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Is building your own computer still cheaper/better than buying one?

N

Narmer

Diamond Member
My SO wants a dual monitor setup cause she's starting a statistics masters program next month. I tried to build something nice for her with parts from Newegg. My primary concerns are a good KB + M, a reliable motherboard and a fast enough video card with dual DVI. But, even without the monitors, I'm still hitting $450, not including shipping, with a questionable Biostar MB. For that I can just head over to Best Buy (BB) and pick up one of their HP desktops for $450. I don't know the specifics of the parts in the HP but I know it's cheaper. As for technical support, it'll all be coming to me whether it's made or bought from BB so that's a moot point. I guess my point is that, with cheap parts, I don't know where my savings are coming from when I build it myself.
 
for a generic machine that's just going to be used for surfing the web and running some generic applications, I'd go with a pre-made machine from Dell or something.

for a machine that's going to be under heavy load (gaming, file server, video editing, etc) I'd want the 100% customization that you can only get from building your own machine.
 
I only suggest building your own on higher end computers. You get some cost savings there. On the low end it's hard to beat dell/hp/etc.
 
Building your own will get you a longer warranty.
When you buy an HP or a Dell for the low prices, you are typically getting a 1 year warranty. If you want to get 2 or 3 years, then it brings it up more in line or even above the price of a DIY machine. Most hardware components (or at least th emain valuable ones like the CPU, GPU, hard drives, possibly PSU and probably motherboard) will have 3 or maybe 5 or even more year warranties, so comparing a base HP or Dell to a DIY isn't particularly accurate.

If you don't compare about the extra warranty length, then obviously the Dell/HP is a better deal, but you also don't get the peace of mind that comes with knowing what's gone in.
 
I just built an HP and I am getting a better video card (very important) for a little less money when I build it myself. Would you guys recommend a good, simple case to put this in? The cheap ones at Newegg (a $17 Gigabyte was looked down upon there).
 
I build my own computers not because I imagine I will save money but because I can avoid unwanted compromise. Dell, HP, Compaq, etc., may build decent PCs for a good price but for a little more I can have a power supply I trust, a name brand motherboard and graphics adapter, top quality memory and drives and my choice of case.
 
Narmer said:
I just built an HP and I am getting a better video card (very important) for a little less money when I build it myself. Would you guys recommend a good, simple case to put this in? The cheap ones at Newegg (a $17 Gigabyte was looked down upon there).
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Sign up for newegg's e-Blasts and they will soon offer you a name brand case at a good price with free shipping.
 
I'd go Dell for a cheap computer that I'm never going to be concerned about upgrading - just something to surf the net, email, etc. Hard to beat the price (particularly if you are very careful about the prices on Dell - they seem to fluctuate by at least $100 on a system every few hours.) That's especially true when you add in things like the operating system.

Personally, I'm building my next computer (HTPC). It'll end up costing me a little more, but it'll be a little more robust than a Dell offering PLUS I get the personal satisfaction of telling guests, "Oh, I built it."
 
It would probably be hard to beat a major company on price building a budget system. If I was looking for something for myself or immediate family, I'd probably build just because of the future upgradability path provided if so desired and I do like to build computers.
 
Some of the lower end systems from the big OEM's are sold at a loss. Almost no computer components are sold individually at a loss, so you really can't compete with that.

The only exception being the occasional SUPER HUGE CHEAP Fry's cpu/motherboard bundle.


You can build a system for next to nothing though if you are patient and can track down used stuff. I built a HTPC for about $30 cash and a couple of traded components (200gb hard drives I didn't need anymore).
 
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I have 3 computers in my house and I built all three of them. When it comes time to upgrade them I can reuse the case and many times the power supply, keyboard, hard drive, monitor and speakers so all I have to buy is a motherboard, cpu, memory, and a video card. I can usually do this for around $300-400 and have a pretty fast system for a couple years when I get the itch to upgrade again.

I just upgraded my son's computer from an 8 year old Pentium 4 to a Core 2 Duo with 2GB of RAM for under $300.
 
when it comes to my machine i always build it myself. I want good parts since i am enjoy playing computer games. My wife just needs something to do homework and play farmvill so we got her a nice computer from dell. for $400 its actually a pretty good computer.

There is no way i could build as good a computer for $400 as we got her from dell.
 
From my experience, anything $500 or under is difficult to beat. As soon as you add a discrete GPU and anything that slightly resembles performance you get gouged. $1200 to upgrade from 6GB to 12GB of DDR3-1600? Yes.

For an upcoming build I'm planning to cost around $2,000, the closest I can come to with a dell (Alienware Area-51 with as similar components as I can find) runs $3,300
 
Cheaper to build yourself? Not usually, unless you're building a high performance gaming rig.

Better? Depends...you can get better components by building it yourself, but for general surfing/word processing, do you really need a $500 video card and 8 gb of RAM?
 
You might want to check out the Dell Outlet, especially if you can find a good coupon. The Dell Outlet has a facebook page and a twitter account where they publish coupons so I would look there first.

Building your own machine is most economical when you have existing parts you are going to use, such as a copy of the OS, case and power supply. However, if you are starting completely from scratch, unless you are building a more expensive rig, it is hard to complete on price.

-KeithP
 
Narmer said:
I just built an HP and I am getting a better video card (very important) for a little less money when I build it myself. Would you guys recommend a good, simple case to put this in? The cheap ones at Newegg (a $17 Gigabyte was looked down upon there).
Click to expand...

I don't understand what you're asking. You built(bought?) an HP. That comes with a case, no?
 
you can get some badass computers for less than 400 refurb from dell and others. Like quad cores with nice video cards...
 
BoomerD said:
Cheaper to build yourself? Not usually, unless you're building a high performance gaming rig.

Better? Depends...you can get better components by building it yourself, but for general surfing/word processing, do you really need a $500 video card and 8 gb of RAM?
Click to expand...

Hellz yah.
 
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