nostalgic1

i'm on the market for a new computer for my dorm... the only problem is, i'm on a rather tight budget... so what i'm asking is.. would i be better off building my own machine? or just going to dell.com and buying one there? and if i should build my own machine can any of you make some reccomendations for hardware? thanks for any suggestions.

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Flippy

It is much cheaper to build your own machine than buying one from dell. The quality is often better as well. As for recommendations, it really depends on how tight your budget is, and what you're looking to do with your computer.

Check out some hardware review sites, they should help out a fair deal

dj_simo

Yes, flippy is right - we need to know what your budget is then hardware can be sorted out - but i have found the best place to get a very good computer that wont fail on you is at computer fairs - if you live anywhere in CT, or Mass or Rhode Island - There are PC fairs every weekend - www.coganfairs.com - there is a schedule there - if you dont live around there - best suggestion for parts cheap would be at a PC fair - thats where i got mine - quite the beast for 750& without OS or moniter
good luck
-SImo

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MathWiz579

You will save money by building your own, the only real thing you will "lose out" on is getting a warrenty through Dell. Also I would almost suggest going through Dell if you can't find a cheap Windows XP or Office XP. Buying those brand new alone can up the price significantly on building a new machine. Good luck.

^dude

It's alot cheaper to built your own machine as oposed to buying a dell. You'll get better parts then a dell, some dells may seem cheap, but there will always be some parts which are pretty crappy. It's better picking out all your own parts and building it yourself (or getting a computer store to build it for you).

charliex

I'd suggest a dell, they are well built with great service, and cheap if you are on a budget, since if anything fails on it, it'll be replaced for you , so long as its covered, and nearly all of it is,

If cost is the issue, its hard to beat a 2.2G P4 with 15 lcd for $599 with 1 year at home service, or a 2.4 533Mhz for an extra $30, including OS etc.

There have been a few threads on this already going over the pros and cons.

Sion

I prefer to build my own, however by doing that you lose out on all the preloaded software that comes from buying a Dell or Gateway or whatever. if you are not worried about software, then building you own is the way to go. but of course it depends on what you want out of a machine as to what and where to buy parts.

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drawerfixer

While this thread is still active...

About a month back I was pretty interested in building my own PC. I'm generally a Mac guy, but I'd like to learn more about PCs. I had no real need to build a PC, but wanted to learn how to put one together, and learn the Windows OS.

I eventually put off the project until next summer, as two computers in one dorm room would be pointless, but would I be better off buying a pre-fab PC first just to learn the general layout and how to troubleshoot? Or is the best way to learn jumping in?


--To not threadjack, everything I've read leans toward building your own, nostaligic1. There are tons of how-to guides out there, and if you have any technical lingo, you should be able to get it down with friends to help...

Disclaimer: That's only what I've heard. I don't know if it's true. Good luck!

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Pragma

Here's my advice (granted, depends a great deal on your budget):

If you want to spend less than a thousand dollars, and want to run Windows XP with Office XP, buy it from Dell. Those two alone, when seperate, add on about 300$ or more to the price.

If you're either not too saavy with computers or don't know much about building them, buy from Dell. If you want a warranty, so that if anything goes wrong, you can just ship it back to them and they take care of the problems for you, buy from Dell.

If you plan to do some hefty gaming (HalfLife 2, Doom3, Deus Ex 2 - when they come out), build your own.

Note: You can substitute whatever reseller (HP, Gateway, etc.) instead of Dell if you want.

I personally would never buy from a reseller, but not everyone should build their own, as it can be too much of a headache for an inexperienced person who "Just wants to get a PC."

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wombatman

As for the OS thing....I'm not sure if I should post this (if so, mods, please remove), but you can buy the Windows XP upgrade (either home or pro) and use an old windows CD to fool it. This will work even you've built a new rig and are putting the first OS on. It will say that it can't detect any previous version of Windows and ask for a CD. I use an old Win95 CD we had lying around and it has always worked.

Pragma

If you're saying to install Win95 and upgrade to XP, I'd really not recommend it. You end up with a lot of OS troubles further down the line due to upgraded installs.

If you mean don't install 95 but just fool XP with it, I'm fairly surprised that XP doesn't demand an install on the disk and will take an OS as old as 95.

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wombatman

Heh. I was quite surprised myself, but you only need the CD for it to work, no installation of Win95 necessary.

Phaenx

I suggest throwing out a cash limit and allowing people to throw out some specs. Unless you know what you're doing of course.

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nostalgic1

yeah, sorry guys, i guess i wasn't specific enough...

all together i have about 1500 dollars that i can throw at a pc... i already have a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and all that fun stuff... i'm just concerned about the pc itself... i am quite into gaming... and since i never do any work at school.. i'm usually playing video games... so it'll mostly be used for that...

thanks again...

__________________
I dare you to forget the marks you left across my neck from those nights when we were both found at our best. Now I could make this obvious, and you..you could deny me all in one breath. You could shrug me off your shoulders. Just forget me.. it's that simple.

Lasereth

$1,500 will buy close to the best gaming system available right now. Hell, even with one of the latest gen video cards that are $500 you could still do it easy. The following recommendation is for a massive budget, not necessarily what I would recommend to most people:

<UL>
<LI>Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz C-core at 800 MHz FSB
<LI>ABIT IC7-G, Intel 875P chipset for Socket 478 800MHz Canterwood ATX Motherboard
<LI>CORSAIR 512MB PC3200
<LI>Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro
<LI>52x24x52 CD-Burner
<LI>Floppy
<LI>80 GB Maxtor 7200 RPM
<LI>Thermaltake Volcano CPU Fan
<LI>Generic Case
</UL>

That PC will put you right at $1,100 not counting shipping. Of course, if you switched to AMD and went with an Athlon XP 2500+ and a Abit NF7-S you would save a ton of money and not lose too much performance. Either way, both of the CPU's listed are VERY overclockable. And if you're not into OC'ing, then they are both great CPU's at regular speeds. You could also switch out the Radeon with a GeForce FX 5900 Ultra if NVIDIA is your thing.

This is all going on the fact that you know how to put together a PC, or know someone who knows how to. If you don't, then I have to suggest Dell. Your gaming won't be nearly as good (quite frankly, it will probably suck), but at least it will come built.

My point is that you can get one hell of a PC for under $1,500.00. Good luck with your purchases!

-Lasereth

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