Anybody build custom computers?

[GoodSteward]

Sigh yes we are about to get a gaming computer. Probably around $1000. Plus an oculus. Anyway DH needs it for work. But he didn't need the $350 bose wireless headphones he just bought.

I preordered an Oculus, but backed out when I decided I didn't want to spend more on upgrading video cards on top of the oculus price.

Bose is more name than anything. Beats by DrDre is another one that is not as good as people think for the money. They are just marketed well. I'm sure they will sound very good, but that is simply too much for a pair of bluetooth headphones. Bluetooth is highly compressed, so you'll never get full quality audio out of it. To me, that isn't a good trade for that price. Unless he is really into music and sound quality, past the 100-150 mark you can't really tell unless you do side by side testing. 150$ is the most I'd spend on headphones of any kind and I'm picky. I've listened to a 200$ pair vs a 350$ pair and they were so close I couldn't understand someone spending that much more for a little better, and I mean a little.

Home audio is another hobby I like to get into.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I had gotten the wired but whatever. Heck if I can tell. I'm happy with $10 pair but i"ll get hands free one for $20 soon.

[mcsewnab]

I have an Oculus, I have a 3rd party OCZ power supply in my Dell, and I am a home audio enthusiast.

[corn18]

I built all my PC's up until 2011 when I bought an iMac. I always bought the components I wanted to match my needs and continually upgraded everything all the time. It was not cheap, but I enjoyed the challenge. Then I got an iMac and the darn thing is not upgradable for the most part. Tried it once and ruined it. But now I never futz with it as it always works. The Windows machine always needed some sort of care and feeding. But man was it fun to crank the CPU, GPU memory and bus speeds up to ludicrous clock speeds and watch the temps soar. I got so obsessed that I almost bought a liquid N2 cooling system. I am obsessive compulsive when it comes to hobbies.

Now I'm collecting watches.

[GoodSteward]

I built all my PC's up until 2011 when I bought an iMac. I always bought the components I wanted to match my needs and continually upgraded everything all the time. It was not cheap, but I enjoyed the challenge. Then I got an iMac and the darn thing is not upgradable for the most part. Tried it once and ruined it. But now I never futz with it as it always works. The Windows machine always needed some sort of care and feeding. But man was it fun to crank the CPU, GPU memory and bus speeds up to ludicrous clock speeds and watch the temps soar. I got so obsessed that I almost bought a liquid N2 cooling system. I am obsessive compulsive when it comes to hobbies.

Now I'm collecting watches.

How is that ticwatch? I ordered an oak and an onyx, and decided to keep the onyx instead. Sold the oak for almost retail to a guy in UK. Made some monies .

[corn18]

How is that ticwatch? I ordered an oak and an onyx, and decided to keep the onyx instead. Sold the oak for almost retail to a guy in UK. Made some monies .

I cnx my order when they pushed the ship date out.

[GoodSteward]

I cnx my order when they pushed the ship date out.

Oh well, it's a great watch. Screen looks fantastic. Not sure how long I'll keep it unless they support android wear better

[Tabs]

I build my own PCs. Not that I have to, but it's the only way to get exactly what I want in a form factor and setup that I want it in. A lot of pre-builts look like trash and is clogged with bloatware. Of course, the super nice ones look great, but cost an arm and a leg. So, custom it is.

I've also built my own embedded devices for use as both web and file servers, as well as firewalls in the past. It's an interesting hobby that doesn't have to cost too much, but currently, it seems that modern routers these days can perform these similar functions if you shop around... though generally the features are much less robust compared to dedicated software. Still, I really like the minimalist approach.

I love tech myself, and have to be really careful not to go too crazy as everybody knows tech and frugality do not always go hand-in-hand.

Lately, I've been looking more and more into the Raspberry Pi project. They've grown quite powerful these days, with later models even being able to run Windows 10... not that I ever would, but considering the cheap the hardware is, I think the tech is just amazing.

On another note, I think anybody who has a home network and say a family of like 4 or more should maybe consider running a home media server. I find it convenient to run a centralized media server. That way, your funny cat videos are not scattered across several computers and tablets/phones. Just one spot for everything. Like for example, let's say dad finds a funny cat video. He saves it on the server, then mom and the kids, can all just watch that on any device, whenever they want. It's convenient IMO.

I am also watching the uh re-rise of the voice-activated assistant such as Alexa and now Google Home. As an Android-leaning guy, I think Google Home works great doubling as my alarm clock. I find it super convenient to just be able to say, "Ok Google, what time is it?" and then "Ok Google, set an alarm for 6am" or whatever. However, it also goes far beyond that. You can also control your lights or if you want a little music, you can say, "Ok Google, play me some slow, relaxing music." or "Ok Google, play me the Nerdist podcast" etc. Oh, and, "Ok Google, what's the temperature outside?" And it just keeps going and going like that. Very cool. I think a device like this is a good fit in the bedroom for example, because there are no screens that will supposedly keep you awake at night. Just a really really smart radio alarm clock that you talk to, and can talk back to you.

I'm rambling. Anyways, I like tech.

[corn18]

Oh well, it's a great watch. Screen looks fantastic. Not sure how long I'll keep it unless they support android wear better

The other issue I had was no iPhone 7 support.

[GoodSteward]

Just a really really smart radio alarm clock that you talk to, and can talk back to you.

I'm rambling. Anyways, I like tech.

I don't think this is a healthy relationship. You having trouble communicating with real people?

The other issue I had was no iPhone 7 support.

Yeah, I hear headphones have that same problem with that phone.

[Tabs]

I don't think this is a healthy relationship. You having trouble communicating with real people?

Woof?

This is about the Pixel phone, isn't it? Aww come on, please don't get mad at me, it's a great phone.

[Leo]

I build my own pc as well. I built the recent one 6 years ago and keep upgrading parts if needed. Still a beast. I probably spent $2500 initially and then keep spending money on it. Yes, its unnecessary but its more like a hobby and i want the best gaming pc out there. Im a technologist and a gamer. In fact, I just bought GTX 1070 graphics card when it first came out and costed me under $500.

[Tabs]

Oh man, it is so good to be a gamer right now.

If you're a PC gamer, you have lots of affordable options for 1080p gaming. Affordable for the field anyway.

If not, your options expand even more with consoles, especially with the PS4 and Xbox (which have gone to second gen slim iterations) as well as getting a price drop as the Pro and Scorpio versions are coming out soon.

One thing that I think bears repeating though is that I think one needs to add the cost of online subscriptions of consoles into consideration... which ranges between $5 to $10 a month. Depending on what you play, this may or may not change the total cost for you compared to what you play on PCs. Just saying, since we're all about trying to be frugal.

[GoodSteward]

Oh man, it is so good to be a gamer right now.

If you're a PC gamer, you have lots of affordable options for 1080p gaming. Affordable for the field anyway.

If not, your options expand even more with consoles, especially with the PS4 and Xbox (which have gone to second gen slim iterations) as well as getting a price drop as the Pro and Scorpio versions are coming out soon.

One thing that I think bears repeating though is that I think one needs to add the cost of online subscriptions of consoles into consideration... which ranges between $5 to $10 a month. Depending on what you play, this may or may not change the total cost for you compared to what you play on PCs. Just saying, since we're all about trying to be frugal.

I am eyeballing that nintendo Switch. I want to see how that turns out.

I prefer desktop gaming thanks to Steam. Pc games are almost always cheaper than console, and after a year or two you can buy them for half price. When steam has their Christmas sale you can start getting good games for anywhere from 1-2$ up to 20$. Pretty crazy and easy to rack up a big library of games, even if they are not the newest out.

I recently "cleaned up" a computer room at work and took home a couple no longer used systems. They are Dell T3500 systems. They are older, sure, but they rock a Xeon 5630, which is a little bit better Core i7-920. It might be old by today's standards, but my friend is still rocking his i7-920 and plays whatever he wants at high settings with new GPUs. In my case, I just wanted a couple budget gaming systems for my kids. I gave them both 8gb ddr3, two 500gb HHDs in raid 0, and bought a lower end Video card for both off ebay for 30$ each(AMD 7850). They won't be rocking the highest settings but they also will just be used on a 19" 16:10 Dell monitor at 1600x900 or something of that effect. They should be able to play whatever they want at decent settings. And it only cost me about 30$ each.

My guess is that if I bought new modern parts it would be around a 500$ budget gaming system. I plan to run some system tests when I get the cards in and see how they compare to the newer systems to really know what they can do. It's hard to find a comparison from that old of a processor to todays.