to build or to buy

[thejudges69]

I've been lurking around the idea of building a pc for my wife and i, I know kinda the basics but not to much, i have a brother thats a little more into them then i am. So i'm curious is it cost effect to build one or is it better to buy one from a builder? I've been doing a little searching online at cases and motherboards and processors to see where i could be at building one. I should mention, we don't game, were just online a lot, my wife like to listen to music and relist her ebay auctions without the puter freezing up which happens frequent anymore. I'd like to know builder different opinions on this topic. Also in my search for what i may wanna put together, A friend offered a tower to me that he had built, he said he wants to get a high performance laptop to take on the road with him, If his is a good product i may be interested in it instead and save me the havoc. Here is a list of some of the options he sent me in an email.

this has a phenom II quad core processor running at 3.0 GHz per core
640GB harddrive 7200RPM
Crossfire ready motherboard
onboard graphics
4GB of ram of ddr3 1600
24x dvd writer!
630 watt power supply!(green series) =]
AND
GENUINE MICROSOFT WINDOWS 7 ULTIMATE(64bit!)

He said he'd clean it out for me so i'd be starting fresh, but i'd really like to get my hands into one and build one myself, any input? thanks

[RickyTick]

Depending on the price, that looks like a really good setup. I'd be curious as to what kind of motherboard it has.

Building or buying can be a tough call sometimes. If you're at all mechanically inclined, then you can build your own computer easily. It's a lot of fun and very rewarding. There's plenty of help here (and other places), to get you through it if there are any problems.

[thejudges69]

Mechanically inclined i am, But mostly when it comes to trucks and trailer and high performance diesels. I think i'd enjoy building this, the software concerns me though like if i have a glitch, thats where i get worried.

As for the cost, i can have it for $600, as for the motherboard, theres a blue tag inside that says gigabyte on it, it kinda resembles this one, but i don't know exactly which one it is.

http://www.legitreviews.com/images/reviews/973/gigabyte_motherboard.jpg

I may consider buying this one and gettin my hands into one as time goes on here. I don't wanna be on this forum with 9 million questions but if i build my own unfortunately it will probably happen if i build my own.

[RickyTick]

Sounds like a pretty good deal. Since it only haves Onboard Graphics, don't expect to play any graphic intensive games. You can add a discrete video card at some later time if you want to.

[thejudges69]

He mentioned that about the video card, which is fine, we don't do gaming, just mostly internet usage and some music cd's, what kind of time frame goes into building a pc, where do you even start at?

[RickyTick]

what kind of time frame goes into building a pc, where do you even start at?


Start right here, and scroll through. :D
http://www.mysuperpc.com/

The software installation takes about as long as the hardware assembly.