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Thread ID: 126206	2012-08-13 22:54:00	New Computer .	Cicero (40)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1294551	2012-08-13 22:54:00	Friend want new Computer. The question is, st it still economic these days to build a basic unit. She requires one to use for browsing,email and a reasonable graphics card. They seem so cheap in the likes of HN.!	Cicero (40)
1294552	2012-08-13 23:22:00	Depends very much on your specific requirements & desires, and how much effort you want to put in to save some $$ or get better parts. Personally I'd still build - HN etc can't touch the $500 I recently paid for new box with an A6-3670, 8GB RAM and a 1TB SATA drive. By the time you add on a monitor & OS it maybe closer to $800, but is still a mile better spec than the sort of thing you tend to get for $899 from the major retailers.	inphinity (7274)
1294553	2012-08-13 23:59:00	I would think that you could build a computer for less than you could buy one for.	Nick G (16709)
1294554	2012-08-14 00:09:00	Actually the big stores have some pretty good deals on prebuilt machines that are hard to match building your own, for a basic machine they are worth considering IMO. The real downside is in the proprietary nature of some machines and the difficulty upgrading, adding a graphics card to a cheap PC could likely require a PSU upgrade in which case a home built machine probably is a better deal. A great compromise is to buy either an "upgrade box" or a combo deal from a good supplier and have them customise to you requirements, assemble it and maybe install windows for you. You get the benefits of a prebuilt machine and no warranty issues from building yourself and the parts you wanted. Of course for me building it is half the fun so I always buy parts.	dugimodo (138)
1294555	2012-08-14 00:20:00	$899 for example will get you a Compaq and you really dont want to be within 10 miles of one of those. The thing about buying one off the shelf is that you rarely get what you are looking for that actually suits your needs (either not a lot of ram, poor graphics, slower cpu, etc) . Whereas a purpose built one is more likely to future-proof yourself for several years. It is a struggle in some cases to build one for much less than whats on the shelf when bond and bond, hardly normal etc buy huge amounts in bulk at a cheap price and flick them into all stores throughout the country for a hell of a lot less than a smaller retailer. Of course there are a few benefits of going retail such as Hire Purchase, Flybuys, interest free, other bundled software (that Nortons 2012 6 month licence you have been dying to get your hands on for example) and stuff like that, that you wont generally get having one custom built. As most retail stores are not specific computer stores, often support can be pretty poor and take a long time to resolve if you have any issues which is a major factor for many. Then again some computer specialists can be pretty poor as well. Personally, I would still go for a custom build even if I had to pay a little more to get what I needed than something that I saw on the shelve that was close to my requirements. Was there something specific you were looking at in HN Cicero? If you know the specs, post them and lets see if building one to similar or better specs is within budget.	Iantech (16386)
1294556	2012-08-14 01:15:00	The thing about buying one off the shelf is that you rarely get what you are looking for that actually suits your needs (either not a lot of ram, poor graphics, slower cpu, etc) . Whereas a purpose built one is more likely to future-proof yourself for several years . For just web browsing and emailing you don't really need a lot of grunt so the cheapest PC will do the job fine . Crikey, the PC I built ten years ago is still going strong doing pretty much just that and the basic off-the-shelf machines available today are way more powerful . Cicero, get your friend to have a look in a PC shop at their basic machines and see if she can get one for the same or less than the price of a Harvey Norman or Noel Leeming job . The shop will have a list of they can build that can be customised to how you want them, eg more or less RAM, bigger or smaller hard drive, etc .	FoxyMX (5)
1294557	2012-08-14 01:47:00	Thanks folks, quite a bit to ponder. Friend looks faint if you mention her looking in a computer shop.	Cicero (40)
1294558	2012-08-14 06:59:00	For just web browsing and emailing you don't really need a lot of grunt so the cheapest PC will do the job fine.Sure, but I still wouldnt go near a compaq and in my opinion its not future-proofing yourself.	Iantech (16386)
1294559	2012-08-15 02:10:00	If you do build one buy the parts from america - way cheaper	Nerdtastic (16693)
1294560	2012-08-15 02:25:00	If you do build one buy the parts from america - way cheaper By the time you factor in currency conversion, shipping, and the added hassle of any warranty issues, it really works out better to go local, imo.	inphinity (7274)
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