Remember when "Building Your Own" Made Financial Sense ?

[John Naylor]

There were three major reasons why the "Build Your Own" culture developed:

1. You had more control of parts selection
2. You wound up knowing more about and could add an aesthetic flair to your build
3. It was cheaper

Well make that 2 reasons.... with tariffs looming here in US, heres' what we are facing

A. Dell has a box built overseas at below living wage labor rates, imports it here .... a) they pay no tariff charge and b) their tax rate was just cut from 39.6 to 20%.

B. Mom and Pop shop builds to your specs, buys the parts individually and pays a 30 (or 35) % tariff on them ... far more than their typical 15% labor cost. Their tax rates are much higher % wise.

C. I buy the parts including the 30% tariff and build it myself. Despite my time investment, it's cheaper now to buy a Dell.

So how exactly is this tariff helping anyone here at home ? It basically insures that all assembly labor will be done overseas.

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/280356-if-youre-planning-to-build-a-pc-youd-best-build-soon

 

[LFaWolf]

I thought tariff on China imports is only 10% until Jan 1 2019? Then it becomes 25%. How did you get 30%?

 

[R-T-B]

I thought tariff on China imports is only 10% until Jan 1 2019? Then it becomes 25%. How did you get 30%?

I've always heard 30.

 

[Divide Overflow]

Sounds like a rant against tariffs more than anything else. Assembly labor was being done overseas long before any tariffs. I'd still build my own due to points 1 & 2 and system builder markups are typically much higher than the temporary 10% tariff.

 

[LFaWolf]

I've always heard 30.

No? I am reading this wrong?
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/17/us/politics/trump-china-tariffs-trade.html

 

[FordGT90Concept]

It's liable to get more expensive for Dell too if US-China don't reach an agreement soon. Trump said he's going to put a tariff on virtually everything (about $500 billion worth of goods).

Many manufacturers are already moving component production to Taiwan to avoid the tariffs.

 

[Bones]

I too would still build my own.
Even if it's cheaper..... It's a Dell and I don't want that period.

 

[hat]

I'd expect both the finished product (Dell) or the components to do it yourself to be tariffed... in any case, I've already been surprised by the affordability of those Dell desktops, for a basic system anyway. Now once you start getting into high power systems, the costs increase greatly.

 

[eidairaman1]

Sounds like a rant against tariffs more than anything else. Assembly labor was being done overseas before any tariffs. I'd still build my own due to points 1 & 2.

Same here,

political smear this topic is...

 

[phanbuey]

building your own still makes financial sense... even if you buy a dell, you're getting a super crappy motherboard, no OC potential, bad PSU that cant support upgrades, and a case that looks like it belongs in a school library.

My friend just got a super cheap hp gtx 1060 i5 7400 rig... that thing overheats in a normal game.... and doesnt support the ram that i could give him.

If you're going super budge then buy used parts (cheaper, better performance), if you're going alienware + pricing $1k+up then building yourself still makes sense.

The only time it doesnt make sense is if you're going 2080ti and you need a rig from scratch, then buying a custom prebuilt might be better.

 

[R-T-B]

No? I am reading this wrong?
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/17/us/politics/trump-china-tariffs-trade.html

Nope, you aren't. Just sayin' what the word on my street was. Aparently, people on the street like to round up.

political smear this topic is...

It's also super relevant to our field. Whether or not the orange man did it or not and regardless of the reasons, it hurts us all in the wallet and that is fact.

I mean, if that's smear... I must be getting old. I remember when smearing people used lies not facts.

That being said, I don't think it's been cost effective for a while. I can afford 25% more for the ability to choose my parts personally.

 

[AsRock]

Even if you pay more it's worth building your self, knowing what you own, learning experience.

As some one else said Tariff rant.

Nope, you aren't. Just sayin' what the word on my street was. Aparently, people on the street like to round up.



It's also super relevant to our field. Whether or not the orange man did it or not and regardless of the reasons, it hurts us all in the wallet and that is fact.

I mean, if that's smear... I must be getting old. I remember when smearing people used lies not facts.

That being said, I don't think it's been cost effective for a while. I can afford 25% more for the ability to choose my parts personally.

Hurting us giving work to everyone but our self's, even more so when they screwing us on tariffs. Same old shit in the UK.

The Orange man is a business man and tells it how it is and people get all Trump derangement.

 

[dorsetknob]

I mean, if that's smear... I must be getting old. I remember when smearing people used lies not facts.

ain't that the best sort of smear

 

[eidairaman1]

Even if you pay more it's worth building your self, knowing what you own, learning experience.

As some one else said Tariff rant.



Hurting us giving work to everyone but our self's, even more so when they screwing us on tariffs. Same old shit in the UK.

The Orange man is a business man and tells it how it is and people get all Trump derangement.

They all get butt hurt and need to get over themselves and grow up. Budget is better than none.

Just save up when buying parts. I had to in 2014 when I built my rig, couldnt buy it all at once.

 

[sepheronx]

Prior to the Tariff Threats, when the GPU mining was at its prime (what, half a year ago?) and GPU prices were through the roof - buying pre-made systems were also cheaper option. Mix the RAM prices with GPU prices and it created just a mess for buyers of enthusiasts. It was technically cheaper for me to purchase a Dell XPS that was on discount (sometimes $300 off) with a GTX 1060 6gb or a RX480 8gb than building a whole new system.

What I did was simply purchase old used dells, rip out the components I wanted/needed, and then individually purchased parts. Mostly used graphics cards. So far it worked in my favor. Exception was the motherboard in my system specs which was good price, but coming from Netherlands ended up costing me an arm and a leg for shipping and border fees - came out to close to $200 for it. But I got a 4770 for $150 and that came with a whole computer - 8gb of ram, 320gb HDD (can be re-used obviously), some old GPU that can be re-used, etc etc.

I can only say that now you guys will get screwed on prices like we have up here in Canada. I worry it will just get worst for us though.

 

[Jetster]

Its never been cheaper to DIY. Not unless your buying used. Large companies buy in bulk and use cheap parts. A small PC business cannot complete with the big outlets like Dell and HP. They have to do better work using premium parts and customs builds

As reported by the BBC, the United States is set to impose a 25% tariff on over 800 categories of Chinese goods. Thousands of different products are covered under this new tariff, and by every account, electronic designers will be hit hard. Your BOM cost just increased by 25%.

 

[trog100]

a trade war is one shot short of shooting war.. trade and commerce is now being weaponized with the US arrogant enough to think it has the power to decide who trades with who..

build your own or not its all gonna cost more..

trog

 

[sepheronx]

a trade war is one shot short of shooting war.. trade and commerce is now being weaponized with the US arrogant enough to think it has the power to decide who trades with who..

build your own or not its all gonna cost more..

trog

well, there wont be a shooting war between the powers (US, Russia & China) since you know, nuclear weapons. So the next best thing? trying to tank each others economies.

US is worlds biggest consumers. That is evident by their trade (im)balance (Almost $1T deficit in trade per year). China has the advantage of population but not one that can be 1) Big spenders (currently) and 2) willing to have growing personal debt in order to have the goods. But once average Chinese decides to spend more than they make (rely on credit) and or make significantly more money, then they will end up being the biggest consumers (will be a battle between them and India of course).

It will affect us in Canada too. We have agreed to US demands in the NAFTA agreements and we no longer control our foreign relations. US has decided for us if we can or cannot trade with who we want. Cant say I blame the US for this. It is our own governments fault.

 

[Frick]

The Orange man is a business man and tells it how it is and people get all Trump derangement.

A country isn't a business so that wouldn't be a merit for him even if he was a good one.

Its never been cheaper to DIY. Not unless your buying used. Large companies buy in bulk and use cheap parts. A small PC business cannot complete with the big outlets like Dell and HP. They have to do better work using premium parts and customs builds

I think it's from a gamers perspective, in which case it absolutely has been true from a pure performance per [currency] perspective.

 

[Basard]

The guy from Long Island complaining about component prices?? My 8700k is more valuable than a month of rent for this studio that I live in.

 

[Deleted member 163531]

For me, a gamer, it was always about getting the best bang for the buck. Not getting the cheapest parts but performance based hardware that is stable, compatible (with the rest of the build) and upgradable which Dell, HP and most other off the self Pc builders are not.

Personally, I am at a crossroads now with my build decisions. I just built a PC last year and planned to upgrade with a second 1080 next spring but after reading about the new Nvidia RTX 2070 I was going to wait for the cost to come down and just get one of the new cards as SLI doesn't really give you a 1-1 bump in performance anyway. But that may be out of the question with a 25-30% increase in price I might be out of luck next year and just put the upgrade off for another year which stinks for me and ticks me off.

 

[eidairaman1]

a trade war is one shot short of shooting war.. trade and commerce is now being weaponized with the US arrogant enough to think it has the power to decide who trades with who..

build your own or not its all gonna cost more..

trog

Actually it does.

For me, a gamer, it was always about getting the best bang for the buck. Not getting the cheapest parts but performance based hardware that is stable, compatible (with the rest of the build) and upgradable which Dell, HP and most other off the self Pc builders are not.
What bothers me about the tariffs is how the money gained is going to be used or not used. Will it be used to bring back jobs to the U.S. or make our workers and our companies more competitive?
I highly doubt it. The Orange man will find a way to line the pockets of the rich yet again giving the working man the shaft yet again...

Personally, I am at a crossroads now with my build decisions. I just built a PC last year and planned to upgrade with a second 1080 next spring but after reading about the new Nvidia RTX 2070 I was going to wait for the cost to come down and just get one of the new cards as SLI doesn't really give you a 1-1 bump in performance anyway. But that may be out of the question with a 25-30% increase in price I might be out of luck next year and just put the upgrade off for another year which stinks for me and ticks me off knowing the Orange man has found a way of screwing me over again.

Save up then duh.

 

[Tom.699]

IMO "Build Your Own" is still and always be less expensive that buying prebuild.
If you buy/build you first computer it may be not clear what is cheaper but in the long run whenever you upgrade you can upgrade only few components while buying prebuild you pay for whole new system
1. PSU and case will last you years. Invest in good PSU and it will serve you few years, maybe up to 10, biggest issue may be cabling if new system needs connectors that are not present on old PSU. Case you can keep forever until you feel like changing because you like new design.
2. Memory usually lasts thru couple of upgrades.
3. Storage, I always buy my hard drives (now only SSD-s) wherever I need more of faster storage. Pretty much always they stay in new system

So, yea, fist one is a toss but after that you save money buying only components you want to upgrade.

 

[mcraygsx]

Only reason I would buy DELL or any other prebuild system is because of one stop Warranty/Tech Support. Something my parents would love to have. When something goes wrong in custom build system they will not have to deal with troubleshooting, diagnosis or repairs. There are many reasons to pick prebuild e.g. warranty, financing options, built to spec, compatibility assurance, customer support, etc.

But none of the above advantages are more exciting then building a custom PC yourself every once a year. .

My GF has Apple 27" iMAC which we purchased from BB and cost over $1950 but systems spec are nothing compare to my custom build PC with far better specs for similar price.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

The only pre built i ever owned was a pentium75 olivetti envision, it looked like a hifi seperate and got repossessed due to a payment dispute.
Taught me one thing, they are built to a price and without later upgrades in mind at all.
Me built all the way since then.