I went to Best Buy earlier on and I checked out the computers that they sell and I realized that these suppos'ed "State-of-the-art" $2500 computers that they are selling can be built for $1000 no problem. You also notice that most new computers come with a 17" flat panel now... yea, have you ever looked at the company who makes them? :doh:

I also went to compusa, it was better than Best buy, but still along the same lines.

I will never buy a prebuilt computer nor will I let someone close do it to themselves...

 

welcome to the age of computers. 1996 welcomes you



Anyway, yeah. Pretty much everyone knows that the pre-built ones are way way overpriced for what they are. With that same 2500 bucks you could build a system that'll run nearly anything available at the highest resolutions on the highest detail.

People buy em, though. I've sold those overpriced pieces of crap to people. That's why I got out of retail. I can't stand doing that. But some people can't build em themselves, even though the instructions on every component tell you exactly what to do. Ah well.

 

People have become so lazy. They are quick to blame everything on everyone else. They don't want to learn at all either and expect it to be done in one step...eh ohwell, their fault :chuckles:

 

i taught my friend how to put one in and was up and running within 2 hours. nowadays, its so easy.

 

If I were to buy a computer, pre-assembled, I would probably go with a Dell. Even though the components cost less than what they charge, you also get legitimate software, a warranty and tech support. For most people, this is what they want and need.

 

act ually, pre assembled computers arent bad, for some of them. My sister got a 2.something ghz dell with a flat panel 15" for like $550. I'm pretty sure i couldnt have built it and gotten a flat panel for that much, but I'm sure with higher end machines there is much more markup. this is a very basic machine, with integrated everything pretty much.

 

If you want a budget computer, it's hard to beat Dell's specials. Now, for "top-of-the-line" machines, yeah, it's almost always cheaper to build your own.

 

A compromise you might want to think about is finding a Dell 400SC server.

You can find these all the time for just a couple hundred dollars.

Expensive Intel chipset, very quiet fan, efficient cooling case. The BIOS will handle the very fastest Northwood chips, plus the Prescott chips all the way up to the last gasp, 4.0 GHz iteration that's projected.

Prefers ATI Radeon video cards, but there's nothing wrong w/that.

 

ive bought 2 of those. first one was (if i recall correctly) $209, second was $298 after MIR. both came with at least a 40 gig HD, and a P4 2.8.


cant really beat that. and plus, those suckers are silent.

 

Mine is a 3.0 GHz Hyperthreader w/1024 megs of multichannel RAM. Pretty darned speedy for the money, even after modifications.