# Why I will never suggest buying a store bought PC.



## mrbreeeeze00 (Dec 8, 2005)

Last year around this time my friend asked me to build him a PC. "Absolutely", I said, "let me put something together on paper for you". 

I'm a fan of AMD, ASUS and nVidia so I put together a good mainstream configuration that would give good quality and performance without breaking the bank. But, no matter what configuration I chose, it was just a couple of hundred dollars out of his budget. I probably could have gotten that price down but I would have had to go to a Sempron and a cheaper motherboard and sacrifice some RAM. So, I found him a Gateway GM5067H desktop with an Athlon 64 X2 4200+ chip, a gig of Samsung RAM, and some decent on board nVidia video on sale. It seemed like a good deal, it fit his budget and I suggested that he buy it.

The other day, just a week or two after his warranty ran out (go figure), he told me he was having problems. When he fired it up he got nothing! No boot, no POST, no beeps, nothing but black screen. I grabbed it off him and brought it home, hooked it up to my monitor and sure enough, nothing. I tried to reset the CMOS, pulled the battery, and tried a cold boot, to no avail. I thought either the BIOS is corrupt or the on board video is faulty or even worse the MOBO is done for. I contacted Gateway support on his behalf and they informed me that they feel the worst is what it is, bad MOBO.

Anyway, this is where the real problem lies with store bought PC's when faced with this situation. As I am trying to figure out what to do I hit brick wall after brick wall. First of all, to locate a replacement MOBO for this tailored case is almost impossible or very pricey. It is a uBTX form factor and mounts on the opposite side of the case than what most motherboards we buy do and is a 939 pin socket rather than the more common AM2. Also, the DVD/CD drives are molded to the tailored case. Therefore, even if I tried to salvage the parts, and replace the motherboard with a more common ATX, I am limited to choice because of the 939, I will have to purchase a new ATX case and a new CPU fan and to top it off, the DVD/CD drives will fit awkwarly into the case and look funny. Also I wonder what sort of problems I will run into when I move the HDD, with the pre-installed copy of XP, over to the new MOBO. 

To keep a long story as short as I can, I will sum it up this way. If you are faced with the choice of purchasing a store bought PC over having one built for you, particularily if you can build it yourself or you have a good friend who will build one for you, I would strongly recommend that you reach a little deeper into your pocket and have one built. Not only will you get a much better interchangable system and more bang for your buck, but if something does go wrong with the hardware, it will not be a nightmare trying to replace it, and not as costly either. Other benefits are that you will own a hard copy of the OS and your system will not be loaded with a whole lot of garbage programs and such. How much more would it have cost him for me to build one for him you ask? About two to three hundred bucks. 

Now I know that alot of you here probably already know this but it is mostly for the novice and the guests that I publish this post and I hope that it will help them to make a better, more informed decision.


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## marine6914 (Jan 14, 2008)

All low end Dell computers are the same too, the mobo backward so it's so hard to upgrade especially change the power supply


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## caraewilton (Nov 7, 2007)

I tell you what annoys me are "friends" who come and ask me if I can organise them a pc. So I sit down, put together a fair pc according to their needs etc and every time they say, "oo that is to expensive" or "their neighbours son says..." and they go off and buy something from these big stores we have in SA called game and macro. These stores sell everything from washing powder to tv sets. Or they get these really good deals from places called pc palace...where no disks are included
Anyway everytime, they then come and say will you just... install this, sort out that etc.
9 times out of 10 things don't work and then they expect me to sit for hours trying to get the sound to work or try figure out why the usb ports are not working.
It makes me so cross.
Firstly, I hate working on low budget pc's.
Secondly had they just taken my first recommendation, they would not have had these problems.
Thirdly, to date I have never been paid a cent by any of these people, so why do they feel I have to help them.
The best was when I was told I was trying to rip off someone because I added about another R1000 to include ms office. Their words "I know you have the programme so I don't see why you can't just put it on mine for free". Hello, this is illegal!
These days when people ask me, I just say, "why don't you go to IC or Macro, they have cheap PC's". I don't even bother anymore and when asked to help out with this, that and the next thing, I now just say I would rather not fiddle as it could mess with the warenty!


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## mrbreeeeze00 (Dec 8, 2005)

Yes, I know what you mean. My wife is actually upset about this. She feels that I do too much for him and he doesn't appreciate it or my opinion as much as he should. He's my buddy though and it doesn't bother me to help him but I am a little peaved that he didn't listen to me in the first place. I think sometime though that if I would have refused to recommend anything else he might have got the message and made the right chioce. You know, it's not that these systems are so bad but people have to realize that they are essentially throw aways.


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## loserOlimbs (Jun 19, 2004)

There is no such thing as "good and cheap".

I always start with this, I tell them if you want ultra-cheap get it. Do not expect great parts or support. If you care for quality and support pay more. These are your choices.


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## lexmarks567 (Aug 13, 2006)

not all store computers are bad. just get the right brand. dells are bad to begin with. never by a dell


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## kjjb0204 (Jul 31, 2001)

There are good pre-built systems out there for small budgets - you just have to know where to look. I've bought my last three systems from Lenovo's outlet store. My newest is a ThinkCentre A55 with Intel dual core. Perhaps most importantly, a 3 year onsite nbd warranty. All for $400.00.


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## jonmcc33 (Jan 26, 2008)

It's S939. Salvage what you can out of it and start anew. You can get him a MSI G31 (LGA755) motherboard for $70 and Pentium 2160 for $80. Toss in an Antec case with a PSU and he'll have a very modern rig that can be upgraded in the future and offer a lot better performance.


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## SophieCella (Jan 25, 2008)

What if you go to a company that not just sells computers, but also custom makes a computer specific to what you want and need? 
One of my friends has built a couple or more (probably more) of his own computers and he says that he would happily build one for me (that'd be great, however he lives half ways across the other side of the world ^^. 
So what's your opinion or anyone else's opinion on paying for someone to custom make a computer via a computer store of some sort? What would you say the reliability, warranty etc be like?


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## Old Rich (Jan 17, 2003)

lexmarks567 said:


> never by a dell


Why not?


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## mrbreeeeze00 (Dec 8, 2005)

SophieCella said:


> What if you go to a company that not just sells computers, but also custom makes a computer specific to what you want and need?


If you trust and have faith in your friend, why not have him build it for you? The shipping should be far less than the labor cost a tech would charge you and, your friend will probably look after you better. The warranty on the parts will differ by part so look at that specifically. And the labor? Well! That depends on you and your friend and what you think about that? Also, pay attention to import laws and any duties before you go ahead. I'd also list your parts configuration and take it to a local shop and see what they price it at, then you'll know for sure.


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## mrbreeeeze00 (Dec 8, 2005)

simpswr said:


> Why not?


Yeah, Why not?


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## jonmcc33 (Jan 26, 2008)

simpswr said:


> Why not?


I agree. I see no reason not to.


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## Rick_in_Fla (Apr 2, 2007)

simpswr said:


> Why not?


I've had great success with Dells over the years.


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## mrbreeeeze00 (Dec 8, 2005)

In my company of more than 9000, I've seen nothing but.


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## sarge33rd (Mar 26, 2002)

loserOlimbs said:


> There is no such thing as "good and cheap".
> 
> I always start with this, I tell them if you want ultra-cheap get it. Do not expect great parts or support. If you care for quality and support pay more. These are your choices.


+1

As my Comp Sci Professor used to say;

"Buy cheap, buy twice."


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## Stoner (Oct 26, 2002)

What do you guys define as 'cheap' in terms of cost?


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## sarge33rd (Mar 26, 2002)

Fair question with a wide variety of answers.

I'd ask back...what do you intend for the system to do?

For ex, if you want hard-core gaming, I'd say "cheap" would be anything much under 2 grand. OTH, if you replied that you intend to do email, bookkeeping (personal finances) and some VERY limited gaming with older titles, I'd think anything much under $600 would be "too cheap".


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## Stoner (Oct 26, 2002)

sarge33rd said:


> Fair question with a wide variety of answers.
> 
> I'd ask back...what do you intend for the system to do?
> 
> For ex, if you want hard-core gaming, I'd say "cheap" would be anything much under 2 grand. OTH, if you replied that you intend to do email, bookkeeping (personal finances) and some VERY limited gaming with older titles, I'd think anything much under $600 would be "too cheap".


I'm not a gamer, so I don't need cutting edge......where the real expensive hardware lies.



> For ex, if you want hard-core gaming, I'd say "cheap" would be anything much under 2 grand. OTH, if you replied that you intend to do email, bookkeeping (personal finances) and some VERY limited gaming with older titles, I'd think anything much under $600 would be "too cheap".


That was the answer I was looking for: * "I'd think anything much under $600 would be "too cheap"."*

My useage...
Mostly internet surfing, lite finances, some personal photo restoration and photography like panoramas.
Some writing....voice recognition......I use a $470 Acer AST180-ED180M.
It's been in use 15 month's with no issues.
I like it a lot.

I built a computer for finances and business purposes, a stand alone, similar specs to the above.....using an ASUS mb, AMD 3800+ dual core cpu, 2 gig Kingston DDR2, WD 250 Serial drive in an Antec case and PSU.
Good hardware.
I already had a DVD drive. I think my cost at the time ( last May) was about $380.
I did already have win 2k to install.
Rock solid.

Both will run dual instances of Prime95 for 24 hours with no errors and run Memtest 86+ 24 hours with no errors. No over heating, either.

My view of a cheap computer is in the $300 to $400 range, lacking in memory, and built out of hardware with bad reputations.
There have even been several sales last holiday season with desktops on sale at the $199 range.

And the reviews were brutal 

And I have heard complaints about more expensive computers. Sometimes even expensive.

But 'cheap' is such a relative term seeing how prices keep dropping on lower end hardware.
I think quality hardware exists at lower end prices if one does their homework ......searches out the bargains and the reviews.
And again, some crap is pushed at prices far above their relative value.

My first computer was a Gateway, before I knew what to look for.........I was robbed..........


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## Old Rich (Jan 17, 2003)

http://www.dell.com/content/product...t_200mt?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&~tab=bundlestab


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