Computer Insider 01: Why do people build their own PCs?+ the evolution of my PC.

As some of you know, I have a custom built PC I dubbed MAVERICK WARHAWK.

It's a PC I built from OFF-THE-SHELF parts.

But here's also one thing someone would ask:

WHY DO PEOPLE BUILD THEIR OWN PC'S INSTEAD OF BUY FROM A STORE?

Ladies and Gentleman, I think I've found the answer and it can be told only in the most appropriate web-format in all of web3: A BLOGPOST!!!

But first, lets all go back to the year 1977.

1977 was a big year in the realm of computers. It was the release of the Apple II, the Commodore PET 2001, and the TRS-80 Model 1.

With the Apple II priced at $1298,

Commodore's at $795,

and TRS-80 at $599.95,

These computers were the most affordable computers that anyone in the late 70s could buy because several years prior, computers were often out of reach for most people and the most affordable could only be sold as kits.

This so-called Trinity of computers helped to jumpstart the computer revolution of the 1980s. These 3 computers became mainstays in offices and schools because of their appeal for business. 

The other half which is home use however doesn't care about business. Instead preferring to refer to computers as gaming machines.

This notion of people preferring to call computers GAME MACHINES often gives some people like the late IAN MCNAUGHT-DAVIS a headache for having that mentality...

Anyway, the computer revolution was growing exponentially and other manufacturers wanted in on the action. Including a Bureaucracy known as IBM. \

In August 1981, they released the machine that became the PC architecture we know and love today:

THE IBM 5150 PERSONAL COMPUTER

This machine changed IBM for better or for worse depending on who you ask.

Computer users love this machine for birthing the modern day PC while IBM on the other hand says so otherwise.

But the main thing that made this machine the ancestor of the modern PC is told by these three-word, three syllable phrase:

OFF-THE-SHELF.

That's right. This PC as well as it's descendants use Off-the-shelf components when making a machine.

And this was created by a number of engineers in early 80s IBM where they expressed selling computers to the masses but in much more affordable packages than what IBM was doing with their own machines.

The open architecture nature of the PC allowed itself to be cloned by manufacturers like Compaq, Leading Edge, Dell, HP, amongst others and this allowed the Architecture to evolve into what it is today.

But what does that have to do with people preferring to build their PC's today? 

Hold on, I'm getting there.

In the 1990s, there was a growing trend made on PC manufacturers on getting their machines to many homes of people in the US and Canada as well as abroad but there's a problem: COST!

Have you noticed how most PCs you see in the stores often hover above the $1000 price range?

Well back in the 90s, manufacturers and retailers wanted to do something about that so they devised solutions to counter that price-tag problem with mixed results.

For example, in 1996, a former Compaq employee named Doug Johns wanted to bring computers to the masses in greater numbers but he saw through his market research eyes that the problem lies within the issue of cost, location-market oversaturation, etc.   made these difficult for his dream to become a reality so he decided to do this thing called INTEGRATION.

His company Monorail Inc. built the MONORAIL ALL-IN-ONE PC but that machine isn't without it's problems.

The first models had 75MHZ AMD K5 CPUs whose clock speed was a little long in the tooth for late 1996 as well as other things such as Warranty Stickers and customers paying a huge premium for upgrades caused the machine to become a niche item when the rest of the consumer market largely stuck with Beige Box Towers who's benefit was upgradeability.

The other example is EMACHINES. 

This was a venture made by two SOUTH KOREAN manufacturing companies who did this thing called SELL PCs in sub-$100 prices usually through vertical integration, advertising, and rebates....

As well as lower-end hardware such as Intel Celerons or AMD Durons.

This allowed the machines to sell really well and end up in the homes of many users but EMACHINE PCs aren't without their downsides.

As explained by LGR in his TechTales episode about the company, The early EMACHINES towers were often built cheaply and as a result, they can break down if not maintained properly by the user.

Manufacturer's obsessions with trying to make machines affordable to the masses using various tactics like this contributed to people getting so sick of this that many people would rather just buy the parts separately and build their PCs from the ground up.

And this is not a result of manufacturers resorting to cost-cutting tactics to sell their machines but also other things such as bloatware, crap components, proprietary components, etc.

For example, LGR had a Compaq Presario 5000US that he got in late 2000 but he stated that machine was awful due to the many cost cutting things Compaq did to make the machine and the machine was such a bad experience for him that starting in the Windows XP era, he instead decided to build his own machines.

Many people such as Linus Sebastian from LINUS TECH TIPS,

Steve Burke from GAMERS NEXUS,

Jason Langiven from JAYZTWOCENTS,

they all prefer to build their PCs to their own exact specifications rather than get prebuilds because of the issues with Cherry-picked components, Software Bloat, etc.

Before I built my Maverick PC, I was at one point going to buy myself a pre-build pc from the likes of Alienware or Asus but after reading up articles and watching YouTube videos, I then decided just to build my own PC.

So after I got my largest Paycheck on the first week of May 2023, I went to Best Buy and bought an MSI Motherboard, a ZOTAC RTX GPU, and an AMD RYZEN CPU.

This therefore prepared me for building my PC.

Later on, I bought my 32GB ram sticks, power supply, and Case and began to set everything up.

And I did this all by myself without getting any help from someone because what's the point of building your first PC if you can't do it by yourself. 

Building your first PC should always be the fun part.

However, there were certain things to address with my build. First, it was pretty much a budget build from the start but I knew I was going to upgrade components.

My first major upgrade was in July where I upgraded from an AMD Ryzen 5 5600x

to an AMD Ryzen 9 5900x.

As for cooling, I had the stock AMD Wraith Stealth cooler that came with my Ryzen 5 but I decided to change it when the CPU got hot to the point it started to sound like a Sony Handycam camcorder so I also bought a DEEPCOOL AK620 tower cooler.

My next major upgrade came in August when I switched from my Acer Monitor to an MSI monitor for viewing. It's also when I got a new desk but I forgot the photos to those. I will say that September was sort of big for me because that's when I bought a Fractal Pop Air Mid-tower case.

As well as the LG Blu-Ray drive to mount it in.

The reason I made the upgrade is because I anticipated a GPU upgrade but my BitFenix case I was using by that point was not long enough to accommodate the length of the majority of GPUS i wanted to upgrade to so I bought the case and performed a major case-swap.

And that resulted in my PC looking like this:

November 2023 was when I finally bought my RTX 4080 GPU but I had issues with the 12VHPWR cable that was included.

Well it was not the cable that was the problem but rather it was the PCI-E from my power supply that I was using by this point in time.

I waited until my next pay check and then I got Corsair's 12VHPWR cable. I also bought an ASUS ROG GPU holder because I anticipated that the GPU was going to be heavy so I didn't want to have the thing sagging in my case.

It may be hard to see but that's my GPU, Power cable, and GPU holder in the image shown below.

So yeah, My PC has evolved throughout last year but even if the cost of upgrades has risen, Maverick Warhawk still remains at heart a budget build because it started out as one.

At the moment, I'm investing on building a new computer for myself using a new Motherboard, new CPU, New Cooler, and various other things with the Graphics card and Blu-Ray Drive being the only components that I'll migrate to the new build.

And it's up to my own debate if I want to keep the case for my new build.

Update as of March 25 2024:

The MSI Monitor I was using during typing of the post crapped out on me so I've since replaced it with a 1440p ASUS TUF monitor. Also, this post was before installed some ARGB Fans in my case.

Also an Update as of August 3 2024:

I no longer use the Maverick Warhawk PC that was shown in these images. 

I now use the Maverick Falcon 7900RT which I built in May 24 2024.