m0j0

I build my own comp.

Sun Tzu

I wouldnt do it any other way, the problem is its a sickness. Im on a never ending quest to out do all my components.

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Destrox

Of course i built my own computer, why would i ever WANT to waste my money on somthing that will error prone, bs filled, and name branded.

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You bore me.... next.

BoCo

I built mine and it's awesome. So much so that now my friends are asking me to build theirs, too.

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Ashton

hlprmnky

Building your own box is the *only* way to fly. To get a Dell with the same level of equipment I put in my new custom rig, I would have had to pay half again as much, and I'd never be 100% certain that I had quality components (unless of course I VOIDED THE WARRANTY by opening the case).

Working as an ad hoc hardware monkey in the corporate world, I've seen one too many big-name desktops with no-name RAM or some atrocity like a Quantum Bigfoot "archival" hard drive to ever trust someone else to build my baby for me.

Konichiwaneko

Lol good try kyp but want to beat this dell I just orderd.

699 for

p4 2.6c - (Yeah this is a pretty bad chip)
512 Megs of Micron (Who is crucial) pc3200 ram
40 gig Western Digital Harddrive (Which Dell uses with Seagate, and maxtor also)
Ati 9800 (hmmm)
Sound Blaster Audigy
48X CD-RW
4X NEC DVD +R
Windows XP Home
Keyboard Mouse Speakers
15" LCd or 17" Crt free
Free Shipping

And most importantly the fact that your client has a 24/7 tech support desk they can call if you are out or sick.

I think the Dell wins by a landslide.

So this interesting notion that dell uses crap....is interesting because they have direct contracts for the suppliers we buy from. Ati, 3com, Creative, Nvidia.

Oh also the lcds....they are perfect. I have a Dell 20" LCd and it's made by Samsung. The 1900fp is a rebadges Samsung 191t, the 1800FP is a high end Nec that is $200 lower then the nec model, the 1700fp is an nec also. I have never recieved a Dell LCD with a dead pixel aslo.

I think after spending $50,000 in building machines, and buying dells last year that all in all...Dell is the better dell.

When I built computers, I had to charge my client $50 just for the build time. Even then I wasn't able to supply them a warrenty I was satisfied with.

My systems ended up being $150 more then dells.

Tell you this, if any oem fan can build me a machine with the same specs (No bs athlon 2500+ because we know the 2.6c blows away the 3000+ in some score), ship it to my door within 3 days after I order it for free, offer me 24/7 tech support for my clients, and keep a record of all the orders I've placed the last 4 years. I'm game to trying you guys out.

Also with Dells the warrenty isn't voided if you upon up the case. Otherwise they would have those awful stickers that would say void if you peeled them.

EvilPoda - Proving why he's a rookie.

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Tanerax

I am running my 3rd Custom built and its running great.

Soda_BoB

I recommend to build your own comp.. the parts are cheaper, you get warranty for each part, it's good to do heaps of research..and if it breaks up you can only blame yourself :\

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crashoverride

building your own pc is a lot cheaper, better quality than some of the pre build (e-machine, compaq, hp etc.) and you can decide each single part in your computer.

molly

Costs more? You must be getting your parts from the wrong place, then. ;]

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Konichiwaneko

My computer cost $4250 molly..trust me it's possible.

That's not with software either.

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EvilPoda

You good sir, are clearly a blithering idiot.

Not only will a 2500+ whip kick the shit out of a comparable CPU, it's easy as hell to overclock and thus gain better performance.

And...my God you're stupid, Dell's have Warranty Void stickers, I've seen them, I've cut them to get to the shitty internal workings that is a Dell.

And what the hell good is 24/7 tech support? If you can't troubleshoot your own problems, then you shouldn't be using a computer, let alone building your own.

And yahoo! Dell's come with all the software you'd ever need, making them an even better deal, right? No, for the love of God no, just download whatever software you need and you're set. Plus, you can avoid all of that crap that Dell adds on themselves.

FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8 biznatch

EDIT: And you should count yourself lucky that Kyp is sleeping, he'd tear you a new one after that post.

EDIT 2: And Crucial is some of the best RAM out there www.crucial.com

Kyp

Hah! I'm not sleeping anymore!

Okay, just for starters, Dell may have 24/7 Tech Support, but the people giving the Tech Support are complete and total morons. I'm sorry, I've talked to some of them, and they know jack shit. They have their little book that they look up questions and read out the answers to or something, because how some of these people got a job working there with no knowledge of computers whatsoever is completely beyond me. Oh, they also have their nice little accents making it impossible to tell wtf they're saying. I think it's a requirment for it, that you have an accent that 95% of the people in the world can't understand.

I will admit that you did get a pretty good deal on that computer. The RADEON 9800 and DVD+R make it extremely hard to build an equal or better system for that price. Most of the parts on that are utter crap that could easily be beaten for the price, though.

I reiterate - I have worked on Dells, Compaqs, and other such prebuilt machines. They are the devil. I don't understand how they could do what they do and get away with it. Oh, I'm pretty sure Dell also doesn't use CPU fans anymore to cut down on noise... don't ever try to overclock, and all that fun stuff.

I may be able to build a comparable machine to that, but it's not worth my time right now. Maybe I'll give it a shot later on.

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splck

Just built my third machine and gave my kids my old one. I bet their machine is better than most adults.

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nice line eh?

The_Dude

let's not go into tech support that the prebuilt's offer.

they're so freaking shitty!


the guys tells you to do something, u email them back saying it didnt solve the problem.

another guy answers the email with the exact same thing.

they tell u to do the same shit 1000 times and after that, they tell u to take it to the nearest repair shop.

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Jesus Pimp

I wouldn't have it any other way.

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GT3_GOD

Dont think Dell would provide equally good components to get a 1.1ghz AMD overclock on air

Wyodiver33

My last "Store Bought" computer was a Sony Vaio P2 266 MHz. That was in 1997. What a turd of a computer! Since then, I have gone through 4 computers that I put together myself. I have had almost no grief. I stick with good components. I used Abit with three of them, Asus on the current rig. Intel on the first two, AMD on the last two. I would NEVER buy a computer from Sony, Dell, Gateway, etc. Maybe from Alienware. Alienware is a customer of ours, and we get a vendor discount from them. I might have to see how much of a discount. lol.

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Konichiwaneko

Evilpoda I work for dell, I'm an onsite technician..... and when I see one of their warrenty void stickers...I will agree with you.
Being that their tech support ask you to open their computers, and work inside them. I'm sitting right now and wondering why I'm even arguing this with you.

Also why they hell would you want to overclock a oem computer? You build your own too do that, which in the beginning I mention (I build my own, but clients get Oems).

I have a 3.06 right now running at 3.6 and I built it myself cause I knew I was going to overclock. But my client who needs 24/7 uptime..I'm not going to risk anything that could make them go down.

Also crappy components...it was argued before that Dell uses an Intel board. That's true. Dell uses standard pc parts...that's true.

Tell me one crappy part in a Dell? Specifically. The powersupply? The are standard as of the 45XX+ lines. The motherboard...hmm they are Intel 865/875 chipset boards now.

Also 24/7 tech support can be crappy, but it's there. I charge my clients $80 an hour for tech support if they are down...and many people can't afford that, but that's how much my time is worth cause of my schedule. Why I say that is because if they have a small problem, they call Dell. If they have a big problem (Server migrations, so on) they call me. Small problems are easy to solve, and those 24/7 desk are there to solve it. You guys don't know how many times I had to explain to people that your common tech can't tell you how to initialize the center channel with a pcm stream. They can't tell you how to set up 5 profiles in outlook so you can get email from different providers, so on so forth. But they can tell you if your cd rom is broken, and send a replacement out, and they are free.

Poda, call me stupid if you want...but I don't see you helping people on this forum that much by making fun of me. I can respect that you are human, and I'm not going to call you stupid or an ass or anything like that...but in my eyes...you are still a rookie. Also...my p4c 2.4c overclocks too 3.8....that's a little higher then the 2500+...interesting.

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Konichiwaneko

Wyodiver, I do alienware onsite work also. Great company, but overpriced. They do you third party parts, like I had a recent machine with an Asus P4t-533 in it, but still they charged the guy like $189 for a board that's $119.

Abit for me, I have an IC7, and IS7, and IT7max2 right now.
AMD wise I have the nf7 and it's great.

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laconic1

I built my own. The only thing I regret is that I built it too cheap and have a junk motherboard and video card, and cheap memory. Everything else that I skimped on I've upgraded with quality pieces. I learned my lesson though that it costs less to do it right the first time.

weaselnz

I've built my own. I prefer knowing exactly whats in my PC.

Sometimes when you buy from a big company you discover they have done something to force you to buy components from them as well. For these components they oftend charge heaps more than the market value. With my own machine I can go out and buy whatever brands i like. I can shop around for the best deal.

EvilPoda

You missed nearly everyone of my points, and I'm not going to re-iterate becuase dinner just arrived.

I'll get back to this later.

mrquackers

I built my own and apparently screwed something up royally. It boots up, runs great for 4 minutes, then the screen goes black and there's no recovery.

Thank God I've got three others!

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tikki

Check for your BIOS. I used to have that problem with PC mobos.

I didn't build my current computer, because I no longer use PC's. I survive with my little iBook and am much happier with my computing experience.

heyal256

I built my own. There are a few reasons for this, when I originally built my system (Athlon 1.2 GHZ), there were almost no companies building a computer with the specs that I wanted. The other reason is that there is a certain satisfaction in knowing exactly what parts you put into the machine.
I do have to say that for the average person, a prebuilt machine should be fine, but most computer geeks, just prefer to know every detail about their PC and thus build it themselves.

Phaenx

I always build my own, religously, always.

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oblar

i notice a few people talking about it being more expensive then prebuilts.

in my expierence, if you look for bargains (and by bargains I don't mean off-brand parts) you can generally get a computer built for a decent amount cheaper, or at worst the same prize, but knowing that you have good parts in your system..

i have built several systems, and the biggest problem I have had with any of them is with modems.. some modems are just shitty.

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.All that we can do to help ourselves is stay alive." - Rush

charliex

kyp, wherther or not you beg , borrow or steal the software or don't need support doesn't mean everyone will, but its hardly the point, the point is comparing them correctly.

plus its not support building it, its support when something goes wrong, or blows up and to most people, time is money. A fair comparison would include everything offered by dell, yours fell quite short of that, of course you can make one system look better by leaving stuff out.

Konichiwaneko

Lol Evilpoda, if you ever start a computer business I would be scared to do business with you.

"And yahoo! Dell's come with all the software you'd ever need, making them an even better deal, right? No, for the love of God no, just download whatever software you need and you're set. Plus, you can avoid all of that crap that Dell adds on themselves.

FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8 biznatch

EDIT: And you should count yourself lucky that Kyp is sleeping, he'd tear you a new one after that post. (And why can't you?....I'm not going to bring my online buddies here to try to make you look foolish. If you think making fun of me will make your athlon faster...then by all means.)

EDIT 2: And Crucial is some of the best RAM out there www.crucial.com" (interesting...I noted before Crucial is MICRON...DELL USES MICRON. "

I warez myself, but if I give anyone a computer with illegal software I would be fined to all hell. Also why the hell would you use the FCKGW key, there's a better version of leaked XP out that let's you use sp1. FCKGW is like...so 2001

If that's what you want to do go ahead, but I'm not risking my job and career for a measly $200.

Anyone can download warez, but not everyone can try to prove a point without calling someone else stupid.

CharlieX thank you, that's all I was trying to note.

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sean paul

LOL!! i dunno bout you but i'd waaaayy much rather drink the vodka, but reading that sure made my night complete.

i build em. it makes me feel happier bout the money i spend. i guess.

Kllr Wolf

I build all my desktops but purchase my laptops. I prefer to build my own because I can set it up with the parts I want not what someone else tells me I want. That and the cost of it. each time I build a computer I look at what the same thing would have cost me to have built by someone else. The least I have saved has been $1000.

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EvilPoda

Once again I'm astounded by your purposely shitty interpretation of my meanings. No one makes a system for someone else with pirated software, you keep talking about the customer, I'm talking about for myself. And, hell with it, I'm not going to waste my time trying to break through your shell of ignorance. If you want to continue being self righteous then so be it. Who am I to try and find fault with your logic.

Kyp

Okay, thinking about it maybe it's more of a user preference thing. To me, the warranty, the software, the tech support, all of that doesn't mean a thing to me. I don't look at that when looking for a computer. It makes no difference to me. I look the quality of the components, and if it suits to what I need. That's why I left that stuff out, because it doesn't matter to me at all. In my eyes, they were compared correctly, and the machine I posted was the winner. Why you think I was refering to support building it is beyond me, of course it's support for when something goes wrong.

And on the subject of tech support, from what I understand it's free tech support, or $80/hour to talk to someone who actually has half a brain. Doesn't sound like much of a deal to me. When I've built computers for friends, I tell them right then and there, if there is ever a problem tell me and I'll do whatever I can to fix it.

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Konichiwaneko

Kyp, including ordering parts and handling rma's out of pocket? even it means replacing the monitor?

If my $1100 2000fp goes out tommorow, Dell will have another one here in 2 days. If you can can support that, I honestly would buy from builders like you.


Poda, My first post here on 07-07-03 says that I build my own computer, while I bought dells for clients.

Poda call me self righteous, but called me confused also because if you read what I initially wrote you would of saw that I built my own computer. If you knew that, and take into the equation that you are obviously smarter than me because of how you treat me, then you would of realize your arguements with me were moot from the beginning. Also because you mentioned warez and dells in the same statement a few post ago, you would of relieze with your enhanced intelligence (once again ten fold greater then mine) that when I say Dell I mean client machine, and you wouldn't of been offended by my responses to you. Clearly it's obvious to both me and you that we can easily stop this by just agreeing to disagree. Once again you can mock me all you want, but I've been proud to offer my knowledge and assistance to the TFP computer board and I don't care if people like you don't agree with me.

All in all this has been interesting, but I see a clear line between people who build for friends and people who build for businesses and work places. Dells(OEMS) for work places/professional clients, pre-built for friends and family.


No way is the wrong way, and as of right now I just finish building my 3rd computer. Here's the specs, tell me what you guys think

P4 2.6C
2x256 Crucial pc3200LL
Abit IS7 with Speed BIOS
Ati 9800 Pro 128meg
Western Digital Raptor Drive
Western Digital 1200JB
TDK IndiDVD 4x DVD+R/RW
Dell 1700FP 17" LCD
Antec Solution Series Case

not bad, I hope it's going to overclock well. Going to be my game machine.

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Kyp

Yes, even including ordering parts and handling RMAs. Very rarely I have to do an RMA, and it's usually just fine. I've never had to replace a monitor, and I usually look for free shipping on the parts that I'm ordering, so it's not a big deal, though I can't always find that. I may have to wait more than 2 days, but I don't mind, because I'm getting exactly what I want.

When I talk to a friend, I urge them not to buy a Dell, or Compaq, and especially not an E-Machine. So far everyone I have done work for has been more than satisfied, and they have previously bought prebuilt machines and have not been happy with the product or service on them. In some cases I've saved them money because the store would tell them they needed a new part, and in reality all it needed was to be formatted...

The machine does look good, though currently I wouldn't go with an LCD for gaming. I honestly haven't used one extensivly, so I may be talking out of my ass here, I'll admit it if I need to, but from what I've read unless you spend tons of money on the thing, it really sucks for gaming, and I would much rather spend $200 on a good monitor than $1000 on an LCD and save a lot of money. Also, just a personal preference, I prefer AMD over Intel for gaming, but that's just me.

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Konichiwaneko

I'll admit I got the 2000fp out of curiousity at first. It was the only lcd reasonable priced that does 1600x1200.

But Kyp, it's amazing for games. Stunning. 1942 at 1600x1200 is astounding on it, and the only other monitor I like more is the Iyaami(sp?) series. The 2000fp is one of the best things I've bought in a while. Logically your are right though, why have a monitor that is 5x the price, when you have sometimes cheaper that looks as good if not better? That I can't argue against.


Game machines, I go intel. low level machines that do basic office stuff...and clients who just need pure beige boxes with no software...I always go amd. Amd owns the low end (1.4 and lower). Their performance to price ratio is beautiful also, I just don't like how bulky the socket a chips are compared to socket 428.

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EvilPoda

Those goddamn things are as big as tree frogs, never fails to amuse me that they're so small and still so uber.

mtsgsd

I bought my first computer. It was a 286/16 with a floppy drive and keyboard. No memory, hard drive etc.

From that point on I've rolled my own. In the long run (particularly now) it's more expensive to evolve your computer, or to build one from scratch BUT you get exactly what you want, not a bunch of software and hardware that you don't want or need but had to pay for anyway.

You have the added benefit of knowing what's inside the case, and what to do if something goes wrong. I hate people who buy a computer as a turnkey package and expect not to have to learn anything. It just isn't going to happen, no matter what Apple says.