Falcon Northwest System: Worth It???

[thelimey3]

Surprised to hear the opinion (on this board at least) that Dell, Gateway, Compaq etc. are far more reliable than custom builts!

Can't agree, they have made huge strides but the cost cutting they indulge in is by and large not going to happen with a personal, custom built approach.

 

[perfectlysane]

remember that price includes software and tech support.

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

That is still a lot to pay for software and to talk to someone who probably can't fix your problem anyway.

 

[claffeyb]

Regards to Dells - for a few years our company REQUIRED us to buy Gateways at work, then they let us chose those or no-names, then they made us buy Dells ever since - and I'll have to say the Dells have their own way of doing things but they usually keep up on the latest and greatest (not necessarily the best) to give you a wide choice of hardware, and they have good support and they put it together nicely. The case they use is highly regarded as well. Now, I have to reboot my home computer at least once every night, and yet I never have to at work. I have better video more memory bigger hard drives better CPU better mo'bd et cetera at home, but the Dell 450 I use at work keeps right on truckin'. And we use a lot of Dells. Not perfect, but not bad either.

But, I prefer to tinker with my systems that I put together myself!

 

[gogeeta13]

For some people building a system is a hastle. In my case it took me under 2 hours(including all driver and software installation and copying all my old data over to my raid array)to build my temp rig(waiting for palo). while this is not counting the time i spent buying my HDD's from staples and the run-around with a bad trader i had, it still was well worth it. To tell you the truth, you would be better off asking to buy a custom rig off one of the great traders in this very forum. The Price is high, here is how cheap i could get this crap:
Maxtor 40giger 7200-124(newegg)
1.33GHz tbird-195(newegg)
Liteon 12x10x32 burner-103(newegg)
EPOX EP-8K7A-147(newegg)
512DDR-~130(keeps dropping)(crucial web promo)
Leadtek gf2pro(5.5ns)-178(newegg)
floppy-15(newegg)
dvd, toshiba 16x-70(newegg)
Mouse(pick one)-40(newegg)
Modem/NIC-20(newegg)
Volcano2-13(newegg)
Enlight 7237-70(newegg, currently out of stock)
live!-53(newegg)
Keyboard,pick one-25(newegg)
OS, gimme a break-0
=$1183(shipped)
Now tell me how you can resist that deal. And that is with a gf2 pro, you could easily drop in a gf3 and a nice monitor and still be under $1485.

 

[whitelight]

building your own system is cheaper and much more fun!

 

[InterWebGuy]

<< building your own system is cheaper and much more fun! >>


What he said.

 

[abfpat]

Nice to see someone who actually states prices as well as where they got them from (especially since they are all from the same place). I've got to agree, take a few hours, read the manuals, do a little homework and build it yourself. Your going to be alot happier with the results. My vote is NO, not a good deal.

 

[grlaw]

A question:
I am not bad with computers, I can fix software problems, install PCI cards, AGP cards, and RAM, but I am scared to do the other stuff that building a computer requires. Does anyone know of a really good guide to building a computer with step by step pictures and diagrams and stuff?
Thanks,
grlaw

 

[InterWebGuy]

grlaw:
Just about any tech/hardware site out there has a decent DIY guide; I built one last summer with no previous knowledge whatsoever (to save a couple of bucks), got into the whole thing, and am now html and unix savvy! You can learn pretty much anything on the net if you look hard enough. Just to be sure though, I'll post a couple of links for ya in a bit.


here you go:
SharkyExtreme's guide
Toms Hardware guide
The Amd Config Page (pretty much everything you need)
that oughta do it!
P.S.- If you feel you need one, Onvia sells an Anti-Static wrist strap fo about 6 bucks delivered
take it easy!

 

[TheLizardMan]

BUILD YOUR OWN

BTW.. grlaw.. everyone that first builds a comp asks the same questions that you are asking. Ask long as you have a second computer or a tech friend that lives by and that wont be bothered by you asking him over to help you out just go for it. After the first time you build the computer you shouldn't have any more questions from there one, well you might but nothing big. So next time you get a comp just order up all the parts TRY to build it and see what happens. Most of building a computer is plug and play. The worst part for newbie's I would say would be formatting and F-disking the hard drive. Its real easy once you do it and especially if you have no partitions to make.

Biggest deal with building a computer is that it's time consuming. from scratch it will take a while. Also if you have one bad piece of hardware &quot;bad mobo lets say&quot; it can stump you for a long while till you get all the hardware tested out or to find out what's wrong.