Should You Build Your Own PC, Order A Custom PC, Or Have A Friend Help You?
Should You Build Your Own PC, Order A Custom PC, Or Have A Friend Help You?
By Steven Stoddard
As computer hardware becomes cheaper and cheaper, and your rust bucket of a PC is getting older, some of you may be shopping around for a new PC, or you may be wanting to build your own PC, or have a geeky tech-savvy friend help, because you and him know a little bit about computers, but aren t quite sure if you should leave it to the professionals.
Build Your Own
If you have a personality that enjoys learning, and want to strive to get the most knowledge, usability, and usefulness out of your PC, and yourself as possible you should seriously consider building your own PC. The experience and knowledge one gains from building their own PC is immeasurable by any of the other previously mentioned options. Not to mention the pride and joy you get from building your own. And who knows, this could also lead you down the road to a new hobby, or even maybe a future profession.
Pros:
- You ll know your computer better than anyone else.
- You can learn a lot from building your own computer, like repairing, troubleshooting, and upgrading PCs.
- You get bragging rights for building your own. (You may know one or two people that have built their own PC, but the rest of your friends will be amazed)
- You can easily make room for future upgrades, and when the time comes you ll know how to upgrade your computer.
- You ll get a good bang for the buck when putting together your own computer, and if you have a lot of buck you ll get a lot of bang.
Cons:
- Any problems you encounter will have to be solved by yourself and a clever use of the world wide web.
- There s a chance that some parts you order will be DOA (Dead on Arrival) which means you ll have to send them back and wait for a replacement part
- Operating Systems aren t cheap, unless you re going with Linux.
Ordering A Dell
This option is good for those that simply don t have time to mess around with all this techno-stuff, and would rather just get on with using their computer, not learning anything new. This is the lazy way out. Luckily, for the lazy people Dell has a nice website setup to help them assemble their new computer, pay for it, and have it shipped to them in a week or so, though this usually comes with a premium price tag.
Pros:
- It s an easy way to get exactly what you want, without any hassle or problems.
- Tech Support will always be there when you have a problem.
- Comes with a warranty.
Cons:
- If you have a problem, you can t fix it without voiding your warranty, and if you don t have a warrant you ll probably spend big bucks at Geek Squad getting your computer fixed .
- Recommended upgrades, hardware, software on the website is extremely expensive, and usually not needed, or do not offer the performance increase for the price.
- Prebuilt systems usually cost more.
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Using Your Trusty Friend
If you have a tech savvy friend that knows more about computers than you do, you could try asking him to help you build a system, it s a good way to get the benefits of a custom PC, while having a backup check and recheck all your work to make sure you don t do anything wrong or make any problems. Chances are, if you ask your friend he will say yes, but you have to make sure you re ready to put in the work, because he will put in his fair share (Hopefully). Don t forget to reimburse your friend for the time and effort that he ll put to help you get the PC you want, it is hard work to put together a PC, even if he is enjoying don t forget to say thanks for his hard work or take him out to lunch or something, and don t take him for granted. Tech people usually get put into that category of service people that will help you out with all your tech problems, and have no feelings, or no need for any reimbursement or thanks, because they just simply enjoy helping you out with your problems.
Pros:
- Your friend is probably the easiest and most trustworthy tech support you can find.
- A good second judgement to correct any mistakes you ve made or are about to make.
- You also get many of the benefits from the Building Your Own section
Cons:
- Friend may be lazy and not want to help you.
- Your friend could lack the knowledge needed to build a complete system, and will get you stuck halfway through the process.
- He may be unreliable in helping you with the computer.
Hopefully this post has helped you decide whether or not you want to take the task of building your own PC, or leaving it to the pros. Readers please leave me a comment on what category of system you have, did you build your own, get someone to help you build, or order it from Dell/bought it from a store?
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