Tech Tip of the Week: Buying an Enthusiast PC - DIY vs. OEM

The Guest at the bottom you made a rookie mistake in your build. Never buy an Nvidia motherboard! So i can see why you would prefer an OEM machine.

Alot of research has to go into component selection when building, you need to browse thru forums looking for issues with certain boards and memory. The first computer I built was a 386 many moons ago been doing this for along time. I have never bought an OEM machine and never will. For those of you considering building your own, please try to get a much information as possible before you start selecting component either thru guides like this on internet or even just joining a forum and asking for advice from advanced builders!

I don't know if there are many people like me, but even if building my own computer was slightly more expensive I would still build it myself because it's fun. Call me weird, but I really enjoy shopping around for computer parts that give me the best value for my money, and I love putting them together into a working machine.

That is what makes you an enthusiast and separates you from the mainstream crowd.

i too love to tinker with pc's. Regardless of price difference i would build my own purely for the pleasure. Plus I have piece of mind knowing i have used components that are good quality.

Not everyone has a bottomless wallet, me included, so its nice to be able to build a beast of a machine over time instead of needing to remortgage my house to buy it one go.

With the wealth of information and videos on the internet there isn't really an excuse for any slightly tech-savvy person to defer to OEM manufacturers. Support, warranties, etc. are very overrated because you'll spend £10 in phone bills and wait weeks for a replacement. Also by the time a component fails, it will have probably depreciated to half its value and would be more efficient just to buy a newer part.

Plus as mentioned above you would be missing out on the sense of self-fulfilment, and I don't think it just applies to "enthusiasts" either.

I very rarely put together a whole new computer. Usually I just upgrade the motherboard, CPU and RAM, and keep the rest of the components the same. Back in the old days you could upgrade just the CPU or RAM, keeping the same motherboard, but all these newfangled chipsets ended that.

But when I put together my system about a year and a half ago, I was going new from top to bottom, having decided I would keep my old system intact and use it as a second computer. I shopped around for the equivalent components, and it always came up more expensive, and most importantly I did not know what kind of motherboard, RAM, or PSU that I was getting. And then I end up having to pay for some visual crap that I don't want. I just put it all together, and still was about $500 less than the equivalent system OEM.

I suppose it I had more money, I might buy an OEM computer with a proper water cooling set up, with good components and good warranty. That's really the only thing I would buy a complete computer for, is a warranty.

With the sale prices in the Chicago Tribune for OEMs and the troubles I had in building my ASUS, I wouldn't build one again. First was the UV cathode's ballast causing the motherboard not to post 1 out of 3 times. Then, there was the Seagate hard disk firmware problem, which took 1000 clicks of the mouse to find the fixing firmware on their website; it wasn't one of the serial numbers in their list so they wouldn't let me have it even tho the firmware upgrade fixed its problem. Then, the Radeon tv tuner video card drivers don't work with the chore I had in mind; converting my vhs tapes to dvd. It records tv via antenna ok, but sound on vhs tapes is choppy and unacceptable. Lucky I had a lot of time 2 winters ago to build it. How do those computer shops do it (for free)? There is a purpose for those Indian support people and that is to support something like this. I am in the business and I would never assemble a computer for free. I wouldn't expect Fry's to either.

You also forgot that most OEM computers on sale come with monitors and printers at a significant discount.

Last year, after having built my own PC's for both myself , family members and friends for 10 years I found myself wanting a new gaming rig and having no motivation to build it myself. After doing some research I decided to buy a machine from ibuypower.com. I chose them over Alienware as more component choices were available.

I was able to use the same process in picking components as I would when building my own machine. A wide variety of choices is available for each component starting with the case, then it's on to choosing PSU, HD, MB, RAM, video, sound, cooling options ect.

I ended up with a high quality PC built to my own specs, I just didn't have to build it myself. The build quality is outstanding, a better job than I could have done myself, as I don't build machines everyday like the techs do at ibuypower or any of the companies mentioned in the article.

There are many companies similar to ibuypower that offer a ton of customization options, good prices and quality. I think when so many choices are available in the marketplace it comes down to motivation. If you want to tinker and build your own, go ahead, you can do so and build a machine for a price that is competitive with most system builders.

I've built the last 5 rigs I've owned. I would never consider buying a rig built by a commercial vendor. I was burned a few times in the 90's buying systems that had a lot of crap I would never need nor use. I finally learned a lesson and started building my own rigs. Much cheaper, (dollar wise), than they can be purchased ready-to-go from some mass marketing venue. And, it's fun putting a rig together yourself.

Personally I love building my computers and to be honest it's not overly complicated to put part A in the part A slot even if some manual reading is required for newbies. The more difficult aspect of computer building is customizing with water and case mods and to some degree o/c optimizing.

Simply if your afraid to put your hands inside of a computer your still better off choosing the parts and getting it built by a wholesale for $100 or whatever. That way you can choose every part of the computer and get a good cost rate on the parts without having to put it together yourself. Keeping your warranty.

- If it works out cheaper to buy a prebuilt computer than go for it
- If the prebuilt doesn't have the parts you want go for your own parts and get the pros to build it for reasonable price.
- If you want a great looking custom build but don't know how to build it you'll be up for some money and labor costs to get a pro build e.g alien-ware or other high end custom builders.

Ty for responding, dont often see actual responses from the suppliers, and yes i agree, Motherboard is an expensive and very critical component

Also, what about upgrades or extras? Does the dell have 2pci-ex1 slots for... say TV tuner cards or wireless cards?

Motherboard upgrades are important, even if you buy an oem system, are you never going to want to upgrade your graphics? is that even possible? the components that arent included in some of the builds are important...what about custom cooling? not necessarily water cooling or passive, but just extra fans. When i Build computers, i always put at LEAST 2 extra fans in, and often replace the fans that come stock (often too loud and aftermarket fans, if you look closely for them have an extended lifespan) in cases. So as this is a good guide, i dont think that it is complete.

I have built many computers, varying from High-end watercooled massively overclocked gaming systems to HTPC's and gateways (not the brand) If you ARE buying an oem system, you dont pay just for parts, you pay for the support, and if you know little to nothing about computers or hardware, i would spend the extra money and have someone else build you a rig that has little risk involved.

Also noticing, i understand why the OS wasnt included, it is not the same price everywhere, and not fair to add on to price, or if you have an old os you will install, it is free. But what about free software with the OEM? Do any of them include say MS Office? that in itself could be a costly upgrade. What about the (free) Antivirus programs (although often just a trial) Just a thought...

Anyways Big fan of Techspot, read a ton of articles, but rarely respond, but this article is great start to what could be tedious if you started looking for every single component, but this is a good basis.

Let me know if i am way off base here, will check soon...
-Hardwarenerd

Omitting the motherboard is the biggest flaw of your article.

As I am sure you are aware, prices range from less than $100 to mare than $500 for a P55 motherboard, which can make a significant difference.

Without knowing which motherboard is used in those builds; I say it is apples to oranges.

There are some characteristics that I do not accept : hidden partition for recovery, tattooed machine where you have to keep together at least your motherboard and your disk and your Windows. This eliminate many PC manufacturers. Others that I don't like : bloat ware installed and difficult to completely remove (Norton or MacAffee), recovery CD/DVD (instead of genuine Windows), low quality components (as the disk in my daughter PC changed before 3 months).
So I insist to choose myself the elements of my configuration and I check in specialized sites their performances and reliability.
We are lucky to have in Paris, Montgallet street with approximately 30 PC components shops in less than 200 meters and at least one serious company with good reputation (out of Paris for lower labor cost but with a shop in Paris) that sells on internet components or assembled PC (fixed cost for assembly) with 2 years warranty : that means some competition and not too high cost... As I am lazy and have a bad back, I buy to this company an assembled PC with my list of components.
Unfortunately in France 1 US dollar = 1 Euro in the PC industry...

I can still put together a more than adequate system for MOST Windows users for under $1000 especially if an OS is already licensed and doesn't need purchased.
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Good Linux PC, a lot less $.
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My system is a E8400 CPU on a P35 mobo, a 5850 video card, 64bit 7, 6 gigs of DDR2-1066, Turtle Beach Riviera sound card, 7200RPM SATA HD's, and I am perfectly content.
I am knowledgable about tweaking Windows however, so I suspect I have my bloat probably better contained than 99% of users, which definitely helps.

Just built one new i7 recently. I think a majority of high end gamers prefer to build their own rig. It's like street creed; want to be a street racer, gotta get the hands dirty. Boys in Lambos are the ones usually buying pre-build sets - kind'a for show - probably can't even play a decent game. I'd say if anyone can fix an IKEA furniture, they can certainly build a PC. The real skill lies in the neatness and heat management.

there are people like me that is fascinated with assembling things, I will still go with the DIY.