Desktops: Want a new pc. Is it better to build or buy?
yes but no
by Dango517 - 3/9/08 10:24 PM In reply to: Fear factor aside, it's no contest by saunatagaIt is possible to buy components at very low cost. I myself saw a very capable motherboard for $7.99 recently. Just because it's capable doesn't mean it will work. According to many consumers the BIOs for it did not work "well". I think we all know what "well" means.
I'd say these are more realistic figures.
Case $75.00
CPU $250.00 - no guarantees on speed for this one
Motherboard $150.00 - 4 GB motherboard, Quad compatible
Power supply $100.00 - prices vary widely $10.00-$300.00
Graphics card $180.00 - high end cards $400.00+
Memory, 4 GB $240.00 - This is with a latency of 4-5
DVD burner $30.00
Hard drive $150.00 250 GB
OS $140.00
Fans and CPU cooler $100.00 - not included above
monitor - $300.00 - not included above
key board and mouse - $75.00 (junk) - not included above
speakers - $50.00 - better then stock speakers with sub woofer - not included above
UBS card reader $10.00 - not included above
$1,710.00
$50.00 - (optional) printer
All prices are US dollars
Shipping and handling charges not included.
With compatibility considered these are "fairly" close prices for a complete system. Still a saving of around $790.00 off the $2,500.00 PC. $100.00 should be added for "surprises". Let's make that a savings of $609.00. Geez, we haven't thrown in any "I wants", you know, as opposed to "I needs". That would make the savings.........?
Now to make sure all these components work together. Since all these parts plug into the motherboard we'll start there. So we want a quad..........
There are better prices.
by Cirick - 3/9/08 11:32 PM In reply to: yes but no by Dango517I was with you in the beginning, but some of your prices seem way high. I paid 119 for a 500GB seagate 5yr warranty 5 months ago. $139 for a 24/7 rated 500GB. 4gs of Corsair Twins for 129. Fans and cooler come with the case and cpu. You can buy extra fans for 4-5 dollars a piece. For $250 he can get a quad core, Case and Power supply (mid range) ANTEC SONATA III 500W $106. Keyboard & mouse mid range $20. Os XP Pro $132, Vista Home Premium 98. I recommend XP pro, you need an $8 floppy if you want to install raid drivers. Vista will install from usb.
The prices I've shown are
by Dango517 - 3/10/08 12:36 AM In reply to: There are better prices. by Cirickgood regular prices not super discount pricing. Because you have to buy what will work and not necessarily the best priced items, I think mine is a better guide and more realistic.
For instances you want a power supply and there's one on sale for $10.00 but it's a 20 pin PS and your board needs a 24 pin connection. Well that won't do so you get to pay regular price. I have listed that regular prices. My point being sometimes those good deals just will not work out.
What you think is not necessarily the reality.
by Cirick - 3/10/08 5:28 AM In reply to: The prices I've shown are by Dango517I build for a living, these are everyday prices on "mid range" components. Not "good deals". After reading your post I went to the website and pulled them up to give you exact figures.
You make an excellent point to be careful and not look for the "good deals" but good components. I learned many years ago, no economizing on ram or power supplies. Corsair is the Viagra of Ram and Antec is a quality power supply. He can buy today tomorrow or next week at the prices I quoted without shopping around. This is not super discount pricing. I am surprised that you would rather pay twice as much for some components. Personally my reaction would be...What, where can I buy them for that price, but then I am Scotch.
The reality is
by Dango517 - 3/10/08 8:02 AM In reply to: What you think is not necessarily the reality. by CirickIf I did something for a living I'd know where to get the best prices to keep my profits as high as possible. I'd also use good parts to reduce the risk of having unhappy customers, return customers or reduce my risk of being sued. This advise is for novices that might not have the depth of knowledge you have nor have your resources.
You are entitled to your opinion; I am entitled to mine. We simply disagree.
I will not respond to your posts any further to keep this thread from going bad. We're done.
This advice is for novices
by Cirick - 3/10/08 10:56 AM In reply to: The reality is by Dango517This is not a secret place. It is available for everyone. So they do have my resources as I posted it previously, Mwave.com.
I am passing along my experience to save people time, money and aggravation. By using this company I avoid all of the problems you stated and is the reason why I have stopped building except for very select clients.
They do the tech support, warranty. I have nothing to do with it, there is so little profit in building that is not worth all the free tech support I would have to provide.
That is why I recommend to a novice to have mwave custom build their machine for $80. They will even help you configure it and have an online chat to help you select components, as well as a toll free number.
You're absolutely right those who want to pay more can pay more. I am just giving them another option. You don't need to respond. Just wanted to clear this up.
Build your own
by pcsky456 - 3/9/08 11:14 PM In reply to: Want a new pc. Is it better to build or buy? by Mya245With the same budget you can get a better machine if you build your own, but you must know how to manage that.
Better tech support better warranty
by Cirick - 3/9/08 11:37 PM In reply to: Build your own by pcsky456For $80 you can pick the components and have it built. You get a warranty from the company for 1 year and also the manufacturers warranty for each component Seagate is 5 years. You have tech support from both, and their tech support people have actually seen computers before and speak clearly, unlike Dell and HP.
Apples to Apples Dell vs Build your own
by saunataga - 3/10/08 11:31 AM In reply to: Build your own by pcsky456I don't know which $2500 computer originated this discussion but I recently received a Dell catalog with an XPS 720 Formula Red ($2542 after $400 savings) advertised as "Rule the world .....", which included two years of "peace of mind .." Below is a component by component comparison of buy vs build, "peace of mind" not included but priced at the difference in cost between the two systems. Shipping, occasionally free, and rebates are included in the price.
Dell Case - clear side panel - other details not listed (it's flashy!)
Build Case - Lian-Li 60BP PlusII Aluminum w/side-panel mid-tower $158.
(you can get an outstanding case for $ 100. but I was liberal with $.
Dell CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Build CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 - $ 255.
Dell Motherboard - Unknown
Build Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-EX38-DS4 ATX Socket 775 $ 212.58
Dell Memory - 3GB Dual Channel DDR2 (why 3??? I don't know)
Build Memory -4GB Crucial DDR21066 5-5-5-15 Latency 5 (4x1Gig) $ 95.
Dell Video - 512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT
Build Video - EVGA 512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT GDDR3 SLI $ 107.
Dell DVDs (2)- 1 CD burner w/DVD and 1 DVD burner
Build DVDs (2)- 2 Lite-On DVD burners with Lightscribe $ 76.
Dell Power Supply - unknown
Build Power Supply - Rosewill 750 Watt $ 130.
Dell Sound Card - Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer (D)
Build Sound Card - Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer $ 93.
Dell Speakers - A525 30 watt Stereo speakers with Subwoofer
Build Speakers - Logitech Z4-40 watt 2.1 $ 83.
Dell TV Card - Hauppage WinTV HVR 1250 with Remote
Build TV Card - Hauppage WinTV HVR 1800 MCE w/remote $ 105.
Dell Hard Drive - 750 GB SATA 3 Gb/s
Build Hard Drive - 750 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 3 Gb/s $ 160.
Dell OS - Vista Home Premium with recovery "medium" (I assume 32 bit)
Build OS - Vista Home Premium OEM 32 bit (includes disc) $ 110.
Dell Card Reader - 19-1 brand unknown
Build Card Reader - Rosewill 19-1 $ 30.
Dell Office software - Microsoft Office Home and Student
Build Software - Microsoft Office Home and Student $ 130.
Dell Monitor - 22" widescreen flatpanel w camera and mike
Build Monitor - 22" Acer widescreen (no camera) $ 230.
Dell Keyboard and Mouse included
Build Keyboard and Mouse - no (I use old mouse and keyboard)
Totals - Dell $2542. plus tax (7% + or -) = $ 2720.
Home Build = $ 1974.58 (assumes no in state presence so no tax)
Difference in cost - $ 745.42
Never mind that I'm confident I could shave several hundred dollars off the above cost and still have a machine that's exactly as fast. No one "needs" a $ 158. case, for example. That's in the "want" category. This applies to several other components as well.
For $ 745, you get two years of "peace of mind" and someone will assemble the components for you.
Or - you could, as a previous poster suggested, pay someone $ 80. to assemble it, and have $ 665. left over. That would buy a half-decent laptop, which, if it would make you happier, could be through Dell.
Or - you could build it yourself and experience the unique feeling of having made a bunch of inanimate objects "come alive" at the end of what could be a satisfying (or frustrating?) experience.
Anyway,my opinion is, don't buy ANY $ 2500. computer from anyone. Even Dell will sell you a computer for $ 1500. with exactly the same CPU, OS, and memory.
It would be better to build than buy
by lzlshintani - 3/10/08 10:35 AM In reply to: Want a new pc. Is it better to build or buy? by Mya245I am a student in an art college who needed to be working with heavy 3d applications. I had a pre made system and I have to say that upgrading a pre made system isn't very... I don't know the word.
I suggest that you build a computer over buying because not only does it save you tons of money, you gain a lot of factual knowledge about computers, which is something that would be essential to know if you want to increase/upgrade performance of your computer.
This is the first computer I have ever built, but it has more than what a pre made retail PC would have.
Here are my specs.
Case w/ 500w power: Antec Sonata III - $83
Motherboard: ECS P865T-A $29
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 - $130
Heatsink: $25
Graphics Card: GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB - $93
RAM: Four modules of 1GB each - $108 total
Optical Drive: DVD RW - $30
Hard drive: Hitachi 500gb - $90, WD 500gb - Free(!?)(Someone messed up my order and sent me another one for free.
Fans and cooling: 120mm fan - $15, VGA Fan - $20
In total, the computer only cost me about <b>$623</b> for the essentials of a decent computer which can play games decently as well as handle multiple applications at once. Note that I already had a keyboard/mouse, monitor, and speakers because I've had an earlier computer.
As you can see you can save quite a lot from building it yourself. Keep in mind that this isn't has hard as one would think. This was the first computer I've ever made(probably not the last one :> )
I recommned BUY
by DesertDweller - 3/13/08 1:14 PM In reply to: Want a new pc. Is it better to build or buy? by Mya245I have built many pc's for friends, family and customers. I built them to order - one of the advantages of a custom machine. I've made many multi-media systems. I'll only watch tv on my pc.
However, when looking at a new system for myself, I went with a new Gateway media pc. The cost was incredibly less and had almost everything I needed - hardware and software.
All I added to it was a tv card and MS. Office. I came away with a savings of over $2,500.00 bucks.
I tell my customers that I won't build any more pc's. Wouldn't be cost-effective. All I will do is do rebuilds and upgrades anymore.
Can you say more about $2500 saved?
by saunataga - 3/15/08 10:27 AM In reply to: I recommned BUY by DesertDwellerI'm curious about the specs for the Gateway media PC that you saved $2500 by buying. After doing the "apples to apples" post earlier, I can't get my mind around that kind of a savings from buying vs building. I had assumed that for $2500 one could have the fastest PC within several square miles. But you say that you saved $2500 by buying.
I guess I could start with a thousand dollar quad core processor and a pair of 8800 video cards and knock of a big chunk of that two grand. What's left after that?
want a new pc buy it or built it????
by pc_tech2008 - 3/14/08 8:56 AM In reply to: Want a new pc. Is it better to build or buy? by Mya245Here is my experience with this subject.
1> in 1996 when compaq was compaq before hp was took over compaq. the time was fall 1996 the consumer line of pc newly brought out onto store shelf sucks. the pc was heavy. video and audio quality was excellent, but what sales clerk did not tell your or warning signs posted on store shelf or on the box was inside this pc you are about to buy have many item backorder and product cd was one of them. this was the most important item when you buy your pc who cares for the games and other software they gave you. all manual was inside the hard drive meaning you have to print off the page you need before you can take off your pc to upgrade or troubleshoot once you have your pc open and opppssss..... I need to look at the manual again well you know what I mean...you will or may have to keep putting the pc back together power it on print your missing pages hoping you have everything you need now and disconnect the pc again...you may end up keep doing this if you need to go back into the manual.
Now the product recovery cd. if you have problem at setup the toll free tech support phone # sucks depend who you get I had seen cases where the rep helps you free but along the way he/she will start asking you for your credit card # so they can bill you for the rest of the support which the easiest way to resolve this problem you have is just put in that system recovery cd into your cd drive and reload everything that came from compaq that you don't have. Other times compaq rep may ask you for your credit card # at start before talking to you and none of them care about that the product recovery cd was a back order item that was sold with the new pc that you just spend $1000+ on it. not to mention the shipping cost to get it back. That line of pc had more than 1 item that was back ordered. the consumer later exchanged it for a different brand pc it was perfect no problem but the audio/video quality was not as good as the compaq.
2> home or self built pc
the cost is on you and also if you screw up. you will not get the waranty a store give you. this is the drawback yes it is cheap you build it the way you want. If you have problem you are on your own. you have to have computer technical knowledge to know what is going on with this pc or you are dead.
3> built from a local mom and pop computer store
I tried this one time. it was not that bad you tell them the parts you want and what you want but make sure you ask for waranty information. Never buy anything that gives 90 days waranty. 3 months goes by very fast
these store the pc they built for you usually is cheaper than name brand but not all the time you may get unknown brand parts
4> hp I find hp to be the best of all brand.
their ready made pc for general computing use is ok
their media system is great it has all the video/audio plug you need but the bad part is the current system is black unless you don't mind black case (note you will be ongoing see dust on the case black and white can see dust easily) the bad part is that removable hard drive that comes with the pc. hard drives and technology is growing very fast hard drive now is terabyte usb drive is also growing in size. the hp removable hard disk that the pc uses only goes up to x number in size I don't remember off hand the size, it is outdated already. the drive is not cheap and it is pretty heavy to carry. Many people like that removable drive but persnally I feel if I want to attach a removable hard drive I will get one and plug it into a usb slot. I an use more option slot for hardware advancement. the removable drive is optional but the slot is built into the case. many people love that drive while others don't. Each person have their own perference.
hp vs dell custom build pc
hp....what is good is you can built the pc of your choice. your $ will depend on the parts you choose the problem with hp is you have to take a lot of junk they bundle with your pc
dell
dell is ok I guess, again the $ will be what type of parts you ask them to put into the pc
for both check for coupon code online it changes all the time
once there was a article on dell that warn consumer about the trick they use to charge the different type of consumer I don't remember where the article is but if you do a google search I am sure you will find it
trap:....watch out for this.... let say you bought a pc or laptop or have a sales order # from them and you go for additional accessory to upgrade you pc for example you want more memory.
this was a research that was done a few weeks ago.
in dell web site a 1 gig memory was selling for $40 something.
when you call and after they take your order # the price for the same was found to be $89 per gig exclude tax and shipping
dell offer huge discount coupon to you sometime to lure you to buying their pc plus gift card which you must buy online sometimes their product is unknown brand or they call it their brand. many other product they sell can be list price you are better off buying it elsewhre. You may get stuck with the give card they gave you to lure you back to keep shopping from them but be alert....check those prices before you shop.
dell custom built pc don't give you all the junk hp gives you that is a good part but say if you don't want a keyboard or mouse you can have it that way but you won't get some $ back as deduction. if dell has a store check those store $ vs online $.
Now a days almost all pc have memory card reader built onto the pc dell case has a nice cover over it while hp don't beware dust will be blown into those open hole to those memory card reader if your memory card does not read you know why
printer... dell sell their own brand printer
staples... staples have a nice recycle program where each hp ink cartridge you give back it is worth $3 off toward the purchase of anything in the store this may help you on the long run in some savings.
as to gateway...
I think they have one section in their web site that mention their pc are assembled and are made in china
hp....not surprise their pc are made in china and shipped from there to you. this happened
with all the recall that has been going on last year you want to be safe you can check www.cpsc.gov to see what pc related item have been in recall for the past year. I do know laptop battery and power cable was among the many recall for computer hardware.
with any pc you take your luck, there is no 1 good one and one bad one
you get one that you think you feel comfortable to use within your budget.
Above were some information I am sharing from what I know about pc.
if you buy any pc from dell, hp, gateway etc... the software they give you are always or 90 % oem version
this is how the market technology goes nothing we as consumer can do
I remember in about 2001 when roxio easy cd creator was version 4, hp bundle that software with the pc they were selling, I did a compare with that software they offer with the box in the store...the store shelf version has more than the hp version.
also epson scanner
this was a few years back
they bundle their scanner with photoshop element but it don't tell you what version. I noticed adobe pse2 came out for awhile but epson was still bundle their pse selling with their scanner as version 1 oem. it took them a long time to change the bundle version # to the software they gave out. and no free upgrade.
many pc purchase bundle in sample of many type of software they sell in the market and if you want more you have to pay for the full version that sucks because these installation screws up your windows setting and hoping if you uninstall it it will not leave any junk behind.
A program is nothing but lines after lines of instruction telling the computer what to do and compile it together into 1 program at the end, if is written up incorrectly softare will crash as you use it.
that is my opinion please feel free to correct me if I said anything wrong
desktop
by f3474drum - 3/15/08 11:48 AM In reply to: Want a new pc. Is it better to build or buy? by Mya245to tell you the truth, it is up to an individual if they buy or build.
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