Originally posted by Stratocaster
not defending pre made pcs but if they are the same brand name parts you would put in your own.. whats the difference?
This is a good question, most of the manuf like Dell, Compaq, HP, Gateway and Emachines use sub-standard and propietary equip.
They do this to cut costs and have more control over repairs and trouble shooting. These manuf tend to use lesser quality grades of the same brand of hardware.
For example HP's and Compaqs (were talking mainstream PC's here, not high end workstations or Proliant servers) use a certain line of either Maxtor or Segate hard drives. These are of a lower quality and they purchase them in large runs. That way they have less $$$ out of thier pocket up front even tho they know they will have to replace XXX amount with RMA drives.
Meanwhile they have your money so if they have to replace 5000 HDD's they got money from 10,000 customers. (of course these numbers are an example) their still ahead of the game.
Also, 90% of the consumers dont know a tier one hard disk from a VIA chipset, so to them (the customer) they got a "good" deal
One more thing, a lot of the pre-fab machine (especially Dell) use proprietay MB's and chassis. So even if you want to gut it and start over you'll be fighting an uphill battle all the way.
When my company builds systems they are ALL completely upgradable and configurable. This way when the parts out date (which is very quickly with computer hardware) the client can change whatever he/she wishes.
Bottom line is, even if you're a beginner or advanced system builder your better off in the long run to build it yourself.
The cost is extremely close nowadays to build a better running, longer lasting for configurable PC than one provided by a mass builder.
my 2 cents
