Dell systems vs. Self-built

[invertedflight]

Hello,

I understand many people feel very strongly about buying complete boxes vs building one from scratch. I was just wondering what some of your points/arguments are for either side.

-Chris

[Telexen]

difficulty for inexperienced users...no warranty...no tech support (except here ...)...

[JPMiller]

my brother and me are at opposite ends of the spectrum...I build and he buys.
he used to build...thats how I got into it...but now feels that the warranty/support/simplicity outweigh the cost/quality/satisfaction of building.
He only buys Dells and is quite proud of them!
I wont ever buy a prebuilt!

[Telexen]

I even wanted to build my own laptop...after months of searching for barebones systems though, and finding nothing but ECS...I gave up and bought an HP.

[Telexen]

sorry double clicked the submit button...

[goldenbuddha]

Don't understand why people keeps saying self built systems have no warranties. Every part I buy comes with its warranty. Might not be all from one vendor but most of the time, thats how it turns out as I buy everything (from 1 vendor) to save on shipping.

So all warranty issues go back to that vendor. Its more or less exactly the same warranty you'd get from Dell (without paying extra for the 3 year or whatever special VIP replacement warranty thingie)

The only PRO for a premade system is..
Its for newbies and non-technical people.

Everything else is a CON
Price, quality (Don't forget, like all businesses, they like the lowest bidder), customer service (hey I can't complain about myself can I) and the satisfaction that you know how everything went in there, and if anything goes wrong you'd know why , how and what to do.

[squeech]

After I built my first system, I have since built up three more since then. In addition to the amount of knowledge you gain every time you do it, you know so much more about your system. I'll admit, the ease and support that Dell offers can be tempting. I tried to convince my brother to let me help him build his first (I could tell he really wanted to, just for learning), and after a year of back and forth...he bought a Gateway

I personally think that the intimate knowledge you gain from building your own, along with the quality of parts (the big guys make good machines overall, but some of their parts really make me wonder) is absolutely worth it.

Side note: Most major parts have warranties on them extending 1-3 years (except for OEM hardware), which is the same or longer than manufacturer warranties

~edit: blast! buddha beat me to it, but he's right!!

[Omardeth]

home built = you know exactly whats in it . but like telexen said no tech support no warranty other than manufacture. but you have better upgradability . also software is not there , you only get what you buy .

dell system = order it you get it complete with gobs of software you get the tech support and warranty . but the down side is upgrading can be hard . you can upgrade memory video saound stuff like that pretty easy but you are pretty much stuck with the cpu you got .

i guess it is like the guy that changes his own oil and the guy that goes to a oil shop ..

you guys both beat me also hahah

[sharder8]

It's hard to come even close to the price of a pre-built when you're looking just at the price of hardware now a days! Then, add in the price of the OS, included software, Tech Support, and warranty, and it becomes even more lopsided.

However, when you build your own, you know exactly what your getting, you don't get all the bloatware, and you have the pride in knowing you built it.

Personally, I have 5 in the house I built, and 1 HP that I stripped and loaded my own OS and software on. (HP said it couldn't be done! ) I will be upgrading 3-4 of them this summer (including the HP) and building another for the wife out of the parts left over.

Harder

[Telexen]

Of course you have warranties on parts...but if you barely manage to build a system...but don't know enough to figure out what went wrong when your system won't turn on suddenly...what part do you send back?