QOTD: How Much Did Your Computer(s) Cost?

More than 1,000 and not an Apple. Hard to say really, since its an upgraded version of my last homebuilt computer up to the point everything was replaced over time.

I'm putting together my next computer in a couple of months and it will be over a grand too, but also not an Apple.

Well let's see, the original build of my machine cost around £800 (note I built it myself), but I have since upgraded the graphics cards twice, the processor, ram and optical drive, as well as adding many more monitors (do those count towards the cost?). I guess I would price the machine I have today excluding components removed and monitors and operating system would have cost me about £900, with those things more like £2,500 (I have three 24" monitors, a 22" monitor, external hard drive array etc.)....

Current PC...

Processor: Intel Core i7 CPU 920 4.2Ghz
Memory: 6144MB OCZ CL 8-8-8-24 1600MHz
Hard Drive: Primary: 64 GB (2x 30GB OCZ Vertex SSD raid0) Secondary: 3TB (2x 1.5TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 raid0)
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
Monitor: 3x Dell 2209WA E-IPS
Sound Card: X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatality Pro
Speakers/Headphones: Creative Gigaworks 7.1 THX Certified / Shure SE530PTH Earphones
Keyboard: Razor Tarantula / Saitek Eclipse 2
Mouse: Logitech MX Revolution / Logitech MX518
Mouse Surface: Razor eXactMat
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R
Power Supply: Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 1000w
Computer Case: Silverstone Fortress


Someone else do the math.. it makes me cry

Current PC...

Processor: Intel Core i7 CPU 920 4.2Ghz
Memory: 6144MB OCZ CL 8-8-8-24 1600MHz
Hard Drive: Primary: 64 GB (2x 30GB OCZ Vertex SSD raid0) Secondary: 3TB (2x 1.5TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 raid0)
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
Monitor: 3x Dell 2209WA E-IPS
Sound Card: X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatality Pro
Speakers/Headphones: Creative Gigaworks 7.1 THX Certified / Shure SE530PTH Earphones
Keyboard: Razor Tarantula / Saitek Eclipse 2
Mouse: Logitech MX Revolution / Logitech MX518
Mouse Surface: Razor eXactMat
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R
Power Supply: Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 1000w
Computer Case: Silverstone Fortress


Someone else do the math.. it makes me cry

I went with the best bang for buck on each individual part. And I wanted quad cores for my video transcoding.


Current Build:
-Processor: Intel Core 2 Q6600 Quad Core 2.4GhHz ~$200
-Video Card: Safire ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB ~$200
-Memory: OCZ Gold XTC OCZ2G10662G 2 x 2GB ~$50
-Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P ~$130
-HDD: WDC WD5000AAKS 500GB ~$60
-Power Supply: BFG 550w ~$55
-Case: Antec 300 ~$60
-Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 2333 ~$230
-Speakers: Logitech X530 ~$70 upgrading to Z5500 soon..
-Keyboard/Mouse: Generic Logitech
-Sound: Onboard upgrading to something soon any suggestions?
OS: Windows Seven x64 RC

So without the OS around $1100 US

Last one I built for MYSELF is pretty good for the money in my opinion. Was sometime in the last half of last year. $1900.
basics of it:
q9550 oc'd to 3.4ghz
hd 4870x2
gigabyte ep45ud3p
850watt corsair psu
8 gigs of mushkin ddr2 (yes, overkill, but one of those sticks was a leftover)
antec 1200 case
onboard sound
22" samsung monitor
g5 mouse
saitek 2 eclipse keyboard
zalman 9700 cpu cooler
vista 64bit
single 640gig hd(will add more when i need the room)
I got extended warranties on most of the parts, so truth be told this cost in the end probably closer to $2100.

at least $2500.... excluding shipping and import duties.

My OpenSolaris server: NF8100 + 8450 + 4GB DDR2 + IDE DVD + IDE 400GB Boot + 3.5TB 6 SATA raidz, serves as SAN/NAS, hosts websites and runs Games Server in virtualBox, cost under £500

Server farm in garage, decommissioned rack from work, cost £nowt

Why are people so happy to waste so much money?

I spent £195.17 ($115.79) making my home PC. Runs Ubuntu. Does all I need.

I guess the only reason to spend more is for gaming and work related shizzle. But hey... surely work should fit that bill?

Built my PC from scratch in early summer 2007, after spending about 3 months researching and watching to see how prices were moving.

BFG 680i SLI
BFG 8800 GTX OC2
4GB OCZ SLI DDR2 PC8500
OCZ Ram cooler
Samsung F1 500GB
Tuniq Tower 120
E6850 (OC'd to 3.7Ghz)
NZXT Zero Case
Samsung 22"
Pioneer DVDRW
G15 Keyboard, MX Revolution Mouse
Alphacool LCD display
Aphacool Fan Controller
Various fan dampening kits, and cable tidy kits.

The most expensive part was the graphics card at £350, which was still £100 cheaper than a vanilla Ultra. Total came to about £1200. Got Logitech 5.1 speakers for xmas that year.
March this year I added a second BFG 8800 GTX OC2 with an Accelero Xtreme cooler for £100, and modded the case by cutting out the side panel and putting AC Ryan mesh over it, and replaced the 4 original side fans with Scythe Karma 1900rpm ones + 1 in the Tuniq.

So intial outlay £1200, + £150 since on modding and extra Graphics card.

Next £250-£300 on watercooling over the next 12 months.

Would waste money on an over priced under performing PC made by Apple. Was different when they had Power PC cpu's but now you are only paying for aesthetics.

Would NOT waste money on an over priced under performing PC made by Apple. Was different when they had Power PC cpu's but now you are only paying for aesthetics

Mine was around, £600,
Q6600
hd4850
ga-ep45-ds3
4gig ram

does the job, and its about a year old now

Q6600 @3.2 - About £75 from a friend
Sapphire HD4870 - About £130 from eBay
Gigabyte P35-DS3L mobo - Not really sure. Think it was about £60?
Antec Nine Hundred case - £60
Logitech G5 mouse - £25
500 gb Seagate HDD - £40
Samsung T220 22" Monitor - £190

Add in the generic bits like optical drive, and that's about £600. That's not too bad. I never added it up before, as I thought it would be a lot worse!

Case: Thermaltake Black Armor LCS
PSU: Corsair Memory 1000W ATX PSU
Motherboard: Asus P5N72-T Premium nForce 780i
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz @ 3.825GHz
RAM: 4GB (1x Corsair Memory TWIN2X4096-8500C5 2x2GB 1066MHz) @ 900MHz
Graphics: 2x EVGA GeForce GTX 295 1792MB GDDR3
HDD C: 160GB (2x Seagate 80GB SATA II 7200RPM) [OS/Programms]
HDD D: 320GB (2x Seagate 160GB SATA II 7200RPM) [Games]
HDD Z: 500GB (Seagate 500GB SATA II 7200RPG in a External Case) [Files]
Displays: 3x Samsung SyncMaster 2043BW 20'' (1680x1050)
Other: Matrox TripleHead2Go Digial (Final Res, 5040x1050)
Mouse: Logitech G5
Keyboard: Logitech G19

Cost was over £2,500 when I built it a few months ago, excluding the price of the HDD and Mouse as I already had them.

too much, definately more then $1000 and it is not apple

Galaxy III generic case
Enermax Modu82 425W
Phenom II 720
Gigabyte GA-MA790X-DS4 board
4GB OCZ Gold 1066Mhz
Seagate 500GB 32MB cache
XFX Nvidia GeForce 8800GS
Dell FP1905 monitor
LG DVD-RW
Labtec Mouse & Keyboard
Logitech 2.1 Speakers

only few months old -around £350-400 only..I patiently search for online good deals (including eBay) and it paid off, RRP would cost me £150+ more. I could play all current games anyway.next month I'm going to switch to 4770CF.

I spent 1700 euro on my Dell laptop. I need the performance for gaming but it gets a lot of use for work too. I would at least consider a 15" macbook pro when I'm getting a new lappy but if I go through with my plans to build my own desktop (budget c.a. 1500 euro) then my laptop will last me until it dies. Then I'll only need a cheap laptop with lots of ram.

My just-replaced 478 P4 system cost £1,200 (including monitors) 6 years ago and has had £500 spent since, and she still has a few years left in her.

My 1-month old i7 920 system cost £2,400 (including monitors).

Processor: Intel Core2Duo E8500 CPU4.275ghz £176
Memory: 4096MB OCZ CL 5-5-5-18 @1800MHz £41
Hard Drive: Primary: 500Gb (vista 64)
Secondary 1x300Gb 1x 250Gb(ubuntu9.04)
£150 ( £50 each approx at time of purchase)
Video Card: Nvidia Palit GTX 295
@ 676mhzcore/1132 Mhz Ram/ 1457mhz Shaders £345
Monitor: 22" Samsung T220 £240
Headphones: Medusa Gaming 5.1Headphset £45
Keyboard: Saitek Gaming Keyboard +
Commander Pad £40
Gaming Pad :Belkin Nostromo N52 Speedpad £19
Mouse: Razer Copperhead Tempest Blue £42
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3LR £102
Power Supply: Hiper Bronze 1000w £124
Computer Case: Coolermaster Cosmos S £152
DVD Drive: Optiarc AD-7201A with LightScribe £16
Fan Controller: Super Flower £8
Card Reader: Generic 14 in 1 Card Reader + USB port £6
Extra Fans: 4X120mm Akasa 17db £30

over £1500 not including P+P or the 40+ games or wasted hours building
also each old pc gets handed to kids then i build a new one so 4 pcs in the house which probably cost the same at the time of build
1st pc was a cyrix 166mhx 16mb ram £952 in 1997 omg lol

LOTS roughly £1500 and thats including the watercooling

cryix 166mhz
16mb ram which was £50 extra than the standard 8mb
i had the 2.1gb hhd instead of teh 1.6gb drive £40 extra
and they said do you want the media pack
i said nah.. oh whats that
guy said the cd drive and speakers
so guess i had to have it lol.. jeez a cd drive was extra lol
i paid half up front then rest over 6 months..
back then there wasnt much choice of retailers and it was from a local shop. and they still trading to this day

oh and a 1mb video card. which i later upgraded to 2mb as back then you could buy vram

@ Coroder
"Hard Drive: Primary: 64 GB (2x 30GB OCZ Vertex SSD raid0) "

Considering a raid0 setup of ssd's...How do you find yours?

lol, cyrix used to be some steam train those times... wonder how you could even overclock it. My last rig was only 1000€ , home-made and laptop 1099€.
Hope I can have a home-made laptop too next time

"This is my grandfather's axe: my father fitted it with a new stock, and I have fitted it with a new head." Replaced all the components too many times to tell.

That last comment reminded me of that only fools and horses where denzil gets an award for keeping his brrom for soo long, he forgets to mentions hes replaced the head and the shaft dozzens of times.....
Anyways My pc's cost about 1200 Pounds
QX 6850
4GB OCZ 1200 ddr2
EVGA 280GTX ftw edit

About £1300 so far, but I'm going to get water cooling, a new case and another hard drive so I can make a RAID setup - probably another £350 right there

athlon x2 6000
gtx260

budget gaming pc for about £600. Afterwards spend at least £700 on triplehead, new screens and some other bits, so a need a faster pc to drive all that... next time will spend near £1k

I haven't upgraded in years... I'm still using an intel Pentium 4 3.2ghz with 3gb ram + Hauppauge HVR 3000. However i did upgrade to an HD3850 AGP.

I am writing to you on an Apple that costs much less than a Grand. It is a 9 year old Apple Power Mac Quicksilver 867 that I bought on ebay for $75. I added an ATX power Supply $50, OSX Leopard $105, and a XFX AGP Video card that I re-flashed from PC to Mac Bios $50.
Everything works great, and at a about a third of the cost of a new Mac Mini. Try that with a 9 year old PC!

budget gamer pc

Intel Q6600|ATI HD4870|Abit IP35Pro|2x2Gb OCZ Platinum

~ £600