At what price point does building make more sense than buying?

[ProfJohn]

Am thinking about a new computer and am wondering at what point does it make more sense to buy the parts and build my own verse just buying a PC from Dell, Gateway etc etc

Also? for a decent gaming system does it make sense for me to buy a nice $500ish Dell, Gateway type system with 2 gigs of ram, a nice hard drive etc and then add a nice after mark card such as a 8800gt?

Is there really that much of a benefit in spending another $300+ dollars on a ?high end? system with the same card verse just getting a decent middle of the road system?

Finally? I have a Gateway with an X2 3800 now. Could I be better off just dropping another gig into the system, making it 2gig, and the 8800GT and calling it a day? Am I really going to see a huge increase in game performance with a Duo Core 2 and some other fancy new stuff?

 

[lilbabimac]

I guess it really depends on what kind of games you want to play, so you should specify that first. Are we talking WoW? Crysis? Based on that, it'll make a huge difference on what you actually need vs. what you'd like.

 

[JackMDS]

AFAIC, if one knows how to self build, consider it as fun (or neutral), and does not get anxious about it.

Given the current prices of parts and the ease of assembling them, it is always better to build.

In most cases the argument to buy contains Psychological factors rather than pure technological considerations.

In general, I am not trying to say that Psychological factors are Not important, but through an Online Technical forum it is hard to factor them in.

 

[ProfJohn]

I am a casual gamer.

Just finished Crysis, enjoy other FPS as well.
Also like games like Total War, Civiliaztion etc.

But I am only spending a few hours a week gaming, if that, so the idea of dropping a few grand into some supper system makes no sense.

Jack, I am sure I could build one myself. But I wonder if the cost vs performance at my price range and system needs makes building one really worth it.

 

[Billb2]

Gnerally, you can't beat the the price of a midrange, prebuilt cpmputer. The $400-600 pre-built machines are pretty good deals. But the further you get from midrange (either higher or lower) the better you can do building yourself. You can look at it this way. whom buys more high end Intel C2E QX9650 CPU's, Dell, Gateway, HP or Newegg? Whom gets the better price from Intel? The same for, say an AMD Sempron 2800+?

As for upgrade or start over, that's tough. It's always better to start off new rather than upgrade, but that doesn't consider the cost.
From where you are to where you want to get to and the cost do do that are kind of personal decisions and depend on you ability to spend money and whether it's worth it to you. You can't argue that a QX6850, an 8800Ultra, 4 gigs ob memory on a X38 MOBO wouldn't be a fantastic system...but would the price be worth it for you? You just have to find the place where you're comfortable, be that new or upgrade. Reading reviews and seeking out appropriate threads will get you the knowledge you need to make an informed and comfortable decision.

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Wait for the parts to go on sale. FREE case, FREE CPU cooler, FREE PSU, etc... $60 for MB. $60 for CPU. $30 HDD. $25 optical drive. $40 1GB x 2 RAMs. Add your own OS and GPU. Overclock the CPU north of 3.0GHz. You'll have a very nice stable PC that will outperform those $1000 units from DELL and HP.

The case and PSU can easily handle the extra current and heat load of an overclocked CPU and high-end GPU.

 

[ProfJohn]

When you say "free" are you talking about the deals where you get a free case with a certain part? Or do you mean taking the case I alreadty have and putting new parts into it?

 

[Nole7]

It's really difficult to beat the prices on some of these machines from, say Dell. There's still that AMD box with the 24" monitor for $660 + $100GC, I think. I mean, that's tough to beat... the monitor alone retails for $400+.

However, you have to figure that although Dell will let you customize the PC, it doesn't exactly let you choose the motherboard, PSU or case and certainly limits your various other choices. This can have repercussions later on (i.e. inability to overclock the CPU, certain proprietary parts, lack of expansion possibilities) but most folks won't care and, frankly, it's not all too bad.

It really comes down to whether you want to get your hands dirty with shopping from several places, the delivery of multiple packages, the system assembly, OS install and any potential problems that may come up during and after assembly... For some of us, it's worth it. For others it's not.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

IMO the one big advantage box buildders have is they get the OS for very cheap. If you already have an OS that you can reuse, you can almost always build your own cheaper. Like SR posted above you can really get cheap if you wait for the right deals.

To me the real decision on buy or build comes down to two things.
Are you tech savvy enough to build, install software and troubleshoot?
Do you need a warranty and onsite tech support?

If you can answer yes/no, it is always better to build yourself IMO. Even in cases where an OEM box might be a few dollars cheaper, you will end up with better quality components and a much better ability to upgrade if you build yourself.

 

[Modelworks]

I think if all you want is a pc for general use, then pre-built is fine.
I don't like dell, etc because of the tendacy to run into oem parts that are not standard.
I also like the ability to spend the money on the parts of the pc I consider most important to me versus what the oem has decided were most important.