Personally, I would rather build my own systems. My current main pc is housed in a mountainmods.com 24x24" case with 8x120mm fans providing plenty of space and cooling for the 3k in parts that I put in it. There is definitely something to be said for building your own pc. You know the parts and its easier to replace a generic sized mobo or cpu fan than it is to replace a dell proprietary mobo or cpu fan. Just my 2 cents. --Gnunixguy -----Original Message----- From: Alex Dean Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 1:04 PM To: Main PLUG discussion list Subject: Re: OT: In Faulty-Computer Suit, Window to Dell Decline On Jun 30, 2010, at 2:42 PM, Matt Graham wrote: > From: Alex Dean >> On Jun 30, 2010, at 1:11 PM, keith smith wrote: >>> Reliability is important to me. I just don't fee like I want to >>> research components, buy them and build them. >> I built my first from-scratch system about a year ago. I doubt I >> saved any money. The main reasons I did it were 1. I got exactly >> what >> I wanted, without bundled junk I didn't want etc. and 2. it was fun. > > In general, Dell, HPCompaq, Gateway, et al tend to buy the cheapest > components > possible for their low-end machines. This often leads to sporadic > problems > due to cheap parts behaving marginally, and the user tends to blame > the > failures on Microsoft or viruses or hackers. BTDT with a marginal > micro-ATX > board from Gateway and another craptastic micro-ATX board from > Asus. The > motherboard is the most complex part in an x86, the most difficult to > remove/replace, and the hardest thing to diagnose problems with. As > such, I'd > rather spend money on a *good* motherboard than on any other > component. And > yes, most of the bundled things you get from major vendors are totally > worthless. > >> If it were anything but an in-home machine I would have stuck with a >> commercial vendor. > > The nice thing about buying parts is that you can often re-use the > old parts > you have that still work. That can lead to saving money in the long > run. The > ATX case I have is 8 years old, my speakers 11 years old, and my DEC > Tulip PCI > card is probably 13 years old. Of course, you have to do some > screwdriver-fu > to put an x86 together from parts. A well-designed case makes this > a hell of > a lot simpler than a badly-designed case. > > Basically, if your time is important to you, you should spend some > extra money > on quality parts. That way, you can spend much more time fooling with > software problems instead of hardware problems. All good points. After several years of retrofitting aftermarket components into a teeny Dell case, it was pretty nice to work in a case which was actually designed to have my big fat hands in it. (I should mention I bought this dell mini-tower in about 2001, and have had 0 problems. Still runs like a champ.) One other benefit I didn't mention, but which might be relevant to some... my nephew got to help me put the machine together. I think there's a lot of value in showing kids how computers are put together, and give them a sense that it's something you can really dig into and understand. He got really interested in it, and it was a lot of fun to have his help. alex --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss