Talk me out of building pc...

[sl1200mk2]

Hey, it was something on my bucket list, I did it, spent about $800, and it worked well.

For a while.

Built with a motherboard for the new AMD architecture, I installed a fanless power supply, SSD 64GB for the Windows7 OS, and a standard 1TB HDD for my data.

Installed the OS (OEM Windows7, for builders, as it was cheaper), and found that it required 50GB! Deleted, uninstalled, re-installed, and found the same thing again - only 15GB remaining after a clean install.

"No problem", I thought, as I would only install a few apps...WRONG!

I am now down to my last 2GB, anticipating my Day of Doom to be about three months from now. (Even though I haven't installed any software for many months, my OS SSD loses some memory every day - and, yes, I have completely disabled the System Restore feature!)

Fortunately, I still have my Mac Pro (2006) which I've diligently kept a backup of my data on.

Be careful! Or you could end up like me, with a computer with a built-in doomsday!

P.S.: If anyone out there has any idea where all of this memory has gone, please let me know, as I'm all ears!

You didn't mention how much RAM in the system, but move your paging/swap file to the 1TB SATA drive. If you have 4GB or more of RAM you'll regain a bunch of space after the system reboot. If given the option, I never run swap files from SSD.

 

[Melbourne Park]

The hardest part is the initial build. As already mentioned, you need to find a list of known working component combinations or it's a crap shoot. Everything claims to use a standard interface, but that doesn't count for much.
...
Mostly it's screwdriver work. But you also need to find the proper cable layout through the case, get the proper cooling system (and make sure it fits in your case), go through manuals written in Google translated Korean to figure out the correct jumper settings, etc. etc. etc. Pick out the power supply last - you need to know the total draw of all your other components, and then add a little headroom.

Well ... make sure it'll run OS X. That means checking tonymac etc to establish suitable gear.

The motherboards are all printed with the socket settings. Of which there are few. There are lots of videos on the web of people doing it too. You can even find places that assemble them once a month, sort of club things. School kids in Oz do it in 20 minutes, and offer to do it for a few bucks.

My advice would be to buy the gear from the one place, so that if you have an issue, you can bring it back and they'll find out what you did wrong.

Macs are cheaper though, if you include an equivalent screen quality.

As to Megasignal ... you've saved a heap with the 60GB SSD. Now go and buy a 120 GB, they are so much cheaper now, and sell the 60GB if you like. For maybe $60, done.

 

[MegaSignal]

You didn't mention how much RAM in the system, but move your paging/swap file to the 1TB SATA drive. If you have 4GB or more of RAM you'll regain a bunch of space after the system reboot. If given the option, I never run swap files from SSD.

Thanks for jogging my memory - I forgot about the swap files (8GB RAM, BTW). Now that the cost is down, I might just get a larger SSD for the OS.

 

[28Fiend]

Not telling you what to do.

But an iMac is an low powered all in one. Its a cool machine.

A custom built PC depending on how you build it is a great project.

I've built all my own PC's expect for the most recent one ( lazy ).

Its a very fun experience. You can pick every single part yourself.

1: You pick your case, any case you want.
2: You pick your own processor, as long as it fits in the motherboard you pick, you can have any processor you want.
3: You can pick your own motherboard, as long as it fits the processor you pick, you can have a small Mobo, a large one, full ATX, Mini ATX, MicroATX, ITX, you name it. Tons of different options.
4: You get to pick ANY video card you want, assuming it fits in a PCIE16X slot. you can pick ANY video card you want that will fit in your case, you can even have 2 or 4 video cards if you pick the right case/mobo.
5: Any hard drive you want, any size, any type. Any interface ( unless you'd randomly want an ole IDE HDD ).

The beauty of building your own PC, as long as you research the parts your buying. Is that you'll know everything about your machine. You'll know where everything came from. And its fun to put together.

Windows 7? Give it a chance. Its a great OS, its fast, stable, secure and super compatible. Don't want Windows? Go linux.

Its all up to you.

www.tigerdirect.com

Having a PC around is always a good thing. Its fun to research, its fun to buy all the parts. Its fun to put it together yourself, and its REALLY run to boot it up and install your OS after you spend all that time researching, putting it together, ziptying your cables and wires and make it look all pretty.

That's why I love PC's so much more than Macs, I like my Macs and all. But when I build/buy a PC. I can do ANYTHING I want with it.

I would say, give it a shot. Try a barebone kit or something.

Anyone who has all these OS/Hardware Issues, needs to stop building PC's, and start buying iMacs or low end Dells.

If you have any questions. Feel more than free to PM me. I've built 7 for myself, and a couple dozen over the years for friends.

The old one I listed, I'm typing on it right now, I put it in a plexiglass case, filled it with distilled water, installed a heat pipe cooler, and its awesome. 7 years old, still works great. Yes, its an underwater computer now. Been so for about a year, the best part is. All the fans still work lol. Currently watching a Hall and Oates Video on YouTube in 1080P, not to shabby eh?



No offense, but from this post. You don't seem to know enough to be building your own reliable PC.

I've built about 7 for myself over the years. I've never had close to the issues your having.

My oldest/crappyest PC ( that isn't a Pentium Pro/486 )I have consists of an offbrand motherboard ( Biostar ), sempron 1.8gzh 3100+, old ATI 2600HD, 4gb of Ram, and an ole ass 5400RPM 500gb hard drive with an IDE interface.

I installed Windows 7 on it, and its not super fast. But its totally useable with no problems.

Build a PC if you want, why ask Apple enthusiasts to talk you out of it? Personally the only way i will go back to a PC is for gaming or when Apple stop building the Mac Pro's. When and if this happens i will know Apple is no longer interested in its pro customers and i will go back to PC.

The hardest part is the initial build. As already mentioned, you need to find a list of known working component combinations or it's a crap shoot. Everything claims to use a standard interface, but that doesn't count for much.

Mostly it's screwdriver work. But you also need to find the proper cable layout through the case, get the proper cooling system (and make sure it fits in your case), go through manuals written in Google translated Korean to figure out the correct jumper settings, etc. etc. etc. Pick out the power supply last - you need to know the total draw of all your other components, and then add a little headroom.

Whether it's a pain down the road depends on how much you tinker. As mentioned if you Hackintosh it, the OS updates are fidgety and may completely hose you. If you swap out other components, you need to recheck the power. In two years if you want to swap out the CPU, it's 50/50 you'll find out it's incompatible with your motherboard, and then you're basically disassembling the whole thing and rebuilding. If you decide to overclock the video card, the RAM, the CPU, whatever, there's always a chance of component failure or overheating. And if anything does go wrong, your only help is your friends and the Internet.

If you've never done a build before and it interests you at all, do it so you at least know what it's all about. But keep your Mac so you can always post for help....

Very true, each person seems to have very valid opinions. I've grown up on both operating systems and can float my way around either or. I love to tinker, drives my wife nuts, so the appeal of building certainly has sparked my interest.

The idea of the al in one as the iMac is certainly is nice, though since school I've come to realize what exactly it lacks. I love the Mac Pros, just don't have the money. Hints the appeal of building.

Research is something that has my head spinning, been floating around other computer boards and everybody has an opinion about everything. Still learning and reading. My buddy from school has offered to check out Micro Center with me and just walk and talk so he can educate me.

 

[G51989]

Very true, each person seems to have very valid opinions. I've grown up on both operating systems and can float my way around either or. I love to tinker, drives my wife nuts, so the appeal of building certainly has sparked my interest.

The idea of the al in one as the iMac is certainly is nice, though since school I've come to realize what exactly it lacks. I love the Mac Pros, just don't have the money. Hints the appeal of building.

Research is something that has my head spinning, been floating around other computer boards and everybody has an opinion about everything. Still learning and reading. My buddy from school has offered to check out Micro Center with me and just walk and talk so he can educate me.

This is a great place to start. If you dont want a ton of research.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...its&cm_sp=Masthead-_-Computer Parts-_-Spot 02

Most of the kits are good deals, most come with a CPU, Case, Power Supply, Motherboard, Hard drive and all the basic stuff you need to get started.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

The hardest part is the initial build. As already mentioned, you need to find a list of known working component combinations or it's a crap shoot. Everything claims to use a standard interface, but that doesn't count for much.

Mostly it's screwdriver work. But you also need to find the proper cable layout through the case, get the proper cooling system (and make sure it fits in your case), go through manuals written in Google translated Korean to figure out the correct jumper settings, etc. etc. etc. Pick out the power supply last - you need to know the total draw of all your other components, and then add a little headroom.

Whether it's a pain down the road depends on how much you tinker. As mentioned if you Hackintosh it, the OS updates are fidgety and may completely hose you. If you swap out other components, you need to recheck the power. In two years if you want to swap out the CPU, it's 50/50 you'll find out it's incompatible with your motherboard, and then you're basically disassembling the whole thing and rebuilding. If you decide to overclock the video card, the RAM, the CPU, whatever, there's always a chance of component failure or overheating. And if anything does go wrong, your only help is your friends and the Internet.

If you've never done a build before and it interests you at all, do it so you at least know what it's all about. But keep your Mac so you can always post for help....

Have you ever built a computer? the problems you describe sound like you haven't looked at the inside of a PC since scsi hard drives were common. Today, there's almost no jumpers to deal with, all drives use the same sata connection, and the only way a CPU upgrade wouldn't work is if you don't keep your bios upgraded.

 

[28Fiend]

This is a great place to start. If you dont want a ton of research.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...its&cm_sp=Masthead-_-Computer Parts-_-Spot 02

Most of the kits are good deals, most come with a CPU, Case, Power Supply, Motherboard, Hard drive and all the basic stuff you need to get started.

Perfect! Thank you, reading alone opens the picture of what all is out there.

 

[G51989]

Perfect! Thank you, reading alone opens the picture of what all is out there.

When you decide to build, even with a barebone kit, just make sure if you add more memory to that barebone, its the right type of memory

Just little things like that.

Used to Macs having 2 or 3 GPU options? Try out Tiger Directs Video card section, THOUSANDS of choices.

I'm not really a " Mac " or " PC guy ", I own multiple machines of both. But I do perfer PC's, just for the sheer choices you can make that you can't make on a Mac.

 

[forty2j]

Have you ever built a computer? the problems you describe sound like you haven't looked at the inside of a PC since scsi hard drives were common. Today, there's almost no jumpers to deal with, all drives use the same sata connection, and the only way a CPU upgrade wouldn't work is if you don't keep your bios upgraded.

Last one I helped build was ... I think 2004. Was the wife's project, but she brought me in to help (mainly reading the Google translated Korean). That was a rebuild after all the main components from the 1999(?) build were obsolete. Managed to bend a pin in the CPU; somehow convinced CompUSA to swap it out. We both had enough after that. Upgraded a little here and there, but when it was time for a new CPU, we donated the whole rig to her sister and got the Geek Squad to build the next.

 

[jmhart]

You should build a PC if:

You don't mind being unable to run OS X without the hassle of hackintoshing.
You don't care how much physical space the computer will take up.
You don't care how loud the fans are.
Choosing every aspect of the hardware is important to you.
You want or need more graphics power than you will get out of a mobile GPU.
Money is an issue.
You don't mind troubleshooting your own hardware issues which often requires access to spare parts you can swap to figure out what is failing, not to mention access to hardware expertise for building and troubleshooting purposes.

 

[Melbourne Park]

You should build a PC if:

You don't mind being unable to run OS X without the hassle of hackintoshing.
You don't care how much physical space the computer will take up.
You don't care how loud the fans are.
Choosing every aspect of the hardware is important to you.
You want or need more graphics power than you will get out of a mobile GPU.
Money is an issue.
You don't mind troubleshooting your own hardware issues which often requires access to spare parts you can swap to figure out what is failing, not to mention access to hardware expertise for building and troubleshooting purposes.

I'd add:
Prepared to fix own warranty issues
Screen resolution not as important as cost
Not worried about colour matching screen to print
Appreciate a cheap buy for Windows
Prepared for machine to evolve into Linux or Windows only computer

 

[throAU]

Major plus: your iMac will have 1 or maybe 2 cables coming out of it.

Look at the back of a tower PC some time.

My PC for example has:

- dvi
- 1x triple plug audio cable
- USB to wireless keyboard/mouse dongle
- power
- ethernet

If you're not gaming or doing extremely high end photo/video work, then forget the system spec, just get 16gb or more of ram, whatever size disk you want, and whatever the rest of the hardware spec is, you should be fine.

 

[Overg]

I am in the windows biz and dos biz for 30 years now, can't remember how many computers I built, and always told to myself that this is a monster and i would never need to replace it in 10 years. Then came windows.... So unstable, full of bugs. Can't stand it anymore 30 years is enough. Going to have apple for the first time ( also remember that you can install windows on them if you so want...)

 

[G51989]

You don't mind being unable to run OS X without the hassle of hackintoshing.

Well, that's OK. Because Windows 7 is just as good/better in a couple areas than OSX.

You don't care how much physical space the computer will take up.

There are All in One PC's, many of them being far more powerful than an iMac.

There are PC's around the same size as a Mac Mini, they are also more powerful.

You don't care how loud the fans are.

My home PC is VERY powerful, so is my workstation. Both are almost silent. By powerful, They'll both blow a Mac Pro out of the water.

Choosing every aspect of the hardware is important to you.

It is to me to an extent with a company like GamePC, which is who built my latest workstation and home rig, I know every single part that went into it ( I also build my own ). I like knowing that there is no crap in my computer.

You want or need more graphics power than you will get out of a mobile GPU.

Or you want more graphics power than whats offered by a mid range 6000 series or outdated 5000 series.

Money is an issue.

This makes no sense, my home rig was about 7,000. And my Workstation ( that my boss paid for ) is worth almost 20,000 dollars.

You don't mind troubleshooting your own hardware issues which often requires access to spare parts you can swap to figure out what is failing, not to mention access to hardware expertise for building and troubleshooting purposes.

I'm not sure where your going with this, the majority of hardware is VERY reliable.

I'd add:
Prepared to fix own warranty issues
Screen resolution not as important as cost
Not worried about colour matching screen to print
Appreciate a cheap buy for Windows
Prepared for machine to evolve into Linux or Windows only computer

You clearly have no idea what your talking about. So just. No.

Major plus: your iMac will have 1 or maybe 2 cables coming out of it.

It's on a desk? Who the hell cares?

I am in the windows biz and dos biz for 30 years now, can't remember how many computers I built, and always told to myself that this is a monster and i would never need to replace it in 10 years. Then came windows.... So unstable, full of bugs. Can't stand it anymore 30 years is enough. Going to have apple for the first time ( also remember that you can install windows on them if you so want...)

Then you clearly need to find a new career path, I've been using Windows/Linux/OSX/unix systems for a very long time.

Window's XP/Vista/NT/2000/Windows 7 are not buggy, they are very stable. What bugs are you talking about? Why is it so unstable?

 

[jmhart]

Well, that's OK. Because Windows 7 is just as good/better in a couple areas than OSX.

I'd agree with that, and OS X is just as good/better than Win7 in MANY areas.

There are PC's around the same size as a Mac Mini, they are also more powerful.

Pics or links please...and no, Atom boxes don't count.

My home PC is VERY powerful, so is my workstation. Both are almost silent. By powerful, They'll both blow a Mac Pro out of the water.

Those fans will only spin up if you actually do something that taxes the machine.

Or you want more graphics power than whats offered by a mid range 6000 series or outdated 5000 series.

2011 iMac can be BTO with the last generation top end mobile GPU, the 6970M. By mid range you must mean an entry level model.

This makes no sense, my home rig was about 7,000. And my Workstation ( that my boss paid for ) is worth almost 20,000 dollars.

I hope they gave you an amazing warranty and on-site service, otherwise you overpaid.

I'm not sure where your going with this, the majority of hardware is VERY reliable.

Quality hardware is, yes...but on the off chance that it fails you better know what you're doing and have access to a test bench and spare parts unless you've overpaid some company to do the work for you then I'd think they'd take care of it for you for years to come.

I've been using Windows/Linux/OSX/unix systems for a very long time.

Window's XP/Vista/NT/2000/Windows 7 are not buggy, they are very stable.

These two sentences are in direct contradiction with each other.

Windows 7 is very good, I won't argue against that--but I'd only classify ANY Win OS based PC as "very stable" unless you aren't loading any additional software on it and are extremely careful in choosing hardware that doesn't have dodgy drivers. Even then, you'd better not ever update those drivers once you get it stable or look out...

 

[chrono1081]

Window's XP/Vista/NT/2000/Windows 7 are not buggy, they are very stable. What bugs are you talking about? Why is it so unstable?

No offense but your statement is not in the least accurate. I've supported Windows environments for 12 years and to say XP, Vista, and 2000 aren't buggy is just plain wrong.

XP didn't become stable until service pack 2. Vista, has too many issues to name. A major one was pre-service pack 1 when you couldn't transfer large amounts of data from one drive to another. Thats a HUGE screwup and it took months to fix.

 

[Melbourne Park]

Well, that's OK. Because Windows 7 is just as good/better in a couple areas than OSX.



There are All in One PC's, many of them being far more powerful than an iMac.

There are PC's around the same size as a Mac Mini, they are also more powerful.



My home PC is VERY powerful, so is my workstation. Both are almost silent. By powerful, They'll both blow a Mac Pro out of the water.


It is to me to an extent with a company like GamePC, which is who built my latest workstation and home rig, I know every single part that went into it ( I also build my own ). I like knowing that there is no crap in my computer.



Or you want more graphics power than whats offered by a mid range 6000 series or outdated 5000 series.



This makes no sense, my home rig was about 7,000. And my Workstation ( that my boss paid for ) is worth almost 20,000 dollars.



I'm not sure where your going with this, the majority of hardware is VERY reliable.



You clearly have no idea what your talking about. So just. No.



It's on a desk? Who the hell cares?



Then you clearly need to find a new career path, I've been using Windows/Linux/OSX/unix systems for a very long time.

Window's XP/Vista/NT/2000/Windows 7 are not buggy, they are very stable. What bugs are you talking about? Why is it so unstable?

I do know what I am talking about. And clearly, you cannot understand what posters here are saying.

But then ... you have a work workstation worth $20k, and a $7k gaming PC. And you spend time, hanging out in a Macintosh site.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

No offense but your statement is not in the least accurate. I've supported Windows environments for 12 years and to say XP, Vista, and 2000 aren't buggy is just plain wrong.

XP didn't become stable until service pack 2. Vista, has too many issues to name. A major one was pre-service pack 1 when you couldn't transfer large amounts of data from one drive to another. Thats a HUGE screwup and it took months to fix.

To be fair, comparing XP to Lion is silly. You should be comparing XP to Jaguar (which was just as bad), and Vista to Panther or Tiger, which on an intel CPU wasn't that stellar either.

And while I'm replying, someone mentioned how loud a PC is. While it's true that a PC can be quite noisy, they can also be quite silent. My desktop, once I deck it out with an SSD, will have a single (17db max) fan that pulls air in from the back and out a blowhole. The only other noise would be from my 2TB hard drive, if I'm gaming or listening to music.

The PSU and GPU are fanless, and I'll probably install a switch for a case fan while I'm gaming. But there's no reason a PC can't be silent.

For comparisons' sake, the 2011 Core i3 iMac is listed as 30db at idle.

 

[G51989]

I'd agree with that, and OS X is just as good/better than Win7 in MANY areas.

Indeed, expect for a messy UI ( 10.6 was WAY better ), randomly stability issues, and not even being able to recognize anything over 96gb of ram, and not being supported for any decent amount of time, its great.

http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-x51/pd.aspx

( yes, its not quite as small. But the footprint isn't that far off, its just thinner and taller. I did say ABOUT the same size )

http://www.commodoreusa.net/CUSA_AMIGAmini.aspx

( yes, they will install Windows on it if you ask, not a huge fee either )

Those fans will only spin up if you actually do something that taxes the machine.

Seeing as a Mac Pro can't even run the simulation software I work on as a job, I'd hope they would spool up, then take 3 hours to run one simulation

2011 iMac can be BTO with the last generation top end mobile GPU, the 6970M. By mid range you must mean an entry level model.

So, I get a 6000 series mobile GPU? When HP is offering Mobile quadros?

I hope they gave you an amazing warranty and on-site service, otherwise you overpaid.

As far as my gaming PC goes? Yes I overpaid. Big I didn't care at that point. ( I normally build my own PCs, but I got lazy ). Its a great tower.

http://www.gamepc.com/shop/systemfamily.asp?family=ds3

Middle model upgraded to dual 7970s. I paid less than the price listed as the company I work for does a lot of business with GamePC as of a few months ago, and I get a nice discount.

My workstation was built by the same company, its a one off build. Its got Dual 8 Core 4gzh ( overclocked from the factory ) liquid cooled Xeons, 2 SSD's, 8 1TB HDD's, 4 Quadro 5000's, also overclocked. I've listed the specs on this website so many time's its gotten annoying, but you get the idea.

And its totally worht all that money when I can run simulations on it, that Mac Pro would choke on

Quality hardware is, yes...but on the off chance that it fails you better know what you're doing and have access to a test bench and spare parts unless you've overpaid some company to do the work for you then I'd think they'd take care of it for you for years to come.

Even ****** hardware, at least for me has been very reliable, I've built some Sub 500 dollar PC's for some freinds, expect for things like hard drives, and a couple of PSU's, everything has been super reliable, hell I'm typing this on my fish tank computer ( yes, plexiglass case, air tight, full of distilled water with fake fish in it ), and its going on 7 years old now, built it for well under 500 dollars back in the day, not one issue.

ANd yes, I know I overpaid for my Home Rig, but the nice thing about it is, its got a nice 3 year warrenty, and I can just pick it up and take it to Lan parties ( I have an old 17 inch LCD I take with it ), so I don't care. Its not enough money for me to really pissed off about it, and its not even the most I've ever spend on a home rig, that title goes to my PM G5 lol.

hese two sentences are in direct contradiction with each other.

Windows 7 is very good, I won't argue against that--but I'd only classify ANY Win OS based PC as "very stable" unless you aren't loading any additional software on it and are extremely careful in choosing hardware that doesn't have dodgy drivers. Even then, you'd better not ever update those drivers once you get it stable or look out...

I've built dozens of Windows PC's and worked with more dozens over the years, I can't say I've had any stability issues since Windows 2000, Vista did kind of suck because of the memory raping.

----------

I do know what I am talking about. And clearly, you cannot understand what posters here are saying.

But then ... you have a work workstation worth $20k, and a $7k gaming PC. And you spend time, hanging out in a Macintosh site.

Clearly you don't.

I currently own.

A new iMac, 21.5 inch.

A PM G5

Another PM G5

2 G4 towers

G4 iMac

G3 iMac ( it was my first Mac )

Some crappy Calmshell G3 I found for 10 dollars.

A Pismo Laptop with the 900 Mzh Powerlogix Upgrade.

And I'll be buying the New Mac Pro if its any good.

SO yes, I own Apple Products.

Oh yeah, I use an iPhone as well.

 

[iSayuSay]

Major plus: your iMac will have 1 or maybe 2 cables coming out of it.

Look at the back of a tower PC some time.

My PC for example has:

- dvi
- 1x triple plug audio cable
- USB to wireless keyboard/mouse dongle
- power
- ethernet

If you're not gaming or doing extremely high end photo/video work, then forget the system spec, just get 16gb or more of ram, whatever size disk you want, and whatever the rest of the hardware spec is, you should be fine.

This may be an old gag .. but I am an iMac owner and ironically this what i felt when I had my GPU replaced.

iMac may be a good looking desktop, when it works. Unfortunately that's not always the case

 

[CausticPuppy]

Have you ever built a PC? It's fun and educational once. Mainly, though, it's a pain in the arse.

It was fun back when you had to plan out which IRQ's and DMA's to use for all your expansion cards.

----------

There are PC's around the same size as a Mac Mini, they are also more powerful.

Assuming "around the same size" means 2-3 times as big.

 

[throAU]

It was fun back when you had to plan out which IRQ's and DMA's to use for all your expansion cards.

Ahh the good old days of jumpers and trying to read crappy silk-screened lettering on the pcb. And wondering why some expansion slots don't work with your card, but others due (maybe due to motherboard bug, etc). or dealing with disk corruption because your sound card stole the same address range as your SCSI adapter.

 

[jmhart]

Ahh the good old days of jumpers and trying to ready crappy silk-screened lettering on the pcb. And wondering why some expansion slots don't work with your card, but others due (maybe due to motherboard bug, etc). or dealing with disk corruption because your sound card stole the same address range as your SCSI adapter.

Well you always had the "manual" that came with the card if you couldn't make out the silk screening, which if it was an el-cheapo card often consisted of a bent, dirty piece of cardboard with nearly unintelligible engrish printed all over it.

Some of those translation jobs were so amazing... Hours of free entertainment just trying to read them. ROFL

I'm more than happy not to have to build PCs anymore unless I'm left with no other option. Please Apple, for love of all that is decent and true, get the 2012 iMac released soon!!!

 

[jmhart]

Even ****** hardware, at least for me has been very reliable, I've built some Sub 500 dollar PC's for some freinds, expect for things like hard drives, and a couple of PSU's, everything has been super reliable, hell I'm typing this on my fish tank computer ( yes, plexiglass case, air tight, full of distilled water with fake fish in it ), and its going on 7 years old now, built it for well under 500 dollars back in the day, not one issue.

For me at least this used to be true, you could go dirt cheap and come out okay. Over the past 5 or 6 years though I've had cheap stuff cost me time, money, and effort from failures...just one example:

I had just one of the 12 volt rails on an Antec power supply fail causing all the system fans including the CPU fan to shut down while the rest of the system kept running (why the PS didn't shut down under such a nasty failure I still can't fathom). That cost me a rather pricey heatsink with melted solder joints, a burned to a crisp CPU that was at the time just a notch from top end, and a toasted motherboard. Needless to say I finally learned to stop trusting cheap garbage.

Since I quit trusting cheap crap I admit I've only had a video card and a hard drive fail (an infamous NV 8800 GTS and an even more infamous IBM Deathstar)...

 

[dkersten]

I don't know how much experience with building computers you have but I definitely recommend you do it at least once. It would be quite beneficial to you as a software engineer and its really fun.

I've built a couple over the past 6 months or so for myself and brother. The first one I built was a little challenging as I wanted great specs and perfect cable managing. Honestly, if you haven't built one yet, check out these videos. They are super helpful....
http://www.newegg.com/Store/Promoti...e/pillar/homepage2011/bnr_lifestyle_combo.jpg

I know you were hoping to have us convince you that it was better to get an iMac but, building a computer is very beneficial. What better time to build when your in college. Save some money and you get exactly what you want.

P.S. if you do build a computer, look to build with a Corsair cases. I've used 2 and they are really nice