Home Built vs. Pre Built Computers

* If you build your own computer there are many things that make it better than a Pre Built such as an HP, Compaq, Emachines, Dell, Gateway, and others

* A home built will, in most cases be cheaper to build if with the same specs as a comparable Pre Built.

* Pre builts often have great looking specifications, such as "128MB Video Card" or "DVD+/-RW drive" These specifications are often with poor quality or slow versions of this. There is a huge difference between the "128MB Video Card" and a good one, they might give you a GeForceFX5200 for a video card, which, will be obsolete a lot faster than say, a FX 5700 Ultra, The difference between these is: about $100. The FX5200 costs only about $60, while the 5700 ultra is $160 and up. The difference in performance is huge. As for the DVD Burner, the Pre Builts are likely to come with a cheap brand DVD Burner that is probably only about half the speed of the one that you could have had if you were to build your own computer.

* Pre Builts have Boring, plain, and junky looking computer cases. In building your own you have hundreds of cases to choose from. Ranging from beige and boring to blue, yellow, green, and black, with or without windows, you could have them big or small. I mean, just the looks should be enough for you to choose building your own over a pre built!

* It is easy to build your own computer than it sounds, there are plenty of tutorials out there, or you could have a geeky friend help you.

* You get more bang for your buck if you are building your own, if you end up building your own, you can either get a much faster computer for the same price or something equivalent for hundreds less.

* Home builds are typically more upgrade able than a pre built.

* Pre builts are great for people that need the warranty and support as well as people that don't have the time to build their own. But keep in mind, warranties expire and support puts you on hold.

* When you build your own computer, not only do you learn some things about computers, but you also feel some accomplishment in doing so. What's better, being able to say:
---- "I am lazy and gullible so I bought myself an Emachines, the specifications looked great, but it just seems kind of slow and now I am stuck with this computer because they make them very hard to upgrade and I cant afford to buy another computer. Oh well, I can just stick to Counter-Strike and Solitaire for now and I can have some pictures, too bad I can't do any video editing with this one, but that's ok."
--or--
----"I got to build this computer myself, It performs great right now and I can play all the latest games and it will be great in the future, and when the time comes when this one needs upgraded, I can do so. Wow my computer looks great, I get a lot of compliments on it."

You decide.

Some places to get parts: Newegg.com, Directron.com, office store specials, and you can find others using Pricewatch.com, but be sure to check the seller using Resellerratings.com

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