Upgrade? Downgrade?

It's time to retire my old 450 MHz pIII. On it, I have built countless civilizations; I have conquered and lost the world time and again; I have fought my way through the Black Mesa complex and the Kingdom of Ehb. Still, I need to trade up. End of an era? What do I care? It's just a computer.

Up until now I have always built my own machines. It's fun and I've saved a few bob. These days though, it seems like it's not worth it anymore. Dell will happily sell you a decent machine for less than $400, and nowadays OEM machines are fairly upgradeable.

I go to the Dell Small Business site. The Dimension 3000 looks like a good candidate - decent spec for decent price. Clicking around the site, I find four different ways to configure the machine - one through "Desktops", one through "Alternative OS" and two (with or without monitor) through "outrageous deals".

I click through all four and customize to the same spec - p4 2.8 GHz, 512 MB Ram, 80 GB harddrive and 17 inch screen.

I end up with four different prices -

  • $949, minus $200 mail in rebate = $749
  • $799, minus $150 mail in rebate = $649
  • $704, no mail in rebate
  • $949, no mail in rebate (this is the one with alternative OS)

Four different prices for the same machine, depending on which path I take to find it? That's not right.

Whatever. I'm not a fan of mail in rebates, but I decide to go for the $799-$150 option after all. Clicking through the check-out, it turns out that with sales tax ($76.67) and shipping ($79), the total price is $954.67.

So now the machine will cost me $800? And it'll take a couple of weeks before I get it, and then another 4-6 weeks probably before I get the mail in rebate? Ah, forget it. I'm going to Fry's.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Published 03 October 04 01:19 by jesperh
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Comments

# Build your own? said on October 3, 2004 2:11 PM:
You could always build your own... or if you don't want to mess with it, find someone who would do it for you. Yeah, no tech support, but it'll be chaper, for sure, especially if you go with clearance parts...

Just a thought.
# Jesper Holmberg said on October 3, 2004 2:43 PM:
Oh I have no problem building myself. Every machine I've ever owned has been a Frankenstein. It's just, I thought getting an OEM this time would be both cheaper and easier and just as upgradeable. Guess I was wrong...

If I'm forking out over $800 for a decent OEM machine, I might as well build myself and have full control over what goes in there.
# Chris Willoughby said on October 3, 2004 3:12 PM:
How about going to www.e4me.com?

E-machines aren't that bad! :)
# Jesper Holmberg said on October 3, 2004 3:35 PM:
I checked them (and a few others) out before I went to the Dell site. One thing I really appreciate with Dell though is that you have a lot of opportunities for customizing the machine. Not as many as if you build it yourself of course, but far more than e-machines. Also, Gateways are really expensive and the HP site refuses to load.

Nah, I'm best off building it myself.
# Jeff said on October 3, 2004 4:43 PM:
Be a geek! Build it yourself! :) I just bought some parts for an HTPC from NewEgg and I was pleased with their site and the quick delivery. Not the lowest prices in town, but they have a great reputation.

Check my blog regarding the over-clockability of the CPU I bought. Can't beat ~2,8 GHz P4 performance with a $77 chip...
http://weblogs.asp.net/jeff/archive/2004/09/28/235408.aspx
# Eric Cherng said on October 3, 2004 5:05 PM:
I think in the past, we built our own computers because that was the more economical route. Since computers costed a few K back then, it was cheaper to buy the parts and just assemble everything ourselves.

However nowadays, with computers under 1K, the economic factor is no longer the issue. I think the reason why we (us geeks I mean :P) build our own computers is just for the sense of knowing what goes into our computer and for the geekiness of assembling everything ourselves. Using a computer is one thing, but I feel especially geeky if the computer is lying on the desk with its guts open and parts all over the place. 8-) Overclocking the computer is more icing on the cake!

For me personally, the reason why I started building my own computer is because the first computer I purchased was a piece of junk. It was purchased from a mom & pop shop who put all the crappiest oem parts they could find into the computer so they could maximize their profit. Ever since then, I never trusted anyone else to build my computer again.
# Ragi said on October 3, 2004 5:09 PM:
Try just buying the parts from different vendors specials. Checkout http://www.pricewatch.com
# Jesper Holmberg said on October 3, 2004 5:16 PM:
Mobile Athlon, eh? Interesting... if I go that route, I might be able to upgrade for <$300. Not bad.
# Jesper Holmberg said on October 3, 2004 5:49 PM:
Eric, I'm with you. I really prefer knowing exactly what's inside of the box. I've really only owned 3 PCs over the last seventeen years, but by keeping upgradeability in mind from the start I've been able to make them last. My pIII is actually surprisingly useful still, with 576 MB RAM, striped drives and a Radeon 9600. I used to have it clocked to 111 MHz FSB, but it didn't really make a perf difference so the last few years I've been running it at 100 MHz FSB to try to make the machine survive as long as possible.

# Jesper Holmberg said on October 3, 2004 5:53 PM:
Ragi, pricewatch looks interesting. Thanks for the tip!
# Jeppe's WebLog said on October 9, 2004 8:26 PM:
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