Buy or Build

How many of you have built the computer you use? Or did you buy one from dell, hp, or some other brand?

I use a Gateway or Dell since all I have are laptops at the moment.

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scheistermeister

Built, have always built.

jryantech

Building is the way to go... Although I have bought one computer from Dell, an XPS laptop... because I needed something that wasn't a huge tower

dynamik

Build my desktops, buy my laptops. I used to go with Dell, but I recently switched to www.xoticpc.com and went with the Sagers.

HeroPsycho

Build my own, always will. I'm too particular to let someone else choose the parts in my PC.

royal

HeroPsycho wrote:

Build my own, always will. I'm too particular to let someone else choose the parts in my PC.

tiersten

Laptops I'll buy. Decent spec desktops I'll build. Cheapest possible desktop then I'll just buy. Servers I'll buy. If you just want something cheap that'll do for basic internet and office style tasks then unfortunately its pretty hard to beat some of the prices from places like Dell. They're able to buy in a million crappy video cards to shave off the price for example.

If it is for work then it is buy for everything.

ULWiz

i personally think you have to be a complete idiot to purchase a desktop from a retail chain.

Always Always Always build your own.

If i wanted a laptop i would go Dell,IBM,HP

Aldur

dynamik wrote:

Build my desktops, buy my laptops. I used to go with Dell, but I recently switched to www.xoticpc.com and went with the Sagers.

Very interesting, I'll have to look into these guys the next time I want to buy a laptop. I currently am using a dell xps and I haven't be to impressed by it, not to mention that it was pretty pricy.

scheistermeister

I admit, I have bought one laptop, an EeePC. Love the thing too. I use it as a book. Load a pdf of whatever I am studying on it and can lay in bed and read.

Lee H

Unless you have a money tree in your backgarden, you can select all your hardware and a lot of compaines will build it for you

A quote i got for some guy was £1200, he asked in the same shop I would buy all the parts from for the same build and they quoted him £2500

Lee H

marco71

build for me and build for others (at work)

Megadeth4168

I've built my desktops, but I have bought my laptops.

vsmith3rd

ULWiz wrote:

i personally think you have to be a complete idiot to purchase a desktop from a retail chain.

I disagree. I have never purchased a PC retail, but some folks are just not as knowledgable about this field. My Dad, for example, elected to buy a PC, via retail, several years ago, before I got into the field. He's a wiz at mathematics, tax law and estate planning, and has his own business earning him 300+k/yr, and growing. I don't think he's a complete idiot, its just not his field of expertise. That would be like him saying anyone making certain tax decisions and investment decisions that the general public isn't versed in, would be a complete idiot.

Besides, the PC he bought is still running great, and sits in his home office. The business office PCs, I think he bought in bulk.

As for the OPs question, I build my PCs and servers. My servers aren't expensive purpose built servers running RAID 5 or anything, but I'm running Server 2003 as my platform for DHCP, DNS, SQL, RRAS, IPSec, Print, File and other server functions for studies.

AlanJames

i used to always make my PC's, but now I cant be bothered. I prefer laptops

less cables!

dell xps 1530 all the way

Mishra

I've always built my own PCs. It's cheaper and I can get what I want.

BeaverC32

I bought my latest desktop from Dell...with the licensing price for Vista Ultimate and my new 24" monitor, it really wouldn't have been any cheaper if I had built. Plus I get a nice discount at Dell through my employer.

Megadeth4168

BeaverC32 wrote:

I bought my latest desktop from Dell...with the licensing price for Vista Ultimate and my new 24" monitor, it really wouldn't have been any cheaper if I had built. Plus I get a nice discount at Dell through my employer.

There is something to be said for the perks of employee discounts through Dell.... We get the same pricing as Dell employees where I work....The 3 year Gold warranty is nice as well. My last 2 machines have been from Dell, but they have been laptops.

undomiel

My household is now completely Dell. The sales that I took advantage of really offset what I would've saved building the machines myself.

astorrs

As others have said - I build desktops and buy laptops.

For my clients, its always buy both - no OEM stuff.

dynamik

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

Mishra

dynamik wrote:

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

I don't even know how to repair laptops. >_<

snadam

Mishra wrote:

dynamik wrote:

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

I don't even know how to repair laptops. >_<

its not as bad as it looks. I have completely taken apart a few laptops and repaired many. Its not as modular as PC's but when you can fix a laptop (ie new monitor or new keyboard), you look pretty cool

oh, and I get sick of building PCs anymore but I have built ones. I Buy if its cheap. Always buy laptops. Buy both for work environments.

Mishra

snadam wrote:

Mishra wrote:

dynamik wrote:

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

I don't even know how to repair laptops. >_<

its not as bad as it looks. I have completely taken apart a few laptops and repaired many. Its not as modular as PC's but when you can fix a laptop (ie new monitor or new keyboard), you look pretty cool

oh, and I get sick of building PCs anymore but I have built ones. I Buy if its cheap. Always buy laptops. Buy both for work environments.

I've taken them apart reading to do something to them but it all makes me nervous and I put it back together. It's just not worth 1,200 dollars for me to snap something and have it never be able to put back together or something.

undomiel

I'm with snadam on the repairing laptops. I used to be worried about repairing a laptop until I actually took one apart as part of my Dell training (even though I only did phone support, no field tech position). Now I'm not concerned whatsoever. It's just a bit irritating with how many screws there are. But they're easy to take apart. I had to replace the speakers in my wife's laptop earlier this year. That one required taking everything out. Keyboards are a real easy replacement as well. Displays are a bit of a pain though, unless you're just replacing the whole top of the chassis as well.

snadam

Mishra wrote:

snadam wrote:

Mishra wrote:

dynamik wrote:

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

I don't even know how to repair laptops. >_<

its not as bad as it looks. I have completely taken apart a few laptops and repaired many. Its not as modular as PC's but when you can fix a laptop (ie new monitor or new keyboard), you look pretty cool

oh, and I get sick of building PCs anymore but I have built ones. I Buy if its cheap. Always buy laptops. Buy both for work environments.

I've taken them apart reading to do something to them but it all makes me nervous and I put it back together. It's just not worth 1,200 dollars for me to snap something and have it never be able to put back together or something.

It does suck to snap something in there, but all the ones I tinkered with were way out of warranty

Its Dell's problem if it still has a valid warranty

I have even went ahead and took images of the parts I was unsure about messing so I knew how to put it back together.

LCD replacements are probably the most intensive thing to replace.

samurai86

Building ftw. To me I enjoy a custom machine that I built more than one that I bought.

rfult001

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.

cbigbrick

Buy laptops. IMB or Dell

The ACER laptop is own is crap!!!

TechJunky

I went with Dell this year. I usually build my own, but for the price of the dell system I couldnt pass it up. Quad Core, 3GB memory, 9600GT gaming card all for $799.

Plus you get the great warantee.

macdude

I don't mind taking dell laptops apart, there really pretty straight forward. But when I get into other brands I get a little nervous. But as long as I have a good walk thourgh I am good to go.