Operating System Question

[YosemiteSam]

In the past, $1,500 was what I spent building mine. That said, the system I built was built for high end gaming at the time. To buy one of similar specs at the time would have been a high end AlienWare with a price tag closer to $3,000-$3,500.

It usually included a $500 video card, two SCSI drives, a hardware raid card in RAID0 for the highest possible read/write and at least 4GB of memory and the fastest CPU I could get. (bang for the buck, the newest CPU was never a good deal if purchasing Intel anyhow)

I usually spend at least $250 on the motherboard so that it was upgradeable CPU and memory wise not to mention you usually get the newest and fastest technology.

The upgrade factor is one of the best part about building your own vs buy a proprietary box. It would save you truckloads of money compared to what you would spend buying a second computer off the shelf down the road when a small upgrade would have been all you needed.

My last PC I only spent $1,000 on. (E6600 dual core CPU at 2.4Ghz, 4GB, (2) 250GB SATAII)

Thats because today I don't game like that anymore. (though I do have BFBC2) I've been debating if I want to build my next one. Of course that doesn't matter now. I just upgraded my current one with a new video card for BFBC2. Gigabyte Nvidia GTX640. I built this system over three years ago and with a slight upgrade, it still runs all the newest games. This is the benefit I speak of that you just can't do with proprietary systems. I spent $229 and it is almost as if I bought a new computer.

Money savings and the ability to upgrade with ease (which results in more money savings) is what makes building your own so much better. Not to mention if you build it yourself it doesn't come with any bloatware.

 

[YosemiteSam]

I'll always build my own. I'm very partial to shopping from http://www.newegg.com though. You can build a kickass machine for very little money if you get the right stuff. Normally, that means not getting the absolute top of the line, but maybe the 2nd best. You'd be hard pressed to tell the difference side by side, but your wallet will thank you.

I shop almost exclusively Newegg also. I agree about not being top of the line. Way to much markup. This is where shopping smart and leaving a good upgrade path is essential. As prices drop and the need more more resources come, then you drop a few bucks and boom. Fast and better PC on the cheap.

 

[dback]

The only thing that sucks about Newegg is they do not accept purchase orders. At Texas Tech, you can only spend $5000 per year per (non-Dell) vendor without getting consent from the purchasing department, which is almost never. We have a contract with Dell so TTU wants you to spend with them as much as possible.