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Thread: QOTW: Have you ever bought a pre-built desktop?

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    Re: QOTW: Have you ever bought a pre-built desktop?

    Quote Originally Posted by Iota View Post
    .... Also very guilty of being one of those who doesn't mod a car, but just updates it for a newer model. That's actually quite a good analogy to use.
    Yes, it is.

    I haven't modded a car since my teens, and that was Hobson's choice. I could afford an older car and the mod's, but not the newer (and better spec'd) model.

    But I haven't modded (*) a car in ages, as the factory-fresh one does the job I want. These days, so would a custom PC.


    (*) In terms of modding a car, I'm excluding fitting or upgrading the sound and/or security systems. Those, I most emphatically have done on every new car since my teenage years. But I don't regard that as modding the car. I could say much the same about PCs as I nearly always upgrade their sound capabilities, but in recent years, through mainly external devices.
    A lesson learned from PeterB about dignity in adversity, so Peter, In Memorium, "Onwards and Upwards".

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    Re: QOTW: Have you ever bought a pre-built desktop?

    It would be interesting to know how many computers in homes (not businesses), let's say in the UK, are home built. I'm guessing maybe 0.1%.

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    Re: QOTW: Have you ever bought a pre-built desktop?

    Quote Originally Posted by judge56988 View Post
    It would be interesting to know how many computers in homes (not businesses), let's say in the UK, are home built. I'm guessing maybe 0.1%.
    I think you might get shocked. There has been a huge growth in people building there own now.

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    Re: QOTW: Have you ever bought a pre-built desktop?

    Quote Originally Posted by judge56988 View Post
    It would be interesting to know how many computers in homes (not businesses), let's say in the UK, are home built. I'm guessing maybe 0.1%.
    Interesting point.

    I'd guess (and this is just based on people I know) about 50% my friends/family, and maybe more than that, use a laptop only. Which doesn't count in this thread.

    Of those remaining, with desktop systems, I'd guess more like 50% have either home-built or shop-bought custom/modified PCs. And sure, part of that will be my influence, having often been asked for advice, but a bigger part is that most of my friends.family are pretty computer-literate.

    But extend that to the general public, a lot of whom aren't computer-literate (though that's far less common than say 20 years ago) and I honestly wouldn't like to even guess what percentage it is. It would totally be a WAG, not even a mildly informed guess.
    A lesson learned from PeterB about dignity in adversity, so Peter, In Memorium, "Onwards and Upwards".

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    Re: QOTW: Have you ever bought a pre-built desktop?

    back in the days of PCMart and MicroMart (classifieds and cheap listings papers) my first PC was a 486 DX2/80 prebuilt that came in at around 550 UKP for the tower only

    that's the first and last prebuilt. Pretty good experience, got a free mobo upgrade on it but the graphics adaptor fell out in transit. Easy enough to fix up.
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    Re: QOTW: Have you ever bought a pre-built desktop?

    Not since I moved out on my own, though prior to that, my family had prebuilts. Initially a local whitebox builder, but later Sony and HP. The build quality from the local place was quite low (they no longer exist), while the Sony was very well-built, with the HP in between.

    Granted, I've kept the same desktop in operation, with upgrades, since moving out on my own. Normally I'd say I plan to build my next one as well, but given component shortages of late, I'd consider a prebuilt if it meant I could get the components I wanted when build-your-own didn't. It'd have to be similarly quiet, however; I don't want to switch to a noise box.

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    Re: QOTW: Have you ever bought a pre-built desktop?

    No. Always built my own. Originally for cost. Now I just enjoy it.
    Only pre-builts ones I've used have been work supplied or there was a HP base unit that I won.

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    Re: QOTW: Have you ever bought a pre-built desktop?

    Quote Originally Posted by Iota View Post

    I highly doubt you'll get a better warranty period on a prebuilt PC compared to individual components, individual components tend to at least match prebuilt system warranties, or in many cases exceed those offered (such as 10 years on a PSU or 5 years on an NVMe drive etc). Cable management isn't hard and doesn't take long to do properly.

    As for the point about driver issues / compatibility issues? I haven't seen those for a decade (literally, pre Sandy Bridge was the last time I saw those problems).

    Also sending off an entire system seems particularly cumbersome, especially when you can get advanced replacements on most parts (had a replacement monitor dealt with this way). I'm not sure I've ever seen an option to have an entire prebuilt system offer an advanced replacement service? However if you think £100 extra is worth those additional hassles, feel free to spend it.
    It's worth the money for the less hassle. When a component goes that's the computer out of action anyway, unless you're hoarding spares, and even then you've got to mess around trying to make it work (which is not guaranteed).
    A decent system warranty is comprehensive; especially if you're paying for it. Component warranties are so full of ifs and buts that it can be not worth it. Years ago (on a pre-built system) I had a component fail and the supplier wouldn't replace it like-for-like, they wanted to give me a worse component. This was all fine because it was written into their garbage 'warrenty'.

    I do feel free to spend because my time isn't worthless; I always have to weigh up cost in money vs cost in time and effort. If you enjoy putting computers together then good for you, pat yourself on the back, but don't pretend it's some sort of 'superior' option. It isn't.

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    Re: QOTW: Have you ever bought a pre-built desktop?

    Last pre-built I bought was an Acorn RiscPC in 1996.

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    Re: QOTW: Have you ever bought a pre-built desktop?

    Yep I've bought one from Scan, but I usually build my own. The only time I did was for tax reasons. The flat rate VAT scheme allowed me to claim back the VAT on purchases over £2k. So it was easier to do this with a complete system than components.

    Never had to use the warranty for any of it, which is good as I've pulled it apart and reassembled several times since new and now it's runnging in a completely different case.

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    Re: QOTW: Have you ever bought a pre-built desktop?

    My first computer was a prebuilt Olivetti PCS Educator 486/50 ... Awesome machine! 2x CD-ROM, 500MB HDD, 4MB RAM... Wish I still had it! From this one on I've always built my own... Latest build is an Ryzen 5 5600X, but is kinda being upgraded over the years... Still rocking my blue tinted acrylic case from 2004 and my GeForce 980 4GB from 2015. It's funny, because now I've being on a purchase spree of old prebuilts! I have now a couple of Compaq Presarios AMD K6/2, a Compaq Deskpro 2000 (Pentium 200 MMX), a Compaq ProLiant 5500 Server, found an eMachines eTower 633IDs and bought that too (Upgraded it from a Celeron 633 to an Pentium III 850MHz, then slapped a couple of VooDoo 2 in SLI in them and ive been playing MDK 2 on that like crazy), then an IBM Aptiva Pentium 166 (non MMX)... Also have an IBM PC330/450 (486DX 50, kinda fill my hole for the Olivetti)

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    Re: QOTW: Have you ever bought a pre-built desktop?

    My last prebuilt was a Tiny PC Pentium 200 MMX back in 1996/7 I think when I was a 15/16 year old? Built my own ever since.
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    Re: QOTW: Have you ever bought a pre-built desktop?

    Since 2002,
    not only keep building my own desktop computers, I also establish & build desktop pc's for (probably a few dozens of) my friends.
    I neither had, nor used laptop computers in my whole life.
    Since 2002, countless ultra expensive (so called "cutting edge") laptops come and gone... Custom build desktops are always progress through time.

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    Re: QOTW: Have you ever bought a pre-built desktop?

    Quote Originally Posted by ozkrmz View Post
    Since 2002,
    not only keep building my own desktop computers, I also establish & build desktop pc's for (probably a few dozens of) my friends.
    I neither had, nor used laptop computers in my whole life.
    Since 2002, countless ultra expensive (so called "cutting edge") laptops come and gone... Custom build desktops are always progress through time.
    Most people I know don't have a desktop anymore - laptops can be used anywhere in the house and connected to an external monitor if a bigger display is required. An external storage device and/or the cloud can take care of all your storage needs. Unless you use a PC for gaming or heavy duty work related tasks such as CAD, video editing, whatever; what's the point of them? having said that, I'm not about to give up my desktop or laptop!

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    Re: QOTW: Have you ever bought a pre-built desktop?

    Quote Originally Posted by selfishtoaster View Post
    If you enjoy putting computers together then good for you, pat yourself on the back, but don't pretend it's some sort of 'superior' option. It isn't.
    Completely subjective. It depends on what you're building and if you have the time available. I guess I'm lucky I have the time and enjoy it, without any serious issues of note since doing so.

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    Re: QOTW: Have you ever bought a pre-built desktop?

    would say my 386SX at wooping 16mhz was pre-built... it had a turbo button as well... so you can switch between 8 and 16mhz.

    Started with 1mb ram over 4 sticks... later on upgraded to 4mb.... uh... it had 256kb GFX card too... on top of that it had 90mb HDD and of course a 3.5" floppy drive.

    Somehow the 14" monitor could picture SVGA as well, found that out on my next system my 486DX100, think it also had a turbo button haha.

    My C64 before that was also pre-built, however got it modified.

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