I am looking to upgrade my laptop to a desktop but I don't speak computer parts numbers. So I turn to the XoO community to offer advice. The parameters- 1. Can't build it. I have no idea what I would be doing, so why would I potentially mess something up. 2. Budget- around 1,000 USD 3. Prefer Intel and Nvidia 4. Do not need any peripheries 5. Would love to have the horsepower to record and process gameplay footage. I am sure that I have missed something, but would love to hear peoples opinions.
Building is pretty straight forward, lots of tutorials if you get lost. Positives are more bang for your buck, more customization options and loads more. But the major downside is that if you encounter a problem troubleshooting can be a long process. I took this route and only problem I encountered were faulty parts which the manufacturer replaces (within a certain period of time). In my opinion this is the route you should take since once you want to upgrade a specific component you will know what the hell you are doing. The community on here is pretty helpful and will steer you correctly . But if you don't wanna build check out guys like origin PC. They pre-build everything and ship it to you. Downsides are obviously they need to make a worthwhile profit which transfers into a higher end price. Positives are of course the ease of mind, tech support and warranties. But you don't need all of that! You've got the power of Enigma! *A wild Enigma Appears*
^^^^ This guy must be a prophet. I once wrote a tutorial for a member we had here in another division who was pretty much computer illiterate when it came to any hardware, he really only knew how to browse the internet and install and play games. he built it after reading my simple write up and had it running on his first try no problem and hasnt had any issues. Told me afterward it was really easy and he would always be building them himself in the future. So if you feel like you might want to try building your own PC you definitely can do it. Building a PC is kinda like doing a jigsaw puzzle, but the puzzle only has 7 pieces and is impossible to put the pieces in the wrong way.
I'm pretty sure I have it saved in a text file on one of my hard drives, but Ill have to check again. If I cant fine it Ill type up one again this weekend some time and post it on the forums as a sticky in this Tech Talk subforum so everyone can find it.
If you can build Legos or similar, you can build a computer. You also need to be able to use a screw driver. It is honestly very easy, but can look intimidating. The hardest parts are probably applying the right amount of thermal paste to the processor, and cable management.
Youtube is your biggest help on visual help to building a pc. Here is one for example. Or neweggs 3 part building/installing series.