On Tue, 09 Oct 2007 23:21:09 GMT, Phisherman
<noone.RemoveThis@nobody.com> wrote:
>I realize a home-built computer provides lots of selection.
Yes, that's the benefit. You can lose that degree of
selection, and end up with very few reusable parts to save a
buck.
>But, I
>see a top-rated budget Dell Inspiron containing
>
>small form-factor case
>2.1 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+
>2 GB 667-MHz DDR2 SDRAM
>160 GB 7200 rpm hard drive
>ATI Radeon HD 2400 graphics card
>Vista Home
>keyboard
>mouse
>(no monitor)
>
>How can I even come close to building this for less than $470?
Why would you want to build that for $470?
Wouldn't it be as well, if you're inclined to build systems,
to be able to reuse the case and PSU?
Wouldn't it be as well to spend the money on the exact parts
you need for your particular uses? Wouldn't it be as well
to not get Vista?
> If I
>have $1000 to spend on a home-built PC, I could buy this Dell now, and
>save the $530 for a new (much faster) PC 5 years into the future.
?? What's this got to do with anything? You can buy some
other system and do the same, only the dollar figures change
slightly.
> It
>is getting more expensive to "build your own?"
$65 Athlon X2 4000
$60 motherboard
$55 ATI 2400
$65 Case w/PSU
$50 HDD
$50 2GB Memory
$15 Keyboard/Mouse
$100 Vista
$10 Cable, Fan, etc
$35 DVDRW (which you didn't list but I assume it has one?)
------
$505
Not much difference, and maybe you don't need all these
parts or want different parts. Some things don't add much
value like the 2400 video card, might as well save the $55
and go integrated, or spend another $500-100 for something
with some gaming potential.
Also there's the matter of what software you need. Taken
one purchase at a time, each 5 years, it might make sense to
buy an OEM copy of windows, but if you had bought full
retain previously and upgrade more often than that, retail
windows could be cheaper over the long run, and it'd mean
you didn't have to buy another OS license again unless you
really want Vista. Vista is cheaper through an OEM like
Dell when bundled, than if bought separately as an OEM
product (with hardware), so that's one way the OEM saves
some $ to allow bringing certain price points for whole
systems.
If you have some of the above parts and just needed an
upgrade rather than maintaining both the old and new system,
it is greener, and possibly cheaper to buy only what you
need. For example back when I built a system around a
Athlon 4000, they were still $80-something, but I already
had DDR1 memory (was skt 939 built, in order to get another
tour of duty out of a couple gigs of PC3200 memory bought
during P4/Athlon XP era). I already had a spare DVDRW drive
I'd picked up on sale for $30, already had the case and PSU.
Picked up a 500GB HDD for $100, and a logitech wireless
keyboard set back over the holidays when Google had their
$10 checkout promo for $15, and logitech had rebates on a
lot of stuff. Around the same time an nVidia 7600GT video
card was about $60 after a rebate.
In other words, it is hard to build competitively priced in
volume against Dell, but for one system if you buy when spot
prices are right it can be as affordable. For the above
example I'd paid:
$85 CPU
$50 motherboard
$20 Nice heatsink - allowed a good & quiet o'c
$60 7600GT
$30 DVDRW
$15 Wireless keyboard/mouse
$100 500GB HDD
-----
$360
.... and I like my case a lot more than what I'd get from
Dell for $450 total. On many of Dell's systems you can't
even cool a 2nd hard drive very well, and I always want at
least a 2nd hard drive in any system used regularly.
For about the same price you could instead get a faster CPU
and larger HDD,
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?config_data=&c=us&c...9&fb=1&
but to use it for 5 years (?) do you want only an Athlon X2
4000? I would think it worthwhile to spend a bit more on
the processor if that term of use is planned, because if
your jobs aren't very compute intensive then you might not
even need the new board and CPU at all, saving even more
money, but we don't know the purpose nor whether there was
any old system formerly used for that purpose. It just
seems rare today though, to not have a system unless it's a
startup business or young person. Most adults competent at
building their own have at least one or more systems
already.
Nothing wrong with buying OEM though, millions of people do
it... but they tend to be the ones who don't know enough to
pick very far beyond the price and which CPU it has in it,
or that don't want to or can't spend the time to pick parts,
assemble, test. Then again it's not as though no Dell
systems ever have any little *issues* either and it would be
prudent to test a new Dell with Memtest86+, prime95, and
anything other test that seems appropriate to more specific
uses.
>> Stay informed about: Store bought vs home built 
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