Tiggs

looking at £400 pc systems on ebay...seems i can get a P4 3ghz, 1GB ram 200GB hard disk

ideal for my home office.

so why cant i buy the bits from scan and build it for that price? are they using very cheap componets?

ScoobyDoo555

Basically yes. But also bear in mind that these EBay seller's PCs are usually bought in bulk - hence prices can be really cheap.

Check out here for cheap -

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/bundles.html

Dan

Tiggs

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...DME:L:RTQ:UK:1

so how much would something like that be for me to buy and build....or is his bulk buy discount killing any saving i would make buy doing it myslef?


looking at novatech it seems i will not be able to build one of that spec for that price - so either the ebay guy is real cheap or novatech are pricey!

Scooby Soon!

Teh PC's on ebay are very competitive (as with everywhere) ON a £300 to £400 the profit will only be £15 - £20 max

Tiggs

so does that make them a better buy than the dell?

Scooby Dooby Blue

All you're getting there is a case, motherboard, CPU, memory and HDD

No optical drive. No OS

For the AMD equivalent:

Athlon64 3200+ CPU - £130
1GB PC3200 DDR - £55
160GB HDD - £45
939 Motherboard - £40
400W ATX tower - £30

That's coming in at £300

Add to that a DVD writer and XP Home and you should still have change off £400 all-in

Tiggs

ok....having now set my sites on a dell dimesion at about £850......is the profit (for dell) greater....or do i just buy £800 of bits and get my IT brother to put it together?

D16GER

Avoid Dell like the plague!!! Bloody aweful customer service in my experience.

Take a look at Mesh for quality systems.

Tiggs

dell just seem so much cheaper?

Kevin Greeley

Check out the Dell outlet - often cheap deals on there.

Last week I got a 5150 P4 3Ghz HT, 512Mb ram, 80Gb hard disk, DVDrom/CD burner, ATI X300 graphics, sound, lan etc. keyboard, mouse, speakers, Windows xp home and loads of other software - £252 delivered (no monitor).

Couldn't build one similar for that I think.

jpor

iTrader: (1)

You could always try popping down to your local Computer Fair and try getting parts cheaper. What most people end up doing is bartering the price down on the ticket price, getting the vendor to knock money off to price match another stall.

Iain Young

I've always had very good service from Dell, and their machines a very well made and reliable, (we've got loads of their business machines at work, and I have several friends who have bought them for home use). I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to anybody

Stueyb

I'd avoid Ebay machines like the plague. The prices are so cheap because they are not registered as businesses, use the absolute cheapest components from the cheapest suppliers and can you see them honouring a twelve month warrenty ?

I wouldn't touch em with a barge pole

douglasb

About a year ago I had some problems with my PC and ended up having a few bits left over once everything was working again. I said that I'd use the leftovers to build a fairly entry level PC for my stepfather.

It really wasn't worth it. With the hassle of putting it all together the extra £15 that Dell would have charged for something with a warranty made my efforts seem like a waste of time.

If you've got specific requirements that won't be met by buying off-the-shelf, then build your own; for the rest of the world, Dell seem to be doing great prices.