Comparing Custom Built vs Pre-Built (very long)

[lewfisher]

Let me offer a little perspective. I agree, that if you have the expertise and time, building your own is the way to go. I would also agree that the companies you listed are "at the top" of custom build companies and all put out top of the line products (I'm not really sure about Dell though). Let me offer this as another choice. There are a number of good companies out there that custon build computers such as iBuypower and ABS Computers. They offer excellent prices but don't overclock or finely tune their products as does say Falcon Northwest. However, they are much less costly, and with almost the same components. Sure, they dont offer the same support and prehaps you might need to update a bios or driver. As example, I just purchased a system from ABS Computers. My cost out the door with on-site warrenty was easily $800 to $1000 less than a similar system from Falcon NW or Alienware.

[rusty c]

"Its dell. Whats to say." "Its dell what can be said." Well, lets see whats to be said.

Vicouspc- $3745. Who??? Falcon northwest- $3453 So SO and high priced.
Alienware- $3351 No cpu size listed. Always high priced.
Voodoo- $4019 Are they serious???
Hypersonic- $2989 WHO???

Dell- $2726 Reasonable price, hard rock dependable intel motherboards. Excellent service, reliability.

Pricewatch- Half of the low prices you get there are from questionable venders.

Newegg- Now your talking. Build your own.

So it comes to get the dell or build your own. Your call. Good luck.

Forget those other no name ones their only problems.

[Lord Cecil]

Woa sorry about the Alienware thing, its 2.8ghz just like all the others. Vicious PC was extra exspensive since you could ONLY get rdram just like Voodoo.

Hypersonic is getting to be a player in the game. Lots of positive reviews by magazines and what not. Everything about them is well above average but not amazingly-omg-perfect like say Falcon. Voodoo is so over priced its ridiculous. You could build a rig and buy a car or buy a voodoo.

[Dell2884]

Originally posted by OpStar
it's like cars. Have a hot-rod and a daily driver

Clearly ur dell is ur daily driver...

[Mr Cherry]

I find a lot of my friends who are semi-interested in computers find a middle ground when buying a new computer. Like I did, they choose one of the vendors that custom build for you. This helps when your comfortable with computers but don't quite know how to put everything together. I bought my first computer (celery 466 - OC 630) from Cyberpower Inc., which is a fairly good business, IMO. They allow you to better choose your components from off-the-shelf items and then burn it in for you. This seems like a great way to go if you don't want to something more custom than a dell, but don't have the complete knowledge to put every component together and get it working.

[Dell2884]

Originally posted by rusty c
"Its dell. Whats to say." "Its dell what can be said." Well, lets see whats to be said.

Vicouspc- $3745. Who??? Falcon northwest- $3453 So SO and high priced.
Alienware- $3351 No cpu size listed. Always high priced.
Voodoo- $4019 Are they serious???
Hypersonic- $2989 WHO???

Dell- $2726 Reasonable price, hard rock dependable intel motherboards. Excellent service, reliability.

Pricewatch- Half of the low prices you get there are from questionable venders.

Newegg- Now your talking. Build your own.

So it comes to get the dell or build your own. Your call. Good luck.

Forget those other no name ones their only problems.

DAMN STRAIGHT ITS DELL I GOT THREE, and i built my screamer athlon 1.4 ok/so so, runs well, noisy, Few problems: DELL Solid as a rock runs stable as any thing and DAMN HELL GREAT COMPS Like a real champ

[Dell2884]

Hey this form got a tad out dated... but i thought i wanted to put in my 2 cents, Dell's have come down alot in price. Price cuts and free shipping out the wazoo.i got a 2.53P4 256mb ddr 16x dvd rom Intel mobo, Fairly unchanged power supply(connectors and such)only 250 watts though, enough room for expansion i guess, Hitachi 60 GIG Hard drive and a 9000 Ati radeon ALL IN WONDER card tv in and out, 6 usb 2.0 ports integrated lan, Dial Up Modem (WOOT) floppy, front connectors and what not all for only $800 out the door, shipped
they took 3 days to build and 2 or so day shipping, oh did i mention a 3 year no questions asked component replacement warrenty
Stable, Rock Solid reliablity, Keyboard and mouse (YEAH)
Unfortunately less then 3 weeks out of box i slapped in another 256 MB ddr Stick and a WHITE TDK 24x Cdrw, the case looks strange with it but none the less AWESOME COMP ALL ROUND ... STILL i guess perhaps a tad expensive plus like 30 bucks for a new stick of ram.
On the other hand A non Prebuilt(VERY OLD NOW)
Components
AMD Tbird 1400 oc to 1430 (woot) stock cooling, Antec 300 watt psu working strong still afer i stuck a wire in it and tripped the breaker to the third floor, MSI 6330 (K7T KT133A TURBO) MOBO, Pc 100 and 133 Sticks of 256 and 128 megs --> 512 Megs total, OLD Diamond viper V770D Video card (from old dell) 10X DVD ROM, Floppy, 60 and 40 GIG maxtor hdd's, Sb Live Card, 3 com Lan Card.
Also Stable system Now, After bout 3 days of tinkering with it, messing with bios changing settings and what not.
It gave me some wierd messages at boot up, such as detecting media in drive A:\ or Keyboard Error (Both work). put system under 100 fsb and put manual escd, no halting on keyboard or floppy disk errors, but it sometimes says that its initiallizing processor or something, but goes through boot after a few minutes