It's not just intimidating to assemble your own, there is also a lack of solid information on where to start for most people. Why deal with it when Dell will build one for you? It simply isn't time effective, especially if you need it quickly, don't care about specific parts, and don't have time to learn a lot of useless hardware information. You guys are oversimplifying the "build your own PC" process. There is a lot of technical information you take for granted that most people don't have, and there are a lot of things that can go wrong, even for you guys who know so much.

Quote:Original post by Nemesis2k2
Built mine, built my server, built my brothers, built my mothers, built my sisters, built her friends, built her friends parents, built two other friends machines, built countless others with whom I have little relation.

Build mine then :P

My budget is $1500 to $2000. I am a heavy gamer and programmer.

Quote:Original post by Nemesis2k2

Quote:Build mine then :P

My budget is $1500 to $2000. I am a heavy gamer and programmer.

Sure, if you pay my airfare. =P

I can recommend what parts to get, and I can give some tips on putting it together if you want. Honestly, there's not a lot of things you have to know to put together a computer nowadays. It's troubleshooting obscure problems that takes the knowledge and experience.

By "build," I kind of meant list the parts :P I hear tickets from Australia to California are a bit pricy, not that it wouldn't be nice! I feel lost given the vast number of different combinations of parts and sites to buy from. I feel pretty confident setting it all up myself, however, since I have changed plenty of computer parts in and out and have taken an A+ certification class.

I build my own, and have been exclusively building my own desktops for about 4 years now (for the obvious practical reasons my laptop is a stock Toshiba). The last stock desktop system I bought was an IBM (yeah yeah I know, but I got it really cheap). Within weeks of the warranty expiring, the parts started failing one by one. Eventually the fan on the CPU totally died with no warning. No temp alarms, no automatic shutdown, nothing - the box just ran until the processor melted. There were literal charred spots on the CPU when it finally gave out entirely.

The arguments for cost and convenience go back and forth. I've noticed that in the UK, between VAT and just general circumstances, parts seem to be a fair sight more expensive than they are here in the US. For the kind of high-end machine I build, I'd never be able to find a retailer that could touch the deals I can get online with special delivery parts, but apparently that doesn't hold in the entire world, which I suspect contributes to the varying opinions on which is cheaper.

Cost and arcane technical lore aside, I build my own systems for the pure joy of it. There's nothing quite like looking at some sweet piece of machinery and knowing you assembled it yourself from a chaotic pile of boxes and anti-static sleeves strewn across the room. I think it's probably the same primal urge that drives people to build their own cars and that sort of thing.

And, anyways, there's no feeling that can rival the knowledge that you just fragged some punk kid's ass because his Dell is insignificant next to the power of The Beast [grin]

Last time i built one, I blew up the power supply. Enough said.

Quote:Original post by Senses777
* From what I have seen, it isn't any cheaper than buying it from a big retailer. In fact, I have noticed that buying the parts was more expensive in the end.

It's not necessarily 'cheaper' in the short run, but I believe you get better value for money.

As far as retailers are concerned, the only components which need to be branded are the CPU and the graphics card, and maybe the soundcard. Every other component is, as far as they are concerned, unimportant to selling the product and therefore can be skimped on, and they do.

As a result you can get dodgy unbranded generic memory that burns out after a year or so, crappy nameless powersupplies that don't even have their wattage marked on them, ropey motherboards that you can't upgrade very easily because they use the crappiest, oldest, most obsolete socket they can get away with, and only has two memory slots both of which are taken up because it's cheaper to give you 2x 256MB than a single stick of 512. Some retailers go as far as using proprietary components which are completely incompatible with the standard components, making it impossible to replace them if they break or need upgrading.

Quote:
So, I'd rather buy a factory made PC and configure it the way I want. People complain about "too much crap" on factory made PCs, and yet they claim to know anything about computers.

I would avoid factory made PCs like the plague. Ignoring the 'crap' that is installed on them (which isn't as easy to remove as you say, considering they almost never actually provide you with a proper windows CD to reinstall after a format - you get a 'repair cd' which installs all the same crap you started with) they are the worst offenders when it comes to skimping on components and using proprietary parts. Don't expect to upgrade it, and expect it to be thoroughly obsolete within a 1-2 years. If you're going to get a prebuilt PC, at least get it from a small local computer business who will give you a high degree of control over what goes in, and is more likely to use high quality components. It will be more expensive than the factory build, but it will last longer.

I built my last PC myself, and I see myself continuing to do so in the future. The only computer I ever bought from a factory was a heap of shit and burned out within 18 months, the computers I bought from independent, local computer businesses are still going.

I bought a stock one about 6 years ago. Then I changed it part by part... now the only piece of original computer is one of the harddrives I use for backup.