Author Topic: I give up. Buying a prebuilt System. (Read 1044 times)

SkyWolf · « **on:** March 23, 2005, 06:42:07 AM »

Greetings,
Does anyone have any thoughts/experience with some of the prebuilt stuff? After spending a weekend farting around with my old machine and ending up in the EXACT same place as I started I remembered why I left IT and became a Purchasing Manager.
Interested and Looking at:
Alienware Aurora 5500 with 3500+
Vicious Assassin with 3500+ (kinda leaning towards it for dual RAID setup.
And yes... a DELL XPS GEN 4 3.2 Pentium Heat generator with crap DDR2 memory (last resort...rather have AMD Athlon 64)
All have 6800GT cards, 2 MB PC3200, and SATA HDD. Guess I'm also going Audigy 2 ZS since the cheaper one seems to sorta suck based on what I read here.
Any thoughts?
Thanks,

Woof

Tapper · « **Reply #1 on:** March 23, 2005, 11:27:45 AM »

Check this beast out too.

http://www.voodoopc.com/showroomnext.aspx?lineid=4

Schaden · « **Reply #2 on:** March 24, 2005, 06:56:29 AM »

My two year old Dell needs replacing so I'm in the same situation, the Dell has been very good, but am also looking at Alienware.....the thing about pre built system is there are 10,000 of them all exactly the same as yours so any conflicts have been worked out a long time ago....one off's pffft nothing but problems so that you can save a few dollars.

humble · « **Reply #3 on:** March 24, 2005, 10:18:51 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Schaden
My two year old Dell needs replacing so I'm in the same situation, the Dell has been very good, but am also looking at Alienware.....the thing about pre built system is there are 10,000 of them all exactly the same as yours so any conflicts have been worked out a long time ago....one off's pffft nothing but problems so that you can save a few dollars.

1st off....your not saving a "few dollars"...with a higher end system your saving $500 or even a thousand dollars and often getting a much much better system.

2nd...there are fewer problems with custom built systems than even high end "rack" systems. Now this assumes you have the basic skills required to build out the system and install the OS properly. I've built 100+ and have had 100% glitch free at startup. Now I buy components that are highly regarded and work well...I've had to replace 1 MB that was faulty...other than that every system is flawless at startup.

Most "start up" problems can be traced to either poor comonents or improper installation or incompatability. Now if you want the "bundle" software or dont have the time or knowledge then buying a top end system is certainly a good way to go...but I'd say 98% of those who've built their own would never buy rack again...

Siaf__csf · « **Reply #4 on:** March 24, 2005, 10:43:39 AM »

Yeah if you have a few hundred bucks to throw down the toilet, buy a prebuilt.

If you're not really careful, prebuilt systems often include nice features such as zero upgradability, tailored system drivers etc. making your life hard if you want to replace that Geforce2 in your $3000 pre-built box.

humble · « **Reply #5 on:** March 24, 2005, 10:54:27 AM »

I took a look at the voodoo system on the link above...it's $4700+ "spec"...

now the MB and chip are just over a 1000...

6600 GT's vary...but the "guts" of the system are about 1800 (MB, 2 6600 GT's and 1 gig of Ballistix pc4000 memory.) Case HD OS Cooling etc will push total to somewhere in the $2500 range give or take $100. Now this system has onboard sound 1 HD 1 DVD/CD reader (play only) and a 1 yr warranty....its actually a total rip off with over 2000 of profit. Since its a single drive system you could actually build out a faster box for 2000 less since a "stripped" array will out perform a single HD system of same configuration. So if you bought that box spec for $4734 I could build a box that would out benchmark it for around $2500.

If I spent a bit more and put dual 6800 ultra's in I could run rings around you and still save 1200 over your "rack box"....

The cooling system is the most complex part of the box and they dont specify what they're using...atypical zalman or waterchill kit is $275-300. You can buy complete water cooled boxes like the PC-V1000 for less than $400. So you have Guts and case with liquid cooling for $2000-2200. $100 bucks for OS, $100 for PS and $150 for SATA HD floppy and DVD and your good to go...

DAVENRINO · « **Reply #6 on:** March 24, 2005, 02:50:26 PM »

Alienware is the reason I started building my own. Not to mention their outrageous prices, I had to threaten them with an on-site lawsuit to get them to honor my on-site warranty. I get far better tech support from this and other forums than the morons I talked to at Alienware.

kevykev56 · « **Reply #7 on:** March 24, 2005, 05:26:40 PM »

For not much more than you can build it yourself, these guys will custom build it for you. A few of my squadies have used them and love what they have.

http://www.cyberpowersystem.com/

humble · « **Reply #8 on:** March 24, 2005, 07:10:27 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by kevykev56
For not much more than you can build it yourself, these guys will custom build it for you. A few of my squadies have used them and love what they have.

http://www.cyberpowersystem.com/

Not bad at all, I'd certainly reccomend them over alienware or Vodoo based on what I saw on the site.

JB73 · « **Reply #9 on:** March 24, 2005, 07:25:13 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by kevykev56
For not much more than you can build it yourself, these guys will custom build it for you. A few of my squadies have used them and love what they have.

http://www.cyberpowersystem.com/

DUDE for $900 i can make a pretty bad system with all my specs i want there, and a cool ** case to boot.

that place seems pretty sweet

Pongo · « **Reply #10 on:** March 24, 2005, 07:29:58 PM »

THey should put up the humble approved logo.
Does seem like a bit more reasonable site then Alien or GamePC though.

Skuzzy · « **Reply #11 on:** March 24, 2005, 09:24:28 PM »

Nothing special about Alienware. They use Intel motherboards for thier Intel systems. Not sure who they use for the AMD systems.

You can get ripped off in any number of ways when it comes to computers, whether they are OEM, or built by some one off person.
However, a good aftermarket builder will generally get you a system for less than the OEM and one that is extremely upgradeable and will be less headaches down the road.

It's all about the components that go into them. OEM's cut every corner they can as they are in a serious price war for your business. Big OEM's by enough to warrant special builds from many manufacturers. These special builds are of lower quality and/or features to keep costs down.
I wouldn't touch an OEM computer, but I am lucky enough to have the knowledge to not have to touch them.

SkyWolf · « **Reply #12 on:** March 24, 2005, 10:14:02 PM »

Well... I've built 18 of them starting with a 486 and ending with PIII. I used to live computers, bleeding edge all the time, working on them all the time, working on everyone else's all the time. Ran and hosted websites, played every flight Sim I could get my hands on. Then one day I woke up and just didn't give a flying flock anymore... Like someone just flipped a light switch or something....I never wanted to see another problem or spend time trying to solve someone else's problems again. I pretty much hate it. So I bought this POS HP a couple years ago. THEN I spent all last weekend dicking around with it trying to upgrade the video card. I failed... but it reminded me of just how much I hate working on the f__kers.
So now I'm waiting on a Vicious Athlon 64 3500+ with 2 GB Ram, twin 80 MB disks in a Raid array, and a 6800GT Video Card. Screw it. At least they use standard products and no dumboscar proprietary crap. Poke me with a fork... I'm done.

Woof

Siaf__csf · « **Reply #13 on:** March 25, 2005, 06:19:07 AM »

Skywolf is that a 0 or 1 array?

I learned the murphy law the hard way on my first Raid 0 at home. 2 weeks and the new hd craps out on you. 80Gb of data lost, no backup.

SkyWolf · « **Reply #14 on:** March 25, 2005, 06:32:12 AM »

Yeouch.... it's a 0. I know dwazel about RAID. They said "RAID 0 stripped for performance, SATA Drives." They haven't even started it yet... so I could change it. Looks like that's ANOTHER think I shouild have researched. I thought all RAID was good RAID and beautiful thing.

Woof