To Buy or Build?

[RaleTheBlade]

Well I went out and bought a new motherboard yesterday, dont know all the specs on it yet but its a dual PCI slot, Pentium 4 board with a 24 pin ATX power connector and a few other little frills for $104.05. Then I started looking at the prices of new PC's and looking at all the new equipment I will have to buy to build my own and the prices are very similar between the two.

Ive looked on **** and you can get the parts there readily and theyre usually cheaper than brand new but alas, 90% of them say "We didnt test this part. Sold AS IS, no returns" which is the same thing as saying "We can sell you a bad part and take your money without letting you return it" so I dont trust many parts off of **** and the ones that are tested sell for like new prices so its just not worth the risk.

My question is, what has been your guys experience with building versus buying or vice versa? Is it really "cheaper" to just build your own PC rather than by a new tower? Or is that just the mindset?

[PeejAvery]

There used to be a large gap in prices between building your own and buying a new computer. That gap has severely come down. Also, don't forget warrantee issues. Although the parts you order separately will be under warrantee, sometimes is is much simpler to just get the machine replaced!

Personally, I would suggest just buying a new machine and not hassling with the other additional things.

[RaleTheBlade]

Personally, I would suggest just buying a new machine and not hassling with the other additional things.

I was really gearing towards that, seeing as how I can get a well equipped tower for about 600 bucks with an AMD Dual Core and 2 GB of RAM and all the goodies. I wanna see if I can find one with XP on it though seeing as how Vista has had so many incompatibility issues with alot of newer games and thats what this machine would be for. Once Vista became more stable though Id prolly upgrade. All I need is the tower, I have everything else :D

EDIT:

Just found this bare bones system on ****. Not a bad price for it and all it needs from me is the drives:

http://cgi.****.com/BLOWOUT-SALE-CELERON-D-3-46-GHZ-BAREBONES-UPGRADE-KIT_W0QQitemZ250163055647QQihZ015QQcategoryZ140075QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[edijs.vee]

I always go for self-made. If you're afraid that parts won't fit together or have no time to investigate, go to a shop where you can put in guidelines and let them build your PC. That way you'll always get what you wanted.

And if you build your PC by yourself, it'll be a great experience and will lift your hardware knowledge :) - this has helped me a lot, especially when fixing PCs or diagnosing problems.

[PeejAvery]

Just found this bare bones system on ****. Not a bad price for it and all it needs from me is the drives:

http://cgi.****.com/BLOWOUT-SALE-CELERON-D-3-46-GHZ-BAREBONES-UPGRADE-KIT_W0QQitemZ250163055647QQihZ015QQcategoryZ140075QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
It's for a Celeron! :thumbd:

[goatslayer]

I found that the processor is the most expensive bit, if you can find a mid to high range processor that you wouldn't mind using and is fairly inexpensive for your budget then the rest should be a breeze for you to get hold of cheaply.

Memory is still fiarly inexpensive in the right places, power supply, graphics cards, yea should all be fiarly easy to get hold of.

Use sites like google product (formerly froogle) and don't be afraid to spend an hour or two comparing prices on one part.

It will be worth it, your home built PC will easily outlast anything you can buy.

Also, when you come to build another say in 1 1/2 years you'll find a lot of the parts transferrable, maybe the motherboard, memory with an upgrade, the HDD's etc (use SATA), and the price of a second home built PC will be drastically lower.

[RaleTheBlade]

I agree, I got a motherboard for an AMD Athlon 64 X2 but I'm just waiting till I can kill my frugality to buy more parts. I hate spending money and I always wanna make sure I get the best deal possible or I just feel guilty! So far, the power supply and processor are next on the list. Then get some RAM (DDR2) and put it all together and watch it explode in my face, lol.

Thats the one thing Im worried about, getting a power supply that just slightly wrong for my mobo and watching it fry a $200 investment. I have good reason to be cautious! :lol:

[dglienna]

As long as the quad cores aren't out before you have it running. :)

[darrenls59]

Well I went out and bought a new motherboard yesterday, dont know all the specs on it yet but its a dual PCI slot, Pentium 4 board with a 24 pin ATX power connector and a few other little frills for $104.05. Then I started looking at the prices of new PC's and looking at all the new equipment I will have to buy to build my own and the prices are very similar between the two.

Ive looked on **** and you can get the parts there readily and theyre usually cheaper than brand new but alas, 90% of them say "We didnt test this part. Sold AS IS, no returns" which is the same thing as saying "We can sell you a bad part and take your money without letting you return it" so I dont trust many parts off of **** and the ones that are tested sell for like new prices so its just not worth the risk.

My question is, what has been your guys experience with building versus buying or vice versa? Is it really "cheaper" to just build your own PC rather than by a new tower? Or is that just the mindset?

I've been building mine for years and the reason is that when you build your own you know exactly what you get. IME when you buy an assembled PC, there is a reason they are so cheap. Because the are built using the cheapest components. Cheap doesn't Always mean bad but a lot of the time it does.When you build you know exactly what you are getting, when you buy, you don't.

HTH