cullen Posted December 9, 2003 Share Posted December 9, 2003 I've been following a lot of the threads regarding specs for pc's (desktop) I've seen a lot of company names like dell float around as well. Is it better to just build your own computer with the specs you want or is it better to customize a computer on a manufacturer's site. :???: Are there any price advantages do building your own as well? Oh and lets assume that we would know how to put a computer together or that could just be bad crw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tcorbett Posted December 9, 2003 Share Posted December 9, 2003 Good question. A few years ago I would have said build-your-own, but lately I haven't found where the prices are in favor of that, unless I need a real custom system. Bought a Dell a year ago for a pretty good price compared to what it would have cost to buy & build myself. Their service and replacement policies are pretty smooth as well. I discovered the downside recently when I went to upgrade my RAM - seems the model I have uses a proprietary RDRAM, so it's going to cost me at least an additional $200 over a standard RDRAM purchase. For that price, I might just purchase an additional desktop instead, and use network rendering to my advantage. I'd say it all comes down to the level of control you want over your computer and it's future configuration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Nichols Posted December 9, 2003 Share Posted December 9, 2003 Usually the best way to make the call is how comfortable you are with hardware and debugging. These days, home-grown computers are really easy to put together, but some solid hardware knowledge can really help. My wife (a smart woman) put her computer together having never done it. She knew that I was there if she needed me, but she never did. With the exception of getting to much dust in her computer and blowing out a fan, she has never had an issue with her computer. Solid as a rock. There is less of an advantage in terms of price these days, but more of an advantage in terms of upgradability, tinkering, and pride (sorta nice to work on something you put together). The disadvange is Dell (for example) will ahve things you can get as easily. A way more quiet case, a more practical case, service and support. A cheaper (if you buy a legal one) copy of windows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted December 9, 2003 Share Posted December 9, 2003 In most cases I would say buy it if you have work, build it if you don't. I have done it both ways--recently. A few weeks ago I bought a 'refurbished' HP from a well-known website for $500 with specs that closely match my main machine--a Boxx from just last spring that cost me over $3500. I bought the HP as a replacement for my 'family' machine that was aging and crashing too much to be worth my time to fix. But the HP is an Athlon 2400+ just like the Boxx, I put another $150 or so into memory and the HP now has 1G RAM. I ran it at 100% for over a week rendering animation frames. (My son kept asking when he would get to play Star Wars again). So that machine is fully paid for and a business deduction, cost me very little time. But right after that my older PC which is used as a print server and second machine should someone need one started to die. So I thought a new hard-drive was the thing. I bought one, it behaved oddly, too. OK, bad motherboard. I bought a new motherboard and another Athlon 2400+ chip and another 1G RAM and put a few hours into rebuilding and OS re-install and had another machine to run frames on. But I felt stupid diving into the thing with a screwdriver--I had paying work to do, why was I wasting my time on doing something I am not a professional at? I spent as much money as the off-the-shelf HP was plus hours of valuable time. But keep in mind that my work is primarily done on the high-end Boxx workstation, the HP would wither and die with what I put this computer through day after day. Whether you buy or build a workstation, choose your components carefully. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cullen Posted December 9, 2003 Author Share Posted December 9, 2003 That i guess brings another question ernest, and everyone I guess. Does the athalon have a larger advantage over a pentium? If so, what specs should I look at for the athalon. (or pentium) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigcahunak Posted December 9, 2003 Share Posted December 9, 2003 I'll try to make it short, cause this topic is getting old... A machine which you'll build yourself would most likely be a better machine than any "brand name" machine you'r gonna buy, no matter how you customize it on their website. Buying the components and putting it together wont be any cheaper, but... I you know what your buying, and what to look into when buying it, you'll get better hardware. BOXX are somewhat different than others - somewhat like doing it yourself (components wize) only having them do the "wrenchin'". As for the AMD vs. P4: I'm an AMD guy, but I wont tell you they have any advantage over the Pents, other than price. AMDs used to get hot and have drivers and compatibility issues, but thats all history . None of the new chipsets have any issues whatsoever. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted December 9, 2003 Share Posted December 9, 2003 Does the athalon have a larger advantage over a pentium?Not really. I prefer AMD, but they are both excellent. I think the DDR memory used on Athlon MBs is cheaper than that used on Intel platforms, but that could be old news by now. I have bought AMD since the K5s (ancient history) but either is great. Just compare specs at the price point you can afford. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cullen Posted December 9, 2003 Author Share Posted December 9, 2003 Thanks for all of the input guys. crw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbr Posted December 9, 2003 Share Posted December 9, 2003 tcorbett- look on eBay for the RDRAM. I am currently bidding on some new rdram that is less than 50% off of what a retail place sells it for. Most importantly, DO NOT buy it from Dell!! Their prices are crazy for rdram!! I do like my Dell, though, and got a great price on a refurbished model (keep an eye on the prices and inventory, they change often). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigcahunak Posted December 9, 2003 Share Posted December 9, 2003 I think the DDR memory used on Athlon MBs is cheaper than that used on Intel platforms, but that could be old news by now. Yup, very very very old news. All new machines (P4 included) are based on DDR nowadays. Only the first generation P4s were RDRAM based. By now that technology is a dead technology. Dont buy any new machine based on a technology that far back (RDRAM). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tcorbett Posted December 10, 2003 Share Posted December 10, 2003 mbr- Thanks for the tip. No kidding about Dell's RAM prices! Best price I've found so far for my RDRAM upgrade is about $300, Dell wanted an additional $250! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Hess Posted December 10, 2003 Share Posted December 10, 2003 Why are you guys buying rdram anyway...oh its an old system upgrade... You'd be better saving your money for a new board using ddr...ddr's not only faster, its a hella lotta cheaper. If your going to build a system, a P4's a good one to start with. Its pretty hard to screw one up, you have to really try. Athlons's, although cheaper, do require some measure of skill to properly install the heatsink/thermal paste. But don't mine me, my boss just bought me a whole bunch of guiness. Originally posted by tcorbett: mbr- Thanks for the tip. No kidding about Dell's RAM prices! Best price I've found so far for my RDRAM upgrade is about $300, Dell wanted an additional $250! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonsgaard Posted December 11, 2003 Share Posted December 11, 2003 Hi guys, Well I do not post often in here, but usually read ongoing threads... This thread about hardware is sort of a common thread in 3d forums, but it is an interesting topic nevertheless... - anyway: I just want to share one of the biggest enlightments in terms of hardware for my part: http://www.noise-control.de/ this is one fairly big advantage when building your own computer.. it lets you use these products. I've done it myself for a couple of machines, and they are practically completely noise-less... I'm done with noisy computers \tonsgaard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DapperDanJelly Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 my 2 cts : BASE UNIT WORKSTATION TOP CONFIG XW4100 at the price of 400 euros We know HP XW4100 is great, this program of TOP CONFIG lets you choose all components inside instead of buying them directly from HP. example : one vendor in France imagine you want to replace your actual workstation, you don't have to buy another windows OS because you have yours, right ? If you buy your workstation from HP, you have to buy a new windows licence :-| Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DapperDanJelly Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 want an example ? ------------buying directly from HP----------- XW4100 (3180 $) P4 3.2 GHz/800 quadro 980 XGL 1 GB DDR/400 ECC (2*512) Ultra320 SCSI controller 36 GB Ultra 320 SCSI 15,000 rpm XP SP1 ------------price -->3180$ ----------- ------------building your TOP CONFIG --------- XW4100 : 400 $ P4 3.2 GHz/800 :466.07 $ 1 GB DDR/400 ECC (2*512) : 2*233 $ = 466 $ (type: kingston) Ultra320 SCSI controller : 216$ 36 GB Ultra 320 SCSI 15,000 rpm : 348$ Nvidia quadro 980 XGL : 500 $ ------------price -->2396$ ----------- you save : 784 $ remember, I took a P4 3.2 MHz + the speedest hard drive. It's a top configuration, no ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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