PERSONAL

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New PC - Should I Get This One??

3 years ago883 words

I've maybe decided on a new PC to buy... but I'm still quite clueless about this, so I'd like to hear your thoughts about whether I've made a good or terrible decision before confirming it!

I wrote recently about wanting to get a new PC, and a few of you gave some good, useful suggestions! ...Which I never replied to and still haven't acted on because uggghhh, depression. I'm using what energy I have on Atonal Dreams development, but I end up feeling completely exhausted for much of the rest of the day and... well, I've talked about that a bunch of times already. I've been largely shirking the "engage socially in some form" block I added to my timetable, too, despite really wanting to engage more than I actually am. Pfff!

I did manage to push through the brain fog enough the other day to do some shopping around, research, etc, at least, using suggestions from the previous post as a starting point. I wondered whether maybe I could and should build my own PC this time - I mean I learned how to make all this other stuff myself, and I used to pride myself on coding websites and things using Notepad! - and went as far as buying a game called PC Builder Simulator - which was on sale on the Epic Games store - after someone mentioned it in a thread in one of the PC-building Reddit communities I saw, hoping maybe I'd get some imperfect idea of how it all works and how it can be fun...

But my interest in the whole endeavour is so low that I haven't even bothered loading up the game.

I saw a whole bunch of people insisting that you build your own PC and you're an idiot if you don't, but also people saying they've tried in the past but faced a bunch of issues, like running into crashes eventually or things just not working as they should even though they thought they'd done a perfect job of the assembly. Some said that after years of building their own PCs, they'd rather just save themselves the hassle and the potential issues and buy one premade. I think I would too. I don't trust myself to do a perfect job of building one even if people who enjoy and have experience with that thing say it's 'easy'. I think drawing a face is 'easy'.

Seeing a community for PC-building beginners where those beginners' naive questions and attempts at choosing components were met with replies like "how could you be so stupid thinking those were good choices?" was off-putting too.

I looked at what PCs were available and what people in those communities were recommending, and one I ended up gravitating to was ∞ this "ALIENWARE AURORA RYZEN EDITION" thing ∞, with custom part choices that I, in my naivete, thought were wise.

Last time, I said my budget was around £2000, though this is £2,669.00. That's a lot of money for me on my meagre income; it's like three or four months of what I get from Patreon and Steam combined. I don't have to worry about paying bills while I'm still living with my parents, and I have enough saved up that this'll hardly bankrupt me or anything, but still. It's hardly a decision I can make casually.

I'd justify it as worthwhile because I spend all day every day at my computer, so it's hardly a luxury, and I want something relatively future-proof so I don't have to worry about this again for a long time. (I also wonder if I could consider it a work expense, hmm...)

Views about Alienware seemed mixed. Of course there were the elitist "I assemble all the transistors with my own hands and they're made from ore I spent a year mining in the mountains for!" types who seemed to see them as flashy, overpriced pieces of rubbish - the sort who my socially anxious mind is anticipating mocking me for even daring to entertain the idea of buying one - but there were also people who said they're one of your best bets if you're going for a premade computer and there's nothing really much better. Plus someone on my previous post included one among their suggestions. Personally, I just like how they look more than any other options I saw, though I'm the sort of person who'd choose a car based on the colour (if I actually knew how to drive).

There were several models of Alienware on the Dell site, but one big factor that influenced me to choose that particular one was that the others said they'd take like two months to ship, while this one would ship in a couple of days. I don't want to have to wait much longer!

I freely admit I'm not as informed about all this as some of you surely are, so I thought I'd ask again before making a final decision. (I'd reply to individual comments on the other post, but I'd only be repeating myself, plus I can include more in a post.)

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!!