DaveEP
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
|
NightOwl Cat wrote:
For pricing, this is all from Newegg, and if I had that budget, this is what I'd get:
ASUS M4A78T-E AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - $92.99
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 140W Quad-Core Processor - Retail - $195.99
Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model 991657 - Retail - $53.99 (x4)
PNY XLR8 VCG98GTEE1XEB GeForce 9800 GT 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail - $114.99
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD800AAJS 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive - $34.99 (x2) (Windows installation on one and scratch disk on the other)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive - $89.99 (x2) (data disks)
LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 24X DVD-R SATA Black 24X DVD Writer - Retail - $31.99
COOLER MASTER Silent Pro RSA00-AMBAJ3-US 1000W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V v2.92 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Retail - $179.99
COOLER MASTER HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail - $139.99
OKGEAR 18" SATA II Premium Round Cable, Support up to 3 GB/S Model OK18ARS11 - Retail - $1.99 (x4)
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - $174.99
$1404.81
...Show more →
As said earlier (no I have not read every single message in this thread) this is a build-it-your-self package which will almost always work out cheaper - as long as you don't consider your time to be worth anything.
Do you do the same for your car? Do you buy a kit and build that, or do you buy a ready made car?
How about an Oven or Microwave? TV, DVD Player etc?
Adding a 27" screen does mean they are 'close' on price, and if there is a problem when you built it, now what? You may be able to figure out the problem or you may not, and for sure each party will blame the other. It may be that the third party drivers ended up not playing well together and for some reason the system is not stable or never even works as you originally hoped. Your configuration may be OK - but for others it may not.
Now, how much is your time worth? To you it may be free, but it you were charging some one to put a box together for them (and giving a warranty!!) - how many hours does it take to buy the parts (either in the store - or online) receive them - check them - then assemble the hardware? Now how long does it take to install the OS and all the drivers and fully test it? How much time 'could' it take to debug any problems you run in to with drivers, and how much is that time worth? If you were building this system for business (i.e. you wanted to earn money using it) you have to consider all these factors. Penny wise Pound foolish is the phrase. If the hard disk were faulty when you took it out of the packet / box, how much time & money would it cost to take the original back and get a replacement? How about the CPU or RAM? Any one component like this can cause a build failure.
Now, I'm not knocking self build PCs. I've built 12-15 PCs over the years, but what I am saying is that a $1400 kit + 27" screen can end up costing more than $2,000 if things don't go perfectly smoothly - and I've had that happen on more than one occasion.
The fact is that ready built PCs with "comparable specifications" and "build quality" to Macs are "not" significantly cheaper than Macs as many people claim, but often more expensive. I'm not talking about bargain basement PCs (there are lots around), I am talking 'quality' PCs using only the highest quality components. I'm currently running an 8 core Mac in the editing suite and the comparable Dell was $1,000 more expensive at the time we bought the Mac. Having said that - if you are heavily invested in software (excluding Adobe who cross grade very cheaply) you need to take software in to consideration too. It may even be that you choose your platform (Mac / PC / Windows / Linux) based on what software you want to run - and the hardware is chosen for you.
There is a partially valid argument around upgradability - but in the end the PC still gets thrown away - as does the monitor. While I still have my Dell 24" LCD, the other monitors I bought (15", 17", 19") have all either broken or been sold or are stuck in the loft idle because they are not up to today's task. So having a 'built-in' monitor on (say) an iMac 6 or 7 years ago would not have been any more wasteful than (say) a monitor with a home built PC from 6 or 7 years ago. Both have been changed by now. All the PCs built years ago are also now obsolete because I can't fit enough RAM, or they don't have PCI-E slots etc so can't be upgraded to the latest video cards either. The hard disks were IDE and now I need SATA. The older CD drives didn't read DVDs and the DVD drives didn't read/write BD so they are also now obsolete. In the end the only thing left was the case - which I replaced anyway. While you could have spent money upgrading any one part at a time, in the end you replace everything.
For some people money is tight and they are willing to use their spare time (for free) to build a PC from parts. Many people actually enjoy doing this as a hobby, and I am happy for them. There are others who do not feel competent to build their own and need to buy something that comes ready built with a warranty and support service. There is another group who simply don't want the hassle, or who take the cost of their own time in to consideration and choose to buy a ready made system because it actually works out cheaper than building/debugging their own system.
Folks, there is no right or wrong answer that covers all situations, and you need to decide based on your own situation. The O/S and software should be as much a consideration as the hardware itself, because in reality you are going to be spending a lot of time using it - and if you don't like what you have - then it's never going to make you happy.
|
