With the advent of commodity computer sellers like Dell and HP, many people feel that unless you have special needs for computer, it’s no longer worth it to build your own. This is patently false, as we’ll illustrate below.

Here’s a midrange computer, built straight off dell.com

Starting price for the Dell Inspiron 530 = $369.99

  • Upgrade the processor to a 2.2ghz Intel dual core E4500 =$549(+180)
  • Upgrade to 2GB of RAM=$ 649.99(+100)
  • Upgrade to a 500GB Hard drive= $779.99(+130)
  • Upgrade to a DVD burner=$809.99(+30)
  • Upgrade to a real video card, so Aero(vista) can run properly, adding a Geforce 8300GS=$859.99(+50)
  • Upgrade to Windows Vista Home Premium, a far better OS than Home Basic=$889.99(+30)

So $889.99 for a mid range Dell Machine with Vista Home Premium, a Geforce 8300GS, a 2.2ghz dual core processor, a 500 GB Hard Drive, 2 GB of Ram, and a DVD burner.

Now let’s look at how much it would cost to put together a comparable system on NewEgg, an online components retailer. Keep in mind that this build will exclude any component comparison shopping, which would bring the price down further.

  • Video Card: Hmm, no 8300GS’s for sale, so we’ll double the memory and upgrade to an 256MB 8400GS=44.99

Total: $523.90

The Homebuilt system is over 40% cheaper than the system built by Dell. If you go with Ubuntu, an Open Source operating system that is free, and considered by many to be a superior operating system to Vista for most tasks, then its over 54% cheaper.