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Home-Built vs. Store-Bought PCs
Greg Searle asks: "I'm going to be in the market for another PC soon, and have been watching the prices drop and the power go up over the years. There are a lot of 'bargains' out there, but then I heard that the best and least expensive PC's are 'white box' systems that are custom build by small, local companies. This got me thinking, I know how to put together a PC from scratch, why don't I just do it? This should save me quite a few bucks, and I get the exact system I want. My question to you: Where is the best place to order the parts (case, MB, drives, etc.) over the web? I am familiar with sites that sell typical consumer products, but have no idea where to start to get raw parts. I'd prefer one site that sells everything, but wouldn't be surprised if there are some specialty sites that provide the most bang for the buck for a particular piece. What do you think?"
Does this give you any idea on where is stand?
Yeah great fun like.. Hey, why doesn't this card physically fit in my freaking pos motherboard? What do you mean the only drivers that are available are for win95? Ok, so it didn't do anything when I turned the power on, is there a short, something unconnected/unseated, or is one of 10 things in the box bad?
Having become the "tech support" for my family, I now tell everyone to just buy a freaking dell..and quit asking me bios questions!
BTW, he's been voted the most annoying person on God's green earth! Check it out! He's #1 on the annoying list!
LOL
Disclaimer: This comment was generated by a Flock of Trained Microsoft Programmers for Aqua_Geek.
>Will you get the satisfaction of pointing to your computer and saying "I built that", and have fun in the process? No.
But he WILL get the satisfaction of looking at the mainboard (or DIMM, or sound card, or whatever) sitting in the trash, and saying, "I fried that."
Yeah, except the dell comes with ethernet, sound card, video card, speakers, keyboard, mouse, monitor, operating system, tech support, and warranty. In the world I live in, those things cost money too. Maybe you're able to download speakers off the internet or something.
And, of course, if you get the Dell you don't have to dick around for five hours selecting and ordering the parts, finding drivers, putting everything together, and installing the OS. In the world I live in, my time is worth something. Maybe you're able to download time off the internet or something.
Slashdot is jumping the shark. I'm just driving the boat.
Wow, you are brave. You actually used your CC in China.
Next Month's CC Bill
Groceries
Dinner
Movies
Stolen Missile plans
Jeep shipped to China
11 new stereos
Really? You'll have a hell of a time designing a 4-layer printed circuit board that won't fail at the memory bus speeds.
It would take many man-years to design the ASICs for the bus controllers, I/O, sound, and CPU support.
And all that fancy equipment you need to do wave soldering would take up a good chunk of you garage.
Back in the Apple ][ days, people still used to build computers from scratch, because they were still 100% off-the-shelf components. I've seen friends from the FSR show me Apple ][ clones they wire-wrapped, part by part, using some chinese clone 6502 chip as the CPU.
Today, of course, building a computer from scratch means only taking about 10 components and shoving them in a case.
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Ask the Ya-Hoot Oracle Anything!
I have been using www.mwave.com for over 3 years!
They have Pricewatch based pricing!
they are a great company!
They have a nice site that is easy to navigate and use. And they have all
the major parts both oem and retail!
You:
a) Attended the William Shatner acting school.
b) Have been watching too much Barney lately.
c) Have just discovered Ecstasy.