Computer: Off the shelf or Build your own?

[RustySterling]

I'm curious. I know that some of you and likely many of you are not techies. I do computer support for a living. About a year ago I decided to build myself a computer for video and photo work -- it really is almost a gamers machine. But I begin to wonder if there are others here at DPS who have built the machine they want vs. buying something off the shelf.

For those of you who care, my computer configuration is:

Intel Q6600 C2D Quad
ABIT Motherboard
3G Corsair RAM
80G SATA Harddrive for programs and OS
2 320G SATA Harddrives in a RAID Array for file storage
Nvidia 9800 GT 1G DDR3 video card
Windows XP Pro

[Gulpa]

I built my own, not a month ago when my old one died.

I used as much as I can from the old PC and bought:

AMD phenom II X3processor
Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-UD5P Motherboard
Corsair twin 2X 4096-6400 C4 DHX 4GB
Seagate 1.5 TB SATA
Gigabyte HD4850 512MB PCIE

[Japaslavian]

I won't vote because I've done both.

I built my PC a few years back. It was much better back then, but:
AMD 64 FX-55 (2.61 GHz)
Asus SLi mobo (even though I only use 1 slot...)
3GB of Corsair RAM
7900 GS vid card
250GB system drive
750GB storage drive

I also have a 15" Macbook Pro that was straight out of the box.

I mainly use my PC now for gaming, watching TV, and anything else that I can use a 22" monitor for, while the mac gets used for photo-related stuff and my college work.

[briandee]

my brother builds mine. its like 1/2 the cost and twice the power. If i didn't have my brother to do it i would be buying off the shelf tho.

[zephod]

PC Build my own.

Laptop - buy the best i can afford.

[rediguana]

Having built more than enough computers in the past, it is generally the last thing I want to do now - would rather be shooting

[crunch]

Built my own last year this time. It's just better as I could pick what I want, not some default setup that other people "think" is good. My big issue is that most PC's sold as "gaming machines" can do little more than display the graphics of Solitaire, and not nearly the latest games

For those who care...
Core 2 Duo 8500 (OC'd to 3.5Ghz)
Intel Dragontail Peak Mobo
Transcend DDR2-800 RAM (8GB)
ATi Radeon HD3850 512MB (also OC'd)
2TB hard-drive space in total
Lots of cooling

[DogHeadGod]

Let me preface this by saying I work in I.T. and have done for a long time now...

Buying off the shelf is cheaper and much less hassle.

We have an extremely cheap computer component shop close to our house (the cheapest in the whole city), and I had access to a trade account so it was even cheaper. I used to build computers for friends, family, and their aquaintainces pretty much every week. But with the arrival of DELL it cost me as much just to build the computer as they were charging for whole computer systems, (PC, operating system, speakers, monitor, additional software). It got to the point when anyone asked I just pointed them to DELL as I couldn't in good concience charge the prices I would have to to break even.

I got a system from Aldi (much like this http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/58_9910.htm) for £500 and the performance is excellent. With a built in card reader, 3Gb RAM and a quad core processor.

Honestly, in my proffessional opinion.. buy from the store rather than build you on. Aside from anything else, if it breaks you will have it repaired under warranty. If your home build PC doesn't work they charge you to figure it out... even if you work the fault out to be one of two components they will charge you to test which one is broken.

DHG.

[kirbinster]

Years ago when computer were "new" I would always build my own - it was much cheaper to do that. Today with large outfits like Dell, HP, Asus, etc.... they can build a quality machine for much cheaper than you can source the parts. Further, when there is a problem you can call their tech support and get help. If you build it yourself you have to fix it yourself. These days with the millions of possible components if you have a compatibility issue you may never solve it on your own.

[Quo Fan]

I build all my own computers. I have 2 desktops, 1 for me and one for my fiance, 1 laptop (I don't build laptops) and a server.

My desktop is a Core 2 Duo processor @3ghz, Asus P5QL PRO Motherboard, 2 gig of ram, Nvidia GeForce 8400 GS video card with 512 meg ram, 160gig SATA OS drive, 640gig SATA second drive, CD and DVD burners.

My Server is an Intel 865PERL motherboard with a 3ghz hyperthread processor, 18gig SCSI OS drive, 18gig SCSI second drive, 400gig SATA third drive.

All photographic storage is on the server, which is good because 2 weeks ago, my desktop decided to give up the ghost and decide that the OS was no good. I couldn't load windows on top of itself and save everything, or get into safe mode and backup either. Downside is I lost 2 weeks of data, but absolutely no photos because ALL my photos are on my server.