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Cool! Then I guess the article's title is incorrect. Still, it's pretty awesome!
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." - John Quincy Adams
You must accept one of two basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not alone in the universe. And either way, the implications are staggering” - Wernher von Braun
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My last several home PCs have had AMD processors because at the time I bought/built them the AMD option seemed to me to offer the best bang/per buck. In addition there might have been a little bit of supporting the underdog involved too.
I am considering building a new one which, and I know I've said this before, will probably be the last entirely new system I'll get. Looking at the performance/price figures I cannot see any alternative to an Intel CPU this time.
Since I am an impoverished Senior Citizen I'm going to have to save very hard for several months, in any case, and live on bread and pullit while doing so. The question is whether to save until I have the whole cost or save a little, buy some part(s), save a little etc.
Over the last few weeks I have been tracking the prices of the various components
- Case
- PSU
- Motherboard
- Processor
- Memory
- SSD
- HD
- Graphics Card
and some seem to be stable whilst others seem to be falling.
So, if you were unfortunate enough to have to buy in instalments, in which order would you buy the components and why?
Henry Minute
Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain
Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?"
“I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus!
When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is.
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Henry Minute wrote: I'm going to have to save very hard for several months, in any case, and live on bread and pullit while doing so.
You can always live your remaining days as a wanted bank robber, stealing and hiding your loot until you have enough for your brand-spanking new number cruncher.
Then again...maybe not.
-----------------------------
Just along for the ride.
-----------------------------
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It depends on how long you need to "save" up to total cost.
If it's only a couple of months, then get them all together.
If significantly longer then...
1) Case, PSU, Motherboard, Graphics Card (if basic graphics card, also many Intel MOBO's come with graphics capability built in and use the CPU for much of the horsepower)
2) Processor, Memory, HD
3) SSD, High-power Graphics card.
Good luck.
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." - John Quincy Adams
You must accept one of two basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not alone in the universe. And either way, the implications are staggering” - Wernher von Braun
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- Case (these don't change much)
- PSU / Motherboard / Processor / Memory / HD (there can be tricky dependencies... buy them all together)
- Graphics Card (you can use onboard graphics for a while)
- SSD (the price on these can only go down the longer you wait, so get it last)
You may want to go minimal on the RAM ($100 gets you 8GB), as you can easily upgrade it later. I would buy the first 6 components together, because it will do you no good to have a partial system sitting around. The remaining two can always come later and be upgraded later as well.
Driven to the ARMs by x86.
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AspDotNetDev wrote: You may want to go minimal on the RAM ($100 gets you 8GB)
Minimal.
I remember when 8MB was considered insanely over-powered.
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And you had to walk bare foot to the computer store in the snow up hill both ways...
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I remember first PC RAM Upgrade from 512-640Kb gave me bleeding fingers  not talking about computers the times before when it ment burnt fingers  - that can be pleasant after a long walk in the snow..
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Agree for the most part. My only contention would be the HD the price is steadily decreasing and
is not dependent on the MOBO/CPU or memory. All new MOBO have connectors for SATA and
is pretty well standardized.
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I see you've got NCAS (New Computer Acquisition Syndrome)
If you're like me it doesn't matter what order you order you're going
to be jonesing until you get it built. 
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Sounds about right. 
Henry Minute
Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain
Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?"
“I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus!
When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is.
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I've seen your attempts at home builds[^]
Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done.
Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H
OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre
I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer
Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett
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Now that's just silly.
These[^] are some of mine.
Henry Minute
Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain
Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?"
“I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus!
When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is.
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Henry Minute wrote: So, if you were unfortunate enough to have to buy in instalments,
Bugger that. I'd re-mortgage the house to the hilt, spend the cash on everything I've wanted to do but not had the money to be able to do it and leave the kids to pay it off!
You do trust me, don't you?
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If it were me:
Save the money until you have almost all of it.
Components have always fallen in price in the past, and unless we see a massive jump in inflation they should continue to do so.
If you don't have the component doing something, just sitting on the shelf all of the risk is on your side. If you get delayed for any reason you've tied the money up in something that isn't doing you a damn bit of good. Then the component is even more obsolete. And taunting you.
When you have enough, you buy it all at once or almost all. You get the best bang for your buck to do it all at once.
_____________________________
Give a man a mug, he drinks for a day. Teach a man to mug...
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smcnulty2000 wrote: If you don't have the component doing something, just sitting on the shelf all of the risk is on your side.
I agree with that in principle but I've already got enough for the Case, PSU and Motherboard and it is soooooooo difficult to resist.
Henry Minute
Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain
Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?"
“I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus!
When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is.
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A 12 step program.
Would you then be a 12 step programmer?
_____________________________
Give a man a mug, he drinks for a day. Teach a man to mug...
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EVERY, not just every, AMDed machine I've had has died within 2 years. No idea why. 
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I have three ancient specimens still runnable, one 8 years old in use every day.
Western Digital disks now, I can't keep one of them live for more than a week. Strange ain't it?
Henry Minute
Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain
Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?"
“I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus!
When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is.
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Consider a plug?
Maybe that will get that PC Monkey off your back.
http://www.plugcomputer.org/[^]
'Course it's going to be very linux-y.
_____________________________
Give a man a mug, he drinks for a day. Teach a man to mug...
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Henry Minute
Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain
Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?"
“I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus!
When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is.
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Eeek, indeed.
But it has such potential. Like shale oil. A siren's song.
Didn't you know that CPUs are a gateway drug?
_____________________________
Give a man a mug, he drinks for a day. Teach a man to mug...
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Nice. More robust.
Pricier though.
And it'll do windows. I'm pretty sure the plug won't.
_____________________________
Give a man a mug, he drinks for a day. Teach a man to mug...
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If you can effectively upgrade your existing machine piece by piece...
MB/Processor/Memory first - replace existing but keep everything else
It would save time to buy the case and PSU at this point, but if financial concerns outweigh convenience then this can wait.
HD next - as this can be added simply added to the mix with or without removing the old disk(s)
the rest of the components are a luxury
if you don't intend to tinker much when you move to the new case, get a cheapo and install the components - ensuring you get a suitable CPU with it
Graphics card - what's wrong with the one you have? If you gaming (or need dual monitor or HDMI output or something, then sure, splash out, but in my book this could go last on the pile
SSD - gain a luxury, and constantly decreasing prices mean put it off as long as you can
Better option if you are strapped for cash, is to save into a term deposit account specifically for the purpose - at maturity the prices will almost certainly have come down, and the forced saving means it won't have been spent - and it is SOOOOOO nice to be able to go to your local online store and just order all the bits, then spend a few hours putting it all together, and suffering that moment of terror the first time you turn it on and there's a pause before any lights come on!
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