everything ready to go with in 2 hours or so. And that's with taking my sweet time, watching tv, double checking everything.

I would recommend that people build if they have the urge: it's satisfying, not very hard, and you get (well, not totally, i.e. video card, CPU at times) the exact parts you want and you know exactly what parts are in your PC. I am sure some OEMs use very good parts, but they might skim on some parts to increase their profit margin. 

I am very pleased with how MSFS runs. I am happy at 1080 which is what my old 37" Westinghouse monitor resolution is at. All settings at high, only a few at ultra, no need to push MSFS at this point; every thing looks great. No real stuttering or CTD.

I will skip getting a better video card until the next gen when - hopefully parts are more readily available at a decent price, and will be faster and more capable. Then I might go 4K or even VR.

[Christopher Low 5,438]

I built my current PC in December 2019, so I am not likely to be looking at building another one until at least 2023. Until then, Windows 11 and that TPM rubbish can "do one"

Edited June 26, 2021 by Christopher Low

[overspeed3 410]

I bet a lot of people out there might be surprised  to know that Dell bought the Alienware company few years ago🙄

Edited June 26, 2021 by overspeed3

[Reader 2,038]

1 hour ago, Christopher Low said:

I built my current PC in December 2019, so I am not likely to be looking at building another one until at least 2023. Until then, Windows 11 and that TPM rubbish can "do one"

As long as you didn't use second hand parts from years before 2019 and your CPU is an Intel 8 series or higher, you could use Windows 11, especially if you have a copy of Windows 10, because it will be free.

[BobFS88 709]

3 hours ago, Dominique_K said:

Not a question of time, there is hardly no CPU or GPU on the market except from scalpers. And the predictions are not encouraging, the market shouldn’t get back to normal before 2023.

Well the shortage is certainly not due to the sign of the times. It is more over the current events as result of the pandemic. That has reduce manufacturing world wide which leads to shortage. I wouldn't assume that building your own would be a thing of the past because you can't find parts without consider what we just been through in the last year. At some point it will all pick back up once the supplies are replenished although early picking may go to  mostly corporate customers looking to refresh their systems first before we see masses amount parts available.  

[Christopher Low 5,438]

25 minutes ago, Reader said:

As long as you didn't use second hand parts from years before 2019 and your CPU is an Intel 8 series or higher, you could use Windows 11, especially if you have a copy of Windows 10, because it will be free.

My CPU is an Intel i5 7600k. Since I was on a low budget (and a new PC was only possible due to the generosity of a handful of friends), I have also used the 2x2TB Toshiba 7200rpm HDDs that I used in my previous PC from 2014. Having said that, one of the "gifts" that I received for my current PC is an Asus Maximus IX Hero motherboard, although I have no idea if that includes this magical TPM security feature that will keep us all safe and warm on those cold winter nights

[Dominique_K 10,156]

45 minutes ago, BobFS88 said:

Well the shortage is certainly not due to the sign of the times. It is more over the current events as result of the pandemic. That has reduce manufacturent world wide which leads to shortage. I wouldn't assume that building your own would be a thing of the past because you can't find parts without consider what we just been through in the last year. At some point it will all pick back up once the supplies are replenished although early picking may go to  mostly corporate customers looking to refresh their systems first before we see masses amount parts available.  

 The pandemic does not explain everything. If I am not mistaken, components (specially GPU) is the only manufacturing sector where there is such a penury and  this is not a specially labor intensive sector . 

Anyway, if the market is brought to normal at some point (and it will I agree) when is that point ? 2023 is now the horizon, counting the catchup effect and the enduring impact of professional scalpers. I observe that  if the 3080ti starts to be available it is in small quantity and still at scalper price .

At that point, if the market does not move more swiftly, Dell and similar companies could become the solution even for home builders.

[fppilot 4,459]

20 minutes ago, Dominique_K said:

 The pandemic does not explain everything. If I am not mistaken, components (specially GPU) is the only manufacturing sector where there is such a penury and  this is not a specially labor intensive sector . 

But the unprecedented sharp increase in demand came as a result of so many persons working remotely/from home as well as from all of the virtual schooling. 

[Dominique_K 10,156]

 

36 minutes ago, fppilot said:

But the unprecedented sharp increase in demand came as a result of so many persons working remotely/from home as well as from all of the virtual schooling. 

Might be the data show a surge on PC shipments in 2020 from Q2

• PC sales by vendor 2020 | Statista

but Nvidia series 3 cards are kind of an overkill for virtual schooling or remote work at home 😃

 

[BobFS88 709]

1 hour ago, Dominique_K said:

The pandemic does not explain everything. If I am not mistaken, components (specially GPU) is the only manufacturing sector where there is such a penury and  this is not a specially labor intensive sector . 

You are only taking for granted of the working condition prior to the pandemic. You don't know what the impact to those companies are afterwards.

 

1 hour ago, Dominique_K said:

At that point, if the market does not move more swiftly, Dell and similar companies could become the solution even for home builders.

I doubt seriously that things are going to remaining this way forever where home builders would have to rely on Dell or other brand names for all their computer needs and I won't bet a cheap watch on that one. Because if that were case, where will Dell get there parts from, the moon?

Edited June 26, 2021 by BobFS88

[Reader 2,038]

2 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

My CPU is an Intel i5 7600k. Since I was on a low budget (and a new PC was only possible due to the generosity of a handful of friends), I have also used the 2x2TB Toshiba 7200rpm HDDs that I used in my previous PC from 2014. Having said that, one of the "gifts" that I received for my current PC is an Asus Maximus IX Hero motherboard, although I have no idea if that includes this magical TPM security feature that will keep us all safe and warm on those cold winter nights

Of course the motherboard will have the Intel PTT, which is all that is required, but as things stand it doesn't really matter, as the Windows Health Check will declare the 7600 as not suited. This may perhaps change.

Edited June 26, 2021 by Reader