I can't manage this shit anymore man. I used to be able to do it all really well back in like 2008/9 and was much more simple in comparison, to me at least.
Now? Now drivers are fucked, CPU's are all over the place, ethics play into it a lot, companies are all over the place, its not just "Lol I put a 9800 in a pentium 4 box" or anything fun like that anymore. Don't have a 4790K or above? Sorry this game won't run! :DDD
I legit think I'm going to buy from Origen or Digital Storm from now on. I'm not doing this RMA shit anymore.
I built a FreeNas box out of my old 8350 and mobo last weekend and just did a workstation build based on a Xeon 1231-v3 and a R9 390, and had problems with neither. Yeah it took more time vs just buying a Nas and buying a pre-done workstation, but it was also satisfying to do it myself and I have confidence in it because I built it, and I know that no nonsense went into the process of it because I did it myself. That's just my view of why I like to build my machines personally vs's letting someone else do it for me.
I would say a good bit less than THAT, even... other than Gigabyte pre-rev4 AM3+ boards :P
to OP.... buy from Amazon if you hate RMAs... they literally just don't care why it doesn't work.... they express ship a new one and send the old one back in the new one's box within two weeks or they'll double-charge you... simple
Mostly professionally refurbed parts. But I was helping a business with a gaming PC today and we looked through 3 or 4 mobos and when we got to 5 it worked. They were all new. I feel like the quality has gone down over the years.
Yeah I was way high. I googled it and found this pudget systems article for their failure rate recap of 2014;
Computer parts and refub really never seemed like a good combination to me. The only parts I buy used are network cards because they're so damn cheap off ebay. The article I posted above is a bit old, but failure rates are only going to improve year over year, and even in 2014 they were way less than the 1 in 100 figure I gave out in my earlier post.
EDIT: Here's the 2015 post from pudget about their hardware failure rates in the components they recieve:
more of the same, the failure rate is ridiculously low.
I run a Pentium g3258 w 660ti on my extra rig. it runs most games on low-high. depending. most new games on low-med. I buy nothing but used part. but I know its a gamble
this is why most people don't want to buy pc for gaiming. the whole repair part.
I think its more of the stigma that building a computer is some elaborate process that requires hours upon hours of training and days for building, and that anything less than a $2000 computer won't be sufficient for gaming. Obviously that's not the case, but I think there are some people out there that are turned off by the thought that its so much harder to do than it really is.
I personaly realy like to build computers myself. But as soon as a new platform launches, i´m allways starting to look up all the ins an outs of that particular platform.. Motherboards, gpu´s etc same story. Thats how i stay up to date.
I also only recommend parts from which i personaly know that they are good. I dont recommend parts on hype.
Part of the fun to me is when things break or don't work on the first go. It makes me want to know why and I won't stop until I do, even if I have to ask around to find out. Very rarely will I give up, and when I do its because of time or money constraints, but I always find a work around.
I'm not knocking you down for not wanting to have to deal with that, it makes perfect sense. This is just me :P
I agree it was much simpler life back then the AM3 and 775 socket days. Nowadays you're f'ed up if the board is 1156 instead of 1151 and you bought the wrong generation chip off by one, thanks Intel for changing socket every year! Or you buy an older HP/Dell only to learn their latest bios doesn't support cheating their upgrade system by putting in a 3570K? Then there's the m.2 crap allowing z97 and older z77 to allow some to boot with m.2 and others don't, like the x79 motherboards. Or just outright stupid things and quirks like not having standardize bios/uefi bios and a gtx 970 not working on workstation motherboards without bios upgrade 3 months later. Putting the memory controller on the CPU and saying that 1600mhz is what u should expect only out of support out of i7s, even thought the QVL and OC profiles on motherboard says 2400mhz capable? Or lastly crapping on the pci express lanes and giving the 5820k only 28 lanes while the others have 40 lanes that cost 2-3x more. That or having lanes shared between m.2, bottom 2 pci-e expansion etc..
You're wrong it doesn't, you obiviously haven't built many computers lately. Also you can put certain motherboards inside pc cases that aren't meant for it. Such as certain EATX can fit in NXZT Phantom case even though it's not supported in pcpartspicker. Pcpartspicker isn't always right and it's far from being google or wiki. It's not a BE ALL END ALL shop bro. If you search enough you can actually find NEW items from third party websites that can be 5-10 dollars cheaper than the cheapest quoted on pcpartspicker. Such as back when their was a drop in the Samsung 850 evo prices. IT was quoted around 73-85 dollars on pcpicker, but third party had it around 67-70 and that's with free shipping etc... In a way they are PROMOTING or actively ignoring shops which aren't in their interest.
Well i think that there are more then enough sources to find on the internet, which people can use to educate them selfs. Tech communities like Teksyndicate for example.
I have the opposite problem. I like building and tinkering with computers, but get bored from games very quickly these days. (I think that says more about my interests than the games, I'm not one of those "games were better in the good 'ole days" people.)
I'm going to say that one of the best OC boards from asus wasn't cheapo stuff.
Someone on the forum can agree with me though. I would rather pay 300 bucks more for a computer from origen or digital storm that is stress tested that I know will work than play a balancing game. I get that as parts are manufactured better and better then the duds are fewer and fewer. I'm just sick of duds at this point. If its a project compe` like an AMD K7 or a P4 or a 486 or maybe a dual xeon dell or 2009 mac pro I don't mind getting duds. Everything costs 5 bucks a shot. Main PC though? I'm not paying 130 bucks for a mobo that on the off chance it won't work.
There USED to be parts shops that, at least in my area, you could go in, see the stock, test it yourself with whatever was in the spare racks, and make sure that whatever you were buying worked. Now its shotty RMA that may or may not go through and your stuff might just disappear. At least when I RMA stuff 30% of the time it comes back. Granted I build once and try not to fuck with it after but once in a while theres something that needs changing out.
I love building PC's. And even though I want mine to run smoothly all the time because I payed good money for it, I secretly get excited when something isn't working the way it should. I love troubleshooting.