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#1
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build or buy?
Am transferred out of USA and want to take a reliable comp to download and
watch movies, game, and email with a bit of work on the side using word and excel. So, do I buy a Dell/Gateway/ etc or, following the advice I culled from weeks of lurking, buy stuff from newegg and assemble at home, thereby saving tons of scarce cash. I am not an experienced builder, but have been swapping out parts for years. Your thoughts please? |
#2
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Buy a barebones system and finish it off to suit your needs. You mainly
buy a Dell, Gateway, Compaq for the support, but since you are being transferred out then the support won't do you any good. Might as well build one. "x" wrote in message ... Am transferred out of USA and want to take a reliable comp to download and watch movies, game, and email with a bit of work on the side using word and excel. So, do I buy a Dell/Gateway/ etc or, following the advice I culled from weeks of lurking, buy stuff from newegg and assemble at home, thereby saving tons of scarce cash. I am not an experienced builder, but have been swapping out parts for years. Your thoughts please? |
#3
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where are you going?...if your into DVD then you'll need a regional DVD ROM or some 'crack' that will allow you to watch certain
disks. Building to .....save....... is not as easy as it used to be...building to suit your needs for the present and as far as the budget will allow for the future. My Motto, works for me. Good luck where ever your journey takes you.... "x" wrote in message ... Am transferred out of USA and want to take a reliable comp to download and watch movies, game, and email with a bit of work on the side using word and excel. So, do I buy a Dell/Gateway/ etc or, following the advice I culled from weeks of lurking, buy stuff from newegg and assemble at home, thereby saving tons of scarce cash. I am not an experienced builder, but have been swapping out parts for years. Your thoughts please? |
#4
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"x" wrote in message ... Am transferred out of USA and want to take a reliable comp to download and watch movies, game, and email with a bit of work on the side using word and excel. So, do I buy a Dell/Gateway/ etc or, following the advice I culled from weeks of lurking, buy stuff from newegg and assemble at home, thereby saving tons of scarce cash. I am not an experienced builder, but have been swapping out parts for years. You will NOT be saving "tons of scarce cash". If you really want to save money, buy a used computer with last year's technology. There are tons of these around for bargain basement prices that will do everything the vast majority of people want to do. Next option is to buy an eMachine, or Dell, or Gateway - lower end model. Wait for free upgrade offers, free shipping, or rebates as they appear every few weeks. Next option is to buy a cheap machine from a local computer store with some eggheads working there. Last and least is to build your own. Large cost savings (*any* cost savings) is not the reason to build your own. |
#5
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If he builds a system with last years Tech he CAN save a lot of money but it
will cost him some effort in research. WWW.pricewatch.com WWW.resellerratings.com www.newegg.com www.mwave.com check out these sites first though ~Eric "jeffc" wrote in message ... "x" wrote in message ... Am transferred out of USA and want to take a reliable comp to download and watch movies, game, and email with a bit of work on the side using word and excel. So, do I buy a Dell/Gateway/ etc or, following the advice I culled from weeks of lurking, buy stuff from newegg and assemble at home, thereby saving tons of scarce cash. I am not an experienced builder, but have been swapping out parts for years. You will NOT be saving "tons of scarce cash". If you really want to save money, buy a used computer with last year's technology. There are tons of these around for bargain basement prices that will do everything the vast majority of people want to do. Next option is to buy an eMachine, or Dell, or Gateway - lower end model. Wait for free upgrade offers, free shipping, or rebates as they appear every few weeks. Next option is to buy a cheap machine from a local computer store with some eggheads working there. Last and least is to build your own. Large cost savings (*any* cost savings) is not the reason to build your own. |
#6
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"EWhite" wrote in message news:O4VRb.45729$U%5.240036@attbi_s03... If he builds a system with last years Tech he CAN save a lot of money but it will cost him some effort in research. WWW.pricewatch.com WWW.resellerratings.com www.newegg.com www.mwave.com I'd like to see a system total price that betters what you can buy in the store for equal quality parts. Don't forget the cost of the operating system. You can buy a brand new computer these days for $400, including display and printer. I just don't see doing that buying after putting the pieces together. The operating system alone is going to set you back $100. You're going to be out at least $150 for a 17" CRT and printer. That doesn't leave a whole lot for the computer itself - only $150. |
#7
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On Wed, 28 Jan 2004 04:00:13 GMT, "x" wrote:
Am transferred out of USA and want to take a reliable comp to download and watch movies, game, and email with a bit of work on the side using word and excel. So, do I buy a Dell/Gateway/ etc or, following the advice I culled from weeks of lurking, buy stuff from newegg and assemble at home, thereby saving tons of scarce cash. Easy! Of course you build it! It's lots of fun, and you get exactly the components you wan't. And you get support for your individual components, regardless if you happen to upgrade something or change OS. I am not an experienced builder, but have been swapping out parts for years. Then you've already tried all the hard parts. At least if you've reinstalled OSes a couple of times, and messed with the bios, as well. Only tricky thing left, is mounting the heatsink. But it's just a matter of taking it real easy. And figure everything out in great detail, before doing it. Your thoughts please? Build it! Protect your stuff against against static electric charge. Read the manuals. Read the manufacturers webpages. Mount cpu, heatsink and ram on the mobo before installing it. Install mobo first. Have a flashlight at hand when working in the case. Only install videocard, HD and CD (and floppy) before installing OS. If you belong to MS, make use of 'Windows Update". Add other hardware later. Oh, and never ever buy a Celeron! They're so horribly slow, - it's outright fraud. If you're interested in "saving tons of scarce cash" then lowend components like Duron, AthlonXP2000-2400, VIA KT400A and KT600 mobos, will still get you a quite decent system, at very low cost. (Twice as fast as Dell's Celerons) Ancra |
#8
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"jeffc" wrote in message ...
"EWhite" wrote in message news:O4VRb.45729$U%5.240036@attbi_s03... If he builds a system with last years Tech he CAN save a lot of money but it will cost him some effort in research. WWW.pricewatch.com WWW.resellerratings.com www.newegg.com www.mwave.com I'd like to see a system total price that betters what you can buy in the store for equal quality parts. Don't forget the cost of the operating system. You can buy a brand new computer these days for $400, including display and printer. I just don't see doing that buying after putting the pieces together. The operating system alone is going to set you back $100. You're going to be out at least $150 for a 17" CRT and printer. That doesn't leave a whole lot for the computer itself - only $150. If he want's to play games then a $400 computer is not going to do that. They are built with too slow intergrated graphics card. Well, unless 6 FPS feels speedy to him. To get a computer that would play games well brings up the cost to around $700-$800 and a computer could be built to match that price range. |
#10
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"tweak" wrote in message ... On 28 Jan 2004 22:28:21 -0800, (jamotto) wrote: "jeffc" wrote in message ... "EWhite" wrote in message news:O4VRb.45729$U%5.240036@attbi_s03... If he builds a system with last years Tech he CAN save a lot of money but it will cost him some effort in research. WWW.pricewatch.com WWW.resellerratings.com www.newegg.com www.mwave.com I'd like to see a system total price that betters what you can buy in the store for equal quality parts. Don't forget the cost of the operating system. You can buy a brand new computer these days for $400, including display and printer. I just don't see doing that buying after putting the pieces together. The operating system alone is going to set you back $100. You're going to be out at least $150 for a 17" CRT and printer. That doesn't leave a whole lot for the computer itself - only $150. If he want's to play games then a $400 computer is not going to do that. They are built with too slow intergrated graphics card. Well, unless 6 FPS feels speedy to him. To get a computer that would play games well brings up the cost to around $700-$800 and a computer could be built to match that price range. Where are you getting these prices for components? I get good 17 inch monitors for around 100 bucks. I said 17 inch monitor PLUS printer for $150. How is that so different? Mobo's for around 50-70 bucks(MSI socket A's or P3/P4) My current system cost me about 400 bucks total. Compaq 7110 cpu(socket a with 1.2 gig cpu and 1gig ram.) 80 gig ata 133 HD with controller. cd burner and dvd player. Monitor- sony 17 inch vio with built in stereo and sub channel- 50 bucks clearance price. I just added a dvd burner for 110 bucks.(Liteon 411S at a clearance price.) And I see there's no operating system there, as I already mentioned. I just purchased an IBM computer with a 650 mghz Celeron cpu 384 mgs of ddr ram. Full package of modem, ehernet card and a fairly good 64 mgbyte video(Nvidia) card. Cost: 20 bucks clearance.(Distributor that I buy parts from gets large lots of office computers that he refurbishes and sells. sometimes many units are new in the box. Offices and corporations dump perfectly good computers anually in upgrade swaps.) Hardly what we're talking about, is it? Just gotta know where to look. I've even found 1 year old systems in dumpters, in perfect working order. Just gotta troll the back of office buildings and computer repair shops. Lately everyone's dumping 17 inch monitors in favor of larger flat screen displays. You can find perfectly good monitors on the curbs. As I already said, his first choice if cost was a major factor was buying used. Buying new and assembling is NOT the way to go if cost is your number one priority. |
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