Home built against buying a system

[Paul]

Hi all, just thought I'll put my 2c worth in.

I think making up a system, is way better than
buying.

1. You get to know what is what, when you make
a system yourself. And how a system works.
And it's a bloody good feeling, to know that
you can do something like this!

2. Most systems you buy, (Compaq,Dell,HP etc)
dont really LIKE other things in their systems.

They make them, so no matter what, you MUST
use their brand of ram, etc, for it to work properly.
Otherwise, it complains!

Which can be costly.

3. When you make a system, no matter what you
chuck in it, it will WORK. Regardless, of what
brand of hdd, ram, etc it is. And it'll never complain!
(unless you put something, around the wrong way of course!)

I've made 3 P4's (2 2.4's - 1GB ram, - Asus P4P800
(with 800 mhz/HT CPU), & P4SX-x, 1 P4 1.5 (P4B), and 1 166 in the last few
years. All just over $1000 NZ(about $1200 to make). Except the 166.

And anything and everything I've chucked in them
has never failed to work. I did buy an Acer
desktop once. Always had probs. Never buying
an Acer system again! Too unreliable.

 

[ray hartman]

Hi all, just thought I'll put my 2c worth in.

I think making up a system, is way better than
buying.

1. You get to know what is what, when you make
a system yourself. And how a system works.
And it's a bloody good feeling, to know that
you can do something like this!

2. Most systems you buy, (Compaq,Dell,HP etc)
dont really LIKE other things in their systems.

They make them, so no matter what, you MUST
use their brand of ram, etc, for it to work properly.
Otherwise, it complains!

Which can be costly.

3. When you make a system, no matter what you
chuck in it, it will WORK. Regardless, of what
brand of hdd, ram, etc it is. And it'll never complain!
(unless you put something, around the wrong way of course!)

I've made 3 P4's (2 2.4's - 1GB ram, - Asus P4P800
(with 800 mhz/HT CPU), & P4SX-x, 1 P4 1.5 (P4B), and 1 166 in the last few
years. All just over $1000 NZ(about $1200 to make). Except the 166.

And anything and everything I've chucked in them
has never failed to work. I did buy an Acer
desktop once. Always had probs. Never buying
an Acer system again! Too unreliable.

BigP:

I suspect a significant percentage ( 20% ? ) of home piece_built systems never
run at all. That is - the assembler constantly makes errors or gets faulty
components (...whatever...) till - the project is abandoned.
Compare that to the ( say ) 2% of barebones total failures. Same
quality self_selected components, same performance, but the CPU/mobo/case
assembly
represents a ten-fold increase in risk. Risk-of-failure is after all part
of the real system cost.

Thus, on a very nice $1000 box, all components equal, building out from
barebones means you can toss another ~$150 on the Vidcard while
maintaining the same actual benefit/cost ratio.

 

[jeffc]

I think making up a system, is way better than
buying.

1. You get to know what is what, when you make
a system yourself. And how a system works.
And it's a bloody good feeling, to know that
you can do something like this!
Yup.

2. Most systems you buy, (Compaq,Dell,HP etc)
dont really LIKE other things in their systems.

They make them, so no matter what, you MUST
use their brand of ram, etc, for it to work properly.
Otherwise, it complains!

In some cases that's true.

3. When you make a system, no matter what you
chuck in it, it will WORK. Regardless, of what
brand of hdd, ram, etc it is. And it'll never complain!

That's definitely not true - not a reason to build your own. You left off
the number 1 reason: ability to get the exact components you want.

 

[Hank]

I suspect a significant percentage ( 20% ? ) of home piece_built systems never
run at all. That is - the assembler constantly makes errors or gets faulty
components (...whatever...) till - the project is abandoned.
Compare that to the ( say ) 2% of barebones total failures. Same
quality self_selected components, same performance, but the CPU/mobo/case
assembly
represents a ten-fold increase in risk. Risk-of-failure is after all part
of the real system cost.

Thus, on a very nice $1000 box, all components equal, building out from
barebones means you can toss another ~$150 on the Vidcard while
maintaining the same actual benefit/cost ratio.

20%?? Where and how did you come up with that figure? Even if its true, you
think that same dumb ass that cant install a CPU on a mother board and mount
it in a case and then stick a few well labeled connectors on it (in my
estimation the simplest and most straight forward part of a build) will be
able to install a video card and its drivers with out a problem? Bare bones
systems are a joke. Actually if those companies wanted to help those dumb 20
percenters out there they would have you send them the case MB and CPU that
you mounted and then they do the rest. BTW if you got names and numbers of
any of those 20 percenters I would love to have them, I'm always looking for
a good deal.

Hank

 

[Paul]

Well depends what you mean by exact.

And ability. You either want it, or you dont
lol.

How many ppl are fussy? On what they get?

Some ppl maybe, but what I havent
got I'll get. If I want it.

 

[Ruel Smith (Big Daddy)]

I suspect a significant percentage ( 20% ? ) of home piece_built systems
never run at all. That is - the assembler constantly makes errors or gets
faulty components (...whatever...) till - the project is abandoned.
Compare that to the ( say ) 2% of barebones total failures. Same
quality self_selected components, same performance, but the CPU/mobo/case
assembly
represents a ten-fold increase in risk. Risk-of-failure is after all part
of the real system cost.

Thus, on a very nice $1000 box, all components equal, building out from
barebones means you can toss another ~$150 on the Vidcard while
maintaining the same actual benefit/cost ratio.

20%??? I suspect that maybe 20% hit a significant snag, possibly. However,
most know where to go to get answers. I'd say that fewer than 5% ever get a
problem they can't fix and just live with it. Faulty equipment can be
RMA'd. Everyone runs into snags when they build, but they're mostly sorted
out. I highly doubt that after someone has comitted several hundred, and
possibly thousands of dollars that they'd abandon their efforts.

I've found that bare bones systems like you mention skimp somewhere, just
like the OEM's do. I've never seen a bundled case, PSU, MB, CPU combination
that I wanted every component in the system and would buy it. If I'm
building, I want to select each and every component that goes into my
system.



--
Big Daddy Ruel Smith

My SuSE Linux machine uptime:
8:11am up 41 days 16:56, 2 users, load average: 0.46, 0.50, 0.45

My Windows XP machine uptime:
Something less...

 

[somebody]

You left off
the number 1 reason: ability to get the exact components you want.

Yes, agree, but it's possible to phrase that in a different way.
There's no systems with good, balanced specs, available on market.

For their price, there's always too much (cpu) GHz, and too little
(bus) MHz, too little RAM, and in particular, way too little video.

I suppose it reflects how most people buy PC. This is how Dell&Intel
sells their Celerons. Outright fraud, IMO.

Only way to get a good (value) system, is to buy from a small custom
builder, or build it yourself.