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[ar1stotle Profile ICQYIM]

Up until now, it has seemed like custom building a computer has been cheaper than buying from a retailer like Dell. Now, I've built computers for all sorts of people. Many of them just want a computer that will be fast for the next few years but not necessarily top of the line. Usually I'll build a nice computer for between $800 and $1100 using parts I consider to be of high quality with nice manufacturer warranties so that if anything does go wrong, we just have to RMA that 1 part. However, I was just looking on techbargains and saw this:

Dell Inspiron 530 Quad Core Desktop PC w/ 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor

E248WFP 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor; Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4GHz; 2GB RAM; 250GB HDD; DVD burner; Vista Home Basic; built-in card reader; keyboard & mouse included; 1yr warranty

$1049 - $300 off Coupon Code: C9$W2RMGM22XVL = $749 Free Shipping

I actually clicked and customized it, set it up with a 2.8ghz dual core and only 1gb of ram, 22" monitor, and Vista Home Premium.. Ended up being $830 and I can use a $200 coupon on top of that to bring it down to $630. Pay like $75 to upgrade to 4gb of RAM from Newegg (despite it being a 32bit OS) and that's really a nice computer for cheaper than I could probably throw one together. Are they using lower quality parts? How can they do that? I have a family member who asked me to build one but they don't live close so things like the Dell warranty kinda matter. I had priced out a nice low-power low-heat output AMD system with 4gb of ram, 500gb HDD, 22" monitor, floppy drive, media drive, 2 dvd drives, etc. for about $1000 on Newegg but at the price of the Dell it's tough to decide what to recommend.

[markcynt Profile]

I've never purchased a Dell but what I notice is that they tend to use slightly old technology to keep their prices down. Plus they get incentives to put all of the crapware on the machines. They actually get paid to do that. Then there's the volume discounts on hardware and software they both receive and can offer.

If repair is an issue and the family member is not confident replacing parts then the Dell is probably the best option. I used to always purchase an HP with a 3 year in home warranty and then at the 1st sign of trouble after 3 years, buy a new one.

No doubt they'll get a high quality machine if you built it, but they're probably better off with the Dell + warranty.

Mark

[kanaloa]

I actually decided to purchase a Dell for my family recently since I didn't want to rebuild them a new one. The cost was by far cheaper with Dell and overall it's a great little PC. Nothing fancy and definitely not powerful enough for my work, but for them it was great. I think they barely spent $350 on it and it'll probably last 2-3 years or more.