Pre-Built or Custom?

[Envy]

With pre-built computers generally costing less and less, building a custom computer isn't always the cheapest of solutions.

Given that, which do you prefer? Would you prefer to buy a few parts at a time and save up to build your own computer or would you rather just buy a pre-built configuration and work from there?

[Ricardo]

My current desktop computer was built five years ago around Cubase SX.

The guy from the music store literally walked down the street with me and told the computer builder what I needed.

Aside from a malfunctioning CD drive and a hard drive failure which warned me in time to save essential files, I like the system.

In the future, I think I'd still be open to starting from scratch if I knew exactly which software I'd be running.

[mjd420nova]

Custom is the way to go, as few outfits will build a unit with exactly what you want, you wind up making compromises to suit what they have, not what you want. Building your own, you get just what you want and need, not what they want to sell.

[10cents]

My first PC was a pre-built gateway 2000. I don't know if the company still exists. I've had custom-builds since then. More value for my money.

[cheater]

I currently run a pre-built dell laptop. My goal is to take an old computer, and slowly upgrade all the parts to top of the line parts.

[CaTaNha]

My computer is custom so i think that custom computers are the best :P

[Geekonadiet]

My computer is a custom job. The best thing about customs builds is that you pay for and get exactly what you want.

[hummingbird42256]

I think I would just buy the prebuilt ones. I have an older one that is runing on a network in my home.It runs slow so slow thta I hate to use it. But we bought a new one and so we put the old one in my son's room. We bought a router for the old one and had a network card installed. The pc is win 98 it works great just slow on that network card.

[macuser9214]

Pre built by.....

You guessed it! APPLE!

[Ridman]

I would definately opt for a custom job, especially if you have the ability to do the basic tech support that it will need (or on good terms with someone who will do it free/cheap). With prebuilts, you are sacraficing quality for the ability to get a warranty. If you have no ability to repair it yourself, yeah, Dell's outsourced and undertrained tech support is better than Geek Squad, but if you don't need the warranty, get it done custom.

And if you can build it yourself, no question, do it. Much more satisfying in the end by far.