Name vs. No Name

[jptech]

My freind told me that it is better to buy a named brand computer, rather then a no name computer. He said that the name brand companies spend time intigrating things into the computer so that it would be much better then a computer that you build yourself or buy from someone. I have always thought that there would be no diffrence. That if a name brand was running at 500mhz and a no name brand was running at 500mhz then they would have pretty close benchmarks, but my friend said because of the better intigration by then name brand companies, that the name brand computers would run much better. I don't beleive this is true, i think that the test would come out pretty close but I need a couple of experts to sheed some light into this.

 

[BoberFett]

In this forum, you'll find almost everybody prefers a custom system that they build themselves over a Dell, Gateway or some other pre-built.

 

[MulLa]

With a name brand system you are paying for cutomer service which most people in the forum don't need either. Most of them comes with some custom build motherboard which could prove to be a headache later down the upgrading track.

 

[Sugadaddy]

Integrated stuff is not good because it doesn't enable you to upgrade later and it performs worse than normal parts most of the time. For example, integrated video or sound will use your processor a little, so it will slow down your system, in no case could it be faster. Your friend is absolutely wrong on this.

As far as buying from a name brand, I think it's a ripoff because you pay for the name, and could get a much better system from a local vendor who build the computers themselves for the same price. If two computers have the same parts, they'll perform exactly the same, the name on the case doesn't change a thing. Actually, computers from Compaq, Dell, or whatever will probably be slower since they load alot of useless software.

If you don't feel comfortable building it yourself, I'd have it built by a small store that people have had good experiences with. Maybe you could ask here if people know such a place neer where you live...

 

[AmdEmAll]

INTEGRATED IS SUCK. Building your own is best.

 

[Pearman]

If you have not built a computer before, I know how you feel. I am in the process of building my first computer, but already I know it is better to build it yourself. First of all, you can get parts customized to your needs/wants. Second of all it is MUCH MUCH cheaper. Thirdly, if you need help on something, the people here are very helpful, so customer service is not quite as important, unless you have never even seen a computer before. In conclusion, building and customizing are the best, because they are the cheapest and they are more of what you want.

 

[Chuffmaster2k]

Sugadaddy hit the nail on the head. My father in law bought a gateway not too long ago. It is an athlon classic 750 w/ a Geforce and sb live value, etc...

It is a very nice system w/ no integrated parts, but talk about bloated as far as software goes. They have it running w/ Win 98SE and that thing literally takes between 75-90 seconds to cold boot.

My cel2 566@850 running Win2K Pro runs so much better too.

He does like it though. He likes the extra features such as "Go Back". While it is booting if you are having problems you press space bar and it takes you to a calendar and you can say when it was running good and have it restore. This has saved me several times from the tech calls...

I will always build my own systems. I can put on what I want and only what I want.

 

[cyclistca]

Your always going to be able to build a better system yourself. You just have to do your homework to see what's out there. Sites like this are a good place to start. I just went through the whole buying process after making my previous machine last four years.

As to the brand names. Your usually going to pay more for them and be limited as to what you can install. What got my whole search going was an offer that Dell made to the company I work for. They buy tons of Dells so offered the employees a good deal on a personal system. After a lot of looking around I realized that I could still get a better deal by going local. It did not help that they only offer Intel systems . Now had a brand new AMD 900 siting on my desk.