The problem is that all of those advantages are 100% dependent on you being able to correctly identify which piece has the problem.
This is true.
In the past, I've mistaken which pieces were causing the problem multiple times in a row, costing me hundreds of dollars in unnecessary replacements.
...but this is confusing. If you return a part for a replacement, all you're out is a few bucks in shipping. Even if you return every part one at a time, your cost isn't going to top fifty bucks. How on earth did you drop hundreds of dollars on this sort of thing?

In any case, failures are rare, and the majority of them are easy to diagnose. Furthermore, if someone didn't want to go through troubleshooting themselves, they could just drive it down to a local computer shop and have it diagnosed while they waited, for $50-ish (less if you know a computer nerd or have access to a university). And even if you tack on another $50 to the price of building it yourself, I still say it's worth it for the component quality and customization.
New PC: to build or not to build
02/05/2011 04:16:46 PM
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The advantages of building your own computer seem to be smaller these days.
02/05/2011 05:19:09 PM
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I take satisfaction in tinkering with computers...
02/05/2011 06:40:12 PM
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Also, one of the big savings for building your own computer...
02/05/2011 07:27:37 PM
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yah that's part of the problem. I don't have a desktop right now. Not even a case
02/05/2011 07:37:45 PM
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It's not hard at all anymore. Link for Lorraine, too
02/05/2011 09:32:48 PM
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I always buy Intel. Papa works there
02/05/2011 09:39:00 PM
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Huh, small world. What site?
02/05/2011 10:36:55 PM
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I have no idea what the name of his site is. Probably not that one
03/05/2011 01:50:38 AM
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I don't know about you...
02/05/2011 08:21:41 PM
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Just get a pre-made and add a few components (ie: graphics card) to make you feel like you built it. *NM*
02/05/2011 08:53:07 PM
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Build it.
03/05/2011 02:54:12 PM
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Warranty/Troubleshooting
03/05/2011 04:14:47 PM
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How?
03/05/2011 05:04:27 PM
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Re: How?
03/05/2011 06:47:56 PM
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Wow, I never heard about that.
03/05/2011 07:10:07 PM
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Nah, it was years ago. The one you gave me advice for was the replacement of the replacement, hah
03/05/2011 07:41:24 PM
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Yeah, I meant the power supply of the problem machine.
03/05/2011 08:10:04 PM
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Ah. yeah, it was one of the pieces that got replaced. It was probably at least partially responsible *NM*
03/05/2011 08:12:50 PM
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I like how you seem to think I'd buy a Dell
03/05/2011 04:17:58 PM
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If you like tinkering, then build one. Quality control is all on you, but it's "yours" then.
03/05/2011 03:00:21 PM
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#1 reason to build your own: no pre-loaded bloatware. *NM*
03/05/2011 04:52:45 PM
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Or just format when you get it. *NM*
03/05/2011 06:48:47 PM
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With a pre-built you can't often do that.
03/05/2011 07:19:28 PM
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for the record, sometimes stores will remove the bloatware for you
03/05/2011 07:28:58 PM
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Do prebuilts come without OS discs these days? That's bullshit. *NM*
03/05/2011 07:43:39 PM
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Yah, they don't.
03/05/2011 07:47:36 PM
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Well, it's understandable, just annoying.
03/05/2011 08:05:00 PM
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You really should just stop using Dell as your example
03/05/2011 10:51:10 PM
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Oh, hush.
04/05/2011 12:50:15 AM
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YOU SHALL NOT MALIGN THE HP!!!
04/05/2011 10:16:50 AM
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Re: YOU SHALL NOT MALIGN THE HP!!!
04/05/2011 04:55:49 PM
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My anecdotal evidence has HP failures being rare but spectacular.
04/05/2011 08:19:52 PM
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I had a Compaq laptop (built after HP had bought Compaq).
04/05/2011 09:13:54 PM
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Huh. I have a Compaq too. It shipped with bad RAM, but once I fixed that it's worked like a charm.
05/05/2011 12:43:48 AM
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