Guess what building a pc is not worth it. It's not worth it in frustration or anything else. It's better to buy a commercial business grade desktop with a support contract. They always have some kind of weird power issue or something. However, I might just be butthurt about my desktop that randomly reboots and was built by a friend, and I can't figure out what is wrong with it.
I am not sure that going to a site calling itself "Hacker" News and writing such a comment is not blatant trolling. Or maybe this is a sad side effect of developers using Macs.
I am useless at building things and I built a PC that has never given me problems. I even bought the wrong case!
The fix for some kind of weird power issue is to roughly calculate what kind of power you need and buy a decent power supply -- it will probably be better than the commercial grade desktop and give some headroom for future upgrades.
There are more kinds of weird issues than a poorly spec’d CPU. Scratched traces, shorts caused by something touching something it’s not supposed to, etc.
> Guess what building a pc is not worth it. It's not worth it in frustration or anything else.
That depends on how much you value the learning-opportunity provided by building your own machine. I certainly do!
> It's better to buy a commercial business grade desktop with a support contract.
If you're a self-employed SWE who needs a reliable dependable backup machine that you can use the support-contract to get fixed within 24 hours, then yes, I strongly agree.
...but I still think building ones' own primary machine is worth it.
> They always have some kind of weird power issue or something
I've built 8 machines for myself (and a couple more for friends and family) since I started in 2004 and I've never had an issue with power-supplies because I thoroughly research my options. PSUs are a safety-critical component of your PC: if it misbehaves it could kill you (e.g. if the computer-case goes live or the grounding pin fails - fun!) - or at least destroy everything of value inside it - I guess because I refuse to cheap-out on PSUs I've never had a problem.
Actually - there was one incident: back in 2005 I was building my second machine (a box to run Windows Server 2003 on so I could do ASP.NET web-development without needing to install IIS and SQL Server on my XP machine) and the PSU I ordered online was delayed, so I went to my parents' town's small-biz local PC shop and asked if they had any PSUs and all they had was a second-hand jobbie they gave me in a plastic carrier-bag for £20 - that PSU failed after a few days - just in-time for my online-order PSU to arrive.
I couldn't disagree more when it comes to my personal experience, but I don't get why you're being downvoted... my pc I built myself has started crashing from time to time since I switched the graphics card, and while I happen to get pleasure from this sort of pain I wouldn't exactly wish it on other people. the tone of this comment gives voice to the exact kind of mentality of a person who shouldn't build their own stuff... it is absolutely not for people who don't like having to fuck with their machines at inconvenient times. it is hugely rewarding for people who do (even if they have a frown on their face while they're fixing it).
One bad build isn't representative of the full spectrum. My Dell prebuilt is the worst PC I have ever owned (I always built it myself prior) and consistently overheats/throttles. Your friend is at fault, not the practice of building your own.
I would "build" your PC in PC Part Picker and see what it says.
Intel/AMD: You may have a low wattage/efficiency PSU (multiply box wattage by efficiency and compare to what PC Part Picker says you need), and those are relatively cheap to replace. Your friend may have overclocked the CPU without a full stability test, that's simply a visit to the BIOS to disable.
AMD: You may have poorly installed cooling. AMD can have more problems with overheating than Intel.
I second this. The level of integration in a custom case is not even comparable to an enterprise business desktop.
I finally bought a Dell Precision 5810 and it blew my mind how professional the entire case was. Every single little thing had a dust guard, or a clip, or a wire holder or its own little cooling fan. The graphics cards had support brackets. The hard drive bays had these fantastic multi-fit caddies, and the SATA cables were all the perfect length. Windows registered itself from the e-mark on the BIOS each time I reinstalled it, which was really handy, and each time I installed Windows from scratch everything automagically seemed to work and I didn't have to go digging around for drivers. The onboard RAID controller seemed to 'just work' and took like 3 seconds to setup.
I bought my Dell Precision 5810 second-hand, and it would have been cheaper than building the same computer with a custom case from individually sourced second hand parts.
The downside of that integration is it makes upgrading much more fraught. For example, if you want to add or upgrade a video card, you might need to replace the PSU. But you might find that the PSU is a non-standard size, or that it has non-standard connectors.
I have actually by now upgraded nearly every single component and not had any issues, for example I changed the Quadro K2000 to a FirePro W7100 which required external power, added a WiFi card, added 116GB more RAM, etc. Sure, the PSU is a proprietary form factor, but that has its own advantages in the packaging i.e. this one interlocks into the case in such a way that there isn't any cable management to be done and it has a push-to-release mechanism that allows it to be switched out in around 5 seconds without unplugging anything. Yes, if I needed to source a replacement I'd have to do some digging and find a DELL one specifically, but it's a trade-off to be aware of.
At the moment there are 20+ DELL precision workstations on Gumtree in just my local suburb.
Ha, reminds me. I don't know how it is nowadays, but back 15 years ago or so, Dell used non standard sized PSUs, in in regular form factor cases. I had one go, and had to Dremel out the case to fit an ATX supply in it. Fun times.
It might not be worth it for you, but it definitely is for a lot of people, i saved a lot of money not buying premade PCs that you have to chase people for minor issues.
