Computer for college: Dell or do-it-youself?

Discussion in 'Computer Science & Culture' started by grazzhoppa, Jul 5, 2004.

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Which is a better way to go for a college computer?

  1. Build it yourself

    5 vote(s)
    83.3%
  2. Dell (or any other computer building company)

    1 vote(s)
    16.7%
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  1. grazzhoppa yawwn Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,277
    I am going to have the same desktop computer for 4 years through college.

    I have the experience of building my own computer and knowledge to do it correctly. I know I'll get a better computer for my money if I build it myself, and the computer won't be laden with all that crap Dell preloads. Although, I haven't been keeping up with the newer techonologies I have confidence that I won't run into compatibility issues with the hardware.

    One thing that I am worried about is possible problems when ordering parts online, because I have had trouble in the past including receiving the wrong part and having false specs listed on the seller's website and the manufacturer's website, resulting in compatibility issues and a whole hassle of returning a lot of stuff.

    The main attraction when dealing with Dell is that they have the warranties to cover my computer for the entire time I'm at college. It'll cost a lot of money, but it'll cover my computer's ass for a long time.

    I am leaning towards going with Dell, as much as I don't want to, because of the warranty. If I put together my own computer, and the cpu burns out or the power supply dies, or any number of things that could happen in the life of the computer, I'll have to put more money into it. And money doesn't come abundently to a student.

    So, I'd to see what other people's opinions are. thanks

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  3. Stryder Keeper of "good" ideas. Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    13,105
    They way I tend to work with dealing with computer parts is to forget the warranty. Waranty's might seem great but sometimes there is alot of hidden clauses within the small print which means you end up paying more money out dealing with issues using a warantee that dealing with them without one.

    One such occurance admittedly has nothing to do with computers but it's a good example:

    A washing machine cost £140 with a 1 year manufacturers waranty built into the price, the sales company was offering this plus their own 2 year warranty for £210 (This either made it a 3 year waranty or there was an overlap of warantees)

    Now admittedly it might seem that taking out the full warantee is worth it, but I realised that if the machine when wrong I could purchase a new one for about £140, this meant it could be the newest one at the time, one that has better features than the one that went wrong. The other factor was that the machine might survive longer than the waranty period which means I don't have to potentially buy a new one and in turn saving me £70.

    The issues I could have come across with a waranty could have been "Shipping/Handlers fees" being either expensive or manipulated, for instance I might have sent it back to the company I bought it from that in turn sends it back to the manufacturers which causes me to pay for the shipping twice, where I could have just gone straight to the manufacturer with it.

    There might even be hidden "top up clauses", where when applying something to the waranty invalidates it and then on top of that a waranty only covers malfunctioning products (or wrong manual instructions

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    ) Warantys don't cover you overclocking or getting the wrong specs.

    Conclusion, waranty's aren't worth it.

    Also being a student should imply a reduction in the costs of living through reductions etc (at least in this part of the world it does). So you should be able to get reductions.

    You could even ask your tutors/systems adminstrators if they have any parts left over from upgrades etc that they could part with (either for money or just plain good will), sometimes you can get whole systems that are "obslete" by eductative authority standards but are still useable.

    (Okay so I deal with old parts

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  5. Mr. Chips Banned Banned

    Messages:
    954
    Make a list of the features you want. Start watching the advertisements from various electronic and computer supply stores (easy to do here in silicon Valley), pick up your parts and build the machine. If you want, list what you are looking for here and maybe people can make some suggestions as to sources. I got my RAM from Kingston online http://www.kingston.com/ just because the price was reasonable and I've known many to get theirs there with no problems. Bang for buck, is there anything better than DDR RAM now? Ask some questions concerning what components you want. If you buy individual parts of brand name components, they'll have warranties.
     
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  7. Mr. Chips Banned Banned

    Messages:
    954
    BTW, my laptop is a Dell Inspiron 8000 with P3 1 gHz, 30g hd, 32 M video (great 1600x1200 screen and simultaneous same resoultion on a second extended desktop monitor). I still built my own desktop though which is significantly faster, P4 2.6 gHz, 800 mHz FSB, 1G fast RAM and 128M dual head 9600 XT AGP 8x Radeon. That reminds me, has Half Life two come out yet? I must admit the Dell has been and continues to be quite useful though when at home, I rarely use it. I suspect I'll need to upgrade my main board and maybe some components in a years time or so for this desktop. It already started being obsolete when I built it. Same goes for any Dell you buy. You wont want to keep it for four years. I want to sell my Dell lap top.
     
  8. GuitarToadster Packin' six-string heat! Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    145
    Build it.


    Don't waste your money on a Dell or any other brand. Never.

    The amount of $$$ you spend on a Dell system is almost double what that system will cost you if you build it yourself (including S&H costs).

    If your are just buying a good system to run some cool games and do homework on why would you even consider a manufactured system? The cost of the warranty up front would cover you purchasing a new power supply (a nice one, not the cheap crap you get from Dell and oh yeah, did I mention Dell power supplies are proprietary? DO NOT use a standard power supply in a Dell system... the wiring is different) and a graphics card.

    Like the dude above said... you still pay shipping even with a warranty.

    Also, if you want to save money don't buy the newest and best of anything... stay one step behind... maybe two and you can still do what everyone else does and for a whole lot less.
     
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