Prior to discovering Linux and the wonderful world of generic computers, I’d have rejected the idea of getting a desktop for home based purely on frugality. Building your own computer being as economical as it is, however, I decided a proper desktop was in order.
Availability of parts in NZ is not quite what it is in the USA, at least not on a budget, but with a little recycling and planning, I got everything I needed for a pretty darned good build.
Case
CoolerMaster CM 690
Gratis
I got the case for free from a work colleague. It is in great shape and came with an inbuilt fan.
Power Supply
Thermal Blaster ATX 350W
$25
Bought this off someone at work; should have cost $50 or so. I figured 350 watts was plenty to power a simple build, and happily I was correct.
Mainboard
Asus M5A97 (R2.0)
$155
Not the most basic mainboard available because I wanted USB 3.0.
CPU
AMD FX-6300 Vishera 3.5GHz 6-core
$109
At this point, I’ve done everything you can think to do with a CPU (compile heaps of code, processed graphics, processed realtime audio effects, processed video, and played 3d games) and I so felt that anything above this would be wasted. $109
Hard Drive
Corsair 256G SSD
Gratis
I had this from my days as a laptop repairman. It had been given to me as payment. I really don’t know how anyone still uses spinning drives as their OS drive any more.
Graphics Card
NVidia GeForce GT 630
$109
The all-important GPU. This is a mid-range card. In a perfect world I’d have spent a grand and gotten a super computer on a chip but for my real world uses, this is an upgrade from what I had in the USA and has plenty of computing power. Specifically, it was an ASUS GT630-SL-2GD3-L, with 2GB GDDR3 RAM.
RAM
GSKill 8GB
$105
I have 16GB in my laptop and have to work really hard to justify that. 8GB is far more reasonable for evet the heavy-lifting that I do.
Network
TP-Link TL-WN881ND
$35
Wireless card since the desktop is nowhere near the modem and router. No extra drivers required; it’s plug-and-play with Linux.
Inputs
Keyboard, etc.
$16
I had a mouse and wacom tablet that I brought over with me, and I picked up a keyboard from an op shop, and a gamepad for $11 off of trademe (NZ’s local version of craigslist or ebay).
Display
Benq 22″ Screen
$50
Bought it from someone at work.
Total cost was a little less than $700.
It’s a custom build so finding things to compare it with in terms of bang-for-your-buck is difficult.
I guess in the branded PC world I’d have paid $1000 for such a machine, give or take a few features. The good news is that I could at least upgrade and swap out parts.
In the Mac world, the cost would be more like $1500 if we look at a similar iMac, give or take some features, and obviously I would lose the ability to change any of the internal parts.
Linux
I initially installed Mageia and would probably recommend that to others. For my purposes, I did eventually have to go over to Fedora, but only due to some packaging stuff that I do for some a Fedora-related group. Either way, the Gnome Desktop is very pretty, and the computer itself performs like a champ no matter what I ask of it.
Also, as a bonus, I did not physically build the computer, and instead let my geek girl do it. She had not built a computer before and was a little surprised, I think, to see how easy it was to do!
Mechanically speaking, assembling the large parts of the computer block diagram is, indeed, not terribly difficult for anybody with half a notion to give a try, a steady hand, and a little respect for a few delicate bits of electronic parts. Poof !!! You have designed a computer and collected the parts with a caveat of “some assembly required.”
However, to actually have the thing DO something — well, that’s another story. Selecting an operating system (OS) is the bigger part of the build, in my opinion. Taking the “easy” path to a Micro$oft offering has advantages and disadvantages of its own. Wait. I’ve done this before. I really can’t think of an advantage after all. I have had the occasion to install Windows through the years on a variety of production and custom computer builds. I can safely say that in my experience, no two installations have been the same. Even with a “golden master” disk, some setting will come up different from machine to machine. So never mind. If you’re going to get different results from machine to machine, at least do it deliberately — use something over which you are able to have absolute control. Use a distribution of Linux.
With a truly open OS, with or without a loader or installer, there are options for customization for any range of uses. A “standard” install mimics what most consumers have come to expect from a computer appliance. Custom installs abound and the user has complete control in the same way a user may explore and build a computer in an enclosure. Linux distributions offer a surprising range of basic to advanced functionality. Depending on your needs and selections of software features, the earlier caveat also applies — some assembly required.