New
#11
If you want to read about a ridiculous build, see here.
And I motivation poster I made, for additional inspiration. Sure, building your own PC is a blast, just make sure you have money and time.
I spent maybe a month watching you tube videos on building computers before doing my first build.( Not what I would call an expensive education) I spent about the same time on sites like Newegg and Tiger Direct reading product reviews before buying the parts for my first build. It took me 3 hours to assemble my computer and it posted the first time I pressed power. Been up and running almost a year now and stable as rock. I will never purchase another name brand computer....with there proprietary crap. I spent around 1,500 dallars on my system and when I was done I compared it to comparable Dell system coming in around 2,500 dollars. Then there is the satifaction factor. I built this computer it's my baby and know one knows it better than I do. I vote build it youself! Now if you will excuse me my computer and I have made plans to go out to dinner tonight.
All in all, the best bet is to build it yourself. Hands down. I would have built my own laptop instead of customizing it, but that was a big hassle.
It may be a little bit more to build it yourself, but the difference is QUALITY. When you buy a PB pos, you are getting (sometimes) the lowest quality parts. This is so that the rig is less expensive. However, that just means that the computer sucks.
Also, I find it EXTREMELY difficult to find a computer (PB) that has EXACTLY what I want. When I built my computer though, I could.
In the end, it IS the best deal.
~Lordbob
If you decide to purchase, stay away from the XPS series... unless you go with a 630. They are all BTX cases/motherboards, which means upgrading in the future would be very difficult. I have a 630 and when I purchased it I had no idea what ATX/BTX cases were... but I lucked out. I have a BTX case (right side opening, usually considered to have better ventilation inside) but the 630 was specially manufactured to take an ATX motherboard (mounts upside down).
Anyways, a build is easily the way to go. I built a computer for designing and rendering at work with 8GB Patriot DDR2 800MHz memory, 2x320GB Seagate Barracuda HDD in RAID0, Core2Quad 2.83GHz, Gigabyte EP45-UD3P MoBo, Coolermaster case, and ATI FireGL 3600 video card for $830. Granted, it still needed a monitor (I already had 2)and a keyboard and mouse (already had those also).
It runs SolidWorks Premium 2009 and all of the nice add-ons flawlessly!
BUILD IT.
P.S. That same computer, plus a different CPU cooler and a few fans would be an amazing gaming computer. Almost up to spec with my XPS (except I have a Diamond Radeon HD 4890 XOC, 3.0GHz Core2Duo @ 3.2GHz, and 8GB OCZ Platinum 1066MHz memory and lots of blue fans.
See attached.