I'm sure Cowger has better info on cards than I do, since I really dropped out of the vid-card scene about 5-6 years ago. Now it's more just whatever performs better for a reasonable price for me.

I wonder if crash is even looking ath this thread anymore

 

No offense, but you're joking right? You are going to pay almost double to make your own PC than to buy a prebuilt one. I work on computers for a living, and am constantly having this debate with co-workers and customers. You can get a dell or hp for around 400bucks. If you build your own with the same specs, the windows full version CD is going to be like 200 buy itself. Doesn't leave much room for anything else does it? Now I totally advocate building your own PC, and I despise Dell, HP, gateway, etc. But there is no way that you could build a PC for the prices that large companies sell them for.

 

If you're looking for something with 1TB of storage and 2GB of RAM then its probably better for you to build your own if you're able to. To add extra HDDs and memory through Dell is going to cost you A LOT more than going out and getting the parts and doing it yourself.

Also what is this PC is going to be used for? Gaming PC and HTPC? From what I've seen whild shopping around, if you want a more base model PC then go with Dell and it'll be cheaper than building your own. Although Dell hasn't had a really good deal for a while. You used to be able to get a SC420 w/ 2.8Ghz/512MB/160GB for around $400 and with a simple mod to the MB you could run a 16x PCI-e card, Dell hasn't had a deal like that in a long time.

 

I see your point but honestly, who BUYS windows these days or any software for that matter. Also if you want a computer with specific specs you pretty much have to build it yourself. Sure the big companies have buying power which is passed on to the consumer but you cant always get exactly what you want; component selection is severely limited. By all means if you dont care what components youre getting buy a prebuilt, but the people who know what they want build their own.

 

Im sure I could build it cheaper than buying it from a big company.
I'm not the one getting the computer, it's my parents and it will be hooked up to a projector and surround sound. It will just be used for games, movies, and maybe DVR.

Thanks for all the places everyone. I've been looking around and the Alienware DHS 5 (http://alienware.com/product_detail_...de=SKU-DEFAULT) really isn't too expensive. I've always thought Alienware's were friggen expensive.
That might be the way to go since it will match all the other components.

 

I'm sorry, but if you want anything other than junk from Dell it's definately going to cost more than $400. Also, if you look at it logically, if you build it yourself you're taking out one of the most expensive pieces of any process, which is the labor to build it. If I build a computer with the specs I want it to be, I get the computer I want, with the software I want, I don't get ripped off on HD space, and Windows does not cost $200 unless you get pro which is an additional $120 for a Dell. Heck, since I'm a student I can get Pro for $75. Same with Microsoft Office, Dell rips you off on any type of office; for student/teacher edition they're charging $239 but really I got mine off the internet for $74 + shipping.

Also, if you know the BASICS of a computer, but that's it, Dells are hard to use other than as a computer. If you want to get to safe mode, you have about 1/2 a second when the Dell screen pops up in which you can hit F8, but after that 1/2 second, it's too late and you have to do it again. They also include a whole bunch of crap that you don't need on it, such as Dell Media Center, and other random crap software I don't need. That's more money wasted on my part so they could install something I'm never going to use and just uninstall it when I get the computer.

While I was writing this, I just built a Dell system that only offered me only a crappy video card which is one of the main components of a gaming computer, and it still cost about $100 more than my prebuilt with better options and knowing that I got quality parts and not whatever Dell decides to give me. Plus, as many people know you have to hope and pray you get a decent % of the actual HD space that they say you do because usually they only give you 75-85% of what they actually state.

So seriously, if you know what you're doing, how can buying a Dell be cheaper than getting building your own when you can choose exactly what you want, have a lot more flexibility, and still be cheaper?

 

Everygreen Computer in El Cerrito, ask for Frank (510) 526-8667 - he'll give you a very fair price on whatever you spec and he won't switch parts on you without talking to you about it....that last point is a big deal with me. I buy a lot of machines and most of the small places swap out parts for "compatible" parts without mentioning it or adjusting price....very unethical.

 

Dell handles only a few components, ACER parts - so they get a very good discount, cheaper than anything I can find.

I don't like Acer though and if you want something special they can't do it. Another problem is that many of the drivers are proprietary, and they don't distribute them easily - I had a display problem for some commercial software, when I called them they told me they know about it but the only solution they had to offer me was to purchase a new computer. Of course what I did was buy a 3rd party graphics card.

Another Dell problem I had was I wanted to upgrade memory on the graphics card, I called dell and they gave me a price of $360 for the memory upgrade - I felt that was high and looked it up on the Internet and the manufacturers memory upgrade was $70.

Problems like this put me off Dell - they are better than HP, but I get the best computer by buying from places like Evergreen which allows me to specify MB, CPU, graphics, memory, HDD, p/s, mouse, KB, case, DVD, RAID controller - the manufacturers, not just the parts.

I have several other Dell problems but I also have a good dell story, customers dell server went crazy, constantly rebooting on a 3 year old server, Dell was there in about 4 hours replaced all 3 P/S, MB, HDD and memory - no charge to the cust.

The problem is that the computer wouldn't boot now - hdd was blank, but I was able to do an OS restore from a parachute drive and reloaded data from a filesave tape and all is well, total downtime 1 business day.

 

Unless you paid up the butt, most Dells come with an integrated POS vid card don't they?

 

How about trying this site: http://www1.us.dell.com/content/prod...=19&l=en&s=dhs

 

Or this site here: http://www.cheapstingybargains.com/c...oks/index.html

 

Yeah, Dell has some good sales, I mean up to 40% or even 800$ so I think if they can do that, they're overpricing their systems big time.

 

that's absolutely correct....even with the large discounts dell still sometimes can manage to rip you off. You've got to be very careful when you buy from dell...

They make their pricing in such a way that its next to impossible to compare the prices with anyone else (at least on their laptops) Their desktops are easier, but still difficult. One week they'll give you 750 off, the next week it'll be 35% off (only way to check is to configure the exact system you want and go all the way up to the point where your'e about to buy it) It's still difficult and time consuming.

All computer companies rip you off when you buy a pre-configured machine. Putting a computer together isn't that difficult, but if you really really don't want to do it, your LEAST BAD bet is probably to go with a dell and make sure you get a large discount from an online coupon (At the very least it should be $750. Probably more like 1200 with the machine outlined above.)

However, this will take some patience. You'll probably need to wait for a 35% or 40% off sale which could take some time

 

I was bored at work so i configured one...doesn't seem like a GREAT deal, but I've seen worse. This is for a dell dimention 9100, Pentium® D Processor 820 with Dual Core Technology (2.80GHz, 800FSB), Single Drive: 16x DVD+/-RW with double layer write capability, Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio

The 2TB of storage ran you 880 and the video card was 240.

Total: $2,139

This is with a 256MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) nVidia GeForce 6800 and 19 inch E193FP Analog Flat Panel (slightly ghetto monitor).

peace

 

Well, companies are in business to make money.