OEM vs. Homebred
Processed vs. Garden Fresh
I'm a Mac, screw you PC
Why I'm sick of talking to bigots
All of the above were things I was going to title this post. I rejected some of them for obvious reasons, such as being rude. Others I rejected because they're more about why I hate talking to tech zealots (to be fair, I may use that one as the title of a later post). But neither of those things are things I really want to talk about right now. Right now, I want to talk about a comment that I see in many of the places I socialize on the internet. The comment is usually directed at Apple Computer users, but can be applied to basically every computer manufacturer on the planet.
"Why would you pay that much for an overpriced computer when you can build one just as good or better for less money?"
NOTE: I'd like to point out that there is a section labelled IN CONCLUSION further down the page, and if you're not interested in the detailed explanation behind my reasoning, you can skip there to see my answer to this question and decide if you care enough to read the rest.
Before we start answering that question, I'd like to take a moment to establish my ethos in regards to this topic. Because the fact of the matter is, you shouldn't believe anything you read on the internet unless the person writing it can demonstrate at least some level of competence when it comes to what they're writing about. Traditionally, I just write my opinion (such as in movie reviews). But right now, I'm writing about something I've researched pretty extensively. I've built a computer from spare parts. I've taken several desktop machines and swapped bits around. I've bought cards to stick into machines and troubleshot the problems that were included in the purchase price. I've used computers that range the gamut from dirt cheap crap to the highest end heaps the consumer electronics world has to offer. I tax every system I use as much as possible as a way to pass the time, because pushing a computer to its limits is good fun to me. I have spent a MASSIVELY SIGNIFICANT amount of time researching the cost of components as well as the prices that whole computers are sold at. I ran complicated models through AutoCAD in a virtual machine on my laptop for hours one afternoon. Because I thought it would be a lark. My point is, I have spent a lot of time around custom builds and manufactured computers from every major OEM, and I have an answer to that question above based on years of price and performance comparing.
You can't build a computer "just as good" for less money. Sorry bro.
That is, of course, a stupidly simplistic answer. But then, so is the question. Neither takes into account the enormous number of different use cases for computers out there, and the fact is, you don't use a computer exactly the same as the person sitting next to you. If we all did, then there would be a single computer that would work perfectly for all of us. But as it is, we have to do research of our own and decide what will work best for us. If you ask me for buying advice on a computer, I'll try my darndest to put myself in your position and advise you based on your use case. The problem with that question (and the answer I just gave) is that it doesn't take into account this disparity in use cases. For some situations, you can build a better computer for less money than if you bought it from an OEM.
But for most people, you just can't. Again with the sorry, bro.
Let's start at the low end. People who only use a computer to browse the internet and basic word processing from time to time. It's all social networking and looking up recipes for a lot of people out there. If you are that person and you asked me what computer I'd recommend for you, I'd tell you to get an iPad.
"But no, I need to do some typing, like writing up a newsletter, every month."
Cool. Get a bluetooth keyboard for $12 off of Amazon to go with your iPad. Problem solved! The fact is, iPads are about as good as you can get for internet browsing and social networking, and I guarantee you can find a word processing app that will meet or exceed all of your needs.
Not all of MY needs, but I'm a power user. I have a very different use case that unfortunately involves me arguing with Word for a good portion of my day trying to force it to contort itself into a half-way decent piece of software. Between Word and Adobe... well, let's just say that I need an actual computer to do my job.
But for most people, an iPad could replace their computer completely. Add that to the fact that it's good fun to use and you can get them on the low end for $300 dollars. Now, can you build a computer as portable as an iPad? No. You can't, don't even try to tell me you can. And anything you did build for $300 would be worse to use and slower.
Okay, but that's the really low end of computers. People that need lots of storage for music and photos need more space than an iPad. And especially if it doesn't matter that the machine be portable, surely this is where home builds would take over.
In cost, they start to catch up around $600. Over that cost, you can build a computer with comparable specs to an OEM machine for less money. For example, I priced out the cost of a custom desktop that would match the specs of my MacBook Pro a while back. I payed $1500 for that laptop, and this desktop came in at $1100. A similarly spec'd laptop build would have run me about $1300, maybe $1400 depending on who I trusted to make my hard disc. So the internet screams at me, "You're paying $200 for a NAME!"
No guys, sorry. I'm paying $200 to not have any problems. I spend too much time arguing with software to want to spend more time arguing with my hardware, and I haven't had to. It's been money well spent.
Because there is another thing to consider, and that is time. Time to build, time to test, and time troubleshooting any problems that may arise. When you save money on something, you can think of that as paying yourself. I could have done a custom build and I would have payed $200 to myself in savings. If you buy an OEM computer above about $500 to $600, you are paying to have someone else do all of that testing and building and troubleshooting for you.
Someone that works for a company with a name, yes. Stop shouting that stuff about names. I'll bet I could find a brand name on your computer.
But what happens when you run into problems with your custom build? And you will. Making all of the hardware and firmware that goes into building a computer dance that delicate dance of functioning properly isn't easy. There will be little electrical issues, minor driver conflicts, unforeseen weirdness. This will all happen, and it will all need to be fixed. Over the life of that computer, you may spend as much as a day or two of total time troubleshooting and fixing your computer. If you get a really bad conflict, you'll spend a day or two the first weekend you've got it. $200 divided by two days is less than minimum wage, and that's basically what you are paying yourself for your time in those situations. Of course, if you're doing that for fun, then there's nothing wrong with that. Fun can't really be valued in monetary terms.
But to any builders that may be reading, keep in mind that some of us don't like doing this. I hate troubleshooting a hardware issue just to find out that Nvidia stopped supporting my video card in their driver releases last year, and now my machine ejects the internal hard disc whenever I try to play a movie using VLC Player. That results in a pretty spectacular crash, in case you were wondering. I personally value my time higher than the dollar an hour rate I was basically paying myself by building a computer in that situation. Most people just want their computer to work for them, which makes a home build kinda impractical.
And don't offer to build me a computer. It's after the machine is built that this stuff starts breaking. I've been there. I've seen it.
And this is the clincher. If you are buying a computer to do work, whether it be for a job or completing computing tasks at home, you aren't paying money for a science project. You are paying money for a tool. And in those cases, you need a computer that will just work, every time. Any time you spend figuring out why Photoshop crashes and you get that distinct grape flavor from children's nasal decongestant in your mouth whenever you plug in a USB flash drive is time that you could have spent doing actual work. That means you are losing money, and in a professional setting especially, that quickly makes your custom build far more expensive than a comparable professional computer, such as an iMac or a Mac Pro (because I'm a Mac guy, of course that's what I'd be using). The risks you take are too big to justify saving $200 dollars when an OEM can give you a great machine that you know will work.
Depending on the OEM, of course. There's bad eggs out there.
So where does a home build make sense? At home, obviously. If you are building a computer specifically to play games on, and you just so happen to be the type of person who enjoys ripping into your machine for upgrades and fixes and stuff, then a home build is perfect for you. It's a computer for fun, after all, and the troubleshooting and fixing is part of that fun. Like I said earlier, fun can't be categorized monetarily. So if you are that person, build your own machine. You'll enjoy it, and you'll save a few hundred bucks to boot.
But don't you dare tell me that your custom build is better than my machine. Because for my use case, and for the use cases for the majority of the people you know, it isn't. Most people would throw your custom build out the window two days in to using it and go buy a Dell, and you don't want that on your head, do you?
IN CONCLUSION:
There's nothing wrong with a custom build, and if you enjoy building, upgrading, and fixing computers, then a custom build is probably the best thing you can do for yourself. But that's it. For yourself. Most of the people you talk to need a computer they can count on to work all the time because computers are how we make money. Add to that the fact that most of us hate having to fix hardware and driver issues, and that makes a custom build really rather impractical for us. An OEM machine will give us the constant functionality that we want and need. Your Frankenstein can't.
The short answer to the question that appears at the top of this post is that no custom build assembled by a dude in his basement will ever meet my personal and professional computing needs. That requires hundreds of man hours, a team of hardware engineers and months of testing. Is that worth and extra $200 to me? Yep. It sure is. I wouldn't take your home build if you didn't charge me anything.
So build your ultimate water cooled gaming computer. Brag about how the processor is 400 Mhz faster than my iMac, and your graphics card has 4 gigs of built in RAM to my paltry 1. Tell me I'm being had and paying too much money for a brand. When you spend six hours replacing that amazing graphics card because the startup tech company you bought it from hasn't released drivers for the latest Windows update (and never will because they went out of business last month), just remember that you're getting paid less than minimum wage.
I sure hope you're enjoying yourself, because you have no other justification for what you're doing.
Processed vs. Garden Fresh
I'm a Mac, screw you PC
Why I'm sick of talking to bigots
All of the above were things I was going to title this post. I rejected some of them for obvious reasons, such as being rude. Others I rejected because they're more about why I hate talking to tech zealots (to be fair, I may use that one as the title of a later post). But neither of those things are things I really want to talk about right now. Right now, I want to talk about a comment that I see in many of the places I socialize on the internet. The comment is usually directed at Apple Computer users, but can be applied to basically every computer manufacturer on the planet.
"Why would you pay that much for an overpriced computer when you can build one just as good or better for less money?"
NOTE: I'd like to point out that there is a section labelled IN CONCLUSION further down the page, and if you're not interested in the detailed explanation behind my reasoning, you can skip there to see my answer to this question and decide if you care enough to read the rest.
Before we start answering that question, I'd like to take a moment to establish my ethos in regards to this topic. Because the fact of the matter is, you shouldn't believe anything you read on the internet unless the person writing it can demonstrate at least some level of competence when it comes to what they're writing about. Traditionally, I just write my opinion (such as in movie reviews). But right now, I'm writing about something I've researched pretty extensively. I've built a computer from spare parts. I've taken several desktop machines and swapped bits around. I've bought cards to stick into machines and troubleshot the problems that were included in the purchase price. I've used computers that range the gamut from dirt cheap crap to the highest end heaps the consumer electronics world has to offer. I tax every system I use as much as possible as a way to pass the time, because pushing a computer to its limits is good fun to me. I have spent a MASSIVELY SIGNIFICANT amount of time researching the cost of components as well as the prices that whole computers are sold at. I ran complicated models through AutoCAD in a virtual machine on my laptop for hours one afternoon. Because I thought it would be a lark. My point is, I have spent a lot of time around custom builds and manufactured computers from every major OEM, and I have an answer to that question above based on years of price and performance comparing.
You can't build a computer "just as good" for less money. Sorry bro.
That is, of course, a stupidly simplistic answer. But then, so is the question. Neither takes into account the enormous number of different use cases for computers out there, and the fact is, you don't use a computer exactly the same as the person sitting next to you. If we all did, then there would be a single computer that would work perfectly for all of us. But as it is, we have to do research of our own and decide what will work best for us. If you ask me for buying advice on a computer, I'll try my darndest to put myself in your position and advise you based on your use case. The problem with that question (and the answer I just gave) is that it doesn't take into account this disparity in use cases. For some situations, you can build a better computer for less money than if you bought it from an OEM.
But for most people, you just can't. Again with the sorry, bro.
Let's start at the low end. People who only use a computer to browse the internet and basic word processing from time to time. It's all social networking and looking up recipes for a lot of people out there. If you are that person and you asked me what computer I'd recommend for you, I'd tell you to get an iPad.
"But no, I need to do some typing, like writing up a newsletter, every month."
Cool. Get a bluetooth keyboard for $12 off of Amazon to go with your iPad. Problem solved! The fact is, iPads are about as good as you can get for internet browsing and social networking, and I guarantee you can find a word processing app that will meet or exceed all of your needs.
Not all of MY needs, but I'm a power user. I have a very different use case that unfortunately involves me arguing with Word for a good portion of my day trying to force it to contort itself into a half-way decent piece of software. Between Word and Adobe... well, let's just say that I need an actual computer to do my job.
But for most people, an iPad could replace their computer completely. Add that to the fact that it's good fun to use and you can get them on the low end for $300 dollars. Now, can you build a computer as portable as an iPad? No. You can't, don't even try to tell me you can. And anything you did build for $300 would be worse to use and slower.
Okay, but that's the really low end of computers. People that need lots of storage for music and photos need more space than an iPad. And especially if it doesn't matter that the machine be portable, surely this is where home builds would take over.
In cost, they start to catch up around $600. Over that cost, you can build a computer with comparable specs to an OEM machine for less money. For example, I priced out the cost of a custom desktop that would match the specs of my MacBook Pro a while back. I payed $1500 for that laptop, and this desktop came in at $1100. A similarly spec'd laptop build would have run me about $1300, maybe $1400 depending on who I trusted to make my hard disc. So the internet screams at me, "You're paying $200 for a NAME!"
No guys, sorry. I'm paying $200 to not have any problems. I spend too much time arguing with software to want to spend more time arguing with my hardware, and I haven't had to. It's been money well spent.
Because there is another thing to consider, and that is time. Time to build, time to test, and time troubleshooting any problems that may arise. When you save money on something, you can think of that as paying yourself. I could have done a custom build and I would have payed $200 to myself in savings. If you buy an OEM computer above about $500 to $600, you are paying to have someone else do all of that testing and building and troubleshooting for you.
Someone that works for a company with a name, yes. Stop shouting that stuff about names. I'll bet I could find a brand name on your computer.
But what happens when you run into problems with your custom build? And you will. Making all of the hardware and firmware that goes into building a computer dance that delicate dance of functioning properly isn't easy. There will be little electrical issues, minor driver conflicts, unforeseen weirdness. This will all happen, and it will all need to be fixed. Over the life of that computer, you may spend as much as a day or two of total time troubleshooting and fixing your computer. If you get a really bad conflict, you'll spend a day or two the first weekend you've got it. $200 divided by two days is less than minimum wage, and that's basically what you are paying yourself for your time in those situations. Of course, if you're doing that for fun, then there's nothing wrong with that. Fun can't really be valued in monetary terms.
But to any builders that may be reading, keep in mind that some of us don't like doing this. I hate troubleshooting a hardware issue just to find out that Nvidia stopped supporting my video card in their driver releases last year, and now my machine ejects the internal hard disc whenever I try to play a movie using VLC Player. That results in a pretty spectacular crash, in case you were wondering. I personally value my time higher than the dollar an hour rate I was basically paying myself by building a computer in that situation. Most people just want their computer to work for them, which makes a home build kinda impractical.
And don't offer to build me a computer. It's after the machine is built that this stuff starts breaking. I've been there. I've seen it.
And this is the clincher. If you are buying a computer to do work, whether it be for a job or completing computing tasks at home, you aren't paying money for a science project. You are paying money for a tool. And in those cases, you need a computer that will just work, every time. Any time you spend figuring out why Photoshop crashes and you get that distinct grape flavor from children's nasal decongestant in your mouth whenever you plug in a USB flash drive is time that you could have spent doing actual work. That means you are losing money, and in a professional setting especially, that quickly makes your custom build far more expensive than a comparable professional computer, such as an iMac or a Mac Pro (because I'm a Mac guy, of course that's what I'd be using). The risks you take are too big to justify saving $200 dollars when an OEM can give you a great machine that you know will work.
Depending on the OEM, of course. There's bad eggs out there.
So where does a home build make sense? At home, obviously. If you are building a computer specifically to play games on, and you just so happen to be the type of person who enjoys ripping into your machine for upgrades and fixes and stuff, then a home build is perfect for you. It's a computer for fun, after all, and the troubleshooting and fixing is part of that fun. Like I said earlier, fun can't be categorized monetarily. So if you are that person, build your own machine. You'll enjoy it, and you'll save a few hundred bucks to boot.
But don't you dare tell me that your custom build is better than my machine. Because for my use case, and for the use cases for the majority of the people you know, it isn't. Most people would throw your custom build out the window two days in to using it and go buy a Dell, and you don't want that on your head, do you?
IN CONCLUSION:
There's nothing wrong with a custom build, and if you enjoy building, upgrading, and fixing computers, then a custom build is probably the best thing you can do for yourself. But that's it. For yourself. Most of the people you talk to need a computer they can count on to work all the time because computers are how we make money. Add to that the fact that most of us hate having to fix hardware and driver issues, and that makes a custom build really rather impractical for us. An OEM machine will give us the constant functionality that we want and need. Your Frankenstein can't.
The short answer to the question that appears at the top of this post is that no custom build assembled by a dude in his basement will ever meet my personal and professional computing needs. That requires hundreds of man hours, a team of hardware engineers and months of testing. Is that worth and extra $200 to me? Yep. It sure is. I wouldn't take your home build if you didn't charge me anything.
So build your ultimate water cooled gaming computer. Brag about how the processor is 400 Mhz faster than my iMac, and your graphics card has 4 gigs of built in RAM to my paltry 1. Tell me I'm being had and paying too much money for a brand. When you spend six hours replacing that amazing graphics card because the startup tech company you bought it from hasn't released drivers for the latest Windows update (and never will because they went out of business last month), just remember that you're getting paid less than minimum wage.
I sure hope you're enjoying yourself, because you have no other justification for what you're doing.
And here I was thinking you were talking about houses. Those alternate titles had me really confused.
ReplyDeleteHa, Ben that's exactly what I was thinking!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWow! Isn't it cool to think we were all "on the same page" for a brief moment in time?
ReplyDeleteOk. I meant to edit, not delete. The article was great (yes, I read the whole thing) and I'll never again build my own. But, please, away with the subtitle on processed vs garden fresh! Someone will think you actually prefer processed!
ReplyDelete