Hacker News Reader

Comment by mahranch | Hacker News Reader

> When time is scarce, you start to prioritize things that are really important to you.

It takes me ~10 minutes to shop online and buy the parts I need to put together my own PC. When I receive it, it takes me an additional 15 minutes to unbox it, and put it all together. Then another 30 installing the OS and all the programs I will need.

That's less than an hour. Given the price difference between a Mac and a PC with the same exact equipment (same CPU, RAM, HD, etc), we're looking at ~$250 USD on the low end and ~$550 USD on the high end. Unless you're making $250 USD (or more) per hour, it's most definitely cheaper time-wise to build your own PC.

View on HN

Unless you do this all day, there's no way it would take 10 minutes to research all the components that go into a PC and put it all together. Heck, even researching which model of Mac to buy took me more than two hours.

15 minutes to unbox probably doesn't include taking out the trash. :)

I'm a power user, so I need a lot of programs and setting them up properly usually takes 4-6 hours if not more. Just finding and installing proper driver for stuff like my Wacom tablet takes 30 minutes or so. Again, if you do this every day, then yes, it could be much faster. But I buy a new computer once in 4-5 years and really cannot bother to automate.

Last two times I got a new computer, it took me 2-3 days before I could work on them at full speed. It sure is worth more than $550. Not calculating the cost of stress if something does not work properly.

I have been using Linux for 7+ years and Mac for just over one year. The difference: Mac is mostly Plug and Play. Linux is often Plug and Pray. Hell, doing something simple like copy/paste on Linux still feels like a game of chance.

I love open-source and freedom, but as I got kids I became more pragmatic. The time is limited and I'd rather spend it on building stuff than figuring out some quirks in the operating system.

> Unless you do this all day, there's no way it would take 10 minutes to research all the components that go into a PC and put it all together.

No, this isn't true at all. The first time you put together your own computer, sure, maybe, it may take a bit longer. But the next time and the time after that, it becomes quicker and quicker because you already know the basics. It only takes 10 minutes to see what new GPUs or CPUs have come out.

Hell, if you didn't know anything about PCs, it would only take 5 minutes to look up all the parts in the latest Mac and order them off newegg. You could build your own exact copy of the latest mac and the research time would be negligible since you already know what parts you need since they're listed right there on the Mac SPEC sheet. And you'd save yourself hundreds of dollars.

> Last two times I got a new computer, it took me 2-3 days before I could work on them at full speed.

My 64 year old senile-ish father without any background in PCs put together his own PC and had it up and running in less than 4 hours. I don't buy 2 days at all. That's either an exaggeration or an outright lie.

> I'm a power user

A power user that cannot put together his own PC in under 2 days? I'm not sure I buy that. It's like a MLB player not being able to hit a ball that's traveling over 65 MPH. Even the pitchers are well enough versed to get hits occasionally.

> But the next time and the time after that, it becomes quicker and quicker because you already know the basics. It only takes 10 minutes to see what new GPUs or CPUs have come out.

Is this assuming that one would be building a PC with only a few years in-between?

It’s been more than 8 years since I built a PC, having assembled three of them in the past. It would definitely take me more than 10 minutes to research hardware because, after being shielded from the hardware complexity after using a Mac for so long, I’d need to research to make sure my previous knowledge of how to build a PC are still applicable.

Sure, it wouldn’t take me 2 days, and if not a lot has changed since I last built one four hours seems doable. But if I was very unsure of myself somewhere in the middle is more realistic and probably a more accurate assumption of how long it would take someone research, order and assemble a PC.

Please read my post. I could put together a PC in about 3-4 hours max. But getting all the software I need to patch, compile and configure to work properly on Linux would take the rest of the period.

Your 64 year old senile-ish father probably uses one or two applications. I use over 50 different programs.

Also, I don't care about hardware at all. Last thing I remember is that there were Slot 1 and Slot A CPUs. I would need to research stuff before even figuring out which components are compatible. Perhaps it's all user-friendly now, but back in the day I recall always missing some cable or adapter to get stuff to work (like USB-PS2 converters for mouse or VGA-HDMI converters for monitors, etc.).

I care about building software. Hardware stuff is not something I need or want to deal with.

It would be like MLB player going to a baseball bat factory to make his own bat. He just wants a good bat. He doesn't care what wood is it made of, or what material is used for coating. He wants to pay for top-notch bat and concentrate on hitting the balls.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com