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Has anybody ever suggested a Q&A site for building computers? At this point in time so many people build their own gaming and other PC's in home and do other maintenance and upgrades. People will always be looking for input on parts to buy, how to install things and what is best way to go about parts of the building process for a custom rig.

I feel like you could fit this into its own site or somewhere else within the technology section of Area 51.

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People will always be looking for input on parts to buy

That's exactly the problem. People are always looking because technology changes rapidly and even most common general tips ("stick with Intel") are only valid for certain situations and windows of time (like now when Intel processors are handing it to the competition).

This sort of back-and-forth, what's-best-now, need-a-third-thing-with-hyphens discussion is best suited to a forum like Tom's Hardware or something. In addition to discouraging shopping questions, SE is a good place for questions whose answers last over time. Collecting a bunch of information that quickly becomes outdated doesn't fit the model.

Non-shopping questions on computer hardware are on-topic at SuperUser.

  • Doesn't the "technology changes rapidly" objection apply even more to Stack Overflow? Libraries and programming languages (especially the former) change all the time too. – Matthew Flaschen Nov 27 '11 at 17:05
  • @MatthewFlaschen Not really. People can and do use old versions of libraries for years after they've been updated, and all answers regarding those versions still apply to those versions. If you want to build a new gaming rig, on the other hand, you most certainly do not want answers from a few years ago :P – Matthew Read Nov 28 '11 at 16:33
  • What do you mean by most common general tips ("stick with Intel")? Some times you get faster speeds for the same price by going AMD (two AMDs here). It doesn't seem that this is too recent either. – Camilo Martin Feb 29 '12 at 16:34
  • @CamiloMartin It was a hypothetical example of random advice and I clearly said it was limited to particular situations. – Matthew Read Feb 29 '12 at 16:59
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Are you asking if we'd ever had a site for building computers, or a proposal for building computers?

If the latter, well, there's been:

… among others.

They've generally been closed as either too shopping-focused or as dupes of Super User.

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Yes, I remember there being a proposal for a system builders Q&A site here on Area 51 but it appears that it didn't have enough activity and has been deleted.

Based on this search on Duck Duck Go the summary appears to have been "Proposed Q&A site for system tweakers and builders: professionals and DIYers."

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