In summary: I upgraded the video card, memory and hard drive later) for $650 from PCUSA about a year ago and it's still running great.ASUS, Dell, Gateway, HP, and PCUSA.
I have both Dell and Gateway systems at the house, Dell at work. I bought a cheap (?) noname brand generic system earlier this year, replaced the hard- drive and loaded Linux. Happy with all of my machines. If you know anything about building them, build your own, it will be cheaper in the long run.
#38
PICsmith
54
0
Right Moonbear, she isn't very computer savvy and Mac is out of the question...all she knows, however little, is Windows. She doesn't use MS Office either, I think it's Lotus and some specialty things. So the main issues for her are reliability and price. She really doesn't need the latest and greatest Speed Machine. When I put together a PC on Dell's customizeable website thingy for her she wasn't interested in the 4 year warranty, since it would cost I think it was about a third of the pc cost. Well, now I guess it would make sense to build one if I can do it cheaper than Dell can. I'll have to look into it when I have more time.
#39
Tom McCurdy
1,020
1
Honestly you don't save much building yourself than from buying online, hell now you can buy computers at major stores like best buy that are cheaper than some you could build.
#40
alexkerhead
90
0
Three advantages to building a rig yourself
#1, bragging rights, so you don't have to say "I got a dell etc"
you could say I built my PC, and it is nice.
#2, Looks hella better.
http://alexrushing.com/water/
http://www.alexrushing.com/MeanGlowComp/
http://www.alexrushing.com/MyUberCase/
just a few of my computer builds, sure beats having a dell.
spent a total of $1300 for my main water cooling rig, upgrades from previous etc.
#3, upgradability.
You can upgrade a certain part, or overclock without having to replace the whole PC, like motherboard exchange.etc.
one disadvantage(to me)
no warranty, everything has to sent off and RMA'd indiviually..
So, I believe building it yourself if more fun and enjoyable, but if you lack skills and talent, and are lame, a dell, gateway, ibm, etc is just right for you.
and building a high end PC is close to the same price as a store baught.