Building a PC can be a tedious task but it’s a rewarding one in the end. I built my PC a couple of years ago and it was my first build. It took forever but I felt over the moon once I got everything together correctly. I’ve added a few things since then but I’m still rocking the same setup for the most part. I’d like to hear how everyone else’s PC-building experiences have gone.
Did you build your own PC? Was it your first time? If so, how did it go?
32 Spice ups
Not yet!
General apathy and not having a huge desire to play any specific game that would need it (as well as GPU shortages) have delayed it indefinitely.
I haven’t purchased a pre-built system since I was in college some 20+ years ago! 
I actually just built a new rig in the past 6 months, I kept the same case, storage, and power supply but got all new motherboard, ram, cpu, gpu, and cooling (my first all-in-one liquid cooler).
I like the customizability to get exactly what you want at the price you can afford; pre-built systems only get you part of the way to what you really want and then you’re stuck compromising on one or more components. I’ve also built custom systems for friends as well.
Websites like pcpartpicker are great for helping determine if there will be any issues with the components which can help avoid costly downtime or headaches if you get two parts that don’t play nice together.
Congrats on your first custom build, it’s certainly a rabbit-hole if you allow it to be.
2 Spice ups
ranhalt
(ranhalt)
4
First build was when I was 15 in 2001, before any big resource for matching parts. I had to buy a huge book that was just dry facts about computer hardware. I got all the parts, but didn’t know about using the standoffs for the motherboard and shorted it out immediately. Got another and kept building computers while watching resources like youtube and pcpartpicker take all the effort out of it.
2 Spice ups
I’ve built plenty in the past, but more recently no. Just don’t have the time anymore
bbigford
(bbigford)
6
I’ve never built one for myself since I’ve always used a laptop/dock for work and mainly on the go for person, but I have built thousands of gaming and office desktops (about 50/50 split) over the years.
CharlesHTN
(CharlesHTN)
7
My first PC (excluding the TI-99/4a when I was a kid) was one I built. Components included:
- A recycled “flip top” XT case
- A 286 motherboard with AMD 286-16 CPU
- 1Mb RAM, made up of 36 20-pin DIMM modules on the motherboard (these were already on the used motherboard when I got it)
- A 40Mb MFM Hard Drive (good ole ST-251-1 Seagate drive) with a MFM controller with 1:1 Interleave (hot stuff for mid to late 80’s…not so much for '94 when I pieced all this together!)
- A floppy controller with two serial ports and a parallel port
- 3.5" 1.44Mb and 5.25" 1.2Mb floppy drives
- A 16-bit ISA VGA card with 512k cache
- A 14" paper-white VGA monitor
- MS-DOS 5.0 (later upgraded to Novell DOS 7, which was sweet!)
I had $260 in this computer in 1994!
I later upgraded by adding a 10Mb hard drive from an ancient computer that was given to me, and again with a 2Mb Intel Above Board 16-bit ISA RAM expansion board (which got me to 2.6Mb usable RAM!!!)
I would upgrade this system over time, eventually nothing original was left, till I got to somewhere around a 533Mhz Celeron I think. Can’t recall. Since I quit gaming long before then, I didn’t care about latest and greatest.
I don’t bother building anymore. I just order from Dell Outlet now…much cheaper and easier.
Rod-IT
(Rod-IT)
8
I’ve always built my own, and those for friends.
I used to upgrade every 2-3 years, but I’ve slackened off in the last few builds, it’s almost every 6-10 years now, mostly because I don’t game and CPU’s don’t change too frequently where there would be a big enough benefit for my needs.
My current system should roll me for many years, an AMD 5950X with 128GB ram… the next upgrade, I hope will be to a multi-core ARM based CPU - so listen up Microsoft.
2 Spice ups
tb33t
(TB33T)
9
Yes, it was over 10 years ago since I built my last one. Since then I’ve just slowly upgraded as available parts came into my possession. I’d love to build a new one, but when would I ever use it?
merlinyoda
(MerlinYoda)
10
I often built (and accordingly upgraded) my own system but my most recent system was a gaming laptop so my answer would have to be “Yes, until a few years ago”. Even though I could easily get more processing and graphical power out of a desktop system, I’m seriously considering sticking with gaming laptops for the mobility (which allows me to play games while sitting in a comfy recliner).
brianinca
(Brianinca)
11
At home it’s been notebooks for almost ten years, even for gaming rigs. Lazy is efficient, I always say.
At work, I’ve had a single factory build desktop in ten years/5 rigs, and that had so much $$ in it in upgrades (400w HP power supply, $300) that I swore never again. Still haven’t moved over to the i9-13900K that’s on the bench, I just RDP into it all the time. The RTX 4090 might be overkill, but it makes me laugh.
Edit to add: My network admin admiring his 13th gen handiwork, I went with a metal case lid instead of glass this time, Fractal Define 7 XL this time around, it’s ginormous compared to the Define R6 in my old box. Also ginormous: the RTX 4090, yeesh!
Edit 2: Found a picture of the single water circuit Ryzen 9, prior to being our network admin someone ran the production floor crew that has the Mazak laser.
Bonus points for noticing the Spiceworks connection.
My first scratch built machine was in '93 with an AMD 386DX-40, finally making enough $$ to upgrade from a hand-me-down 286 (massively upgraded during school). I bought 8 SIMM’s for 2MB total, my Mom found out and bought me 8 1MB SIMM’s, she told me I was cheaping out on the wrong component. Lesson learned.
2 Spice ups
Yep, my PC is one I built on my own, though I largely have done it piecemeal. It’s an ITX build that I started in a NZXT H1 but quickly moved out of that case after the fire hazard issues came to light. Right now I have it in a Fractal Define Nano S and keep it on a hanger mounted to the underside of my desk. I was looking at moving it to a Fractal Ridge but with those having riser issues and with me remodeling my bonus room/office I think I’m going to just go caseless and mount it to a wooden slab to hang it on the wall. Should be cheaper & cooler and I think will fit in with my planned aesthetic for the room pretty good.
Other than the case the only other upgrade I can think of to do for it is the GPU (I’ve got a MSI RX 5700XT in it right now) but given how stupid the GPU market is I won’t be doing that for awhile. Maybe bump the RAM up from 16 gb to 32 gb I guess but I’ve yet to run into a game that needs more than 16 gbs of RAM. I definitely will be buying a new display for it this year though. I’ve had a Dell UW3415W for 5ish years and loved it but it’s time to upgrade to something newer. Still want the UW form factor but I also want a higher refresh rate, FreeSync, and HDR (features that cost more than I could afford when I first bought my screen). The monitor is in good condition so I’m hoping I can flip it to save a few hundred bucks on the new display.
My first build was an XT 4.77MHz, just a few years ago! Literally built at least a thousand PCs since then. They are much easier to build these days then back at the beginning of time 
weirdfish
(WeirdFish)
14
My first build was in the mid-'90s.
Similar here. My first was a 286-20. Used SIPP modules. Same hard drive but my controller was a 2:1 interleave. Later upgraded to a 1:1 interleave and used Spinrite to reinterleave the drive.
I remember going to trade shows back when they sold clones that were not 100% PC compatible. If you could run Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Flight Simulator then you knew it was compatible.
I’ve built every PC I’ve ever owned. My kids built theirs.
I’ve built a few hundred in my time. I remember back in the early days when case manufacturers didn’t smooth out their edges and it was like working in side a box filled with razor wire. The most I’ve done in a short period was like 30 in a weekend.
My first PC build was taking apart and putting back together my library’s Apple II+ in 1977
I then did the same with my first Apple //e in 1983
My first desktop PC build was with my first employer and was around 1992 or 1993 or so. We received a state of the art 386 with a whopping 100 MB hard drive as a Christmas bonus. I stated I wanted to build it (with some tips form the crew).
Wow. That was a lot of years ago…
Most of the machines I do are full custom or hybrid where I start with something basic and add my preferred components to it.
My last couple desktops have been built on Dell T series servers 300/400/600’s but, Am getting ready to move away from that to support a better graphics card since I run 3-4 monitors.
For friends and family I have moved most of them to customized NUC’s with on chip Intel GPU’s. You can make an awesome little workstation or HTPC for a pretty reasonable cost.
I helped my son recently with a gaming rig and that was fun scouring eBay for RTX cards when prices were insane. But nice rig with RTX3060, 24GB ram, 1TB NVME SSD, 2TB near line in RAID1 and a 6core upgradeable i5.
On my stuff I sort of do the same thing as @Rod-IT where I keep a machine for 5-6 years and do one upgrade cycle in the middle of its lifecycle.
1 Spice up
I have done both, these days it might come down to $$. Costco sometimes has some screaming deals with parts you would never get individually for the price. I just keep saying that when the new Half Life comes out I will build a new computer.
1 Spice up
scheff1
(scheff1)
19
Yes, I’ve build my own PCs in the past. But I don’t remember when this was, some 25-30 years ago. They were not my first PCs. And I did no longer build my own PCs for about 15+ years now. Selecting an interesting promotion of an OEM system and customizing it to own needs is my preferred approach, similar to what a few others mentioned.
Audio & Video rendering have always required a bespoke style system, buying off the shelf has only really become possible in recent times.
Then I moved to CCTV, which also likes a bespoke solution.
Now that the builders are only charging 20 or 30 bucks it is no longer viable to put my own thermal paste on etc. but I still design the whole box to the point of telling manufacturers how to alter their cases.
