Building a PC

[foxile5]

I'm going to bite the bullet, I think, and put a PC on 0% credit card over 2 years.

 

Is building a PC a) difficult and b) more cost effective? 

 

I'm thinking there just must be a way of getting decent cashback and discounts using a build approach but have entirely no experience. 

 

I'm using Parts Picker to eyeball it. 

[Free Falling Foxes]

I guess you may mean buying all the parts independently and assembling, and configure all yourself?

I've never done that but did use these to build a system for my requirements.

[Zear0]

8 hours ago, foxile5 said:

I'm going to bite the bullet, I think, and put a PC on 0% credit card over 2 years.

 

Is building a PC a) difficult and b) more cost effective? 

 

I'm thinking there just must be a way of getting decent cashback and discounts using a build approach but have entirely no experience. 

 

I'm using Parts Picker to eyeball it. 

If you've not done it before it can be intimidating, but it's a piece of piss to do. It is cheaper, but not by miles. It's a very worthwhile skill to have as it makes upgrading much easier and cheaper. 

 

Have a look at pre-built systems at scan to compare the price differences. Happy to help if you get stuck! 

[Hollism]

It feels great when you build one and it turns on. I'm also building one right now for the first time in years and years. I've got all the parts delivered to work and in my excitement ripped open all the packaging, so now I'm building it at work when I get time. If I'd have took all the amazon deliveries home I could've done it at home in the evening and have it up and running by now

 

Use your AI/LLM of choice to ask for help selecting parts and with the build. You could copy/paste your amazon basket and ask what it thinks. Youtube videos are a great resource too of course, but with Claude AI or ChatGPT you can keep sending photos of your part-built rig to ask what to do next.

 

RAM prices have gone through the roof and apparently will continue to go up as the manufacturers have pre-sold all the RAM sticks they'll be able to make until the end of next year. A lot of people believe that GPUs are as cheap as they're going to get.

[Suzie the Fox]

11 hours ago, foxile5 said:

I'm going to bite the bullet, I think, and put a PC on 0% credit card over 2 years.

 

Is building a PC a) difficult and b) more cost effective? 

 

I'm thinking there just must be a way of getting decent cashback and discounts using a build approach but have entirely no experience. 

 

I'm using Parts Picker to eyeball it. 

Parts picker is a great choice for checking compatability with parts & prices, highly recommend. Certainly more cost effective than buying a pre-built

 

I built my 1st PC in the 90's and (alot easier in them days) Lol. But once you get into it, it starts to make sence and switching it on and it actually booting is a real buzz.

 

I'd recomend once you have a general idea of which parts you are going for .. ie what motherboard which processor etc you have check a few guides on youtube for those specific brands.

 

I've always gone for Intel but there were alot of problems with their 13th gen processors, thankfully thats been sorted now with bios updates. My BFF swears by AMD and tbh there isnt THAT much difference. Your main cost will be the graphics card and will depend on what your plans are for the pc. If you want to game on it and want to game the latest AAA games then you will be spending a ton more than if you just want a home pc for surfing, banking etc 

 

I try not to buy the absolute latest equip released as thats super pricey but try to get the most upto date for my budget. Set a budget! 

 

Certainly recommend DDR5 ram and 32mbs for gaming 

 

Happy to help with any questions you have  

[RoboFox]

I haven't done it myself but https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/ can be a good place to start and can help with compatibility. 

[foxile5]

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/2Fxxh7

 

Here's what I'm looking at. I'll probably whack it all on a 0% credit card in January just to see if the prices come down in the sales. 

[Zear0]

10 hours ago, foxile5 said:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/2Fxxh7

 

Here's what I'm looking at. I'll probably whack it all on a 0% credit card in January just to see if the prices come down in the sales. 

Looks decent, I've got the same CPU, nvme and mobo.  

 

F**k me though with the state of RAM prices currently.  It's a disgrace what's going on.

[Brizzle Fox]

30 minutes ago, Zear0 said:

Looks decent, I've got the same CPU, nvme and mobo.  

 

F**k me though with the state of RAM prices currently.  It's a disgrace what's going on.

Yeah my 16 year old son has just built a PC from scratch and it was the price of RAM that was the most eye watering. Insane how quickly the prices are going up as well.

[foxile5]

2 hours ago, Zear0 said:

Looks decent, I've got the same CPU, nvme and mobo.  

 

F**k me though with the state of RAM prices currently.  It's a disgrace what's going on.

The ram on that was £150 yesterday morning and leapt up. Must've been a quick deal.

 

Am I getting my moneys worth there? I'm terrified, honestly, as it's loads of money and I don't know how much value I'm getting being new to this. 

[Zear0]

12 minutes ago, foxile5 said:

The ram on that was £150 yesterday morning and leapt up. Must've been a quick deal.

 

Am I getting my moneys worth there? I'm terrified, honestly, as it's loads of money and I don't know how much value I'm getting being new to this. 

Yeah it's decent computer for the money. Unfortunately the price is what it is nowadays. Micron and Samsung, who basically have a monopoly on RAM manufacturing have massively reduced consumer supplies and are shipping it all to data centres meaning consumer prices have nearly tripled in a year. Same will happen to GPUs I suspect as nvidia are slowly ignoring gaming products. 

[foxile5]

On 29/12/2025 at 14:54, Zear0 said:

Yeah it's decent computer for the money. Unfortunately the price is what it is nowadays. Micron and Samsung, who basically have a monopoly on RAM manufacturing have massively reduced consumer supplies and are shipping it all to data centres meaning consumer prices have nearly tripled in a year. Same will happen to GPUs I suspect as nvidia are slowly ignoring gaming products. 

Purchased all the parts and ended up with some significant upgrades. 

 

Ryzen 7 9800 x3d and an Asus rog motherboard.

 

I'll end up paying it off for ages so thought might as well go as high as I could with the spec. 

[The Bear]

I built my last new PC for the first time about 3 years ago. 

 

As mentioned it's pretty simple and there are plenty of videos to help.

 

The most intimidating part is screwing down the motherboard, and also installing the processor and cooler, along with not too much thermal paste, then clamping the retaining arm down with a fair bit of force. The rest is simple plug and play stuff with the occasional screw needed. 

 

Then the satisfaction of cable management if that's something you can be arsed with, to give it a nice clean look inside. 

 

I went for a bedroom PC so it needed to have no silly RGB lights or shining stuff on the inside/outside so I could use it as a media film/tv PC in a dark room. Plus I wanted it as silent as possible with quiet parts like the PSU, fans, cooler, drives, case etc. Stealth PC FTW IMO.  BeQuiet is the company I used for this. 

 

Here's a pic of it once I'd finished. Black and orange styling of course  Nothing flashy looking but effective. 

 

 

 

Edited 29 January by The Bear

[foxile5]

Ahh - cheers everyone for the advice (and the pcitures as above!)

 

Largely as outlined except for having a dead RAM stick on arrival. That threw a spanner into the works. But I sent it back and bought some working RAM so everything worked out in the end. 

 

Absolutely entranced with it for now. So much to monitor, improve, and play with. I wish I'd done this 2 years ago.