Mar
13
What’s the big deal with assembling a computer?
ByWhy is there so much fuss over ‘building’ a computer from ‘scratch’? Really, it’s not like you actually put the pins one by one. Even installing a CPU is easy, so why are people ready to dish out a lot of money for other people to set things up which is as easy as using switches?
11 Comments
March 13th, 2010 at 1:23 pm
Same reason some people let others change the oil in their car and not do it themselves.
March 13th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
Not everyone finds it so easy. Some people know little about computers. That is why we have specialists for things or pay others money to do something we can’t do.
March 13th, 2010 at 1:59 pm
It’s easy to do but it requires time, also most people who use a computer do it for basic tasks. They’re not going to save a lot of money on hardware over building it yourself and the hassle with having to try and troubleshoot your own self built computer is definitely a pain. The only people that I think should always build their own computers are gamers, gaming rigs are highly overpriced when you buy them pre made but that’s about it.
Also think about the warranty, I mean if you have a bad computer from a major company like Dell and you have it under warranty all you do is have to send it to them. But what if on a self built computer you PSU goes and takes out your motherboard along with it? The PSU people are going to say its not their hardware and the motherboard people say the PSU caused it to fail.
March 13th, 2010 at 2:13 pm
Because a custom-built PC the same performance of a shop-bought PC will be significantly cheaper. Or one built for the same price as a shop-bought PC will be significantly more powerful.
This rule doesn’t apply to mass-produced bargain-basement PCs for word processing and web browsing. But anything mid-range and better you get massive benefits doing it yourself.
You also get to conveniently avoid all of the pre-install bloatware, and configure the hardware to meet your perticular needs, instead of using a ‘on-size-fits-all’ solution.
March 13th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
following the instructions
March 13th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
Well it completely depends on person to person some find it way too much complicated to even put switches at home. That’s when we look for an electrician.
Its not that assembling a system is difficult its more of price/performance that becomes a question. The more you know about various CPU, chipsets, mobo, Ram compatibility, Cooling solutions, GPU performance a common person wont know all this in depth thats when they try finding a guy who can build according to their requirements.
Just for Eg. the QX9770 is the most expensive CPU right now but not the most powerful as the I7 965 beats it. This is a month old news now. However still prices of QX9770 are higher. So someone who is just making his 1st computer wont know this. He would have to consult or maybe get help from someone.
March 13th, 2010 at 4:03 pm
todays off the shelf components make it pretty easy, and a lot of people get lucky their first time out, but that doesn’t really teach you anything, you cant troubleshoot or do any problem solving
March 13th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
You need to re-think this. You are one of the fortunate ones. You find technical information easy and are good with your hands. you are actually very fortunate. Many people do not have any training in any of this, how do they understand which mounting studs to fit to the mounting plate of the casing, so they have all them in the right place required by the motherboard, and none under an area that can short the board? How do they understand how to set the jumpers on a board (several boards have 20 plus jumpers) and how do they understand the connections? I can just see your mother, for instance, building a machine from scratch.
March 13th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
Well you are in the mind set that building a system is plug and play. It can be but most of the time it is not. You need to research all your parts to make sure they work well with each other. Is my video card going to fit on the motherboard or will my North bridge heat sink be to big and not allow this card to fit. What the heck is a north bridge or a south bridge. What if I want to wake the computer from sleep mode with a mouse? OR if my mouse is hooked up wireless through usb how do I do it. What is a jumper. What is a SATA and PATA, What are the jumper settings on the back of the hard drive. HD audio or AC 97′ ? Fat 32, NTFS or a RAID or a JOBOD? How do you set that up. What RAM will work with my motherboard? How do I find that out? What is the difference in MHZ for a 1330 or a 800MHZ. What is ESD and how do I prevent it? You get my point. If you are going to build a computer correctly it takes some time and research. Also like they said if and when you fire it up and it doesn’t work…now what do you do? I also agree that it is only for people into gaming, video editing or need a system that can handle a huge work load. It will save you a ton of money. My $1,300 system purchased through dell with not so great hardware would cost you $3,200.
March 13th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
no idea but i have a mac and i luv it!
March 13th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
in my case
poor eyesight
and large hands
i use to do it myself but now have a lot of trouble seeing the connections example attaching sound pins 9 to get sound to the front imputs