Poll: Where do your PC's come from?

I have been building PC's for almost a decade. I was just wondering how many others around here build their own, or if they prefer using the BIG Boys or mom and pop shops like mine.

I have used the "big boy" shops in the past. This year I want to get up the money and the nerve to try to build my own. I want a case with lights in it and fun stuff. Actually, I think I am trying to head to my second childhood!

My PC That i'm always doing something new to. (The collage and specs are old, but it's mostly how my computer looks now)

well i build my own ( actua;lly last time i jsut peiced to gether the order and had someoen else order it and build it casue my credit cards are currently takign a break ) . but i heavily considered gettign an oem , but the deciding factor was i REALLY hate bundled software so we put together a 2200 xp running on an msi motherboard . i got screwed on the video card cause i origianlly oredered a 256 but had to switch to a 128 (nvidia 5200 with dvi ) when the price i originally looked at it for turned out to be a one day sale . 80 gig maxtor special edition hdd . 16x dual layer dvd+-rw burner , 52x-52x combo ( dvd /cdrw) drive integrated 5.1 sound . using a rosewell wireless mouse keyboard combo ( which they screwed up on the color as well ) 400 watt power supply 6 usb2.0 ports . for around $450 .case is a RAID red with 5 fans and clear top and side . seperatly i got the 6 speaker creative labs 5.1 speakers an a 17" viewsonic monitor ( a freind gave me for free )

stroke of luck , the botherboard and video card are a matching red . jsut sucks that iw ant to sell the video card and gett a better one , dunno if ill be able to find the 256 i want in red . heh

mine used to be an 8 foot spider that wore a diaper, it was sent to hell and reincarnated and sent to me

I was thinking about getting a Chieftec Matrix MX case, but then some of the new ThermalRock cases look good too. I will probably go with something in the Intel4 line, but it's no telling what they will have when I am finally ready to build!
What brands do you like for power supplies? That's where I am stuck right now. I get so many different opinions.
Candy

I build my own, but just because I can normally do it cheaper that way. Plus I hate the corporate monster crap you get with the big guys. The packages from Dell and whatnot are never exactly what i want, and then you have to deal with their software junk.
I could care less about all the fancy crap that has no effect on performance. I want a box that will do what I want it to when I want it to, what it looks like is irrelevant.
I'd rather put the money in another hard drive or beefier components than something just to look pretty.

I'm currently running an XP 2200 on an ASUS A7N8X Deluxe. 310GB total HD space. Onboard sound, because it's a computer not a stereo, and some 128MB Nvidia video card, I forget which one. DVDRW etc, etc.

Candy,

Good question. Too many people do not realize how important a quality power supply is. I have seen more issues with PCs because people wanted to save $10 to $20 on a power supply. Don't pinch pennies in this department.

I have come to really appreciate the Antec power supplies. I have had zero problems with them (I have installed at least a 100 of them), they have excellent performance, are designed well and they are reasonably priced. You can get a 430 watt Antec PS for $75.

Clay, I agree completely!!

Buying from Dell and the other big boys sucks. If you are going to spend over a grand on a computer you should be able to get it EXACTLY the way YOU want it. Not the way THEY want to sell it to you.

Several years ago I used to make an excellent living on building PC's alone, not even counting repairs. Then the BIG BOYS went on their price cutting warpath and nearly wiped put my PC sales. Things have been making a nice rebound in the last 18 months because experienced PC users are tired of getting things they don't want forced down their throats. You can go to Dell and get all that garbage that you do not want, or you can spend and extra 2 or 3 hundred and get your PC exactly the way you want it. With hand picked quality hardware and software.

I have several boxes around the house, each built with specific tasks in mind. I have stand alone PC's that are running everything from 98se, 2000, and XP to Mandrake and Suse Linux. I also have a couple of test boxes that have about a half dozen different linux OS's installed in a multi-boot environment and one that multi-boots 98se, 200 and XP.



My main PC is and Intel P-4 2.8 running on an

I swear by Antec power supplies. There's soem other good brands out there too, but for every top quality one there's 10 more that are junk.
With today's machines demanding more power, the PS is mroe important than ever. Many of the commercial PC companies cut some costs to increase the profit margin by using a lower grade PS.
If you ever see inside an antec beside a cheapo, you'll see the difference in the construction.
I read a neat article once in Maximum PC where they load tested power supplies.
One of the worst ones was rated for 400 and producing 250 consistently.
You can get a cheap 450 PS for $30 bucks, but I don't think twice about putting up the 75 for an antec.

I feel for you shrap, working on these damn things for a living. I learned how to build them and do most anything I need to just because I can't stand depending on someone else to maintain my stuff. I have to be able to do it myself.
My family has told me several times that I should open up a shop and work on them for a living. No way. I hate trying to fix a bunch of problems that should have never happened to begin with. I work on mine and the immediate family's, but I'd go crazy having to pick through everyone's mess everyday lol.

about the OEM's

check this out ...

if you buy a brand new dell and you have to relaod xp , unlike a retail version of xp or just about any other manufacturers it WILL NOT relaod some of the essential drivers automaticlly . specifically the sound , video and chipset drivers .( i think theres one other too ) . to install these drivers you have to run a manual install that extracts them . they dont even have an automatic installer for them . what a pain in the butt . and thers no mention of this during the realod . it seems to complete , but the system has no sound and the video is messed up as well as often runnign very poorly . hey nothign liek screwing up an already painfull experience .

For my personal use, I build my own. I used to build machines to sell, but it became too much of a headache. People think they should be able to call me at 11:00 at night to ask a question about a "problem" with a machine I built 5 years ago without being charged for the call.....

Now I get Dells for everyone. My wife's next machine will be a Dell. The only computers I will build for the foreseeable future are for MY use or VERY specialized server duty.

starwarsdad said:

For my personal use, I build my own. I used to build machines to sell, but it became too much of a headache. People think they should be able to call me at 11:00 at night to ask a question about a "problem" with a machine I built 5 years ago without being charged for the call.....

Click to expand...

I know what you mean totally man!!! I used to too, but it WAS too much of a headache. Like i had one guy come back after almost a year complaining his system i sold him was junk. Turned out he un-installed the virus protection i had put on their, because it asked him to update it all the time and he was "tired" of it... He also won my record for the most spyware on a system, with over 1,000 pieces found by spyware removing software. I had to manually removed a crapload of spyware too. I did it all for free, but i was mad that he insinuated afterwards even, that the computer was "crappy" because it ended up like it did. I don't think that he understood that active viruses, plus active spyware would have caused a slowdown like it did on his machine.

There are headaches and problem customers regardless of the business/industry you are in. The only way to protect yourself is to set up a simple terms of service and support agreement on every machine you sell.

I do not support any hardware or software that did not come with the machine I built. I do not support problems that are a direct result of people changing hardware, OS or new software conflicts. If you add things to YOUR system is YOUR responsibility to make sure it works correctly. I only support what I sold you. I do not support problems that happen due to virus, trojans, spyware, etc. I do not teach people how to use their PC or the software/OS that came with their PC. I not only make these thing clear in the agreement, I go out of my way to personally discuss these things prior to building the PC.

Fortunately 90% of the PCs I build now are for people who want high end PCs and are not complete noobs. So I rarely have any support issues on PCs that I build. The only problems I can even think of in the past several months has been a couple of hard drive failures and a single graphics card failure. That is out of about 75 PCs.

One tip for building PCs (and just for your own PC) is to go buy a copy of Nortons Ghost, Drive Image or Acronis True Image. All three are good products that make disk images. I amke disk images of every PC I sell. That way if there ever is a problem I can get the PC back to the exact state it was in when I sold it in a matter of 20 minutes. That includes OS, drivers, updates, software, literally EVERYTHING.

Even on my personal PCs I make disk images. I make one after I install the OS (fully patched with all security updates and service packs) and drivers. That way I have a pristine back up that I can restore in under 15 minutes if need be. I then make another disk image after I install my core software. 15 minutes sure beats the hell out of several hours when having to do a complete reinstall.

When it comes to repairs, upgrades, etc. I charge a flat $25 an hour if you bring the PC to my shop and $50 an hour if I make a house call. When I install home networks it is $50 an hour unless I have to go into crawl spaces or attics. Then it is $100 an hour. I hate crawl spaces and attics and more often than not get people to go wireless than pay me the $100 an hour to go into their crawl spaces.

reight now i do alot of "Geek Squad " pay for support calls . the #1 problem bar none right now is spyware . there are some that no matter what cant be removesd ( short of system relaod ) and the worst case i have yet was 4618 peices of spyware . Second worst problem is norton antivirus 2003 and above . when they crash you cant uninstall or reinstall without manually removing all componests all the way back to the registry . Those calls usually take a minimum of 1 1/2 hours when the person is computer savvy to over 2 1/2 hours if there not . and if there not , id really jsut as soon reload then then walk them through the registry

The newest version of Ghost is GREAT! It runs from within Windows and will back up to external firewire drives (great for laptops).

I know this thread died off a little, but...

My brother is a techie at Eaton Corp. and he's given me a LOT of help with computer issues. Had an HP laptop that lasted just over a year before it literally melted itself to the desk. After that was a Vaio laptop that lived for about a year and a half before getting buggy. Despite flashing it (or whatever the term is for completely deleting everything and starting over) it has never worked right. Freezes up all the time, and neither the CD drive nor the floppy drive work anymore, so it's pretty well useless. NEVER getting a laptop again. I like being able to easily change out a processor, disk drive or hard drive if needed. He turned me on to Alienware, and although they're a little pricey, you can pretty much pick and choose what you want for components and all that good stuff. I haven't had a single problem with either Alienware in the last two years. (except for issues that were entirely Microsoft's fault...lol).
As far as power supplies, I went with an Antec to power the fans when I built my incubator. Both of my alienwares have Antecs, and they seem to work really well. The incubator PS has been running 24/7 for about two and a half months, and appears to be managing just fine.
Just my input, even though I'm not a computer expert...