To Buy or Build?

[Fury]

Ok so I'm getting a nice tax refund and I'm in the market for an upgrade. I've been pricing both pre-built systems and buying the parts and building it myself. It's looking like i can get a better deal with a prebuilt setup. Now i'm not talking dell or alienware but from here. now i can get pretty much everything i want.
Q6600
2GB DDR2 800
8800 GT 512MB
500GB HDD
everything else is pretty much already home or too expensive for my taste.
so is there a compelling reason to build my own this go-around? Is the site i linked shady? i mean all looks well. So yeah any input is helpful.

[zolborg]

I don't know where you live or where you buy your parts, but any computer I can buy for cheaper than I can build is junk.

[AmIdYfReAk]

fury, uhh.. what link?

also, i think you need to look around a little, i am yet to see a pre-built computer that is cheaper with the same hardware.

usually when you find a pre-built, they will show off the main things that are good with it, i.e. the Q6600 etc, but then when you read a little deeper the mobo is some $40-50 thing, the ram is Generic high timmings RAM ( *Cough* kingston *cough* )

putting a computer togeather with the tech from the last 3-4 ish years is a breeze, you wont run into issues if you do your homework and make sure that the hardware will work togeather.

my vote is to build with carefully selected hardware, Vs a pre-build.

if you DO chose to go pre-built, do as much homework as popssible and get make/model's of each piece of hardware.
you WILL see a trend

[FragaGeddon]

Build it yourself.

[+JuggerNaut+]

fury, uhh.. what link?

also, i think you need to look around a little, i am yet to see a pre-built computer that is cheaper with the same hardware.

usually when you find a pre-built, they will show off the main things that are good with it, i.e. the Q6600 etc, but then when you read a little deeper the mobo is some $40-50 thing, the ram is Generic high timmings RAM ( *Cough* kingston *cough* )

putting a computer togeather with the tech from the last 3-4 ish years is a breeze, you wont run into issues if you do your homework and make sure that the hardware will work togeather.

my vote is to build with carefully selected hardware, Vs a pre-build.

if you DO chose to go pre-built, do as much homework as popssible and get make/model's of each piece of hardware.
you WILL see a trend

moronix

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Game ... urator_top

[AmIdYfReAk]

Pre-built.... Vs Custom built...

Way to be.

[axbaby]

after spending 3 days making a new computer i am throwing in the towel on this one.

buy a cheap but loaded rig if you can find one unless you have a computer store with a good reputation.
the warranty and support will be a benefit.

p.s. after purchasing all my parts seperately and building and failing i had to return

one defective psu
1 stick of dead ram
one defective fancy ide cable

not much choices in africa for computer parts .. almost everything has to be ordered and looks like what is in stock are parts people have returned as defective.

now i have to wait a few more weeks grr

[Scourge]

After doing a lot of comparisons myself, I ended up building my own for around the same price as the pre-built, with better components. Like amidy said, a lot of them look good at first but after some digging there's usually something undesirable.

[Foo]

after spending 3 days making a new computer i am throwing in the towel on this one.

buy a cheap but loaded rig if you can find one unless you have a computer store with a good reputation.
the warranty and support will be a benefit.

p.s. after purchasing all my parts seperately and building and failing i had to return

one defective psu
1 stick of dead ram
one defective fancy ide cable

not much choices in africa for computer parts .. almost everything has to be ordered and looks like what is in stock are parts people have returned as defective.

now i have to wait a few more weeks grr

That sucks man... but you're just not in a good part of the world for quality PC parts.

How much hassle to have one shipped out to you? Import restrictions?

[axbaby]

not many here actually stock anything that is worth while .. everything seems to be catered to the impoverished when it comes to hardware.
that's why chinese goods are sold here mainly .. cheap and barely good enough.

got lucky and found some parts a customer never picked up
Intel Core2 Duo E4300
MSI 945GCm5 -F V2 motherbard
nice 450W case
2 gig brand new ddr2 that i made the guy test in front of me.

all parts are brand spanking new.

now i have a pile of useless spare parts again .. OLD HABITS NEVER DIE .
again more money then brains.
Crysis should play nicely .. hope the 8600GT OC can keep up now.

biulding computers is fun when it works like it's supposed to from the start.
i finally found a reputable dealer .. that's a big factor. no more used parts sold as new and defective customer returned parts for me to quality check.
got a refund on the defective ram.
the idiot refused to test it unless i brought my otherboard because he said it was specific to MSI .. IDIOT LYING TECH GUYS PISS ME OFF AND I LOST IT ON HIM.
i told him we are shopping for probably 50 laptops and much more soon .. he lost a lot of money.
anyhoo

[shadd_]

quit your whining...

[axbaby]

quit your whining...

:BITCH SLAPS From 15000 miles away

PEE SSS did you ever get those parts working? mobo ..

[shadd_]

yep. i had an almost 50% oc. 2ghz>2.9. i'd like to buy one of those horizontal htpc cases for it.

i'm on a q6600@3.6 now(50%oc), 4gigs, and an 8800gt. goes with my 226bw i got for xmas.

tf2 is my new quake3. if you haven't played it yet you should.

[SOAPboy]

not many here actually stock anything that is worth while .. everything seems to be catered to the impoverished when it comes to hardware.
that's why chinese goods are sold here mainly .. cheap and barely good enough.

got lucky and found some parts a customer never picked up
Intel Core2 Duo E4300
MSI 945GCm5 -F V2 motherbard
nice 450W case
2 gig brand new ddr2 that i made the guy test in front of me.

all parts are brand spanking new.

now i have a pile of useless spare parts again .. OLD HABITS NEVER DIE .
again more money then brains.
Crysis should play nicely .. hope the 8600GT OC can keep up now.

biulding computers is fun when it works like it's supposed to from the start.
i finally found a reputable dealer .. that's a big factor. no more used parts sold as new and defective customer returned parts for me to quality check.
got a refund on the defective ram.
the idiot refused to test it unless i brought my otherboard because he said it was specific to MSI .. IDIOT LYING TECH GUYS PISS ME OFF AND I LOST IT ON HIM.
i told him we are shopping for probably 50 laptops and much more soon .. he lost a lot of money.
anyhoo

You're really starting to type like a nigerian.

[axbaby]

can i have your bank details?
or should i tell you a long sob story about my boss and missing millions you can help me with?

[axbaby]

yep. i had an almost 50% oc. 2ghz>2.9. i'd like to buy one of those horizontal htpc cases for it.

i'm on a q6600@3.6 now(50%oc), 4gigs, and an 8800gt. goes with my 226bw i got for xmas.

tf2 is my new quake3. if you haven't played it yet you should.

ping will kill me .. inernet sucks oi vey

[Dark Metal]

can i have your bank details?
or should i tell you a long sob story about my boss and missing millions you can help me with?

Awesome post. I give it an A.

[AmIdYfReAk]

jesus AX, You allways have the worst of luck with PC parts, i think they are trying to tell you somthing

[Fury]

bummer Ax. how long are you gonna be over there?

Sidenote: I'm going to build since my last home built PC lasted 6 years with minimal tweaking. Here's hoping i can do it again.

[axbaby]

well i could be gone forever if i have my way.
getting a bussiness plan together and starting on my own once i have completed
all our current projects.
not many people do what i do and i turn down job offers a lot so if the work is here i might as well stay.
Besides i love it here.

i'm too stupid to sit back and enjoy a pc without upgrading. this last build was so easy although the MSI board MSI 945GCm5 -F V2 motherbard only has one IDE and 2 Ram slots .. which kinda sucks when i have 4 sticks of 512 .. which means i need 1 gig sticks $$$$

Amidah still remembers when i blew 3 motherboards and 2 cpus in 2 days building my own water cooling system wih a fishtank
**home made water blocks goes .. tighten the bolts ...SQUISHES CPU and Mobo**
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
i did that 3 times .. but the fourth stayed up

[AmIdYfReAk]

yes, yes, i remember all to well..

i also remember you running... orange crush? through it as well.

[axbaby]

orange crush ?? quit speaking eskimo

[Fury]

wow, well played ax.

[creep]

Ey ax. Gl with what you're doin. Hope you can settle in and check in with us more often eventually.

[Fury]

Ok so here's what i decided on:

CPU: (Quad-Core)Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4GHz 1066FSB 8MB L2 Cache 64-bit
CD: Sony 20X DVD+/-R/+/-RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BLACK COLOR)
FLOPPY: 1.44 MB FLOPPY DRIVE [+10] (BLACK COLOR)
HDD: Single Hard Drive (500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)
MOTHERBOARD: MSI P6N Diamond nForce 680i SLI Chipset LGA775 FSB1333 DDR2 Mainboard
MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair)
NETWORK: ONBOARD 10/100 NETWORK CARD
OS: Microsoft(R) Windows Vista(TM) Home Premium (32-bit Edition)
POWERSUPPLY: 600 Watts Power Supplies (CoolerMaster Unit 600 Watts eXtreme Power - SLI Supports)
SOUND: 3D WAVE ON-BOARD 5.1 SOUND CARD
VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 16X PCI Express (EVGA Powered by NVIDIA)
WNC: LinkSys PCI Wireless 802.11g 54Mbps Network Interface Card

I'm thinking it might have been a better idea to get Vista 64, what do you guys think?