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Awhile ago, I posted about 7 Reasons Why You Should Build Your Own PC. Now I give you, 4 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Build Your Own PC. This is for you if you are new to building your own PCs and you’re considering either getting your next PC or building one yourself.

Lack of Technical Support

Solving computer problems are one of the most annoying things that I have ever done. If you do not have much experience in diagnosing computer problems, it can be very frustrating and time-consuming. Do not try to do so unless you like to learn new things or are willing to spend hours diagnosing one stupid problem. Then again, do remember that any experience gained in solving your own problems can be used to help others such as your friends and yourself in the future when you encounter the same problems. Recall the saying, “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat forever.”

Time-consuming

The time needed to research the parts to buy, the time needed to build the system and the time needed to diagnose problems total up to a lot of time. If this is a factor for you, don’t consider building your own PC.

Inconvenient

Instead of just dropping off an order with a PC retailer and getting it by delivery in a week’s time, you have to get each part yourself and they might not be sold by the same store (although most of the time they are). If you live in Singapore, it’ll just be a simple trip to Sim Lim Square. However convenient that might be, you must always remember that you will have to pick the parts that you want. The last time I checked a price list from Fuwell, a shop in Sim Lim Square, it contained a list of about 30 different models from different manufacturers of motherboards, about three brands of RAM Chips, four brands of Hard disk drives, and an intimidating list of PCI Express graphic cards which listed about close to a hundred different models and brands of graphic cards. Now imagine you want the best price and you go through a handful of these pricelists, researching every part you are interested in. It’s a huge inconvenience.

Lack of Knowledge or Experience May Negate Advantages

So you have picked the parts you want, worked out your budget and you storm off to Sim Lim Square, step into Fuwell or Cybermind or any other shop and throw your list at them. The salesperson looks at you and say, “Hey you know what, I can get you a better system for $150 more.” Will you take the offer? He will highlight, calculate, and introduce you to new parts and brands that you probably wouldn’t have thought of, much less research. It will be up to you to assess the information given and decide if you need such a system.

Some motherboards include pipes for water cooling but if you aren’t adding a water-cooling system to your computer, you probably can shave off $100 by not getting such a system. Some RAM chips are so called “gaming edition” or “overclock edition” which include extra heatsinks, etc, but do you need them? Those are questions you may have to answer within a few seconds to decide if you would take up their offer. Depending on how knowledgable and honest the salesperson is, you might actually be getting a better system for a small increase in price, so you might not want to reject every offer they throw at you. It will be good to go with a friend who is knowledgable enough about computers to advise you in such a case. Otherwise, you might take up an offer in which you end up paying more for the same thing, or worse, for less.

There was once when I went to a shop asking about the difference between two motherboards. Their pricelist listed one motherboard with SATA2 and the other didn’t have anything written about the HDD interface. So I went to ask the salesperson. He pointed out confidently, “Oh, this one has SATA2, ya and the other one has 5.1 audio.”

I then asked him, “What about the HDD interface? Does it have SATA2?”

He pointed out again, “There, it has 5.1.”

I just stared with a look of disbelief, “But it’s not the same thing! One is a HDD interface and the other is an in-build audio on the motherboard!”

Then another salesperson who was more knowledgable noticed and came over to assist me. I got him to let me have a look at the actual motherboard and I noticed the SATA2 ports on the one which only advertised 5.1. Being able to identify features on motherboards is quite useful. I will probably write some articles to teach that here.

No Packaged OS and Software

In my other article, I mentioned that you can choose your OS if you build your own PC. However, more often than not, we end up installing Windows so it might be cheaper to get a PC that is pre-installed with Windows. You might even get some free software such as CD/DVD burning software. However do make sure that the software programs are full versions and not demos that expire over time. And ensure that they are not spyware or bloated crapware that slow down your computer. You can ask the salespeople what software programs are included in the PC. Any semi-decent salesperson should be able to give you a good answer.

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