Build or Buy Your New PC
by Gene Boley
7 Reasons to build your own PC.
1. You get to choose your own parts. Weighing quality against price
2. The most important part of the PC is the mother board and CPU. Little or no choice is given to the PC buyer regarding the mother board, and there is a world of special features out there to fit your every desire.
3. Computer companies, in order to keep people out of the BIOS, lock most of the various selections so they can not be changed.
4. PC Cases are usually minimal and have very little expansion capabilities.
5. Upgrading is sometimes difficult or impossible.
6. Some manufactures do not give you a copy of the OS, and have hidden partitions on the hard drive to protect setup data. If your OS bombs it often means putting the system back to the original setup to restore.
7. The manufacture puts a lot of bad and simplistic software that should be removed.
7 Reasons to buy and not to build
1. Less expensive.
2. Warranty.
3. Tech Support.
4. No Hassel.
5. If you are not mechanically inclined and your spouse has to change the light bulbs in your house.
6. If you get no sense of accomplishment from “do it yourself”.
7. No technical knowledge of electronics.
Since the earliest IBM PC computers, consumers have had the option of putting together their own computer system from compatible components. In the earliest days, this offered a significant savings for consumers who were willing to buy third party parts from smaller manufacturers. Things have changed a lot since then, but there are still significant advantages to building a machine from parts rather than buying a pre-built system.
A System is a Sum of its Parts
All computer systems sold on the market are a collection of components that provide a functional computing system.
Processors, memory and drives are just some of these components that make up a system and allow us to differentiate one system from another. As such, the performance and quality of a system is determined by the parts used in its construction.
So what is the difference between a store bought system and a custom built machine from parts? There could be almost no difference to a very significant difference based on the parts selected for the machine. With this in mind, let's examine some of the advantages and disadvantages of building a computer from parts rather than buying a system.
Advantages of Building
The most distinguishing advantage to building a computer from scratch is the selection of parts. Most computer systems come pre-built with the specifications and components already selected for you. This often can lead the user to have to sacrifice certain features that they may not want to give up. By building a computer from components, the user is able to choose the parts that best match the computer system they desire. Some vendors do allow you to customize a computer system, but you are still limited to their selection of parts.
One of the less tangible advantages to building a computer from scratch is knowledge. By building a computer from scratch, a user is able to learn and understand how the parts work together. This information becomes immensely valuable when troubleshooting computer problems. The knowledge of what components control the different sub-systems of a computer system means users can repair their own hardware problems without having to deal with support groups or expensive repair bills.
Another reason to build your own is avoiding hardware that I believe to be troublemakers, such as Western Digital Hard Drives, cases that hold only one had drive and cases that don’t cool adequately, and cheap CD/DVD burners. Video cards that are built on the motherboard and steal their advertised memory from the systems memory
Disadvantages of Building
The biggest disadvantage with building a computer is the lack of any one support organization. Since each component can and likely will come from a different manufacturer and/or store means that if a part has a problem, you will have to deal with the appropriate company. With pre-built systems, you only have to deal with the manufacturer and their warranty service groups.
The second biggest disadvantage with building a computer system is cost. In most cases, the cost of building a computer will be slightly more expensive than purchasing a pre-built computer. This is because the manufacturers can buy in bulk for steep discounts that will hopefully translate into savings on the computer system. They also include software with the systems that must be purchased separately when building a system. OEM software purchased with hardware does help reduce the costs on custom built systems. However, if you are looking at really high-end computer systems, the cost of building a system is significantly lower than the premiums that the manufacturers put on the prestige computers.
One of the reasons I tell my non-tech friends to buy a computer from a well-known seller is the warranty. No matter how smart or computer literate one is, things are going to go wrong. Disk drives go bad. Video cards can do weird things. Pieces sometimes just don’t work. A nice, fat three-year warranty from your computer manufacturer will save you heartache and prevent you from pulling your hair out. Most warranties cover parts and labor for at least a year, and you can always buy longer warranties.
Another perk that goes hand-in-hand with warranties is tech support. Again, just like the hardware mentioned earlier, software doesn’t always do what it’s supposed to do. Things get mixed up and stop working. A simple call to tech support is usually all it takes. At times these calls can be pull-out-your-hair frustrating after you’ve told four different levels of technicians, that can’t speak English, the same story, but in the end, if it gets fixed, it was worth it. Most companies offer some type of free support and are always willing (of course) to give you “express” tech support, for a nominal (yeah, right) fee. Twenty-four hour support would be nice, but that’s not always an option, so take warranty options into account when making your decision. Some tech support is better than others but most companies will be there for you in a pinch.
Most computer manufacturers use quality components that have been tested and proven in their systems. They don’t want to take tech support calls anymore than you want to make them, so most of them use quality components. Since they get bulk pricing, you’d be hard pressed to build a computer yourself with the same components for a cheaper price. Most systems come with software and manuals that can get many minor problems fixed relatively painlessly.
One of the drawbacks of buying a complete desktop system is that down the road, upgrading can be difficult. Cracking open the case to insert a new sound card or video card can cause problems that aren’t easily remedied. Often, you will receive no sympathy from tech support if your new card suddenly caused everything to go haywire. Warranties may even be voided if you do something you aren’t supposed to do.
So why would you want to build a computer? I do it for a couple of reasons. To me, it’s a challenge to get all of these highly technical and complex components to work together.
The biggest draw to building your own is control over every facet of the system.
There are definitely more things to consider when building your own system. The biggest drawback in my opinion is the lack of room for error. If the technician building a system at Dell cracks the processor as he installs the heat sink, he just grabs another one off the shelf and off he goes. If you do that, you are pretty much out a couple hundred bucks. Extreme care has to be taken every step of the way. Dropping a hard drive on the floor will usually render it useless. While most people don’t have an anti-static mat on their workbench, there are many things you can do to ensure you have an appropriate work space to build your systems. Having the right tools helps.
Putting together a new system is more than just a new motherboard, processor and memory. You have to think about the right type of case, a spacious hard drive, any optical drives you want the services of, and I/O devices such as a mouse, keyboard, monitor and speakers. However, many of these can be used from your old computer
Most people are overwhelmed by the vast amounts of knowledge there is out there when they start doing their research for components for their new computers. Places like tomshardware.com and anandtech.com are great places to get reviews and up-to-date information. There are also countless forums where people talk (and brag) about their systems. These are also great places to get ideas for what can be done when problem arise. I can not think of a problem that I haven’t been able to Google my way out.
Building your own system is a big step in the life a computer user. You step out of the realm of solely being a consumer and become a creator, a craftsman. It’s a great feeling.
If you are thinking about building your PC I suggest using Toms Hardware to help you decide on the components. Go to:
Select Products in this order.
1. Retail CPU
2. Mother board
3. Memory
Make sure that these 3 items are Vista ready and compatible with each other.
Another excellent source for information is www.anandtech.com For components locally use Fry’s, or a good online source is www.newegg.com; especially if you want to buy a combo CPU and matching mobo. Not a bad idea. Be sure you understand their guarantees.
Things I would look for on the mother board is at least one PCI Express video slot.
If you think you might work with photography get the most expensive Video card you can afford in a PCI Express video such as a GeForce with 256 or 512 MB memory.
I bought all my parts at Fry’s. They will exchange any product that does not work. Make sure you have a case that has plenty of room for expansion. Room for at least 4 hard drives and 2 CD/DVD slots. General the power supply comes with the cases, but make sure it is at least 400 watts. If you are switching to SATA hard drives, which I suggest, make sure the motherboard has the cables included. Otherwise you need to purchase these. I suggest at least 2 identical HD. One as a mirror image back-up. That way if you have a problem you can go into your BIOS and change to boot up order and you are back in business.