Topic: Hand Built or Store Brought?

[Mentat Jon]

A Differnet type of thread from me.

My Compter is some frankinstein montser gone mad, I still have my 3.1 foppy drive from my 486 DX 2, a Pent 3 500, and a 50 speed CD rom drive,*

The old one was a 24 speed, if my computer was a horse? Id shoot it.

[Brush Wolf]

Hand built, either by yourself or from a local shop that you trust.

[J. Carney]

Hand built... definately cheaper, cause you don't have to put anything into it that you don't definately need.

[kmelew]

For the past twelve years or so I've been building my own.  That way I decide what goes into it, not what HP, Gateway, Dell et al think I should have.  I'm also not locked into propreitary accessories and drives from these manufacturers.

[Mentat Jon]

so far it looks like hand built is killing store brought, keep it going, I might take a crack at hand crafting HAL 2005

[Iceman]

Build your own, definitly. Everyone at school that I know has had computer issues this week (first week) EXCEPT for the kids who built their own machines. Odd huh?

[E_Look]

Dude, make your own.  Besides, you can sit and wait for a sale or a special on a component.

[jualdeaux]

I'll have to throw my vote with the build your own group. I built my main computer here 4-5 years ago, it is a lowly P-III 1ghz rig, and have had very little problems with it. It as top of the line when I built it. I wish I had the funds to build a new one but to be honest th myself, the one I have is still just fine for what I use it for.

[Sirgod]

I'd go the home built myself MJ. You can shop around and get exactly what you want most of the time cheaper.

Stephen

[Iceman]

Here's what I do MJ. First, realize I divide my parts into 2 groups. the 'universal' and the 'particulars'.

The Universal Group included:
Speakers
Monitor
Keyboard/Mouse
Sound Card
LAN card (if necessary)
Fans
Case
CD/DVD Drives etc
Floppy Drive (always ALWAYS have one)
HDD

The "Particulars" Group includes
Processor
Motherboard
Video Card
RAM


Now, I'm sure you've already figured out my reason for the groups but let me elaborate. First, start by picking out the general statistics you want in your Universal group (200gb HDD, etc).  Then, wait. Between Best Buy, CompUSA and another other local companies AND Newegg.com, you can save yourself upwards of $300.  (not exaggerating at all).

Once you have all (or almost all) of those, pick out your particulars. I save those for last because the universals can interface pretty well with almost any particular, however the particulars must all be on the same page.  Buy them all at once if possible. I find newegg.com to have the best overall price point. I say this because they provide the most information for each part. At a place like Best Buy they might have 512 mb of DDR 2700 memory on sale, but you know nothing else about it. Is is a Corsair, or PNY or Kingston? You have no idea, but at Newegg.com you know EXACTLY what you're getting.  They even have mobo/processor combos now, very helpful. 

So there's my little help desk tutorial.  Hope it helped. Now I'm off to class. Later!

[Capt. Mike]

And don't forget E-bay..my last three MB's (mine, my wife's, and my son's) have all been bought off e-bay...just make sure they're factory sealed (unused) and know what the price is at the local computer shop..and always consider the shipping cost in the price..hate to pay 20 bucks to have it shipped when you only got it 10 buck cheaper..

Me, build it yourself...it's a lot more fun, and you can configure it your way (say, 6 hard drives, 2 dvd burners, etc...maybe a Matrox dual monitor video card (what I put in in the wife's machine..she likes having 2 web pages open at the same time, but on different monitors)

Mike

[Javora]

I think Iceman pretty much nailed it in that last post, and I agree that building the system you want is far better than buying off the shelf or from some major brand.  I'm not so sure about the "cheaper" part though, at least not anymore.  The real benefit to building your own is that you know exactly what is going into your machine.  And the parts that you buy (assuming that you did your homework) will be much higher quality than the junk that the major brands dump into the systems they sell.  That usually translates into far fewer problems during the life of your computer.  I've owned my home-built system for a year now and I have only had two problems with it (both times were case fan burn-outs).  The down side is that you are your own tech support but, but you can find help on-line anywhere (like this place).

The question you want to ask yourself is what are you going to do with your new computer when you build/buy it?  Are you going to do hard-core gaming?  Is your system just for web-serf and write reports, or something in between?  When you figure out what the system is going to be used for then you can get an idea of what you need and how much the system is going to cost.  Hope this helps.

[Julin Eurthyr]

I have to agree with what everyone here is saying, with but one caveat...

Home built is always better, and can be done in stepping-stones if you have a decent enough system for now.  The only reason I could ever see someone buying a mainstream computer is if they don't know enough about computers, or know someone who's willing to help them...

[Iceman]

AH! Good point. If you don't know how to apply thermal grease for example, don't try. Have someone who knows show you.

[Elvis]

AH! Good point. If you don't know how to apply thermal grease for example, don't try. Have someone who knows show you.

As if there is something terrifically difficult about applying thermal grease? There are even instructions on Artic Silvers website. http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm

Of course you always have to do a lttle investigating and reading. And there are plenty of websites that offer assistance to would be computer builders, like PCMech; which offers alot of help to noobs in there forums. My suggestion would be to start simple in considering the configuration, ie IDE over SATA with no RAID and build up to more complex issues like flashing the bios of your board. But having put together your machine you can tackle flashing the bios. There is enough help online that you shouldn't be fearful of being lost.

[Iceman]

Its not particularly tricky, but it is probably the most skill-depended portion of building a PC. No amount of directions can show you exactly how much you should put on you know?

[Sarek]

I'd like to build a PC but the thing that's been stopping me is that I'm clueless as to how to decide what motherboard and chipset to buy other than get whatever is most expensive and hope for the best.  Anyone know of any resources (magazines, websites, etc.) with up to date info on their features and explainations of what those features do and which ones I need?
 

[Matsukasi]

I don't have the knowledge to build y own, but I bought my dream machine from alienware instead of one of the major computer companies.

Sure, I paid a pretty penny for it, but I'm willing to do that for quality.

Here's what I got:

3 Yr on-site warranty with 24/7 phone tech support
Windows XP Home w/ service pack 2
480 watt power supply
P4 processor w/ HT technology 3.2 GHz
ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe - Intel 875P motherboard
2GB dual channel DDR PC-3200 SDRAM at 400MHz - 4 x 512 MB cards
ATI RADEON X800 PRO 256 MB DDR3 w/ digital and TV out
video cooling system with some fancy pants glowing fans
160 GB Barracuda 7200 RPM w/ 8MB cache hard drive
Lite-On 16xDVD / 52x32x52x CD-RW drive
Plextor PX-712A 12x DVD RW drive
good old fashioned 3.5" 1.44 MB floppy
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS 7.1 high definition surround
Intel Gigabit Ethernet adapter
NEC 22" CRT flat screen
multimedia keyboard
Intellimouse 3.0
Works Suite
buncha other goodies that I picked out instead of having them foisted upon me by the company.

I'm sure some of you could easily build this for half what I paid, but I'm not a member of that group sadly. Besides, the system itself looks like sculpture. Should be at my house in about 2 weeks. I'm as giddy as my wife at a half-price shoe sale.

If you've never heard of the company before, check em out sometime at www.alienware.com

[jualdeaux]

http://www.tomshardware.com/

Hee is one good reference. You may have to look through it a bit as there is quite a bit of stuff there.

[Hale]

I'd build your own, that way you can control the quality and the speed of the components you buy.   Do some research if you aren't familiar with some of the technologies.