Among the nerdy, the idea of building your own computer is theoretically appealing. It’s like building shelves, or a house, you have the opportunity to put something together with your own two hands, something that’s exactly the way you want. It deftly avoids the typical compromises that come with a pre-built machine, you’re not going to cheap out on the wrong components like so many companies do – no, you’re going to cheap out on the right ones. It’s all going to be tailor made to your needs. Here we will have a magical device that can do everything you ask of it, a shining black monument to your good taste and judgement.
When my eight year old desktop began to breathe its last this year, I decided to pull the trigger and build my own this time. After all, much as my old machine was largely able to do what I asked of it, there were some corners cut back when I bought it. As a pre-built machine, they decided to install the cheapest power supply ever made, for example. It was a good machine, but all good things come to an end, and computers generally age like dogs with progeria so eight years is a good run.
The first step is to pick parts, which sounds fun but is largely stressful. For the most part, everything is designated by a mass of numbers with no clear meaning or purpose. For example, does ASRock H97M PRO4 LGA 1150 Intel H97 mean something or did my cat just sit on the keyboard? Trying to parse what on earth anything is can sometimes feel like you’re learning a foreign language, one made entirely of acronyms and gibberish numbers.
This leads to a second problem, the constant feeling that you’re doing something wrong. This is especially true if you’re trying for something mid-range with decent value. The enthusiast community will react with confusion because you’re not buying a video card that costs as much as an entry-level Nissan, sane people who don’t know why you need an elaborate computer instead of just getting something cheap and cheerful. There will also be Apple enthusiasts who insist you should buy a Mac, but at least you know they are wrong.
Even picking a case is a hassle, because the target market is young men with terrible taste. It took more effort than I am comfortable admitting to find a case that didn’t look like a robot vomiting LEDs, and even then it still is hardly a masterpiece of interior design, just one of the few cases I’d be willing to allow into my house.
Then you have to build the thing, which like building anything seems a lot easier in theory than it does in practice. Doing it yourself saves money, but then you get reminded that professionals that do things for a living often get paid a lot of money, and there is probably a reason for that. Everything falling off my house is probably evidence as to why I should never be trusted to build anything myself, but here’s a complicated piece of technology that I have to assemble all on my own. Of course, I can’t assemble anything yet, because my rare, tasteful case is still held up in a warehouse somewhere.
I have spent a great deal of money on a pile of parts I can’t use yet and might break when I do try to use them because I did something wrong. It’s theoretically appealing, but might be a horrible mistake.
