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?"

Comments

$450 from dell

[fatboy1234]

This isn't worth your time anymore... you can buy a stripped down PC from dell for $450.

check out techbargains.com for the latest dell deals...

start your dell rants.

Re:$450 from dell

[asv108]

I recently built a system for a friend, here are the specs:

• ASUS A7N 266 Motherboard* $90
• Athlon XP 1800* $90
• 256 megs DDR-SDRAM PC2100* $60
• Pioneer DVD Drive $45
• Sony 32X Write CD burner $80
• Creative Labs 56k Modem* $30
• In-win A500 Midtower case* $60
• IBM 40 GB Hard Drive* $70

TOTAL: 525 Shipped

Similar dell system with lower quality components runs just under $1000 without shipping.

Re:$450 from dell

[shepd]

Here's why your Dell experience was beter:

Companies like Dell use simpler BIOSes. The ensure all the settings in the BIOS that you can't access are at their poorest performance possible.

Had you done the same with your homebuilt PC it almost certainly would have worked fine.

As far as noise goes, simply select the right components. If you want to keep noise down, you'll need to avoid a cheap power supply. Spend an extra $10 and get one with a variable speed fan. Same thing with the CPU, you must have a variable speed fan on it to keep noise down in a homebuilt system (that is, assuming you want to keep it standard -- more on that later).

By going with a big name computer, you lose any hope in hell of upgrading (in any major way) successfully. Riveted together cases (as in rivets where screws would usually go), one fan systems (ie: power supply fan does everything), proprietary cases, 120 watt power supplies, built on everything, BIOSes with only one screen, BIOSes that only exist on the hard drive (isn't it fun when you screw up your system if you have one of these machines), special drive rails, non-standard physical drive sizes, inability to disable onboard stuff, specialty video cards, expensive riser cards, special power supply connectors, oh God this list could go on forever.

The most fun part about a non-homebuilt machine is when you've got to get something proprietary replaced: IBM once quoted me $250 for a 200 watt desktop ATX sized but with special cable power end supply. In the end I got paid to cut the end off the old power supply, figure out how it was wired (not too hard) and wire their proprietary end on to a new "generic" 300 watt $50 ATX power supply. It was cheaper for me to spend an hour dicking about with the old supply than to replace it with an IBM part.

Not to even mention the fact that I got it fixed that night. Are you prepared to wait a week while their proprietary parts arrive at your house?

I thought not.

Re:$450 from dell

[shepd]

>Yeah, except the dell comes with ethernet, sound card, video card, speakers, keyboard, mouse, monitor, operating system, tech support, and warranty.

$10, $10, $30, $5, $5, $2, $100, $70, $NOTHING, $HAHA.

Why such low prices? The physical components on cheap brand name computers are total crap.

Now, why such low tech support? Well, if you ask me, telling me to re-install and/or run scandisk/defrag is worth $NOTHING. If you want anything past that you'll have to buy one freakin' expensive support contract. But that's just my experience.

Warranty? Oh, now you really must be shitting me!

Most separate components that are quality (as opposed to the crap put in a cheap brand name system) come with warranties of up to 3 years. Examples: Both my Asus motherboard and Maxtor hard drive are covered by 3 year warranties.

Parts that aren't covered by warranties are of such low cost (for example, the $2 mouse) that the cost in your time to return them isn't worth it.

>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.

As someone once employed to build computers, here's how long it takes someone with any experience to put one together:

- Open the case, whip out the bag of screws and standoffs. Put the standoffs in place, ensure the ATX coverplate is the right one. 3 minutes.
- Put CPU on motherboard, put the fan on, make sure the jumpers / dips are correct, and add memory. 5 minutes.
- Put the motherboard on the standoffs, screw it in. Connect the PSU cable to the motherboard. 2 minutes.
- Put the hard drive, floppy drive, CDROM in position and screw them down. 5 minutes.
- Add expansion cards, set any jumpers on them (virtually none nowadays). 5 minutes.
- Plug cables from CDROM, etc into the motherboard. 1 minute.
- Play with the BIOS and get it set nicely. 2-4 minutes.
- Install operating system (doesn't matter if its WinXP / Linux / Whatever): 10 minutes to get it going. You aren't going to sit there and watch it copy stuff to the hard drive, are you? Boring!
- Throw on drivers, etc. 5-10 minutes.

Total time to build a system, if done in the above order: A little over 30 minutes. Well under an hour.

And those times are accurate -- ask any (truthful) computer repair shop. The administration actually takes most of the time, and its the reason why most repair shops have a 30 minute - 1 hour minimum charge policy.

Unless you're being paid $500/hr. 24/7 I remain unconvinced that anyone with just a bit of experience can't economically justify the amount of time it takes to build a computer, espcially with today's standardized, keyed, idiot proof hardware!

Just my 2 cents.

Local dealers are still a good option...

[Rorschach1]

I used to work for one, and they can probably get parts cheaper than you'll be able to through the web. There's always a markup to cover the not-inconsiderable expense of maintaining a storefront, but a competent, reputable local dealer is worth the cost especially if you're not comfortable troubleshooting and fixing problems yourself.

I shop locally

[tlhIngan]

I prefer to buy it by visiting the local computer shops here (Vancouver, BC, Canada).

They tend to be a bit cheaper, you don't have to worry about shipping... then again, there's the tax. For those of you living in large cities, they are often your best bet for the most common parts rather than trying to hunt through 100 different online vendors, dealing with damaged parcels, etc. Plus, with so many of them along the same road, it's easy to visit another shop if the one doesn't have what you want. And most are online so you can compare prices...

BEST suggestions for building your own computer!!

[Marx_Mrvelous]

Do *not* find the lowest prices on eahc part and use that to spec your system. The absolute worst thing you can do is "cheap out" on parts like RAM, motherboard, and the case. You'll end up with a potentially buggy system that is hard to maintain.

Make sure you only buy *retail* packages and keep all receipts in a folder in case you need to RMA a bad part.

It may cost 10-20% more, but if you do these two simple things, your overall value goes way up for building your own system.

Least expensive? Not always ...

[Osty]

Building your own PC is not always the least expensive proposition. Most configurable, yes, but not least expensive. For starters, all of the prebuilt PC manufacturers get huge bulk discounts. If you want to go buy that P4, it may cost you well over $400 or even $500. These guys can buy in bulks of 10,000 or more, which means significant price drops. Same for the motherboards, cases, power supplies, RAM, ... You're not going to be able to match the prices these companies can get. On top of that, if you're building your own PC, you're probably going to want to put quality parts in it. Don't expect that from a prebuilt company. They skimp where they can (weaker powersupply, flimsy case, off-brand sound card, etc) so they can pass the savings on to you while still making some sort of profit. Nevermind the software you have to buy (assuming you want to run Windows or some other commercial OS and don't wish to steal it). You can sometimes get the OEM discounts on the software if you buy it in conjunction with a mobo or hard drive, but not always.

In short, if price is a concern, don't build it yourself. Oh, sure, with a little due dilligence you can keep the price down. It's just been my experience that that doesn't happen. If you're pinching pennies, buy from a respectable name brand. If you want the ultimate in configuration (and don't mind having no computer-wide warranty support), then build it yourself.

Low price == low quality

[mangu]

Let this anecdote stand as a warning: my company was purchasing a big lot of equipment from a Swedish company a few years ago, and I went there to inspect their quality standards.

They showed me how they bought pre-tested parts from wholesalers, according to certain standards. They said they prefered to let others do the testing because, sometimes, reject rates were up to 40%. It wasn't that the parts didn't work, but they weren't up to the best standards, they were less reliable overall. The parts wholesaler could work perfectly well with those reject rates, I was told, because the parts that didn't pass the Swedish company standards were sold cheap to Chinese manufacturers.

The bottom line is, unfortunately, that cheap parts are always, by force of the economics involved, less reliable than similar parts bought at higher prices from the better manufacturers.

Re:newegg.com

[Anonymous Coward]

I add a very firm second to this -- you will find a lot of sites with very low prices on one or two components ( see http://www.pricewatch.com ) to attract buyers. But you will spend 4x the money on shipping if you get each part the cheapest you can find. (Shipping has an initial cost, then a cost per lb/kg.) NewEgg has the lowest range of brand-name products across the entire board. You will save $300-400 on a good mid-high end machine by buying all the parts from newegg.

I have built about 8 machines recently, all by buying parts from newegg, and I don't believe there's any cheaper way to get a brand-new machine with quality parts.

The only thing to consider is where to get the monitor from, since it is so heavy, so shipping costs are high. A large local retailer might be better for that. Or use egghead.com, which has (at least used to have) a limit of $9 on shipping for all items.

pros and cons

[jejones]

Pro:

• You get exactly what you want, e.g. stuff that you can be sure works and plays well with Linux. You can be sure you're not cutting corners with case or cooling.
• You can be sure that you're not paying the Microsoft Tax.
• There is a certain amount of satisfaction from doing it yourself, even if all you're doing is hooking together a few major subsystems.

Con:

• If something goes wrong, the buck will be passed--it was the other guy's component, or you screwed up when you put it together. You have to be sure that the components work and play well with one another, and you can't just take it to someone, look pitiful, and say "fix it" when something goes wrong. (If you are the "that's a hardware problem" type, this may well be important to you.)
• There is at least one anxiety-inducing step in putting together one's own system, namely installing the heat sink and fan on the CPU. I have so far always wimped out and asked someone with more experience to do that...just be sure you know what you're doing and what precautions to take.

Re:Tiger Direct

[budgenator]

My local guy's concern is mostly service. Sales is a customer service, not a profit center so by the time you add shipping and handling to the internet sales, he's within a couple of bucks and you get it right now.

There are also advantages to having a relationship with a flesh and blood guy if you need help. Who knows you might get laid off and need a job real quick.

My process for building a computer...

[Junior J. Junior III]

This works pretty well for me:

1. First get an idea of how much you can afford to spend.
2. Think a bit about what sort of tasks you want the computer to do. Do you want high end video for gaming? Do you want to build a PVR? Do you want to build a small server to host web/ftp/email services over a broadband connection?
3. Go online and do some research to see what's out there to fulfill the role you envision for the machine. arstechnica, tom's hardware, anandtech, storage review, and other sites usually have good information on recent and upcoming technologies. I do a lot of looking to see what's out there and what's around the corner, then go back and revise my budget accordingly.
4. Decide what you need to buy. I don't generally go for the biggest, fastest, best, because it's generally twice as expensive (or more) as it will be in just a few months. I don't buy the cheapest stuff either, as it's usually of inferior quality, obsolete, or will give inferior performance compared to spending a small amount more on something better. I look at the price/performance curve, and generally buy in the "knee-bend" of the curve. The only exception is if there's something dirt cheap available for a non-critical component that doesn't make much of a difference (like a floppy drive, NIC, or keyboard) or an absolutely critical high-priority component that the system *needs* in order to perform its role adequately (like a GeForce card for a gaming station) or a SCSI controller for a file server.
5. Shop around. You can try pricewatch.com to get an idea what stuff is going for these days. But I find that shipping makes finding a real bargain somewhat difficult. That's especially true if you buy from more than one vendor. I try to go through one vendor, for simplicity's sake, and right now my choice is Newegg.com. They have very good service and their prices are often near the top of the pricewatch search results anyway. You can try local stores, too. Stay away from chains like CompUSA and Best Buy, and support small local businesses run by knowledgable, competant people. Their prices will generally be about twice the lowest you'll find on pricewatch, but you may find the convenience of not paying for shipping, not having to wait for delivery, and having someone to go to for questions and advice useful. If you're more experienced, you probably don't need that, but few people know everything about everything, and everyone you talk to can potentially teach you something.
6. Put it together. There's plenty of guides out there on the web that will go into detailed instructions on how to put a PC together if you need help. PC Mechanic is a good example, and there are many others out there. Read the instructions a few times until you know what you're doing, then do it.

Good luck.