Buy or Build

Pash

Building your own pc is great yeh if you a) have the time b) have the knowledge to put it together.

There is nothing wrong with buying good quality desktops from dell or hp that come with support for home users etc.

Build if you have time and know what your doing, buy from retail if you dont to either.

jworley

I've helped a friend build his own PC before (Yeeeeeears ago). Always bought carbon copy pre-built PCs for myself though. They suit my needs just fine.

jworley

rfult001 wrote:

Dell laptops are pretty easy to service. It's the Toshiba's that scare me. I think they add they extra screws to scare you from servicing the laptop yourself.

Otherwise, I like to build my own too. It seems common amongst the types that hang around here.

Ever had to take apart an Apple laptop? lol

dynamik

jworley wrote:

rfult001 wrote:

Dell laptops are pretty easy to service. It's the Toshiba's that scare me. I think they add they extra screws to scare you from servicing the laptop yourself.

Otherwise, I like to build my own too. It seems common amongst the types that hang around here.

Ever had to take apart an Apple laptop? lol

Unfortunately. They CLEARLY do not want you doing that yourself. What a miserable process. My Dell's and new Sager notebooks have been very accessible.

Lee H

Pash wrote:

There is nothing wrong with buying good quality desktops from dell or hp that come with support for home users etc.

Build if you have time and know what your doing, buy from retail if you dont to either.

I could not disagree more, these big companies are taking advantage of the fact that a lot of people dont know someone in IT who could build them a PC, and have to purchase PC at ridiculous price

Dell and PC world have a great entry level PC, maybe their loss leader I dont know, custom building an entry level PC is its difficult to beat theirs prices

If you start to increase the spec to quad core say and 4 gig of memory then thats were a lot of people get their trousers pulled down, as i have said in my earlier post on this thread my primary IT supplier has over 100% markup on their high spec builds

Buy a pre-built PC if you can afford it but if you want value for money then find someone with PC build skills and you will save a small fortune

Lee H

undomiel

I looked into building my own and the comparable machine (which was on sale) from Dell and the Dell won since I value my time more than saving $60 max.

macdude

I have taken many apple notebooks apart and they are not fun. Just to replace a hard drive, you have to take the whole notebook part.

tiersten

undomiel wrote:

I looked into building my own and the comparable machine (which was on sale) from Dell and the Dell won since I value my time more than saving $60 max.

You also get a warranty on the whole machine from Dell/whoever. If anything breaks then you just phone them up and complain.

undomiel

tiersten wrote:

You also get a warranty on the whole machine from Dell/whoever. If anything breaks then you just phone them up and complain.

I did Dell support for a while so I know exactly how that works.

Lee H

undomiel wrote:

I looked into building my own and the comparable machine (which was on sale) from Dell and the Dell won since I value my time more than saving $60 max.

How did you research all the components, ie Make and model of motherboard, brand of memory etc etc. In order to make a genuine difference in price cost, and then finding these parts in the whole salers and adding up the difference in price

If it was an entry level PC then i hear you load and clear, i personally cant make much from a build like that i actually refer them to Dell or PC world so they get the full benefit of the warranty

Lee H

vCole

Build desktop, buy laptop.

Slowhand

dynamik wrote:

Has anyone here built a laptop before? I think I could do it, but it just seems like a huge PITA.

I've built laptops before, (you get these nifty custom-kits, along with interchangeable parts). Yes, it's a huge pain the first few times, but you get it eventually. At one point, I was one of only two people willing to work on laptops at my workplace, no one else dared take them apart or replace anything but memory and the occasional hard drive. (I also had the dubious 'honor' of working on Mac laptops, as well as desktops.)

Oh, and I build. With the exception of when I need to get a system for a relative or friend that lives farther away than I care to drive and put together a PC, I usually build for them too. For my own purposes, it's MUCH cheaper to build a system that I want, the way I want it, and load it up with software from my TechNet subscription.

undomiel

What I got was a Q6600 with 4 gigs 800mhz ram. When looking into building a comparable machine I went through looking up component through pricegrabber, newegg, tigerdirect and a few others. The prices I came up with including shipping & handling and any applicable sales taxes put it at best I would be saving $60. I'd rather spend the time studying that it would take to build the PC at just a $60 saving. Dell really did have a killer deal going on at the time though so the savings may have been greater with their more normal deals.

Any of the XPS systems though the money that you're paying out is for being able to talk to tech support that knows English. Those systems are definitely overpriced and if you're looking to build a gaming rig then building your own may be the better buy. I wasn't looking for a gaming rig though, just a pure VM work horse.

Pash

Lee H wrote:

Pash wrote:

There is nothing wrong with buying good quality desktops from dell or hp that come with support for home users etc.

Build if you have time and know what your doing, buy from retail if you dont to either.

I could not disagree more, these big companies are taking advantage of the fact that a lot of people dont know someone in IT who could build them a PC, and have to purchase PC at ridiculous price

Dell and PC world have a great entry level PC, maybe their loss leader I dont know, custom building an entry level PC is its difficult to beat theirs prices

If you start to increase the spec to quad core say and 4 gig of memory then thats were a lot of people get their trousers pulled down, as i have said in my earlier post on this thread my primary IT supplier has over 100% markup on their high spec builds

Buy a pre-built PC if you can afford it but if you want value for money then find someone with PC build skills and you will save a small fortune

Lee H

Don't get me wrong mate i know the markups these companies do.

However, not everybody knows someone who can build a pc for them or even understand enough about the components required.

My old man spent £1.5k on a new pc two years ago, maybe a quarter of the specs of my system that i got for around £1k. He got unlucky twice in those two years and because of the extra support fee he paid hes had onsite engineer support and new parts put in in both cases.

If i built that system for him and he had those sorta problems it would take his or my time trying to get replacement parts (even with warranty agreements) amd then id have to go to his place and put them in.....

His pc does everything he needs and wants and if it go's wrong he can get it fixed in relatively timely fashion.

So as i said if you can afford it and arent knowledgeable about building pc's.....its not a bad option.

jamesleecoleman

I've built mine
I am planning on building a custom laptop but thats way down the road because
I don't have the money for it now

rfult001

jworley wrote:

rfult001 wrote:

Dell laptops are pretty easy to service. It's the Toshiba's that scare me. I think they add they extra screws to scare you from servicing the laptop yourself.

Otherwise, I like to build my own too. It seems common amongst the types that hang around here.

Ever had to take apart an Apple laptop? lol

Sorry for the late reply on this...

Yes. Loads of fun. They are getting better though. Ever service the iMac G5's? There is a true nightmare.

tiersten

rfult001 wrote:

Yes. Loads of fun. They are getting better though. Ever service the iMac G5's? There is a true nightmare.

Apple hardware seems to be designed to be difficult or nearly impossible to open without damaging something. Whilst not having any screws showing might look nice, it must be annoying for all the service people out there who have to pry the things open with plastic sticks.

iMac G5s? This before or after they kept blowing up the counterfeit capacitors?