Save and Conquer

It is still not possible to build your own laptop computer, but if a desktop computer can fill your needs, it is always cheaper to build your own. This is especially true if you want a fast “gaming” PC. Besides other things like CPU performance, the main thing that sets a gaming PC apart from a standard PC is the video card.

ExtremeTech.com often publishes articles on building powerful computers from off-the-shelf components. Every 6 months or so they run an article on building an inexpensive gaming PC for $800. They cheat a little on their price by not including a monitor, mouse, or keyboard in the mix, but you can get a pretty good 19-inch LCD monitor with keyboard and optical mouse for $200 from someplace like newegg.com. ExtremeTech did include Windows XP Home in their $800 price. I would probably pay a few dollars more and get XP Pro. They also do not include tax or shipping in the price.

Once you have all the hardware and software, it will take you something like 4 to 8 hours to put the system together. Just follow the instructions in the hardware boxes. The most critical are in motherboard and CPU instructions.

For the ultra-frugal, ExtremeTech has a “How low can you go?” article describing a $400 PC. This system still has better hardware and performance than my best home computer. They re-installed Windows from a previous PC, so you might have to pay for a new OS ($75 for Windows XP Home) or Linux for free. It depends on your needs.

I am not currently planning to replace any of our home computers, but since my wife does 3D modeling for work at home, we need to maintain a reasonably powerful computer. When we do upgrade, it will be with a homebuilt, using many of the components suggested by ExtremeTech.

Along with saving a bunch of money, I find there is also a feeling of accomplishment when the computer first boots. Some people call it the Dr. Frankenstein rush. I just call it “job well done.”

Stumble it!