Is assembled pc better than the readymade one?

Question

i am buying apc.i am confused whether to buy assembled pc from a local dealer or a readymade one from the company?
which one offers durability and great after sales service/
which one would you recommend/

Answer 1

wow!! thats too long story guys!! can i make it simple now!!
actually like this my friend!!
branded pc's nowadays same quality like clone pc's!! the best thing with branded pc is warranty!! for me personally u still can buy a clone pc with famous brands like intel mother board!! check online sites that explain about hardware qualities and prices!! if u go for clone pc u can choose what u want but if u go for branded pc's they give whatever spec they having at the moment!!

Answer 2

Assembled PCs get service support from the local assembler from whom you have bought it, whereas the branded ones have to wait for the company service personnel which may take more time. Otherwise, if there is not much difference in the price it is beter to go for a branded one. Branded PCs give a flat one year guarantee in India whereas you get the component warranty for each components in an assembled PC. When you order an assembled PC you can change the components to suit your requirements whereas the branded PC is already built by the company as per their marketing needs.

Answer 3

I'd prefer getting it piecemeal. For one, you get the most out of your budget since the parts will be chosen by you and the PC will be tailor-made for your personality (i.e. gamer, media-buff, server, graphic artist, etc). There are websites out there that will actually help you in that (Tom's Hardware, if I'm not mistaken). Also, you have a better QA since you'll be seeing each individual part being taken out of the box. I mean, who knows if those pre-assembled PCs have dud parts or are even using old stock?

Also, pre-assembled/ready-made PC's will always have an achilles heel - less RAM, crappy video card, generic psu (power supply), etc. It's usually done to milk the customers out of their money because they either don't have the time (so buying a ready-made one is convenient) or they don't know any better.

The patience you spend on selecting each part -- from the mobo all the way down to the mouse -- will pay off in the long run. Good luck!

Answer 4

If you buy a branded PC you will get only an years warranty but the service is good.
If you buy an assembled PC the you get 5 years warranty on the HDD, 3 yrs on MDB, Processor, RAM, etc and 1 yr on the rest.

The main difference between the two PCs is that you get an onsite warranty with a branded PC and offsite on an assembled one.

I recommend branded PC for first time buyers and assembled PC for the rest.

Answer 5

I have spoken about this topic on a number of ocassions both in my radio show and in print, (see http://gsapra.blogspot.com), but my take on assembled v/s branded is as follows

1. Assembled is not bad (after all they don't make individual components at home)
2. Assembled is no more cheaper as competition heats us
3. If you want a machine built to your specifications using your type of hardware, there is no alternative but assembled

Now what are the problems that one faces with assembled PC's,

1. Service, each spare in the machine is under warranty and usually you will have to run back to individual service centers to get the spare part changed, and not one guy
2. The guy who sold you the machine may not be in business in a very short cycle, as the margins are going down, if you are not tech - savvy, then try not to buy an assembled machine


Problem with Branded machines

1. Price at times is higher, but this problem is becoming less and less as days go by.
2. Fixed options, and fixed configurations, if you wanted liquid cooling, sorry, if you want a specific graphic card, sorry.
3. You expect service, but you don't get it at times, and that makes every one furious

Durability wise, both machines are ok, just make sure that you check the credentials of the guy / company who is assembling your PC. Also make sure that the cables are properly tied, and the case looks clean enough. Get the best components, most of the machines will fail, because of

1. Bad Cables
2. Bad Fans
3. Improper power supply
4. Loose cables / cables running around in the box
5. Bad cabinet design

GS

Answer 6

I do not know about your country but here in Japan there was a time when assembling was cheaper but now a days purchasing is much cheaper and dealer will give guarantee too.

My advise, if you want to get experience and have time and money then you better assemble but if you don't have time and money then you better go for computer from a reputable shop who can give you not only discount but also guarantee.
Recently Dell is getting popular after a long struggle in Japan.

Before you buy you should know what you want to do with computer? do you want to use in Audio/Video editing and game then you will need faster computer.

If you just want to do some email, documents with MS office and music listening/watching movies than normal computer will be fine.

You better make a plan go to computer shop ask sales person what for you need computer and they will guide you. This is the way you can save your money and could get nice thing.

I wish you success.

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Answer 7

it depends on few things
1. are the dealers of the branded PC local in your city or town
2. do you understand what components make up your PC
3. do you trust your local assember fellow
4. do you have time to research, identify and then go buy those components yourself

if u ask me, if u said no to the above questions, go for a branded one

branded PC tend to be slightly more expensive, and in my opinion, the after sales service is not so great. probably your local assembler will give better after sales service. but the software they will give will be genuine, and not pirated.

at the same time though, the margins for these assemblers is very very thin, so they try to make money by saying they will give one type of configuration but give you another

all in all, however, i would still go for assembled PC as generally it gives you more flexibility. you can ask him to exclude some things (for e.g. monitor or keyboard) and buy them yourself separately

Answer 8

Depends what you want to do with it. If you just want it to store some music on, surf the web, emails, maybe a bit of word processing, then it's fine. If you want it for gaming then it's not so good. The CPU is old and kinda slow but it would be fine if you just want to do the stuff above. How much is the system? In fact, it's very hard to say because 1GB graphics card doesn't really tell much at all. There are good 1GB cards and there are shitty ones. What model is it?

Answer 9

In a assembled PC we can demand the dealer to install the peripherals as we like and also warranty will varies from the readymade one. In assembled pc warranty will differ from the readymade one such as on harddisk branded one will give one year warranty where as assembled will give more that one year, for ram also. On branded pc s warranty will carry on whole part of the pc for one year only, but in assembled pc warranty will differ more than one year on some peripherals such as ram, hardisk, processor only.

Depends upon warranty and peripherals offered by the dealer you can purchase pc and now days it is ideal one is that best to purchase laptop than pc because marigin of the price offered by the dealer will slighlty difference between pc and laptop.

Answer 10

I'm not trying to sling mud, but geek squad is a bunch of people who just do what i have been doing since middle school. And No, do not buy a ready made. when you build, you personalize it. it makes it better that the stock piece of crap that the Jones's have. If you don't have the knowlegge to bould it, turn to companies like ibuypower (ibuypower.com) and their "configurators" let you choose just about anything on your system. prebuilts are underpowered garbage that are moved out for the masses loaded with crap that you will never use, a clean, non corporate monster driven install will run 10x better that prebuilt BS. Plus companies will give you sour milk for the price of wine. Anyway, go with custom,not prebuilt garbage.

Answer 11

The geek squad will overcharge you, and trust me, most retail pc's are junk. Get one from the dealer, or even better, go to Hp or Dell's site and customize one with all the components that you want if you really want to know what youre getting. Retail pcs have been very weak processor wise and graphics card wise lately, and both are required, especially to run Vista.