Mid-Range
| Dell Dimension 4700 | Gateway 5200X | |
| Price | $1,246 – $150mir = $1,196 | $1,174.98 |
| Processor | Pentium 4 530 – 3 GHZ | Pentium 4 530 – 3 GHZ |
| RAM | 512 MB Dual Channel DDR400 | 512 MB Dual Channel DDR400 |
| OS | Microsoft Windows XP Pro | Microsoft Windows XP Pro |
| Optical 1 | 16x DVD +/- RW | 16x DVD +/- RW |
| Optical 2 | 16x DVD-Rom | 16x DVD-Rom |
| Hard Drive 1 | 160 GB SATA (7,200 RPM) | 200 GB SATA (7,200 RPM) |
| Floppy Drive | Yes | Yes |
| Front Panel | USB 2.0 | 8-1 Media Card Reader |
| Monitor | 15 inch LCD | 15 inch LCD |
| Video Card | ATI Radeon X300SE 128 MB | ATI Radeon X300SE 128 MB |
| Sound Card | Integrated | Integrated |
| Keyboard / Mouse | Standard | Standard |
| Case | Standard | Standard |
| HP A850Y | Build | |
| Price | $1,258.98 – $100mir = $1,158.98 | $1,235 |
| Processor | Pentium 4 540 – 3.2 GHZ | Pentium 4 540 – 3.2 GHZ |
| RAM | 512 MB Dual Channel DDR400 | 512 MB Dual Channel DDR400 |
| OS | Microsoft Windows XP Pro | Microsoft Windows XP Pro |
| Optical 1 | 16x DVD +/- RW | 16x DVD +/- RW |
| Optical 2 | 16x DVD-Rom | 16x DVD-Rom |
| Hard Drive 1 | 200 GB SATA (7,200 RPM) | 200 GB SATA (7,200 RPM) |
| Floppy Drive | Yes | Yes |
| Front Panel | 2 USB – 1 Firewire | 2 USB |
| Monitor | 17 inch LCD | 17 inch LCD |
| Video Card | ATI Radeon X300SE 128 MB | ATI Radeon X300SE 128 MB |
| Sound Card | Integrated | Integrated |
| Keyboard / Mouse | Standard | Standard |
| Case | Standard | Enlight / 350 watt |
Link to wish list: http://secure.newegg.com/app/WishR.asp?ID=1321168
Comparison
With this system, it is cheaper to build before rebates, but after rebates it is no longer any cheaper to build than to go out to the store to buy. These systems are great for those who multitask and do some gaming. It will run almost any game on the market currently, but it will not have quite as much power as the first build. The Dell is somewhat over priced for what you get, and the Gateway has the best price for what you get (before rebates). You would get the most with the HP and the custom build, but you would have to be willing to pay a little extra. If you decided to go with a CRT monitor, you could save a lot more on a custom build, but for comparison purposes, an LCD was used and priced in the configuration.
Tyler Thompson A native of Derby, Kansas, Tyler is the man who brings you our weekly newsletter. He is currently interested in programming, hardware and networking systems, and technology integration.
[...] at various articles comparing a high-end pre-built PC to a similar custom built one (such as this one), and they seem to show a few hundred dollars saved when building a computer. So building a [...]
[...] I also found a site I thought did a great job of easily educating you about buying vs building a computer, in a quick and easy way. The site has Gaming, Mid-Range, and Budget/Office computers separated into different section. If you went into gaming computers, the page has a table where it shows the price of a pre-built computer, then how much it would cost if you were to buy the parts separately and built it yourself. The site has a poor design, with big spaces all over the page. Also, for my site I would like to go into more detail, like the user would compare a buy vs build, and notice they’d save $250 building it themselves. From there, they could look into adding different features to make an ever better computer with the money saved. Buy vs. Build Research [...]