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

[blinblue]

I have to agree with the other guys here, anything under $500 its near impossible to beat manufactured ones, especially if you are willing to wait for a great deal. I've seen a refurbished quad core, 8GB DDR3, 1TB, Blu-Ray, halfway decent video, Windows 7 for $400. Very difficult to get near that even if you wait for deals on the components (especially if you are paying OEM for windows 7).

That said, I built my most recent computer (about $600 in parts) and it was better than anything deals I could find on a manufactured one.

 

[Imp]

I like to customization and infinite choices in shopping, and the anal customization that is building yourself.

If I ever get so bored I just want to surf and download, Dell will be my first choice. They're like Wal-mart probably in getting gross volume discounts.

 

[waggy]

I have to agree with the other guys here, anything under $500 its near impossible to beat manufactured ones, especially if you are willing to wait for a great deal. I've seen a refurbished quad core, 8GB DDR3, 1TB, Blu-Ray, halfway decent video, Windows 7 for $400. Very difficult to get near that even if you wait for deals on the components (especially if you are paying OEM for windows 7).

That said, I built my most recent computer (about $600 in parts) and it was better than anything deals I could find on a manufactured one.

yaeh. i got my dad a refurbed quad core, 4gb ram, 1TB hd and windows 7 for like $375. i paid a extra $50 for a small lcd.

considering all he does is email, facebook and looks at fishing sites its overkill. but his last refurbed dell died (after 6 years)

 

[frostedflakes]

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

Yeah you can find some pretty good deals at the Outlet. Picked up a netbook recently using one of the 20% (or maybe it was 25%) off coupons from their Twitter. "Scratch and dent" but the netbook works perfectly and I didn't even notice any scratches on it.

And as others have pointed out, prebuilts are hard to compete with for low-end systems, especially if you plan to buy the OS instead of pirating. For higher-end systems, though, you might be able to save some money by building yourself. But then again some people would rather pay a little to not have to hassle with putting everything together, so if the price difference is small it might still just be worth it to get a prebuilt, just depends on how you feel about building computers.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

For web surfing and Office, buy a Dell or HP.

For gaming, build your own.

no, for anything, buy a microcenter deal

 

[mentalcrisis00]

I built my dad a nice AMD setup with Sempron 140, 2GB ram, 500GB hard drive, with micro ATX board for about $250, all the parts came from newegg except for the case I had on hand. Which ironically is an old Compaq micro case. So lets say I put about $300 into the tower and $130 into the 19 inch LCD, keyboard, and mouse. Everything in the lot comes with a 2-3 year warranty from the manufacturer too.

With that said you can get a similar Inspiron 570 desktop with all the same stats I listed above but with less customizable components and probably less upgrading options. It's also $330 and then you pay for shipping probably about $20. It also doesn't come with any peripherals so you'd still need to buy LCD, mouse, and keyboard.

I like building my own computer cause I know what kind of components are going into it and what my future upgrading options will be. I can put better parts into them over time instead of committing to one configuration. I also enjoy building computers.

For laptops I always go for dell, I don't really know anyone that builds laptops just because the components are so specific and there's no real standard for them. You also can't really buy laptop components beyond ram, hard drive, and disc drive.

 

[Narmer]

I don't understand what you're asking. You built(bought?) an HP. That comes with a case, no?

Compared to my custom build with parts from Newegg, including a video card with dual DVI, the HP was more expensive.

 

[sourceninja]

I built my dad a nice AMD setup with Sempron 140, 2GB ram, 500GB hard drive, with micro ATX board for about $250, all the parts came from newegg except for the case I had on hand. Which ironically is an old Compaq micro case. So lets say I put about $300 into the tower and $130 into the 19 inch LCD, keyboard, and mouse. Everything in the lot comes with a 2-3 year warranty from the manufacturer too.

With that said you can get a similar Inspiron 570 desktop with all the same stats I listed above but with less customizable components and probably less upgrading options. It's also $330 and then you pay for shipping probably about $20. It also doesn't come with any peripherals so you'd still need to buy LCD, mouse, and keyboard.

I like building my own computer cause I know what kind of components are going into it and what my future upgrading options will be. I can put better parts into them over time instead of committing to one configuration. I also enjoy building computers.

For laptops I always go for dell, I don't really know anyone that builds laptops just because the components are so specific and there's no real standard for them. You also can't really buy laptop components beyond ram, hard drive, and disc drive.

How much did you pay for windows?

 

[Gibsons]

One of the main reasons I DIY is that I can be careful in choosing components and be sure I've got a decent upgrade path. No risers, no filling all four slots with the smallest cheapest sticks, etc.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

Buying everything fill price at newegg won't be so cheap. If you look out for deals on hardware you can get things quite a bit cheaper. But then again, if you look out for deals on pre-built computers, you can get something really cheap too.

I recently built an Athlon x2 240 system with 4GB RAM and 500GB HDD for about $200. No videocard, but GT 240s regularly go for $20-$40.

 

[Triumph]

So HP makes good store-bought computers nowadays? They used to be pretty junky, somewhat better than Compaqs which were absolute garbage. Whatever happened to Gateway pc's?

 

[wiredspider]

I've built one computer just for gimmicks, but it's been cheaper and easier to just buy from Dell/HP. Costwise and timewise, it's cheaper. I suppose I could build my own system for cheaper if I waited for each individual component to go on sale, buy the Dell/HP, it comes all at once and is ready to use. They have a 1 year warranty and my credit card doubles that, so I'm all set.

 

[BoomerD]

So HP makes good store-bought computers nowadays? They used to be pretty junky, somewhat better than Compaqs which were absolute garbage. Whatever happened to Gateway pc's?

http://www.gateway.com/computers/index.php?cmpid=topnav_computers