Custom vs. Premade

Thursday

Thursday

New Member
Ok i am buying a system and i cant seem to build a comp that beats this premade comp in price/performance: HP Desktop

should i just buy premade or is custom better?
 
the majority of people on here will tell you to custom build it. if you are comforatable with building a computer yourself then i would suggest that also.

but if not, then sure, go for a prebuilt one. as long as you are getting your money's worth.

quite often premade systems are overpriced and harder to upgrade then a normal one.

looking at that actual system, are you sure you need all those parts? would you use a 1tb hard drive? do you need 4 gb ram? what would you use the system for exactly?
it would be better to custom build it with parts that suit exactly what you need.

also i think that processor is overpriced and not worth the extra money over a q6600.
i could be wrong :)
 
Build one your self for that price, the thing is pre built that allot of people don't understand is that they use CHEAP power supplies, motherboards, and memory.

For that price you can get allot better gaming computer, with high quality components.

What do you need it for? a 8600GT is definitely not recommended for games. I would list you a good build, but its quite late here and i best get in the bed :P
 
I've tried building a comp on newegg for the last few hours and it still cant beat that price. i even tried going with a core 2 duo for the processor and its still $200 more

i just want to be able to play present games (call of duty 4, oblivion etc) i dont really need the comp "future proof"

The comp i'm doing has a 250gb hd, same graphics card, core 2 duo.. etc.
$1,499 no monitor
 
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well ill give it a go in a minute haha.
ill aim for a system that can play cod4 :)
how much are you looking to spend exactly? i reckon around a 1000 should be enough.
we'll see.
but yes as thatguy16 said, the prebuilt systems come with some low quality parts.
do you need a monitor?
 
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cpu-$215
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017

case-$80
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146025

dvd drive-$20
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106228

ram-$50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145590

gfx card-$180
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150252

hard drive-$80
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148317

motherboard-$90
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128337

psu-$125
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139001

ok so that comes to $840 i think.
minus a bit from MIR.

can someone please suggest another psu?
i really like that one and its great quality.but a little too expensive :)

that system there looks awesome and would play cod4 no problem.
 
this premade has 2 500 gb hard drives Raided, Windows Vista 64bit, 2.66ghz quad processor, 4gb ram and keyboard and mouse

i dont really think that custom beats it
 
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well do what you want... but you if you want to be gaming then that graphics card definately isnt good enough.
 
Clocks, indeed all specs, mean little when the GPU itself is poor one. The card Kuzba choose (g92) is at least 3 times better. Literally, as in three times the FPS (i'm guessing, but it's somewhere around there). His system is definitely the one to go with if gaming or workstation. If you want extra HDD space, add it, extra RAM, likewise. In the end it's either that, or buy the pre-built, and buy a new graphics card when you find out how lackluster the 8600gt is.

If you're not gaming or workstation work, It's not the worst deal, not even close. Us hardware geeks just lurve to recommend self builds, ultimate control, and no wasted money.
 
yes as hermeslyre said, the clock speed doesnt have anything to do with how good the card is. its not the same as a cpu.

basically im not sure if the 8600gt will run cod4 well at all. like low-medium yeah...
but if you want to be gaming properly then you need a decent card. the 8800gt will run almost every game on max graphics... except for crysis :(
 
If you want to game, you don't want to go with a 8600GT.

Also like i said, you keep saying that a prebuilt beats it. Though the fast specs may look better, its not. The build quality it extremely poor compared to a custom built machine. They are built with cheap cheap motherboards, cheap slow ram, and cheap cheap power supplies which leave little to no room for an upgrade.
 
Thursday said:
Ok i am buying a system and i cant seem to build a comp that beats this premade comp in price/performance: HP Desktop

should i just buy premade or is custom better?
Click to expand...


Back in the day you could build a system cheaper than you could buy one for, that is not true anymore.

The Pros of building it yourself:

-You can pick and choose what goes in
-You can put all high quality parts
-Customize it to fit your exact needs
-brag about it to your friends and internet people

Cons of the Custom build:

-Not thoroughly tested, may have driver issues with certain configurations
-Costs more
-Support is harder because you must go through each part's manufacturer
-less warranty support in general


HP business class desktops are great. I used to support thousands of them. Easy to work on, 3yr standard warranty, and they do actually use generic parts. They don't use proprietary parts, with perhaps the exception of the power supply may be weird dimensions, but the ones I supported we could fit third party in them.
 
COD4 and Oblivion are more demanding than BF2, right?

I get 80 (combat) - 150 (flying) FPS in BF2 with medium settings at 1440x900 with my 8600 GT.

I only really got it because of the low power draw. I think if you want to do some SRS GAEMAN DEWD you'll want a "better" (more powerful) card.
 
yeah people on here are jaded. The 8600GT will run all modern games, just not all modern games at the absolute maximum rates. In some games you wouldn't be able to even tell the differences.
 
the premade's graphics card has a 64bit memory bus, pathetic, i finally get what you guys are saying, the deal just looked so good...

I'm gonna go with everything kuzba picked out for me except for the psu, which ill use this
and i really want a nice motherboard, would this work? Mobo

i can go higher on the motherboard if you can find one
 
Thursday said:
the premade's graphics card has a 64bit memory bus, pathetic, i finally get what you guys are saying, the deal just looked so good...
Click to expand...
If you're talking about the HP desktop you posted in the first post, then no that does not have a 64 bit memory bus, you probably got it confused with the CPU being 64 bit. The 8600GT actually has a 128 bit memory bus.
 
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