I didn’t want to spend $2000 on a prebuilt, but I ended up spending that much on a home built. It didn’t even seem like I was getting that fancy with it, but it added up quickly.
At this point I am kind of wondering if it was worth it. At least if I just bought a PC it would have the wiring done for me and would probably look awesome. I anticipate my wiring will look horrible. Although in my day, we didn’t have modular power supplies, so that should help a lot.
On the plus side Amazon carried everything I wanted, so I get 5% cash back on it.
I literally could not put together a personal build with the same specs as the Dell XPS system that ended up going with ~1.5 years ago for anything less than 130% of the cost. Admittedly, a personal build would have had better versions of many of those parts (albeit the same specs) because Dell is using a bunch of OEM stuff.
That said, I’ve had no issues with the system, at all, and the case it came with had a lot of room for upgrades (I added 2 more drives).
If you find a good deal on a pre-built from an OEM manufacturer (as opposed to an enthusiast assembler of retail parts), it’s really hard to beat that out. The assembler type manufacturers will always cost more, because of the up-charge for labor/warranty/etc. on top of the retail pricing.
Exactly. I suppose I could ask at the local shop if they’d either take it out of box and update it, or lend me a CPU to do it myself. Problem is my build would be from a variety of sources so they may not be motivated to help all that much.
I have an i7 9700 on back order from Amazon, will be here next week. Amazon keeps suggesting I get an i9. They aren’t that much more, are they worth it? Appears my motherboard supports it (Gigabyte Z390 AORUS Pro). (Gaming and Excel machine, not that my spreadsheets need a lot of computing power.)
Most modern games are at least a little multithreaded, especially if they are build to play on Xbox and PS4. But I don’t think game devs have really pushed the cutting edge of multithreading yet.
Need more help please, because an internet search isn’t providing clear answers. Have ordered 2 Crucial SSDs M.2 drives. Smaller one for Windows, bigger one for software. The motherboard has a M2M and a M2A port. What is the difference? Which drive should go where?
Looking through the manual, it seems that the M.2 ports share bandwidth with the SATA connectors. So if I am going to install a spinning drive as backup, I need to be careful which SATA connector I use. I guess?
I picked up an EVGA RTX 2060 XC Ultra since it’s on sale this week for $20 off at Best Buy. I’m guessing my I5-4690k is going to cause me bottlenecks so I’m looking to upgrade my CPU. Between CPU, motherboard, and new RAM I’d like to keep my budget between $500 to $600. I’m thinking of going with the I5-9600K. I’m planning on getting one of the CPU/motherboard bundles at Microcenter. Any recommendations for motherboards?
I have the same CPU as you currently have and a RTX2080 and don’t really notice any bottlenecks apart from AC: Odyssey whose engine is more CPU dependent. I play at 1440p and was considering the same upgrade as you but in reality would only see a 10% increase in FPS at most.
@stusser are there any significant new features coming out in the motherboard world in the next 12 months? Just wondering if an upgrade now is worth it or maybe it is worth waiting a bit longer. I know that PCIe 4 is coming soon.
