Exactly what the title says. I know the prices of computer parts have been skyrocketing because of all the "generative" "AI" bullshit that's been forced on the world, and I'm lucky my computer is just good enough to still be doing what I need it to several years later. It's a laptop, though, so basically no ability to swap components.
I want to get into PC building, more out of necessity then desire, but I'm nervous about ruining good parts. I'm totally fine with building a mediocre machine with cheap, old stuff just to get a feel for how everything goes together. If I can make it run Linux and maybe emulate a PS1 game, I'll be happy. Additionally, I have a HUGE rack mounted server PC from the mid 2000s that, if nothing else, can be gutted for it's spacious casing.
Is building a cheap test machine like this worth while? If so, I'd appreciate any advice on what parts to scoop up and maybe where I could find them.
Most components nowadays are built and designed like LEGO bricks. If it fits, it probably goes there. If you gotta force it, you’re probably putting something in the wrong spot.
Granted, CPUs can still be fragile and you have to put it in a certain way so as to not damage pins on the underside or your motherboard, depending on which generation we’re talking about, but if you read the instructions and pay attention to the guides made for you by the manufacturers, you’ll be okay. They generally will make a corner weird so it only fits in that way and no other to prevent you from putting it in the wrong way, for example.
RAM sticks are similar. They are not made symmetric on purpose because it is meant to go in one way and stay that way. And even with different generations, they are placed differently so a DDR3 stick will never accidentally fit without forcing it into a DDR4 slot, for example.
Even with stuff like thermal paste, they give you enough that if you make a mistake, you clean it up and reposition and still have enough to redo the process. I speak from experience on that one lol. Gotta get it right and then can screw down.
With prices being as crazy as they are, maybe you can buy old hardware from the DDR3/DDR2 generation and take it apart and put it back together as a test? Do this and build an era specific computer to play era specific games, like aiming for 2010 and get parts for that time meant to play games from around that time?
Okay, thank you for the explanations and reassurance! I can tell you what I have rn is a Dell XPS 15 if I have the number right. I use it for gaming (mostly retro but plenty newER games as well) and most importantly audio recording and production. It's pretty good with that stuff, running three monitors including it's built in one, a giant audio interface as well as a handful of SSDs. It all works with few issues, but God does it feel like I'm stretching this poor laptop thin!
I should have mentioned what I actually use my computer for in the post, but I didn't expect advice like this, only places to buy old parts, so thank you for your help! Would you be able to place the XPS 15 somewhere in the timeline of these generations of hardware? It was released around 2018 but laptops are always behind, so I'm not sure what era of computer it realistically IS, if that makes any sense. I know for a fact it could perform much better then it does, but the cramped nature of it's design kneecaps it hard. I have it elevated for better airflow and I may need to clean the fans out, since it has been a while.
EDIT: I'm mostly into platformers and the like, so running new games would be great, but I hardly play any hyper-realistic games. To use two Fallout games as examples: I've run New Vegas smoothly for hours and hours, but 4 hardly works at all. Not that I have much interest in the latter so I only ran it for a few minutes, but even those few minutes proved it was far too slow to play at all. I fully believe this is due to the horrible cooling system and not the CPU itself being that bad.