Is it better and cheaper to

[L.T.W.]

build my computer from the ground up, or should I buy a brand name?

[atmuh]

if you build it from the ground up you can be cool and put it in a crave case

[L.T.W.]

Thats what I'm looking forward the most

[Dhsu]

Cheaper? Yes. Keep in mind that with pre-made boxes, you are paying for labor as well.

Better? Not necessarily. It's pretty time-consuming to get the right parts and for the right price. And if you ever have problems with something you built from scratch, there's pretty much only one place you can go for tech support: you. But if you don't expect that to be a problem, then by all means go for it. I'd expect to save a couple hundred dollars if you go the DIY route.

[The Coop]

Better?- It depends on your skill level. Some people say building a PC is easy, but something tells me you have to be very careful in how you handle all the various parts, and with putting it together. You don't wanna push too hard or you'll snap something, and letting static build up on you could lead to a fried component when it discharges. Of course, if you don't feel comfortable assembling the innards yourself, you could get a friend who's built them before to do it. Or, you just buy it off the shelf. Keep in mind that you'll also have to install all the drivers and the OS yourself to get everything up and running, so you won't be able to simply turn it on and get going. There will indeed be assembly required

Cost?- It's supposed to be cheaper to buy everything yourself and build it. You don't have to pay for the extra stuff they cram in there (programs, "not as good" memory sticks that need to be replaced, any extra CD/DVD drives or devices, their labor costs, etc.), as you'll only get what you actually pay for. Know that you will have to buy an OS yourself, so take that expense into account.

Of course, make sure you know all the stuff you're going to need to build the type of PC you want (gaming, just web browsing, etc.). Making a thread in the Tech Help forum should give you plenty of advice in that area, so keep that in mind if you go the "build it yourself" route.

[L.T.W.]

Wow, thx a lot.

I think I could venture and do it myself. Ive done it before, but w/ an early 90's PC.

Hopefully it'll pretty much the same.

[Majin GeoDooD]

and letting static build up on you could lead to a fried component when it discharges.

You know.. for all the years I've been messing around with/building computers I've never once bothered to watch for any static discharge when tinkering around. It's never been an issue, and I've never fried anything.

(I'm not saying that you can just go poke in a computer without getting rid of any static charge on you, but just sharing my personal experiences. I am not responsible for you frying any of your hardware.)

[Pyrion]

It's cheaper to buy a brand name, most of the time. It's much more rewarding and educational to build it yourself though. I do the latter, even though it costs more.

[The Author]

It's cheaper to buy pre-made because the manufacturers buy parts in bulk. With large orders, prices can almost be cut in half. Labor is cheap compared to parts. Assuming it takes 2 full hours to assemble a PC for one person (which is realistic if you consider people who do it all the time) It'll cost at the most 30$ to get that PC assembled and ready to go. Then you'd have the one dude who sets up 30 PCs with Windows in 1 hour. So it's like 50 cents for the OS installation. (All of this is assuming they are paid 15$ an hour, which they are not.)

So, they only have to save 35.50$ per PC by purchasing in bulk. When you buy parts individually you pay anywhere between 10-50% more than what a bulk order would cost per part.

Extra Credit information, you can skip the last part.

(Rule of thumb: Anything you purchase has half of the money you pay in profit for one of the companies in the chain of distribution. Sometimes its more. Here, we sell to distributors alarm system parts for about twice what they are worth (and its rather low) which in turn they sell to installers for double of what we sell (still very affordable) which in turn take an approximate 25-30% profit margin. Look at it this way, I make a doodad which costs me 5$ to produce. I sell it for 10$ a piece at my average price. The guy I sell it too sells it for 20$ a piece in average. And the retailer then sells it for 25$.)

[R-D]

I built mine about seven years ago and it's just now getting to be completely outdated, but even without the cost factor it really is a lot of hassle to construct a pc unless you know exactly what your doing, have the time to do it, and know how to deal with it if something goes awry.

You know.. for all the years I've been messing around with/building computers I've never once bothered to watch for any static discharge when tinkering around. It's never been an issue, and I've never fried anything.

Same with me, though they put those things on there for a reason...

[Penfold]

It's cheaper to buy pre-made because the manufacturers buy parts in bulk. With large orders, prices can almost be cut in half. Labor is cheap compared to parts. Assuming it takes 2 full hours to assemble a PC for one person (which is realistic if you consider people who do it all the time) It'll cost at the most 30$ to get that PC assembled and ready to go. Then you'd have the one dude who sets up 30 PCs with Windows in 1 hour. So it's like 50 cents for the OS installation. (All of this is assuming they are paid 15$ an hour, which they are not.)

So, they only have to save 35.50$ per PC by purchasing in bulk. When you buy parts individually you pay anywhere between 10-50% more than what a bulk order would cost per part.

Extra Credit information, you can skip the last part.

(Rule of thumb: Anything you purchase has half of the money you pay in profit for one of the companies in the chain of distribution. Sometimes its more. Here, we sell to distributors alarm system parts for about twice what they are worth (and its rather low) which in turn they sell to installers for double of what we sell (still very affordable) which in turn take an approximate 25-30% profit margin. Look at it this way, I make a doodad which costs me 5$ to produce. I sell it for 10$ a piece at my average price. The guy I sell it too sells it for 20$ a piece in average. And the retailer then sells it for 25$.)

While I understand what you're arguing, I haven't seen it work like that in practice. Any computer I've made (and I've made 10-15 computers for various people over the years) has been cheaper than a pre-made computer of comparable specs.

Anyway, if you go down to the average retail outlet and purchase your comp parts there, you're paying a much higher markup than you would at other places. Until about 4 years ago, there was a local computer store with 2 branches that had the most amazing prices I had seen at the time (even compared to online stores) and until they closed down I'd always buy parts there. Now, I tend to go to newegg or wait for deals at places like Fry's (since their specials can be really great, even though they're everyday prices are nothing special), depending on what the future owner of the computer wants.

Probably the best advice someone can give you about building your own computer for the first time is this: you get what you pay for when purchasing bargain brand parts. My experience has taught me it's better to buy Asus instead of Abit, etc. Do a bit of research, and if you're a detail-oriented person you'll price together a computer for the first time pretty fast.

[L.T.W.]

Thx very much for all the info.

So a good and reliable web page is newegg as you said, could you recommend me some others plz.

Thx in advance

[Effef]

Thx very much for all the info.

So a good and reliable web page is newegg as you said, could you recommend me some others plz.

Thx in advance

www.svc.com

^ Sillicon Valley Compucycle

They specialize in quiet air cooling stuff, along with watercooling and other more extreme cooling options.

They are one of the few reliable sources for some harder to find items that newegg does not even carry, such as the Yate Loon D12SL-12 120mm fan, and some of the different voltage ratings of the Seasonic S12 power supplies.

Its also a one stop shop for little doodads that you will find yourself in need of, like fan cable extenders, thermal paste, and molex power cable splitters.

[al3xand3r]

This is another nice little online place where I buy my hardware stuff:

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Home.jsp

I built my own pc two years ago with pieces from newegg and zipzoomfly.

Sometimes newegg looks cheaper, but then you have to look at shipping and factor that in, because zipzoomfly tends to have almost everything with FREE SHIPPING.

Also, it was the 1st computer I ever EVER built, but the guys here walked me thru some "fears" I had. It's not that hard, really. Actually, I find it fun. If I lived near you, I'd probably help you myself. That's how much I like putting them together.

[Pyrion]

Were this three years ago I'd recommend Monarch Computer.

Monarch Computer was lol a few months ago, now they're gone.

Anyway, check resellerratings before buying from some place you've never heard of before. Just in case.

[L.T.W.]

Another Q.

If I'm making a top of the line gaming PC, should I get Vista or XP pro?

[Pyrion]

Top of the line as in top of the line right NOW? Vista, for DX10.

Top of the line for last year? Stick with XP Pro.

[L.T.W.]

I think I should have enough money to make a top of the line of this year.

How much would you say that would cost?

[Pyrion]

For a completely new rig, as opposed to upgrading?

About $1500-2000.

Much cheaper if you use just regular 7200RPM SATA drives as opposed to WD Raptors. It cost me ~$1600 (including taxes and shipping) just to upgrade my rig to run Vista x64, including the cost of Vista itself, and I needed a new HD anyway cuz the new motherboard only had a single PATA bus.

Let's see:

$250, 1 WD Raptor 150GB.

$400, Vista Ultimate retail.

$180, AMD Athlon64 X2 5600

$190, Gigabyte GA-M59SLI-S5 motherboard (discontinued as far as Newegg is concerned apparently, so I think I got the last one, lol)

$240, 4GB (2x2GB) G.Skill PC2-6400 5-5-5-15.

$160, Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500 (which doesn't yet work in Vista x64). (You can just skip this altogether, Vista doesn't seem to like TV tuners and you're probably not building yourself a media center PC anyway.)

If you're building a new rig, factor in the cost of optical drives, monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, case, power supply, possibly another hard drive (I had a 160GB SATA drive I could keep as my media drive). Oh, and a video card. Almost forgot that. That adds another $500 for a decent DX10 card (skip the 8800GTS if you can and go with a GTX).

[Smoke]

$400, Vista Ultimate retail.

I'd like to see a really good explanation for spending at least $160(Home Premium retails for $240, OEM for $160)more on your OS than normally needed, and that doesn't include an e-penis boost. I'm talking about features you actively need that cannot be found in other editions.

[CC Ricers]

I'd normally stay out from buying new Windows OSes until they've been on the market for at least a year. At least giving them time to work out the major kinks. Apparently some significant programs don't start up at all in Vista, like Ableton Live (maybe not significant for you, but for some of the music makers out here). Aside from playing Halo 2, I don't see any compelling reason to upgrade from XP yet.

[Pyrion]

In the unlikely event I needed to connect my computer to a domain server, home editions wouldn't cut it. Business editions don't include the media center software, which is what I ideally was going to run with the TV tuner. So, the only thing that has both the media center edition and the domain connectivity is Ultimate.

And regarding retail vs OEM, that's a licensing quirk. OEM is tied to the machine it's initially activated on. Retail you can actually change your configuration and reactivate. OEM you cannot - you'd be forced to buy a new license. Very important in my case as I first activated this on my old Athlon64 3200, and the upgrade to the Athlon64 X2 5600 would've necessitated buying ANOTHER copy.