Do you save money by building your own PC?

[gb01]

One reason often given for building your own PC is saving money. The assumption, I suppose, is that the big PC makers are making big profits when you buy a prebuilt, so why not keep that money for yourself?

Well I thought I'd post this to ask: is anyone is really saving money?

My experience? I'm having trouble saving money. When I price out build, I can usually find as good a price, or better, on a prebuilt from Dell or Compaq. Sure, I can ignore all the recommendations from the experts on this site and buy the cheapest (and likely unreliable) components I can find. But I want to end up with a machine I can rely on.

I should probably say that I'm not trying to build a gaming machine nor am I trying to get bragging rights for having the coolest machine around.

Let me know what your experience is.:)

[Jamie Nixx]

My experience is, honestly, that trying to build everyday internet, word processing machines cheaper than say Dell, is hard, especially when you price in all the peripherals as well.

But when it comes to media PC's or the much more expensive Gaming PC's, its a lot cheaper than the big dogs such as Alienware and the Dell XPS range, in fact you can often build much a much better quality computer for a lot cheaper.

[Amosmoses33]

what he said :)

[bighoo93]

How about its cheaper when your crap Dell starts dying on you piece by piece, but Dell has long since abandoned the build, and the parts are all non-standard proprietary, so if you can find them at all, you have to pay through the nose for them. And often that's through some shady second-hand dealer or Ebay, and you don't know if the thing works or is new or used. That's the reason I'm building my next PC, no matter whether its a souped up machine or a budget build (probably somewhere in between for me). I don't expect I will save a ton of money up front vs. buying a pre-built box. But I'll get to choose the components and their quality, and then if something goes wrong, or even if I just want to upgrade in a few years, I can buy the part and plug it in. With Dell, when the crappy PSU goes, all you can do is hope to find someone with the same PSU that hasn't crapped out, you can't upgrade it because they only made one that fits. Going with Dell (or I assume any other maker), you just about have to buy a new computer every few years and trash the old one.

I have been pushing my old computers down one member of the family every time I get a new one (i.e., my 6 year old son surfs the web and plays kid games on an old Dell running Windows ME). But usually I have to strip the heck out of them so that only minimal functional parts are left. This works for a while, but there are usually still some problems. I prefer to build and have full control. I haven't done it yet, but since I like tinkering, I think I'll like it, and both the main page and the forums have encouraged me to believe I can do it.

[Dan]

My thought on building a budget machine? I dont think the price will be cheeper.....maybe a few dollars more at the onset but in the long run it'll be cheeper as was said. not to mention no program junk weighting down the operating system.

[ronniebee]

The Big reason I built my own PC was I needed a multimedia, Gaming, and Everyday use PC for my home.

I saved a lot by upgrading, because I already had a lot of my own peripherials, such as Monitor, Printers, and Musicware.

I used MagicMicro and purchased a bare-bones Apevia X crusier with Asus P5E SLI motherboard preinstalled and installed my own sata drives and Graphics Card I bought from Newegg.

Comparing my machine to an equalivant Dell XPS Multimedia and Game machine I figure I saved about $3000 or more by just up-grading.

[willybach]

Good question, and one worth asking. All i know is, i was extremely relieved when my first attempt at a PC didnt explode on me four years ago. It cost around 1200 dollars (i guess the same range pc would be a lot cheaper today). I was mostly happy with it, although it wasnt long before games starting coming out that seriously tested it. Oblivion was probably the first game that really made me sit up and think, "aw crap, i gotta upgrade soon!". However, its all about priorities, I guess. I have a family now, cant really justify, buying anything over $1000 again. And then of course, theres the burning question, just how current, is current? Just how long will this metal box with lots of wires poking out of it, be able to run the latest games? I was gearing up to upgrade this month, but having only just now found out about the lastest AMD and Intel cpus coming out apparently in 2008, with quite possibly new motherboard requirements, well, I'm hesitant. Perhaps its best to wait for these new ones Penryn/Nehalem? And Amd barcelona? Not even sure about the names lol. Then build a cheaper rig based around a then cheaper Quad Extreme. I just dunno, kinda tired of this PC rat race actually. My buddy often says its just better to get a PS3, at least then you know it can run everything designed for it, and that itll probably still be having games made for it in years to come.

Still...i probably will upgrade soon hehe.