I spent nearly $1100 on mine, yet today I saw a compaq PC with a 3400, one gig ram, 160Gig HD, with a 17" monitor and such, for only $899. SO is building your own really cheaper?
only by about $100-300 in most cases cheaper but the extra cost is justified in the customer support. they cover your pc as a whole.
Deciver, I dunno if I made my self clear in my first post. I built my own PC, yet I go out and found this Compaq PC for 899 with a LCD monitor, I am still useing an old Dell 17" CRT.
yes i know you did but that compaq computer probably has an integrated video card and sound card and probably pc2700 ram and something like a 350-400W PSU... which is basically crap... the extra on yours is the vid card, sound card, PSU...plus compaq, HP, etc comps aren't upgradeable.... only with the companies parts which are overpriced
Sorry........... but I'm amazed that you could build a computer and not be able to rationalize the difference in the price of a OEM PC and building your own rig. Like the other guy mentioned building your own automatically increases the upgradability and performance by using quality specific parts.
Building your own computer is way way better than buying one from some company like dell or compaq! Thay use cheap parts thats why it cost 899.00 plus you can pick and chose your parts and get the best bang for your buck if your a gamer building your own is the only way to go. p.s Just my two cents worth.
Where is this compaq PC that you saw for 899, got any links? lets compare what its in that system with the system you build. And lets consider the fact that you cant overclock the compaq PC. whereas yours you can basically do anything you want.
There is almost no other feeling in the world that can compare to putting our own rig/baby together... (i can think afew other things which are on par with it, but there might be some people here who are below the age of 18, so i cant talk about it) Plus when u put ur system together urself, u know what u put in there exactly, and how u installed it... u will choose the best fit hardware to fit ur need... it instantly becomes more personal... right down to which brand or model hardware u want (not just type like some custom pc's that hp/dell/etc sell)
I looked at the option to buy from a store or build my own before I bought everything. The only advantage I really saw in buying from a store was the computer support. In some cases you can pick and choose what parts to have in stalled when you have it built for you but that takes half the fun out of having a computer.
LOL i'm bored so I just rebuilt your machine at newegg and i got it for @795 USD and no sales tax. with minor differences good case with 480 watt PS OEM windows no zalmancooler for your video card 80 meg WD 8meg cache HD Add a crappy 17 lcd monitor lowend special 159 to 190 The compaq probably is like the guys above describe....lacking in sound and video and PS. (and flexibility) I have built a lot of systems over the years and where you buy makes a difference of course but if you want a high end system you will save alot more, the higher you go the more you save, if your looking for a lowend wordprocessor or email/internet special by it off the self you will not save anything it will probably cost you more to build. Just make sure your comparing apples to apples
Yea if want a computer to just say to friends i got a computer then buy from retail stores but generally there lower specs & they may come with old model camers/ printers/scanner etc ! Prices in UK higher than USA so heres an avge off the shelf one for some peeps & look whose selling it Omg ! http://www.toysrus.co.uk/Product.aspx/TruHome/TruComputers/TruComputersDesktop/779415
yea its like crack isnt it.. i cant ever stop fidling with mine.. always trying to make it a little neater i clean it like damn once a week just to kinda take it apart lol.. and im always finding ways to get a lil more umph out of it..
as far as fidling with it, it is a freaking addiction! I hate having to reformat, but I love pocking my head in my case to see if I can fix to adjust anything. I am thinking of getting a PCI slot cooler to help ring my card's temps down lower and I am thinking of replacing the front 80mm fan. When I built it I bent on the connection pins, and I could ahve done a much better job wiring everything if I had not done that. I just plain love working on machines, doesn't really matter what it is. Computers, cars,... your odd vacume machine powered hovercraft.
Built your own is sometimes a bit more expensive because we always choose the best stuff that we could afford.. The ready made like Compaq , Dell or whatever have only crap stuff inside.. Crap Inside , not I*t*l Inside.. LOL So u decide it on your own...
building your own is generally better as you can choose the exact parts you want. It depends heavily on where you get the parts from on to whether it will be cheaper or not. If you build a high end rig then it will probably cost you more than a shops one but once again you know exactly what has gone into it. Another thing is if it goes wrong you can open the side and fiddle yourself, whereas some capanies warrenties are voided even ifyou just open the side of the case. I also build my own as Im a freak about tidyness! I hate messy cables or poor cable management which is what you get from a generic machine. (dells are pretyt bad for this due to their case design). Finally just to add I built my next door neighbours the following for £170quid: Sempron 2800+ AS-rock socket A mobo with S754 upgrade slot 256 pc3200 ddr ram Geforce 2 MX400 80gb 7200rpm hd CDRW A nice plain case with decent airflow. Try and find the same spec in a shop in the uk!
