# Is it cheaper to build a PC yourself? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 23, 2002, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-cheaper-to-build-a-pc-yourself/138358 "2002-11-23T17:28:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2002, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-cheaper-to-build-a-pc-yourself/138358/21 "2002-11-24T23:04:17Z")
“The LCD is probably OEM,” No, its a Ultrasharp Dell 1504fp. Dell sold these for $449 on their website, it has vga & dvi connectors. It was of course, a one time special. You can find them on [ebay.com](http://ebay.com) sometimes. Bios is a Dell with a date of Sept 2002 ( IBought in Oct), so they make their own bioses to take advantage of the latest features. Im not concerned about them making their own because it comes with a full guarantee & because I bought it was a Visa card, visa gives me two years guarantee free… I wish I knew if the cdrom with XP on it that they give us is a full XP Home cd 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Cooper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@Cooper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cooper)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-cheaper-to-build-a-pc-yourself/138358/22 "2002-12-02T00:48:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by FDISK \* > \*\*Another hint: There’s no reason for you to be paying more than $150 for Windows XP Professional. \*\* Can you tell me where you find it for this price? I haven’t looked around a lot but I have looked some and haven’t found anyone that can consistently (without a limited time rebate or something) sell me software for much less than retail unless I’m buying multiple seats… ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-cheaper-to-build-a-pc-yourself/138358/23 "2002-12-02T15:46:56Z")
"$150 for Windows XP Professional. " If you have a store or are a professional, MS often sells this software for $39.95 plus shipping at their website with some trinkets. Sometimes its $59. It’s a promotional idea, NOT for reselling & one per customer. ---
**Author:** ![bensonGemini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb9ed0/32.png) [@bensonGemini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bensonGemini)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-cheaper-to-build-a-pc-yourself/138358/24 "2002-12-02T16:28:20Z")
handy… what brand ram… what brand gfx card… what brand hd… most importantly… which mobo? ---
**Author:** ![twelfthsign](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ce73a5/32.png) [@twelfthsign](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twelfthsign)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-cheaper-to-build-a-pc-yourself/138358/25 "2002-12-02T17:16:13Z")
Cheaper yes, and more flexible with your choices. But there is some catch on the warranty issue I beleive. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-cheaper-to-build-a-pc-yourself/138358/26 "2002-12-02T19:18:14Z")
I build 'em because I like to build 'em, but there is still a possible benefit to be had from overclocking and selecting a viable upgrade path. The Sanford Box did me well for almost five years now, but it’s finally obsolete. Its peripherals, monitor, CD-ROM, and hard drive will be donated to its successor, Lamont. Right now I can buy a Pentium 4 2.2A and a watercooling setup for far less than the $699 I would shell out for a P4 3.06. All I need is a motherboard, a chip and its cooling, a new case, lots of high-quality RAM, and a wisely chosen video card, which should total around $1200, tops. With aggressive overclocking and a little luck I may well be able to exceed the performance of the fastest available stock computer, with room to upgrade as things change. The Sanford Box, which has cost me a total of about $1200 over the past four-plus years, will be cobbled into a quiet, stable (but still fairly fast at 892 MHz) system for my parents using spare parts I have lying about. They’ll have to shell out about $200 for a monitor and anything else I can’t supply myself. All told, I’ll be spending $2400 for probably six or more years of quality computing on two computers, but at the end of Lamont’s front-line career I’ll still be able to use parts of it to defray the cost of the next system. Overall, I think it’s been a pretty decent investment as well as a satisfying hobby. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-cheaper-to-build-a-pc-yourself/138358.md?page=1)