We've had an interesting discussion about the pros and cons of self-building a PC, and some of the comments were around whether or not it saves money to build the PC yourself. Some people said that it did for them, but since that flew in the case of my own experience, I decided to do a little experiment. I went to Dell.ca and priced out the following Intel Core i7-based system:
The price from Dell for that? $999 Canadian. To create a comparison, I went to the online store of my local computer parts store, which tends to be quite affordable. See how I did after the break.
I tried to match the parts as closest as possible to the Dell, and in every instance other than the case, I picked the least expensive parts I could. When it came to the case, I selected one with a reasonable power supply - there were a few that were $30 less, but they only had 300 watt power supplies, and with the power-hungry Intel Core i7 I felt a 500 watt PSU would be the best bet.
As you can tell, the build-it-yourself route, for parts alone, cost about 23% more than the system from Dell. This is about what I was expecting. Personally, the reason I tend to prefer to build my own computers is so I can pick the best-of-breed parts - I rarely if ever save money. I also like knowing exactly what's inside the computer, so if something goes wrong, I have better odds of fixing or replacing the faulty part. One exception would be if I'm cannibalizing parts from another computer, but that doesn't happen very often if I'm building a new machine for my own use - I tend to want the latest and greatest parts. Worth noting though is that things get more expensive if I were to upgrade the video card on the Dell. If I go for an ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB, Dell wants $350 for that, when locally I can get one for $199. So that's quite the overcharge!
Bottom line: shop around, compared parts to pre-built, but if you're looking to save money you may want to go with a pre-built computer.
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the fact that you went to ONE online store for a comparison is where you went wrong. You should have went to an unlimited amount of online stores to find the cheapest parts. One online store many have the cheapest part of one item but may not be the cheapest with other things.
Similar methodology at NewEgg here gives you $912 USD or approximately $1150 CAD (man, wasn't it just 6 months ago that USD==CAD?!?!). The same Dell here is $899, so the price difference is minimal. I will also say that you will probably be transferring your OS, so drop $100 from the NewEgg quote, and you get a high-quality Gigabyte Mobo vs. a ???? Dell Mobo. HOWEVER, I would still go with the Dell...
@jaxim, yes, he could likely shave that quote down to $1050 CAD by comparison shopping, but the point still stands that parts > whole.
the fact that you went to ONE online store for a comparison is where you went wrong. You should have went to an unlimited amount of online stores to find the cheapest parts.
You sound so incredibly sure of yourself! Memory Express, the store I picked the parts from, tends to be fairly cheap. Go on, I dare you to find someplace else in Canada that's significantly less expensive on the overall package. I doubt you'll find it. And I don't know about you, but I don't have unlimited time, so searching an "unlimited" amount of online stores isn't something I'm going to do. My time is worth money.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jaxim
One online store many have the cheapest part of one item but may not be the cheapest with other things.
Buying computer parts from online stores with the intention of building a system is enough of a risk - what if the parts are bad? As someone else pointed out in another thread, many stores force you to pay shipping to return an item. I've had more than enough problems with something I buy not working/fitting/being defective that when I build a complete system from scratch, I always buy locally in case there's a problem.
Besides, how much money can you really save if you're going to pay shipping from ten different stores?
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I will also say that you will probably be transferring your OS, so drop $100 from the NewEgg quote...
The only reason I'd transfer my operating system would be if the hardware all completely died - I tend to re-use, re-gift, or sell old system, and that includes the operating system. Worth noting is that the OEM OS most places sell, including the one that I picked out here, doesn't allow transfer to another computer. Only full retail copies of XP or Vista allow for that - and they're even more expensive. So I don't know if it's a fair comparison if you deduct the operating system from the total...
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Often times shipping is free. Plus these sites rate the seller so you can buy from a store with a better reputation.
I'm not certain that in this particular case, you'd get a cheaper price buying from many online sources; however, it is my past experience that this is true. If I were building my own PC, I would probably invest a lot of time picking out the parts and comparative shopping. Obviously, for the purpose of this article, that's a bit overkill. Actually, I probably will be building my own PC. I've never been happy with the corners that some computer makers cut to get a computer's price down. I'll probably wait a few months after Windows 7 comes out.
You're fortunate then - those sites only are valid for people in the USA. There are a couple of comparison shopping sites for Canada, but they're pretty crappy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jaxim
Often times shipping is free. Plus these sites rate the seller so you can buy from a store with a better reputation.
Neither NewEgg.ca, NCIX, Tiger Direct, nor Memory Express offer free shipping. So it might be the norm for the USA, but not for Canada. Amazon.ca is about the only place that offers free shipping, and they don't sell many electronics just yet. As for ratings, they're constantly being gamed - just look at all the people who get screwed by those camera stores in New York. Quite often if you think you've got a "too good to be true" price, you do. I'd never buy from an unknown reseller, even if they had great ratings.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jaxim
If I were building my own PC, I would probably invest a lot of time picking out the parts and comparative shopping. Obviously, for the purpose of this article, that's a bit overkill. Actually, I probably will be building my own PC. I've never been happy with the corners that some computer makers cut to get a computer's price down.
Well, tell you what: when you build your computer, come back to this thread (or start another) and let us know how you do on the prices, how much time you spend comparison shopping, and what the prices end up being versus buying a pre-made system. I'll be interested to know the results!
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I did the same shopping list at NewEgg.ca, and the total came out to $1210.81 CAD. So I saved about $24 by shopping at NewEgg - yet I wouldn't do that, because buying locally and being able to return something for free is a BIG advantage in my eyes.
But, yes, money can be saved by comparison shopping.
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Does Building Your Own PC Really Save You Money?
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