The PSU in most white box machines will likely be the first component to fail. They don't design them to last the life of the computer...they design them to out-last the warranty. (which, if you recall, is almost always one year)
The argument about research time isn't valid, simply because we've already done all of the research. All TS has to do it ask.
Let's take a look at your average white box computer. We'll say a Dell Inspiron 580, configured today at $830. (picked because I found a review and could easily identify most of the parts)
For $830, you get:
Mobo- Mostly non-solid caps, some solids in the VRM section. Appears to be un-cooled 4-phase cpu power. Most other caps are not solids. Lots of parts, mostly caps, that have places silkscreened for them but are missing. (includes the PATA connectors) Rear panel includes 4 usb ports, ethernet, DVI out on the (unused) IGP, and your standard 7.1+mic sound outputs. Market value, about $50, if that...I couldn't find anything else this crappy.
CPU- Core i5 650, with a cheap, noisy non-standard cooler. Retail value, about $180.
RAM- 8GB DDR3 1333, 4x2GB. Completely unnecessary...this is just a gimmick. You're paying for RAM you'll never use, because people seem to think that more RAM means it'll go faster. There's also no room to upgrade, since they've used up all 4 slots...though I have no idea why you'd need to. Retail value, about $75, and I think that's being generous.
PSU- what appears to be a 300W Bestec. No
PFC of any sort, which is a must in any quality unit...this means it's
very susceptible to surges. It likely can't even top ~175W or so. Has 4 SATA connectors, 1 floppy (
), 24-pin mobo, and 4-pin CPU. Nothing else. Knowing Bestec, it's probably pretty low quality, and could possibly kill the system eventually. Retail value, about $20.
GPU- Nvidia Geforce 220 1GB. Not even close to matching the CPU for gaming power, but it should handle everything else. Low build quality. The anemic cooler means the tiny fan can get loud under load. Retail value, about $50.
HDD- 1TB, most likely the cheapest brand they can find. (usually Hitachi or Seagate) Retail value, about $60.
DVD- DVD+/-RW / CD-RW drive. It's 16x, rather than the standard 22x or 24x. Retail value, about $15.
Case- interesting one here. One available expansion slot, which can only be used by an optical drive due to the non-removable hide-away doors. Built-in card reader. Single 80mm fan, poor airflow even if it had a 120mm, no 3.5" bays. The hard drive is mounted sideways, directly to the frame. No coating...it's bare galvanized steel on the inside. Cheap single-screw-for-all-4-cards PCI bracket holder. Does have USB ports on top as well as in front. Tough to place this one, but I'd have to say about $50 if it was sold retail.
Wireless card- B/G/N, dual antennas. Retail value, about $20.
Mouse and keyboard- Standard Dell ones...similar one s could be had for <$20.
Monitor- none.
Windows 7 home premium x64, OEM license. Comes with free crapware! Retail, $100.
So, in total, they've charged you $830 for what I estimate to be around $640 worth of parts, if it was sold retail. They didn't pay anywhere near that much for it. So let's take that same $830 and see what we can get out of it. (Assuming that this isn't a gaming computer.)
I'll be using the same Socket 1156 platform, even though I could go with Sandy Bridge and whoop up on it even more. I'll even use 8GB of RAM like the Dell.
And, partially because I'm lazy, I'll only use Newegg...no deals from elsewhere. No combos, either. So yes, the price on this could be improved.
Well would you look at that...I've absolutely murdered Dell for the price. There is absolutely nothing on this machine that isn't better than what Dell offered. Further, all of the important bits have at least a 3-year warranty. The PSU has 5-year, and the RAM has lifetime.
I didn't include shipping because it would have skewed the results, and you can nearly always get free shipping if you try hard enough anyway.
Any member her could repeat this at any price point, easily.
Still think it's better to go white box?
) of RAM, a decent cpu, and mobo-integrated graphics. Meaning, you can't game on it since the gpu sucks, you've payed for 2-4 times as as much RAM as you'll actually use, and worst of all, the money that they put into all of that RAM and other useless gimmicks has been cut from the parts where it actually matters.
