Who are some good online retailers who build PCs for pretty close to what you'd pay by building it yourself?

[Silly Burrito]

I'm going to be buying a new PC soon as my two Windows machines now are roughly 3-4 years old, and I need to learn how Vista works. Instead of upgrading what I have, I'd rather just start from scratch (for that new CPU smell ). This will be my gaming machine as my Macbook is probably going to remain my main machine. I know you can run Windows on the Mac (I do now), but the graphics in the MB are just not what I'm looking for.

I've done some pricing on Newegg, Mwave, ClubIT and a few other places, and I can't help but think that for all the time and effort it would take to build my own, there's got to be some retailers who take a small markup, but sell you a custom PC for a decent price with a 1 year or so warranty. Nothing wrong with building your own, I've done it twice, but I just want to see if there are recommended retailers who can do it for close to the same price so I get all the benefits of building my own, but have a good warranty just in case something goes wrong.

So far, I've found places like Cyberpowerpc, Ibuypower, and a few other random sites that seem to be close to what I'm looking for. What sites would you recommend?

 

[CCityInstaller]

I would see if you could find a local shop that builds their own brown box systems. Many will often beat the price of a major OEM builder just to keep the business.

 

[slugg]

If you lived here, I'd build it for super cheap . No unified warranty though :-/

After shipping, I'm not sure it'd be all that cheap for me to do it... oh well.

About the warranty... if you build it yourself, each part should have a specific warranty. It's much better than you'd think. For example, memory tends to have something like a 5 year warranty, nice video cards are pretty much the same thing. If you get retail boxed CPU's, they're like 3 years or something in warranty (don't quote me, it's been years since I've had to buy one). All in all, you'd actually have a longer warranty if you take each specific part into consideration. The downside is that you'd have to work harder.

 

[catalysts17az]

slugg is correct, all part "if you choose wisely" have at least 3 yr warranty. you also listed the two companies that do it for you pretty cheap. you have all the information you will ever need. Just build another system, in the end it is worth it compared to paying for some one else to do it. and just because you want a warranty from a vendor does not mean you will like there customer service! I know i HATE THE CS from Cingular and for that i fired them (went with T-mobile).

 

[Silly Burrito]

Thanks...I'm really torn between the two options. Slugg, you have a valid point, and I'll admit to being surprised that my old Epox board was fixed for busted capacitors even after it was supposedly out of warranty. If I did build it, I'd want quality parts. I guess that's one of the nice things about the companies that I listed. It's almost like picking and choosing your components that you want, but without the time spent of assembling it (but you do pay for that privilege, obviously). The other idea is that in a weird way, it forces you to limit your choices. Normally that would be a bad thing, but if I do build it myself, I have to decide on the proper case, motherboard, power supply, research...buying it pre-built with a few options allows you to see which parts are most commonly used.

Most likely is that when the new DX10 card comes out next month (8600?), I'll probably put all the parts from Newegg in a cart, and compare it to the vendors above. I'm really curious to see what the cost difference is.

 

[Jaxidian]

cyberpowerpc is the only one I can think of. Maybe Dell on some good deals but that might be pushing it. Actually, I think at Fry's B&M you can piece out the PC from parts there and then pay like $50-100 and they'll build it for you.

 

[Fraggable]

I'd do it myself if I were you. Go with parts that have 5-egg reviews at Newegg, and read some of the reviews to make sure there isn't some recurring issue with the part.

Buy parts that have been out for some time to make sure there are stable drivers for them. This would include Nvidia 6 and 7-series video cards, system boards that have lots of reviews on the Egg (indicating they've been out a while). Try to stay away from brand new hardware like some of the 8-series cards and new model Core 2 Duo system boards. Most of the difficulty with building a system comes from bad drivers and buying cheap, poor-quality components. Just post the specs of your potential system here and we'll make sure you at least get compatible, high quality stuff.

Buy Seagate hard drives, they have 5-year warranties.

 

[VooDooAddict]

Originally posted by: Fraggable
I'd do it myself if I were you. Go with parts that have 5-egg reviews at Newegg, and read some of the reviews to make sure there isn't some recurring issue with the part.

Buy parts that have been out for some time to make sure there are stable drivers for them. This would include Nvidia 6 and 7-series video cards, system boards that have lots of reviews on the Egg (indicating they've been out a while). Try to stay away from brand new hardware like some of the 8-series cards and new model Core 2 Duo system boards. Most of the difficulty with building a system comes from bad drivers and buying cheap, poor-quality components. Just post the specs of your potential system here and we'll make sure you at least get compatible, high quality stuff.

Buy Seagate hard drives, they have 5-year warranties.

I agree with Fraggable (while I'm a gamer, I'm still a product of the 80's, so I see "Fraggle")

Get components that already have a well known user base.

One thing to mention is that you save the most $$ doing it yourself when buying high end components.


Here are some current useful bits of information.
- If getting a low cost Core 2 Duo CPU ... Get an E6300 instead of an E4300 just because of the motherboard computability. Some motherboards may still need BIOS updates to see the E4300 properly.

- Get RAM that is marked as 1.8V. This will ensure wider motherboard compatability. Some motherboards need either a BIOS update or Settings change in the BIOS before they can boot RAM requiring 2.0V or greater.

- If going Core 2 Duo ... Get a motherboard with the Intel 965P (965G only If you want onboard graphics at the expense of nearly no over clocking.)

- Get this SATA DVD Burner. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827151141 Then you can disable the problematic 3rd Party onboard IDE controllers.

- I'm not sure what you are looking for with Video... and that can be a whole separate discussion ... but here's my list of currently recommended cards from low price to high.
-- Nvidia 7600GS - Good Features. Low Cost ($70-90). Passive or Simple Air Cooling. Low Power Usage.
-- Ati X1650XT - Good bang for the $$ around $125-$150.
-- Ati X1950Pro - if not using AA or AF settings good balance of long term power at a reasonable component price. $175.
-- Nvidia 8800GTS 320MB - Too many features Best Price/Performance of the 8800 Series. $300
-- Nvidia 8800GTX 768MB - When you've got to have the best. $550

 

[Silly Burrito]

Thanks. I'm hoping to get a Core Duo 6400, possibly the ASUS P5N-E SLI motherboard, and when the new 8600 card from Nvidia comes out next month, I'll probably pick that up. I realize the drivers may be a bit buggy, but I'm building this machine to hopefully last for three years or so, much like my current PC did (well, before I bought a Mac.) That way, I can always pick up another 8600 for SLI later on down the road, but I don't need it right now, and it'll be DX10 compatible for down the line gaming.

So, I'm going against your advice a bit, because the video card is obviously not known, but I'm hoping that it will be a good middle-class card, which is all I really need. The tough part is choosing a good power supply. I really like PC Power and Cooling, but man, $200 for their SLI power supply is a bit much.

 

[Steeeeve]

Oddly enough I can do it for you if you like. My store (http://www.sffstore.com) doesn't show we offer it but many distributors offer to do it with warranty and thus resellers sell this...a lot of time with the shuttle systems.

Let me know if ya need any help. My email is steve@sffclub.com

 

[BladeVenom]

You could check out ******/ since they are or were the parent company of Newegg.

Edit: They censor that? It's ABS with the www and the .com.

 

[homestarmy]

Originally posted by: slugg
If you lived here, I'd build it for super cheap . No unified warranty though :-/

After shipping, I'm not sure it'd be all that cheap for me to do it... oh well.

About the warranty... if you build it yourself, each part should have a specific warranty. It's much better than you'd think. For example, memory tends to have something like a 5 year warranty, nice video cards are pretty much the same thing. If you get retail boxed CPU's, they're like 3 years or something in warranty (don't quote me, it's been years since I've had to buy one). All in all, you'd actually have a longer warranty if you take each specific part into consideration. The downside is that you'd have to work harder.

Motherboards still tend to have 1 year warranty though, don't they?

 

[homestarmy]

Originally posted by: Steeeeve
Oddly enough I can do it for you if you like. My store (http://www.sffstore.com) doesn't show we offer it but many distributors offer to do it with warranty and thus resellers sell this...a lot of time with the shuttle systems.

Let me know if ya need any help. My email is steve@sffclub.com

Does your store do linking?

Just kidding bud, your link has an extra character in it that doens't make it work.

I'm going to check out your site for friends when I don't feel like building computers.

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: BladeVenom
You could check out ******/ ... Edit: They censor that? It's ABS with the www and the .com.

L=ABS]http://******/[/L]

Wow! Never seen anything like that! I wonder why that is? What happens with ******?

OK - I see - it truly is an auto-censor. Anyone know why?

 

[Sforsyth]

Where I buy all my computer parts from they charge me like $15 - $20 to put it together for me.