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Pastimes : Dream Machine ( Build your own PC ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sean W. Smith who wrote (1562)	6/26/1998 3:43:00 PM
From: Dave Hanson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14778

Sean's post on pros/cons of buying major OEM box. Good post, Sean. These very valid reasons for forgoing self-assembly should be considered by readers of the thread before taking the plunge and building their own. A question: given your experience, what led you to build your own last system instead? I can think of several plausible answers, but it might benefit the thread to hear your thinking on this. Agree that traditionally, you wouldn't save much $ going with a homebrew system. I think recently that's changed somewhat, but it depends largely on what exactly you're looking for. A few added points: -Generally, the more unusual the system you want, the bigger the advantage building it yourself. The box maker's MBs tend to be short on things like expansion slots and bios customizations, in my experience. Moreover, their tech support people are trained to handle common configurations, and getting help with something different can be a big hassle. If what you want is simply a solid PII system with reasonable expandability and few hassles, it's tough to beat a box from Gateway/Dell/Micron. -If making your own, make sure that the components you're using come from companies with excellent documentation and tech support. Your point about subtle incompatibilies is well said, and will be much worse if a person uses brand x MBs and video cards. OTOH, if one avoids the "bleeding edge" and goes with names like Asus, Matrox, etc., problems are much reduced.

To: Sean W. Smith who wrote (1562)	6/26/1998 8:46:00 PM
From: Zeuspaul	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14778

Big Box Makers Nice post. I agree with your comments and Dave's additions. Would be computer buyers/builders should read and take heed. A few comments your comment This is totally off base referring to my downtime due to harddrive failures. Your point is well taken. The downtimes were specific to my own circumstances. It has been a long time so the details are a bit hazy. I believe DELL was able to respond within 48 hours. The problem was their schedule did not fit my schedule. I encounter this a lot. My preference is to be master of my own time. I can make my own rules with my own machine. If a harddrive fails I will purchase one the same day from a local computer store and deal with the warranty issues as a separate issue. Bottom line is I will have a new drive in less than 24 hrs. We agree on Compaq. For DELL to service my machine I have to make arrangements and possibly take time off from work. For most business uses DELL is on target evident by their success. If some machines by a big boxmaker are open architecture and others are not my advice is to by a machine with the architecture. This is not always evident on the Web Site. Many buyers ask the question is it upgradeable?. This is not sufficient as most machines are upgradeable. One open PCI slot or DIMM slot and a salesman will bill a machine as upgradeable. So far I like my machine better. I fall into the specific needs category. They do not make one for me. Zeuspaul