On Sun, Sep 5, 2010 at 4:32 PM, mike wilson <m.9.wil...@ntlworld.com> wrote: > Adam Maas wrote: > >> I've priced this and you can almost always get a pre-built system >> cheaper than a home-built system. It's been about a decade since >> building your own was a good economic choice. The biggest reason to >> build your own system is to get a specific parts selection, but you'll >> pay at least 10% more that way. Used to build all my own stuff, now I >> buy relatively barebones-spec HP's and upgrade RAM/HDD/Video and >> sometimes CPU, saves me a fair bit over any other option. > > Except... in my experience, the savings are usually made in things like > power supplies or quality of memory chips, or cooling fans that quickly wear > to sound like F16s. In fact, anything that the manufacturer can get away > without specifying exactly. Not really savings at all. >
That's not my experience with good brands (HP, Dell, etc) although it most certainly applies to most white box systems and cheap brands. Dell and HP get their savings by buying components by the shipload, White Box stores get theirs by using crap for stuff that doesn't appear on the spec shortlist. My HP's have proven to have lifetimes similar to my Mac's, if not longer. -Adam -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
