building your own computer - pros cons?

[garrybibson]

i recently looked at my old pc and thought, lets go im gonna get a new one! i thought surely i got a maths + cs degree, how hard can it be? well basically i ordered all the pieces and am now thinking "i bet i blow it up and there goes 500 quid", lol.
so i have come to a trusty source of information to either reassure me or crap me up even further lol

i got a bit of experience with replacing hardware etc.. but have never started from scratch before, therefore i want to know about your experiences good and bad! hopefully i can get some feedback and learn from it thanks in advance - barry

im a little worried about the cpu temp (will the fan that comes with it suffice?)
and also the bios (although i heard it pretty much sets itself up )

[ad_mtk2]

cons: too much darn work!!!

[mx_kid]

Its so easy!! I turn a computer around in under an hour, the longest thing is installing the OS. Just remember to sort out you Primary and Secondary Master and slaves correctly, keep earthing yourself and make sure all the cards are in firmly. If you get stuck or need a hand just mail me or post here

[email protected]

[NerdInside]

Its pretty easy, you just have to have all the parts and have parts that work with each other. The motherboard you bought better be a good one and the power supply better have enough watts. And get a anti-static wrist band. Usually people who build systems upgrade all the fans and get some good cooling fans in there.

Then you can work on making that case look sweet.

[serpent star]

Bought a compaq once, that was enough to get me to build the next one. Will never ever stop homebuilding.... total control of everyh component that goes into it... much better value(better components for cheaper price. No dealing with mindless computer store employees who get a sort of glazed look in there eyes when ever I mention the term CAS 2, but light up when they start talking about their 4 year extended warrantee available for puchase What a joke.

[younghistorians]

Personally,
I would buy a cheap dell,(bare-bone or very least) then, tweak it by adding all kinds of memory, hard drive, cd-rw, dvd, zip, etc.

Thats just what I would do though.

[kb1827]

You'll pay more for the dell than you will for a homebuilt one wiht enough power to rival a high-end dell...

That and with a self built, you canchoose your own motherboard and case...

[halfshark]

pros: pride, customise it to anything, easier to troubleshoot

cons: um none i dont think

i have custom built and prebuilt pc's in this house and would definitely say that the custom built gave me a very good feeling because a) i built it myself b) the case i built myself and no other manufacturer's case touches my 51mm high silver aluminium casing