Junk is cheap, Quality can be too
Jul 19 '00
If I had Two Thousand Dollars for a computer, I could build an excellent gamer stations/Software developer station/anything station. If you build your own, price it right, and do the research, your possibilities are limitless.
Some people believe that "You get what you pay for" is the end all solution to this problem, and save up money to buy the hottest item on the market from some big company. Some believe that a computer is a computer, no matter how much it costs. After all, a computer is a computer.... right?
Often, neither is true. Buying this "Gamers Special" from some unknown brand, or a known low-cost brand such as eMachines, is often not a good idea. Sure, the processor is "600MHZ", and it has all the necessities for a computer to "Run". The only thing they forgot to tell you are that your price of "$500" you pay for the machine is after the 200% markup. If you take apart one of these machines, you will find ALL of the hardware in that box is made up of cheap components. Usually they have the cheapest and slowest peripherals. The Motherboards are almost always the least of quality. The graphics cards are usually non-existent at best, and are built into the motherboard itself instead. They must consider the 'Gamers special" to mean having the ability to play solitaire that’s included with Windows.
To give an excellent example, I had a friend looking for a computer. He's not computer dumb, but just kind of left out of the current market. He found a machine from an unknown store, for the cheapest you could possibly find. He asked me if he should buy it. I looked at the machines specs. I told him I didn't think the machine would be a very good buy. I tried to explain to him the differences in computer components and how they differ quality. He didn't understand. So I built up a list of hardware that would "Sell" but wouldn't be bought buy the computer-educated population. This computer I virtually built had every last peripheral on the market that would have some practical use. A scanner, Printer, Zip drive, CD Writer, CDROM, 128MB RAM, 4Meg Video card, 17" monitor, Sound Card, Speakers, 10GB HDD (this was 2 years ago, this was BIG), 56K modem, 400Mhz Processor. All for the same price he would pay for the other machine. He said "Wow! Now that’s a deal!".. And I shook my head. No, it ISN'T a good deal. This was a steal. Then I explained to him what this machine would do. It would hardly run at the proposed speed compared to a machine purchased with higher QUALITY components, and it would brake. All those components were the cheapest of the cheap. They look great on paper, but those are specs that these components can barely meet. They don't guarantee these components will function at those specs, nor did anyone spend enough to care. He bought his other machine anyway. Sure enough, he got it, he installed Windows, and it broke. To make the long story short, he got rid of the machine 3 months later, and was back to using his laptop.
For under $2000 you can buy just about anything. I usually use PriceWatch.com for prices on components. I always do research on motherboards, usually at tomshardware.com or anandtech.com under "reviews". I use those same sites for reviews on graphics cards.
For the high-end user, I composed this computer. All of these parts are high-quality components proven in the real world. This computer would be great for anything, including game-play, word processing, development, or anything you could want to do in the near future.
Part Cost Shipping
____________________________________________________________________
Asus A7V Motherboard 169 10
AMD Athlon 900MHZ 418 5
256MB PC133 218 11
Maxtor 20GB 7200RPM Drive 139 11
72X Kenwood CDROM 98 10
Memorex 2x2x6 CDRW 93 8
HP 17" Monitor 129 40
32MB Geforce2 Video Card 252 11
ATX Mid Tower Case 40 Locally
Internal 2977 USR Modem (non-win modem) 56k 49 10
SoundBlaster live Value! 37 10
Multimedia Speakers 60 10
Floppy Drive 20 Locally
Keyboard 20 Locally
Mouse 20 Locally
Subtotal 1762 136
Total 1898
All the parts that include the word "Locally" in the table above mean you can get these prices at a local computer store. You may have to do some shopping.
Here is a Value Pc (In my mind), which would do well even for a gamer, and would do what almost everyone would need to do. It would leave you astonished like the above PC, but it will be fast.
Part Cost Shipping
Asus K7V 131 15
AMD Athlon 550MHZ 98 11
128MB RAM Pc133 SDRAM 128 10
Maxtor 20GB 7200RPM Drive 139 11
Generic 32X CDROM Drive 30 10
15" Monitor 100 35
TNT2 Vanta 16MB 45 10
ATX Mid Tower Case 40 Locally
Internal 2977 USR Modem (non-win modem) 56k 49 10
SoundBlaster live Value! 37 10
Multimedia Speakers 60 10
Floppy Drive 20 Locally
Keyboard 20 Locally
Mouse 20 Locally
Subtotal 917 132
Total 1049
In case you are wondering why someone, who knows what they are doing, can get such cheap prices on a GOOD QUALITY setup, here’s why. The market is pretty well locked. There are some computer stores that are competitive, but a lot of them aren't. Because they know they can sell you something at a 40% markup. This isn't because they are smarter than the consumer; this is because every computer store seems to be marking up the part outrageously. So if you walk in a store, see 128MB's of RAM for 300 dollars, laugh and walk out. It's really, in the real world, roughly 1 dollar per Meg. That would be 128 dollars for that stick of ram (gave or take a few dollars). Even if you DO buy a part locally, check pricewatch.com, look at their prices, and compare. Then haggle a little with them. If they won't, leave! If we had more people doing this sort of thing, more and more computer stores located outside the Silicon Valley would sell parts at a reasonable price.
Building a computer is less difficult than finding good prices on quality (researched) parts. Do not be discouraged on building your own, it's an excellent learning experience, and you'll know next time you have a problem, what it could be. After all, your "New" computer will be outdated in less time than it took you to put it together, and you get to do this all over again. So save some money, you maybe buying one machine a year to keep up with current trends!
Good Luck
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Epinions.com ID:
jyancey
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Member: Joel Yancey
Location: Albuquerque, NM
Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 1 member
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