Do custom or manufactured computers cost more

I was wondering, do self-built computers ( which cuts out the cost of labor ) cost more than computer manufacturers ( which buys parts in bulk enabling steep discounts ) ?

It used to be cheaper to self-build. There isn't much difference in it these days.

>>1
It used to be considerably cheaper. Now it no longer is. It IS cheaper, if you can find a good components dealer, but the difference is small, and while 8 years ago you had, say, 6 graphics cards to choose from, no RAM brands, 2 motherboard kinds, etc., now everything has gone insane and you have to do a lot of research before building a working, stable, fast system, and you have to take a lot of decisions of varied difficulty that WILL affect the price, performance, and stability of your system. Building them is a bit more difficult too.

I used to recommend people to build computers from parts; now I only build mine and recommend people to buy an HP or something; the difference in price is really the cost of your time, effort and risk otherwise.

depends:
pro custom:
you know whats in your box
you can buy quality parts (more expensive but pre-builders often give you cheap dirt)
you will get exactly what you need/want, its very hard to find pre-build systems with everything you need but nothing you dont need (IE we have 3 card readers here but only use one cos 2 of them were build in prebuild systems which we buyed after obtaining the first one, much actual PBS have an DVB-T card already build in but we have dvb-s and T is not availiable in my city)
con:
more time needed to decide which componenets to buy
more expensive pieces because you dont get the mass rebatte HP/dell etc get
if you build it for someone you know, YOU will be made responsible for EVERYTHING thats hapening with the system: spyware, viruses, ugly photos from the digicam, .... let the hotline guys handle this ...

more expensive pieces because you dont get the mass rebatte HP/dell etc get
Not rly, you're getting ripped off

if you build it for someone you know, YOU will be made responsible for EVERYTHING thats hapening with the system
lol, true. Blame MSIE.

The only reason people should be self-building is to allow for upgrades and high-end parts. Both these factors come at an extremely high cost from pre-built manufacturers, because they know their market is gullible and has a big wallet.

All gamers should be self-building, however. Pre-builts will use the cheapest parts to get across the highest bullet points, and when your card is shit within 2 years you'll be paying out another 2,000 bucks.

Cost of a gaming machine to a self-builder: 900
Cost to upgrade to next-gen: Less than 400
Cost of a gaming machine to a Dell-user: 1600
Cost to upgrade to next-gen: 1600

In the end, you're paying for much more with a pre-built than what people consider in a computer buy. Support, guarantee, and peace-of-mind. Self-builds can't offer that.

Cost me only 1800 (most of that coming from the card) for a fly gaming rig from Computer Builder's Warehouse, and they built it on top of that. Monitor is a piece of junk toss-in though, I wanted a multi-sync and they didn't carry'em so this is a temp until it arrives.
It would've been less without winders but ah's net saavy enuf fer *nix joebob.
Plays morrowind, UT4, HL2 with no problems. Final test will be when Oblivion comes. And mebbe Conan.

>>5
well depends how you see it as ripped off:
buy in a shop a hdd with imaginary price of 100 Euro: 60 Euro to (IE) maxtor 20 Euro to the guy the shopkeeper buys, 20 Euro profit for the shop (but including service if you have an good shop)
HDD in an pre build system:
(IE) Dell pays 60 Euro to maxtor makes 30Euro profit and the whole system is 90Euro (10 bucks cheaper from this part alone)
repeat for other pieces of system and look how much the big ones make out of this
also the big companies buy often OEM stuff with less waranty or low quality parts ( IE slow RAM on an Graphic-card with an good chip, because you only see (IE) GF 6800ultraturbomakespenislonger on the flyer and no RAM timing) which is even cheaper for them

and the whole system is 90Euro (10 bucks ...
arr keyboard gnomes ...
the whole system is 10 bucks cheaper and the hdd is only 90 bucks for the customer

huh?

I have always found that the higher end components you buy in a custom build, the more money you save over buying it from something like Dell. But you can't compete with any manufacturer on the low end, such as computers packeged with a monitor and OS at like, 400$. You just can't get that cheap of computer with Windows at that cheap of price with a custom built. Sadly, these are the computers the majority of computer users buy. :(

>>6
In the end, you're paying for much more with a pre-built than what people consider in a computer buy.
True

Support, guarantee, and peace-of-mind. Self-builds can't offer that.
MY self-built offers that ^^ But I no longer have time to fix shit for friends; 10 years ago all of my friends computers were Anonymous Computer™, but since I don't like trouble, I told them to get an HP, Dell, or whatever.


>>8
In that case, it'd be more like Dell makes a 60€ profit and it costs 120€, 20€ more expensive. Then Dell guarantees it'll work, and they'll provide a stupid-proof tech service.

I'm IT manager for a medium sized manufacturing company in the UK, and I usually buy PCs from IBM, as they are of a much higher quality than machines from Dell, Packard Bell, etc.

Personal user that wants powa for gameing and other fancyness = build their own

Large company who wants machines to do a task without much fucking around = buy from manufacturing company

>>14
statement of truth

>>14
Why not embrace both and ask them for x number of this kind set to this specification? Or are they all already optimized for different tasks and they just turn on a different set of robots to construct variations? I dunno how big their plants are.

>>16
its still cheaper for ppl  who buy en'mass to chose from an list of systems which the vendor supplys
computer systems are assembled by hand, only parts (ram, mobo etc) are build mainly with robots/machines

It depends how much your time is worth. Getting up to speed with the current hardware is always hard and time-consuming, if you don't follow the hardware news.

Unless you want to buy recent games, you're often better off buying a manufactured computers. You don't have to buy from a company that charges a large premium for its brand, though.