Build 'em or Buy 'em

[MissMoo]

Ok, what do you prefer... Building your PC from scratch with all the right components or buying a pre-made PC? What are the ups and downs and why do you prefer one or the other?

Also if you were to make one what would you put in it?

Personally i would build mine, simply because, if of course i had the money, i want to be able to have exactly what i want in my computer, i want to know what make everything is and how far i can upgrade in the future.

My PC would have a 128 Graphics and 510 + RAM, i do not want a big super computer cause i dont need one that fast but all i want is to know whats what in my PC and for it to work properly!

[Playbus]

Build myself, every time.

I've built PC's for a lot of people. Never had to go back and fix them once. And no that's not because I refuse to talk to them LOL

The only PC I have built which sometimes has problems is my own --- and thats only because I screw around with it so much. It's a testbed really, I try and break it so I can learn more about how to fix it.

You should see how many PC's I have to fix which are "big brand" PC's.........most of them are frankly terrible. And overpriced!!

People who buy PC's from PC World deserve all they get.
Some of the things I've seen from them are absolutely disgusting.
Like them filling in AGP slots on motherboards so you can't upgrade to a decent graphics card. I mean, why?

[Lewiji]

Build 'em. I've built every single one of my computers (and some of my friends') for about 5 years now, it's usually cheaper and because you put it together you know exactly what to do when it goes wrong etc.

[Playbus]

Yeah, It's always cheaper to build, spec for spec.

:D

[MissMoo]

I agree, i went to PC World the other day, to get a Router but we took a look at the PC's while we were there, they were massively over priced and a complete system they would only knock off £99 for a base unit only system!! how wrong!!

[Spoo]

Build would be my personal choice.

However for people not confident enough to maintain their own machine the warranty and after care packages available on pre-built machines may be a good idea.

[Playbus]

posted by Spooneh
However for people not confident enough to maintain their own machine the warranty and after care packages available on pre-built machines may be a good idea.

A sound theory. However if you saw some of the "after care" provided by certain companies that I have come across then you may change your mind.

I've yet to find a company that gives decent support to home users.

(Dell's business server support is ace, but you pay through the nose for it)

[Scribbly]

I just went to dell.com and chose everything I wanted.. so I don't build 'em nor buy 'em, unless that's what you ment with "build 'em".

[Dr-Electro]

For years, I custom built computers for my customers. I built my own as well. Now, I can buy brand new for less than I can build one. The brand new computer comes with a warranty, which is important to me. If a part craps out after 13 months, I may not have the cash to replace it. I am constantly strapped for cash.

I will still, on occasion, custom build a system for someone, but I make sure we sign a contract that states the only warranty available is the manufacturer's warranty on the parts used. I also disclose what those warranties are in the contract. Most people back away from the deal as soon as they take a look at the contract. I hate to be that way about it, but I can't afford to buy somebody a new computer.

Dell and HP have much better resources and better warranties. They both normally have great systems on sale for very little money.

[MissMoo]

Originally posted by Scribbly
I just went to dell.com and chose everything I wanted.. so I don't build 'em nor buy 'em, unless that's what you ment with "build 'em".

Hmm, i did mean that was buying them, cause you buy it pre-made but i suppose you could call that design 'em!?

Dell are good for pre-made's especialy for servers.

[Mystical Parrot]

build them. not only do you feel satisfied and feel like you've learnt something from the process but you get total control over every little thing you put in it and on it when its built.
i can see the advantage of a prebuilt one but when i next look to get a computer i will build it

[plattbridger]

Build! You want to nuke the b*st*rds when they wont work 1st/2nd/3rd/4th time but it is worth it and providing you don't need councilling afterwards it is much cheaper!

I have on shop bought and one home built and the home one has been flawless unlike the shop one which continually crashes and "looses" the CD/DVD drive

[jimjimjimjimjim]

I have to go with...... BUILD!!! you cant beat a good home built computer ( as long as you know what your doing).

I find that Package PC from places like PC world, are full of shite on the HDD when you get it, they lie about the type of RAM in it, and normally the processors are over clocked, so.....

Build your own, and the fact is if you build it yourself then it is infact cheaper, heres where i get all my components from, good quality stuff and not badly priced: E-Buyer (http://www.Ebuyer.com)

[Monkeyboy]

I was out of touch with computers for years...i ended up seeing a cheap as hell 2nd hand rig with a halfway ok spec....been slowly updating parts as i go, so i've basically built up my own pc. I have the spec i want with name brand parts, no pointless software bundle, and it's worked out a little cheaper than buying a brand new pc from PC World or somewhere. But i've seen some killer deals online since

[Mystical Parrot]

yes you can get cheaper/better (arguably) computer from shops but wheres the fun in that? even if its costing a little bit more i'd recomend it to anyone just for the educational value of building your own computer and the satisfaction ti brings

[jimjimjimjimjim]

i bag to disagree its not often you will find a computer with good specs at a low price, You could build one with the same specs for half the price.

[Monkeyboy]

Originally posted by Mystical Parrot
yes you can get cheaper/better (arguably) computer from shops but wheres the fun in that? even if its costing a little bit more i'd recomend it to anyone just for the educational value of building your own computer and the satisfaction ti brings

Definitely...the last time i fiddled with pcs was in the days of Windows 3.11, i now find myself reasonabley confident with fiddling with inards in pcs now, and i know far more than i ever used to...besides which, self builds give you so much more flexibility over components

[terrorbite]

The one I'm using now is my first built one from scratch. Before that, I had my own PC but I got it from PC World because the offer was so good. The PC I got from there was really reliable and I never had any probs. The only thing bad about it was it was a micro ATX motherboard, it didn't have a AGP slot and really stupidly there was a little modem slot which was blocking a PCI slot, so I had to take the internal modem out to use both PCI slots.

So yeah, building is the best way, and tis more fun. Any regular PC user could build one if given clear instructions.

[Spoo]

Originally posted by jimjimjimjimjim

I find that Package PC from places like PC world, are full of shite on the HDD when you get it, they lie about the type of RAM in it, and normally the processors are over clocked, so.....



It's very unlikely that PC World or such a shop would overclock the CPU on one of their machines. They wouldn't goto the effort and also it probably voids the warranty.

[leeroy]

i prefer to build, as you know whats going in and you can make it specialised for certain things, i also dont like the bundled software crap you get with bought pcs.

[Mr_Moo]

I'll go with whichever options cheaper at the time, went with Building my own one last time, learnt alot and no cockup's ,although, I was drunk at the time so I seem to have an "ipc" now.
Basically a pc that Looks like a iMac, except still a tower pc (if that makes any sense)
Plus I know exectly whats in my comp, and how far I can take it with future Upgrades/Overclocking.

[MissMoo]

Originally posted by Mr_Moo
went with Building my own one last time, learnt alot and no cockup's ,

I build my Dads PC last year some time, it would have been fine except he decided to "help" but bending all the resistors and doo-hickies on the motherboard! (he said he wanted them to be straight!!) now he has to go through a whole weird routine just to turn the bastard machine on!! luckily he dont blame me though!!

So there is a downside to building a machine, its fine unless you build it in the pressence of an old fart! ;) :p

[eleanor]

haha, people like that make me laugh! (http://rinkworks.com/stupid/)

My boyfriend built mine, with the following specs:-

Windows XP Professional Service Pack 1 (build 2600)
1.40 gigahertz AMD Athlon XP
128 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Board: ABIT VT8366A-8233 (KR7A) v1.0 ~
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software International, Inc. 6.00 PG 11/23/2001
Drives
41.10 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
18.86 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-252B [CD-ROM drive]
3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]

Maxtor 2F040L0 [Hard drive] (41.11 GB) -- drive 0, s/n F18DBDPE, rev VAM51JJ0, SMART Status: Healthy

Memory Modules
512 Megabytes Installed Memory

512 MB RAM

c: (on drive 0) 7.12 GB 2.98 GB free
d: (on drive 0) 33.98 GB 15.88 GB free

Standard floppy disk controller
Primary IDE Channel [Controller]
Secondary IDE Channel [Controller]
VIA Bus Master IDE Controller NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X [Display adapter]
LGE 700S [Monitor] (16.3"vis, March 2003)
Multimedia
CMI8738/C3DX PCI Audio Device
Philips ToUcam Pro Camera; Audio (Microphone)
Standard Game Port
Communications
Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC

Philips ToUcam Pro Camera; Video
Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
PS/2 Compatible Mouse
Philips Composite USB Device

It cost £300 including webcam, which I bought from him for £30 (half of what he paid for it). He had a monitor and keyboard lying around, so they were free (monitor was twelve years old though and has since died, and new one was £70). so about £370 altogether.

There's not been anything wrong with it yet. Al's also a computer science student, so he's good tech support! :)

Compared with things such as this (http://computing.kelkoo.co.uk/b/a/sbs/111801/7012416.html) and this (http://www.2020shops.dealtime.co.uk/xPC-Compaq_Evo_D300v_470037_060), I got a good deal.

[Dr-Electro]

It's nice to have a truly techy person (read absolute geek like me) around when you need one. I have built so many systems in my time that I am tired of building them, unless I am doing it as part of my job or for extra income.

In the follicles of my youth, (when I still had hair on top) I built all my own computers or rebuilt other people's castoffs. That is the true cheap route to having a computer.

Now, I want a new car with all the warranty on it so I can drive knowing that if I break down in Submarine Guts, Michigan there will be a dealer nearby who can get me up and running again at no extra cost to me.

Ok, so a car is not a computer, but the same permise holds true. If I buy a brand new Dell computer with a three year warranty on it for less than half price, I am ahead of the game. The darned thing will do everything I want it to do. IF it does not, it is upgradeable and I know how to do it. That may not equal common sense to you inexperienced whippersnappers who think that I'm stupid just because I'm old, but you remember that attitude when you have reached the point where you have more than thirty years experience building computers for every Mongol and Visigoth in the phone book.

Also, when money is tight, you may want to reconsider painting yourself into a corner that cost money to get out of. What happens if your homebuilt computer goes belly up after twelve months? Who is going to pay for a new mother board and processor or whatever other component is blown? Do you take the money out of your grocery budget and go hungry the last three days of the month or do you decide to do without your prescription medication for thirty days?

Think back on your attitude of today when you are in that situation and too damned old to do anything about it. Of course, you may be wealthy enough by then that you can look back at this moment and say, "Hell! That Dr. Electro guy really was a stupid S.O.B. just like I thought he was then!"

Time will tell.

[sidneylopsides]

Most manufacturers warranties do not allow you to upgrade yourself, you have to pay them to do it for you.
And most components come with 3yr or more warranties now, the Athlon has a 3yr, my Radeon has a 3 Yr.
I always build, some store sytems can look good value, but you always loose out on something.
Mate bought a Pc just over a month ago from dixons, an Athlon 64 and he paid too much. Came with an FX5200 which is useless, integrated sound, and they delivered the wrong monitor!
building yourself means you know whats there and are better equipped when it goes wrong, you dont have to rely on someone else. PCs are too complicated for most of the people who buy them from high street chains, and that causes more problems. hmmm.

[monkeymullen]

i built myself a computer in about 3 days for about 800 bucks but with the same bang as an Alienware.. and without waiting a month for it to come in the mail. only thing was i fried the 1st mobo putting it in :(

[Dr-Electro]

Originally posted by sidneylopsides
Most manufacturers warranties do not allow you to upgrade yourself, you have to pay them to do it for you.
And most components come with 3yr or more warranties now, the Athlon has a 3yr, my Radeon has a 3 Yr.
I always build, some store sytems can look good value, but you always loose out on something.
Mate bought a Pc just over a month ago from dixons, an Athlon 64 and he paid too much. Came with an FX5200 which is useless, integrated sound, and they delivered the wrong monitor!
building yourself means you know whats there and are better equipped when it goes wrong, you dont have to rely on someone else. PCs are too complicated for most of the people who buy them from high street chains, and that causes more problems. hmmm.

It has always amazed me how some people can absolutely dismiss the years of experience behind the advice of a professional. Your post reads as though you totally ignored every word I have posted. That smacks of disrespect.

Oh, I forgot! Kids of the past three generations have been taught that there is absolutely no room in life for you to respect your elders! Okay, so I don't have to respect you either, amoeba brain!

[Sloth]

dr. e there is no need to get snippy...

as far as i'm concern its all relative...

for play i build it myself...
for work i buy togther with warranty...

[Monkeyboy]

Having seen the deals out there at the mo i would no doubt buy if i had the money...as it was i got my system second hand when i was cash strapped, and its enabled me to become more hardware savvy and upgrade as i go...a year ago i barely even knew what AGP meant, last night i overclocked my graphics card (not much, but its a start

[sidneylopsides]

Sorry, i didn't dismiss what you said, i am not disrespecting you, i just read it and commented from my experience. I have been working with Pc's quite a while, n a few different places that deal in this stuff, and at the moment in a high street electrical retailer that sells HP, Fujitsu-Siemens etc, and those companies have some terrible customer service. F-S in particular. I dont have much experience with Dell tho.
I can easily find out what components are there and see if it is good value od not, the HP tend not to be too good, the F-S can be ok, but still overpriced.
I am just working from my own experiences, I see your point of building so many you get sick of it and want to buy an box where it is all looked after for you.

I was trying to give an alternative view on each point you made, but I dont think i laid it out well.

Sorry for offending you, that was not the idea.

[Mr_Moo]

Originally posted by monkeymullen
i built myself a computer in about 3 days for about 800 bucks but with the same bang as an Alienware.. and without waiting a month for it to come in the mail. only thing was i fried the 1st mobo putting it in :(

....Ironically enough, I did exactly the same thing.
Though im still not sure whether I damaged it putting it in as it was fine and fully functional for 4 days before going Nuts, or if it was damaged in transit (Was in the process of moving from the northwest to Edinburgh at the time, all those dodgy trunk roads couldnt have done it much good)

[flapjackboy]

Got to say build 'em. I just prefer the finer control you have over the spec of the machine that you get from building it yourself. Yes, I could probably get an off-the-shelf machine for less, but I would be giving control of the specification over to the vendor and in order to reach some of the low price points I've seen lately, serious compromises have had to be made spec wise.

I'm a trained technician, so I'm not bothered about a warranty as I can fix it myself, should anything foul up. Plus, I know that it's me that fouled it up, not the company that built it.

I remember plenty of times manning the customer support line dealing with irate custards who were adamant that it was our fault that their computer wasn't working when we knew full well that it was something they had done...

[mrikasu]

I always thought building was cheaper but then I came across Dell. At the moment you can get machines for £649 that I can find the components for about £900. Also if you are building and don't have an OS and don't want to use Linux then you have to buy a boxed version for a hugely inflated price.

Basically Dell buy in so much bulk you can't beat them on their price. Or maybe you can if you have the "contacts".

Once you have it you can always upgrade later. I do find it satisfying building a PC from scratch though.

If you are looking for a basic PC go for a pre-built system. If you want a high spec super computer - build it yourself.

[jimjimjimjimjim]

Even though i think building is cheaper and better, i would have to agree with mrikasu, i your only loking for basic run of the mill machines then buy them, you will find some god deals out there.

[MissMoo]

I think Dell are the exception, alot of other pre-build PC's have upgrade problems and are over priced but i think dell are good quality and good price, i have had experience with upgrading Dell machines and they are the easiest machines i have ever seen to upgrade. the way they are built is brilliant.

[jimjimjimjimjim]

There is only one problem with package PC i can think of is the Graphics Card. In alot of £500 - £600 Mashines, you wont get a Geforce or ATI, you get sum kind of intergrated intel card that is no good, and you wont be able to upgrade. but it your lucky you might get a bottom of the line Geforce like a 420.

[MissMoo]

on-board graphics *spits on floor* my mate had on-board graphics and we had so many problems trying to dissable it when he got a new g/card!

[leeroy]

weel about the graphics cards my old dell came with a gforce3 for free, (i have since built my own and now sit utop a ati radeon 9800xt :D )

[wyrd_fish]

damn you aand yur stupidly powerful GFX card... *crys...*

i used to have (in my old computer) intel extreme grafics as part of the chipset... it sucked so hard

[jimjimjimjimjim]

i wish i could afford a Graphics update, i would like either a top range ATI or a top range geforce FX. Ive only got a 64MB Geforce 4 440 8x

[sidneylopsides]

For arounf 600 you usually get a Radeon 9200 now.
I have a lovely Rad 9800Pro (clocked to 416/375)
Need some nice remsinks.

[leeroy]

eh?!?! 600 quid?? i only paid 300 for a 9800xt

[sidneylopsides]

i meant for a £600 base unit, but didnt come out right! :eek:

[Guy']

I'd build my own system every time. Ive just built a new one in fact! Here go the specs:

MSI K8T NEO FSR Motherboard
AMD 64 3200+!!!!!! WOO
NVIDIA GEFORCE FX 5900 w/128MB ram (gainward)
1024MB DDR RAM
160GB 7,200Rpm maxtor diamondmax IDE hard drive w/8MB cache (thinking of installing a RAID 0 configuration in the near future)
Lian Li PC71 Chassis (i love my case!)

What else....Ooh i got an lcd screen in two of the 5.25" drive bays and a vantec nexus fan controller in another connected to my 4 case fans. Thats about it really!

[sidneylopsides]

Nice cases these Lian Li are they not! I got a PC60+window.
Im a fanATic at the moment, so am looking down on our fx5900... but tis a good make. :p