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**Lax** · 07-11-2005, 03:09 AM

Section 6 - Addendum

When the idea of building your own computer comes up one of the first things you may think of is how much will this cost me compared to a prebuilt one. Well, the cost will vary depending on where you buy your parts from and how much shipping might cost (if any) on each part. Buying a prebuilt machine the price is generally set and then raised or lowered depending on what options you get in it. The short answer is this, building your own will usually cost less and yield you a more customized machine (which is more towards your liking) instead of a stock machine that is prebuilt by a company such as Dell or HP.

The long answer is this, if you build your own machine the cost is effected by how much each part costs at the time and how much you are charged for shipping or taxes. With a prebuilt machine the price you are charged is determined by the company and is a single lump sum (not being payed for by each piece). The prices of both ways of building though are effected by the current technology on the market and how readily available it is. Generally however when you buy a prebuilt system you're not getting the exact parts you want to get. So the memory may not be up to par, the motherboard might not be that great, and the way it's all setup might not be all that nice inside the case. This is to keep the price down on systems such as Dell and HP (In the 700-800$ range for a base system). When building your own the cost is again determined by what you want in your system, except you get to pick exactly what's inside your case, and you will know what brands you are putting in there.

As for the price differences between a prebuilt machine and one you build yourself; it's marginal, but can also be huge. The difference in either direction is based on what type of prebuilt machine you get and what's in them, and what parts you would want in your own system. In the long run it is generally cheaper to build your own machine, and you can customize it more towards your liking instead of having it customized towards Dell's liking, which is using no name parts which are made cheaper to lower the final cost of the total system. Companies that build machines will also raise the price a bit (depending on the company) to make some profit on each machine they sell. If they were to sell you a machine for the actual price of the parts they wouldn't be making any money, and hence would be usless for them to build so many machines for so many customers while the company themselves makes 0 profit.

07-11-2005, 03:09 AM	#8 (permalink)
Lax Moderator Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Snow country Age: 21 Posts: 2,204	Section 6 - Addendum When the idea of building your own computer comes up one of the first things you may think of is how much will this cost me compared to a prebuilt one. Well, the cost will vary depending on where you buy your parts from and how much shipping might cost (if any) on each part. Buying a prebuilt machine the price is generally set and then raised or lowered depending on what options you get in it. The short answer is this, building your own will usually cost less and yield you a more customized machine (which is more towards your liking) instead of a stock machine that is prebuilt by a company such as Dell or HP. The long answer is this, if you build your own machine the cost is effected by how much each part costs at the time and how much you are charged for shipping or taxes. With a prebuilt machine the price you are charged is determined by the company and is a single lump sum (not being payed for by each piece). The prices of both ways of building though are effected by the current technology on the market and how readily available it is. Generally however when you buy a prebuilt system you're not getting the exact parts you want to get. So the memory may not be up to par, the motherboard might not be that great, and the way it's all setup might not be all that nice inside the case. This is to keep the price down on systems such as Dell and HP (In the 700-800$ range for a base system). When building your own the cost is again determined by what you want in your system, except you get to pick exactly what's inside your case, and you will know what brands you are putting in there. As for the price differences between a prebuilt machine and one you build yourself; it's marginal, but can also be huge. The difference in either direction is based on what type of prebuilt machine you get and what's in them, and what parts you would want in your own system. In the long run it is generally cheaper to build your own machine, and you can customize it more towards your liking instead of having it customized towards Dell's liking, which is using no name parts which are made cheaper to lower the final cost of the total system. Companies that build machines will also raise the price a bit (depending on the company) to make some profit on each machine they sell. If they were to sell you a machine for the actual price of the parts they wouldn't be making any money, and hence would be usless for them to build so many machines for so many customers while the company themselves makes 0 profit. __________________ He who controls the present controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future. Last edited by Lax; 07-28-2005 at 05:14 PM.