It's commonly known that if you buy the components and build a machine yourself then you can easily save a few hundred bucks here and there. When you got your new desktop, di you buy it as a whole or did you build it yourself? I recently bought a desktop with a PSU, CPU, MOBO & RAM but I'm going to be upgrading most of the parts and adding in some more such as a GPU myself.
Well, I wish I had the knowledge to build it, I know I could easily save a few hundreds bucks like you say, but unfortunately I would don't have a clue where I should start. Also, I prefer having a laptop and I imagine that a laptop is far more difficult to build than a desktop.
I'm always building or upgrading my desktop PC myself since buying the components one by one saves me a lot of money. Usually when you buy a ready made PC you pay a lot more for the convenience of having someone do the assembly. Sure, I know my way around PC parts so it's not hard to imagine why someone lacking similar knowledge pays for a already built PC. Even so, one could always bring a friend with good knowledge of PC hardware and have him build a system. Even if you pay that friend some money for the effort you still save on your purchase.
I have friends who have the knowledge/tools to build a computer, but I'm not one. I'm in college, so I needed a laptop. To my knowledge, you can't really build a laptop, so I just bought mine from Office Depot.
I just bought a refurbished Dell computer. I've always had secondhand computers. Maybe someday I'll be able to afford a brand new one. I know a little bit about computer parts, but only enough to upgrade my video card, nothing more. I certainly wouldn't trust myself to build an entire computer because with my luck, I would forget to put in a fan and the whole thing would overheat.
I'm not sure if you're saving much if you're just buying an office computer. The problem with prebuilt gaming PCs is that they don't always have the optimal parts and waste money on unnecessary parts. I always build my computers though. It just feels satisfying to me and I like customizing it to my needs.
I built my very first PC, and I couldn't be anymore happier. I thought I was going to spend a lot more money building a PC as supposed to just buying one off the shelves, but it turns out I did save more money building one. Although building a custom made PC is cheaper, you have to do some research on your part, you can't just walk in an electronic store and buy parts willy-nilly, you have to check on each parts for specifics. IF you're not much of a nerd when it comes to hardware, the I suggest you just let some experts do the building for you.
I bought my computer but part of me wishes I built it. The problem is I have no idea how to build a computer! I think it is something I should learn though, not only would it be a lot cheaper but it would probably perform a lot better!
