Am i wrong or is it cheaper to buy pre built

spellcaster

spellcaster

spellcaster

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Joined
27 Jun 2008
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440
Hello,

I have decided on the following spec for my computer but to buy the parts seperatly will come to around £500

E8400 duo core £114.00
Ati A450 £115.00
4 gig DDr 2 ram Approx £60
Gigabyt board approx £70

Then i will also need to buy a case and psu

Yet i see computers on ebay which appear to have everything except a good gpu for £230 etc

So the question is Will I save money by buy a pre-built machine
 
I'm sure the components in the ebay specials will be high quality...
Remember the people selling them have got to make money as well so it isn't possible to get the same quality components prebuilt as to build yourself.
 
It depends what you want but for a basic computer then pre-built can start to make sense, they don't have to make the same profit on each individual component as a parts only retailer does so it can work out cheaper, especially at the lower end. Also large systems integrators can negotiate prices that you have no chance of accessing purely because they are buying in such bulk.

However you are probably getting lower quality/cheaper components and less opportunity for expansion in the future as well as having to go with someone elses idea of a suitable specification rather than precisely what you want.
 
I bought an ebay special about 5 years ago. Got a lucky bd in and won the PC. For the money it was a great buy at the time.

However i would say that the quality of the components wasn't what i'd call excellent - more like passable.

If i were you i would certainly consider building your own. At least then you will know that everything it is built from is decent quality.

gt
 
I can imagine an ebay PC.

Case = Sharp edges that cut fingers and looks crap.
PSU = Really bad capacitors that will probably blow trying to provide more than 300W
RAM = Bad latency with a high failure rate.

There are websites that sell this stuff for about £10 with good reason.
 
Delivery costs will eat into you self build budget and you will need a OS as well if your going to be 100% legal..

Hopefully from a prebuidler an OS and decent warranty will be included.

Good quality prebuilts are possible.

Both builders and parts suppliers will have to make a profit, what changes is the margins they will accept.
 
I would say build yourself, but sometimes, it depends on whether you need a screen speakers mouse keyboard os as well etc, sometimes a pre-built one would be the better option.
 
it'll have a rubbish case, rubbish psu, slow mobo, slow rubbish hdd.

People new to computers, tend to skimp on mobos as they have no ratings as such. Yet it links you entire computer together.
 
computer sellers on ebay are targeting people that dont know much about pc's and see what they are selling as a good deal.

if you had any sence you wouldnt buy it, in most cases that is..
 
build ure own, much better fun also u get a sense of achievment. " I made this and it looks and runs awesome " . Plus ull get better components for ocing and it will have a better longer warrenty
 
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