The two types of PC builders. Which are you?

I have a Ship of PCeus thing going on with mine.

Love that. Commenting to remember. Got 2 of these, except the one is still in a case older than most of my children all of whom are now adults.
- I've still got one with a shitty cyrix cpu, a 100 MB HDD and 256 MB RAM.
  It runs dos, can play mp3s and has a Supaplex save where I beat all the levels except for two.
- Omg, after seeing your comment I realize that my 3 computers are older than my children.
- The case is an old extra-tall full tower that doubles as a mouse table. It even sits under an L desk. I just prefer that height when leaning back in my chair.
I'm stealing this for my next build name.
At this point I replaced my oldest original hard drive. I rebuilt another computer using entirely the parts I replaced. Literal ship of Theseus dilemma right there lol.
If you count an old hard drive I've always had that going, easiest to use your old app drives any reinstalls may go more quickly plus any media files on there. Though my media is mostly on my NAS, pictures tend to be on a local drive. I'm not sure I've ever done a new computer without an old drive and I've been doing this for like 25 years. Though I tend to move the old files to a newer drive before the next upgrade so not a true ship of thesus. Though most times the GPU upgrade is done at different times than the CPU/mobo/ram to keep it cheaper.

Not the case, but I did this since I didn't have the correct monitor stand

Not sure why it rotated my picture 90 degrees. But yes that is a 2x4 and yes those are zip ties

You're my hero.
And the 90 degree image that's not worth fixing because it still works just adds to the overall picture.
- My wife gets visibly angry when she sees it. It's fun.
Nice. My monitor stand is a cardboard box. It's sagging already... time to find another box.
- When I was single and moved awhile back I had a $500 gift card to walmart given to us by our company to help us out after a hurricane wrecked the area. I went on Sam's website and ordered a bed, sheets and pillows. The box for the bed became my computer desk and the boxes for the pillows became my night stands. 5 gallon pickle bucket from a nearby restaurant became my computer chair. I used it like that for a year and a half... then someone came along and we upgraded some things. I looked at it as being poor and ♻️, but others don't always see it thay way haha

What if I've been the second one for over 15 years but I finally got to build myself a whole brand new machine with flagship CPU and GPU?

Fuck RGB and glass panels, tho.

Lately been looking for a case for another build and wow, this tempered glass thing is way out of control.
- It's such fucking bullshit, when I built my first from scratch pc and wanted something utilitarian without glass panels my options were cheap Chinese garbage, tiny ITX/microATX case, Fractal Design, or overpriced designer garbage... I'm now all in on Fractal Design, everything I've built or recommended since has been Fractal Design.
- What's wrong with it? I like how it makes my PC look, and the screws hold it in securely.
It means you're one year away from reverting back. But what a year it'll be!
- Reverting? Never.
Edge to edge glass is a bit silly but having a window is nice to be able to see at a glance that fans and such are working normally.
- I'm not against plexiglas/plastic windows, but real glass, even tempered, for me is a very potential broken panel.
  And those who have their PC case on the floor can't take much advantage of a transpatent panel to see the fans...
I'm not really a fan of RGB and glass panels either to be honest, too flashy, I prefer simplier designs and cases.

PC builds aren't all so polarized. I am in the middle, spent like $1500 on components and built it myself and it looks great and runs smoothly. Sure, it doesn't run Cyberpunk on Psycho but it's running Starfield very nicely and I didn't even have to tape an AC unit to it.

I'd say I'm somewhere in the middle too. I also have this tendency to build high mid-tier as my budget allows then ride it for 7 years or so until the games I play start struggling. I just don't have the money to keep up with the latest and greatest/upgrading every year.
...admittedly since Baldur's Gate 3 came out I've been using my PC as a space heater so take that as you will...
This, but also it’s blacked out and in a plain ass case.

The desktop gaming PC that I have was a very nice PC like the one from the first panel but I got it as e-waste dirt cheap because the previous owner wanted to throw it away since it was 2 years old and he thought it was outdated. That's absolutely insane and wasteful, I hope most people aren't like this.

I did take it apart and redo it though in a much less flashy case, call me a heretic but I don't really like LEDs and window cases I prefer a much simpler look. So I guess this one would be kind of like the second one, even though all the parts are very nice and new.

Though I did assemble my Pentium 2 and 486 PCs from scratch, kind of like the first one but I guess that doesn't really count because they are almost all old parts (New soundcards though) and they're retro gaming PCs.

Definitely the bottom for me. All I care about is that it runs, can run whatever I want it to, and for games has more of a stable framerate. Looks definitely come second to functionality, if you ask me.

This is me as well. I grew up when PCs were just a beige box, utterly boring and uninspiring. The cool thing happened on the screen! My GPU has some LEDs and stuff but I only got it because it was cheaper than one without, and I still have a case without a window so whatever
Do you have the mouse mat with tits though? You gotta have that to qualify.
- Wait, y'all use a mousepad? /s
  I don't since I don't even have a mousepad at the moment.

To me the two types are the kind that have really good looking, color coordinated components and then myself who has a random assortment of totally mismatched components because they were the cheapest or best performing option.

Yes. I also occupy a different space than the options given. Meticulous research, putting together the best value (balancing cost and performance), not caring about visual appeal or setting any high benchmarks.

Wait why would she have a boobs mousepad thing?

Why not?
For a wrist cushion
- No, they suck for comfort. It's 100% the titties.
Honestly, I think I may have run into more women who have those then men. Or at least more willing to admit they have them lol
Girls can like boobs, too
Moob mousepads exist. I use an Arataji Itto one :3
I've a female friend who has one just because she thinks its hilarious.

I'll go against the grain in the comments:

I'm the top one.

I hadn't gamed in 20 years and this got me back into it. I wanted it all white. I never buy myself anything nice or new. And it was fun to learn how to build a PC. Don't @ me.

No shame in that. It's a fun experience to get really into building.

Bottom PC is truly sexy to my eyes. That's a PC someone looked into, with their limitations, a PC they wanted and did their best to get what they need and want

That's more cyberpunk than cyberpunk.

I figured out a long time ago that making the PC pretty is useless

I've been building PCs since the beige era. Mine have never been pretty.

When turning on my computer from cold it doesn't wake the primary monitor from standby. I need to turn it off, unplug the monitor, wake the monitor up from standby manually, start the computer and plug in the cable at the right time...

You tell me which one I am.

Are you asking me if I’m a top or a bottom?

Lol my ssd's are just hanging out of the case by their sata cables. I'm missing some hardware so its just guts-out until I find that ziplock bag full of screws (i remember seeing it a couple years ago). my wrist is killing me tho, that ergo mouse pad makes a lot of sense.

I’m missing some hardware so its just guts-out until I find that ziplock bag full of screws (i remember seeing it a couple years ago).
Skimming this I read you as saying the whole machine was in a bag and now I'm like, "Yeah, what if one built a PC in bag-like shape?"
My 6900XT doesn't fit in my 8 year old case and the cover has been off for 2 years now :)
There's a rattle from one of the case fans I need to fix, but it disappears when under load, so ¯(ツ)/¯

There is a 3rd type.
Those with the "dark horse".
It's a smallish black box PC, no RGB, mini-itx sized, sits under the desk, mostly out of sight.
Quiet, well cooled.
Has the latest gen CPU & GPU, oodles of ram and nvme storage.

In the same vein, the ancient Beige Box with the same specs as the Dark Horse. It might not have as good of cooling and might be significantly louder, but it'll keep up just as well. I had to use two 13,000RPM 80mm server fans for intake and exhaust in mine to cool an i9-12900k
This will be my next build.
- It's what I have.
  Case choice for mini-itx is pretty limited, but it's getting better. There are group buyins for small run manufacturing, like mechanical keyboards - but I've never been involved in one of those.
  Not sure if there are any that would fit a 4090, tho!
  But I love em!
  I have a clean desk, nothing flashing, no risk of a glass side panel exploding.
  The builds are a little more challenging and more expensive, but I quite enjoy it. Have to make sure parts fit, cable management has to be spot on, you need decent fans because there are less of them

The poor one.

I'm the guy who bought one ridiculously expensive component that's now bottlenecked by the rest of the build until I can replace everything else haha

That's how I do my builds, just one rolling bottleneck rather than doing a complete build.
- I’m not about to do the thinking and math required… but I’m curious if this is actually a decent way to go about upgrading on a budget. If this actually gets you a comparable average experience to saving money at the same rate, but only upgrading when you’ve got enough for a whole new build.
A few months ago I spent 2800€ on a new build with a flagship AMD CPU and GPU.
I lost my shit when I realized I had installed a mobo that supported PCIe 5.0 for storage but only PCIe 4.0 for the card slots, until I checked the specs of my RT7900 XTX and saw that it was also PCIe 4.0, so I was even.
I also ignored the RAM OC compatibility sheet of the mobo, as the manufacturer can never test every possible RAM module, and I got other modules that were still within the supported OC ranges. When I tried to overclock the RAM the system became completely unstable, so I cannot use them to their full potential.
I'm still happy of my non-rgb and non-glass panels build, tho.
Hey, are you me making my pandemic build?
I still haven't upgraded the component that I need to, and it's been 2 years.

Builds a $5000 PC to play Koikatsu.

gigachad

Like my friend building PC's with 20 thread CPUs and expensive cooling when he just dicks around in Gmod lmao
All those mods are very resource intensive

Tfw when no 150lb server rack

I like to think I'm the first but actually I'm the second.

I'll be the 1st for about a week while after I've researched parts and stuff, but then turn into the 2nd for the remainder of that PC's lifespan.

A mix of both. I have good components and my stuff is set up to be very well organized, but my PC looks old

After ten years, I might actually buy a new case this year.
- It'll have been ten years for me too, bur I'll pass not gonna lie. I still love my case despite it not being up to the same "standard" that modern PC builders hold aesthetic up to. I've got a corsair c70 for both my personal and workstation builds, it may be tacky but I love them!
  They are also practically indestructible.
- I picked up a new case a couple of years ago, after a similar length of time, and they've gotten so much better!
- No don't! Sleeper retro PCs are back in style, I wish I was joking but I'm serious. Pack that ten year old case with as much power your poor little wall outlet can provide!
My rig is on the higher end of mid tier but it's in a matte black box (Cooler Master N400) on the floor.

My partner has one of the boob mousepads.

One of my SSDs just dangles in the case even though the rest of the build is put together just fine

Got a new SSD and didn't think to measure out the distance the wire was going to need and it ended up like an inch short so it now just dangles from a little setup I did to remove tension from the connectors

Looks silly but since SSDs don't have moving parts I see no reason it wont be fine

I've had a dangling SSD in my machine for years now, no issues. It's one of those things you do when on a budget and things don't work out fully as expected.
I also still habe optical drives in my machine, one of which is only in there because I no longer have the cover for the drive slot. The drive itself is disconnected and dead.
- After my last build I had to rewire the case for some reason, which was a pain in the ass. Somehow, after the rewire, the "reset" button became the "on" button, and the "on" button does nothing but light up when the computer is on. I've been saying, "Meh, good enough" for seven years now.
- I’ve had a dangling SSD in my machine for years now, no issues. It’s one of those things you do when on a budget and things don’t work out fully as expected.
  TFW you're too poor to buy double-sided tape.
I also have a dangling SSD, but it's shoved into the back compartment with the wires. Seems to be fine. I think it's happy there.
Technically it probably runs slightly cooler.
Let it dangle, mine does too!

The case is dented and front USB don't work but I still love it

I'm in between, I like/need my beefy components (for work) but I don't worship my machine or feel the need to pimp it out, as long as it's quiet and out of my way and provides the performance I'm happy. That's why I have 0 RGB and use a big ass noctua fan instead of water-cooling.

I'll just buy some Dell Optiplex for $200 from eBay, and then maybe trow in a cheap GPU.

I did that but the slim case didn't fit a GPU so I just have the door off and a PCI-E extender with the GPU precariously resting on top of the hard drive.
I did this way back in like 2008. I was working in IT and snagged an optiplex and had the bright idea to throw a gpu in it and see how it did. Realized a few things, at this particular time the psu did not have the extra connector for the gpu, I should have known that. So I buy one to swap it out, realize Dell had a proprietary mobo connector and was apparently something they did but not all the time. So I had to buy an adapter to make it work. Also had the same issue with getting it to fit as well! It worked great once I took care of all that! Lasted like 4 years.

I'm the kind that used their PC as a heat provider during winter.

I didn't usually, but with CS2 it's apparent it'll be the case

I was the bottom, but finally going to be the top this week! Just purchased everything to build my first new one since 2016. The 2016 one was me buying decent stuff but mostly mid range. This time I feel like I went mostly top tier outside some things (although some stuff says mid range which I don't get). Although I still don't care how the pc looks, I am one of the few that hates RGB and purchased everything I could without it. I took it so far that I got myself Noctua fans. Yes, I really don't care that my pc will look brown beige inside, at least I know it will be quiet and cool which is all that really should matter!

Congrats and good luck on the build! Function over form, I say.
- Thanks! Been eyeing up AMD CPUs for years, but didn't want to get involved with the GPU shortage price nonsense. After the news broke for last week's new GPU drop I figured it's about as good as it will get until next year. Got everything and waiting on the new rx 7800 xt to come in 2 days.
  Should be a huge leap coming from my last build which revolved around an rx 480. I did love that card and it still runs great non stop since 2016. Handing it down to my son which will be his first pc.

i just use my 8yr old pc with the i5 and gtx 970. it keeps crashing but i just ignore it and it still works so whatever

my peripherals are mostly free handmedowns except for my g502

i7-4770 freebie work surplus for me - the only thing I paid for was a GTX1060ti several years ago.
Can't compromise on the g502
- facts

I bought a replacement cover for my case. No window. Cable management can suck my dick.

I specifically required a case with no windows on my last build. I don't need to see it, I just need it to work. Plus, I was too cheap to pay for for the same fan in black when the brown works just fine, so it was gonna be kind of ugly in the guts no matter what.
I have a case with no window nor RGB but still proper cable management, lol.
These new cases with all those holes on the internal panel really invite to do a proper cable management just for the sake of it. Also: better cooling I guess, although we don't have those bulky PATA/IDE cables anymore.

I recognize that game on the top panel's monitor...

I didn't know if these were real games or not.
- Not sure about the bottom panel, but the one on top is certainly a "real game."

I'm the one that can't afford to build any PC 😭

Scrounge for parts and build a low spec junker PC. It honestly sounds fun.
If you look around you might be able to find a low spec one for cheap or even for free, and if you get really lucky you might find some rich gamer willing to throw away his high spec PC because he/she considers it outdated.
That last one is what happened with me, the guy wanted to throw away the PC because according to him it was 2 years old and thus "outdated".

I am perfectly in the middle.

Depends, if it's all new stuff I'm the first one. If I'm swapping things out or cobbling something together from scraps it's the second one.

both

My pc looks like the first one (clear panel, same LED colors) but I most certainly feel like the second one with my rattling case fan that I never bothered to fix

I do not deserve the one on the top. I brick my software on a monthly basis

I once put a huge room fan on my computer when the CPU fan died. It worked! I'm much more extreme than that second panel.

Bottom panel all the way. Expensive stuff dies/burns out at the same rate as cheap stuff, so you might as well go with the cheap stuff. The best way to pc game is on a budget custom build.

I absolutely love both types. That's why I'm somewhere in between.

I want to say the first, but it's the second

I'm about to build my first PC, and I'm planning to be in the middle.

I don't need all the fancy shit I just want to build something (without RGB bullshit) that will last me a long time and run linux flawlessly (so AMD everything?).

I know there are sites that will help with parts/linux compatability but I lost all my bookmarks last week, and I haven't been able to find it again yet.

If anyone has advice for me or knows that site, I'm all eyes! (Would be "all ears" but this is text lol).

The site I always use to check compatibility and power draw when building is pcpartpicker.
Can't speak for Linux though
- Thank you!
AMD has solid Linux support for most stuff, but if you want reviews of hardware from Linux systems, you can check out Phoronix. If you're hoping to game, you can also check ProtonDB for crowdsourced reviews and tips on how well specific games designed for Windows work on Linux with Steam's compatibility layer.
- Thank you! No gaming for me (well, OpenMW maybe, and some emulators.)

Definitely the bottom one. I have a totally black PC case and one of the case fans has a power cable that's extended using 2 taped together GPIO cables from my raspberry pi kit. There's also a hard drive in there that hasn't been working for 1 year at least

The one hard drive that doesn't work just sitting there is a true testamnet to my false hope. I swapped my psu a year ago and accidentally fried my 2tb hard drive. I got a new rig this summer and still transferred it over and plugged it in with the hope that it would resume life, only for it to be truly dead. It is still sitting in the new rig lol, couldn't be bothered to remove it after testing.
I have a black windowless case to, my hdd is ironicly in the place where the hdd case was put in for shipping purposes (chilling next to the psu). Also I used an anchient 2+4pin pigtail cable together with a 8pin cable to power the gpu.

I drilled a hole in the wall and my PC is the nightlight of the kitchen. No noise.

Sounds like terrible air circulation. Or is it water-cooled?
- I'm sure there's plenty of air in the kitchen.

What about sffpc?

The top one. My PC is awesome

no glass, no worries

I just recently (a year ago) pulled my Phenom II x6 out of the old AT case to put in a Dell ATX, and bought a modern power-supply-on-bottom ATX case from Montech for like $100 because it had 6 RGB case fans preinstalled with a glass side panel. I gave the Phenom II x6 to my daughter with a 970 GTX, and got a cheap X570 motherboard and Ryzen 5 3600x to throw in the case. Cost me about $300 all said and done, because I already had all the rest of the stuff. A friend from the local hackerspace gave me his "old" 3060 12gb, because he was upgrading to a 4090, and I couldn't be happier. I feel like royalty rn even though I know it's not the best machine out there, lol

But the RGB button stays off. And I use a BRICK of an air cooler, it's like a knockoff Noctua D12

I took tin snips to the GeForce 310 from my old family computer because I had a SFF PC and wanted a second monitor, so I guess I'm the latter

There was the guy on reddit a week or so ago that was the fusion of these. Ran a custom cooling loop up his wall into the AC vent and got insanely low temps.

Just a word of warning to people: if temps are too low you get condensation. Circuits don't like water.
- Yeah, worked here because he had an overpowered AC for the room and it kept the room very dry.

Most people build budget or best bang for their buck builds

These days, the top. Pretty close to it, too--other than the hardline tubing, that's about what my gaming setup looks like.

I've also ran systems in the past where the "case" is the box the motherboard came in, and you started it by tripping the switch header with whatever piece of metal was handy. Good times.

I cut a hole in the side of a NUC and wired a graphics card to the nvme port. It's stuck to the back of my monitor with velcro. It works.

It's perfectly possible to go full-blown overclocking with watercooling whilst not buying top of the range parts (which tend to be "twice the price for an extra 10% performance" deals) and not spending a cent in decorative elements such as turning your PC box into a lightshow.

In fact it absolutelly makes sense to get well selected parts from the high middle end of the consumer segment using knowledge about performance bottlenecks to select the right stuff to get more bang for the buck and pumping up performance further with overclocking using the right self-assembled cooling and tweaks to things like voltage supplied to the CPU.

I like to call it Intelligent Performance Aware PC Builder but calling it Tight-fisted Old Gamer would work too ;)

I'm very satisfied with my build but my main issues are cables. The cables of the two CPU fans are way too long so they hang in a pretty non aesthetic way. On the other hand, the cables of the fan headers are too short for me to put them in the back of the case so it has to just stay there below my GPUs. It's awful.

🙁 ✋ water cooling
🙁 ✋ RGB
🙁 ✋ color-coordinated cable sleeving
🙂 👉 making custom cables just to get the length right

The first, but I pay someone to do it for me

I'll be the $5000 guy in the future.

(☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞