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This part of the site is more for people like my Dad and others who often like to say "Why build a computer? It's too expensive and a stupid thing to do. Its much better to go out and buy a Dell or something." This may be true for them but, for us �bergeeks, there is nothing greater than having full control over what goes into our worlds...er...I mean computers. I mean don't get me wrong, if I had to buy a Distro PC, I would go Dell or Alienware in a heartbeat because of the support and options available, but being technically inclined and having the drive to do it, I decided to build my own so that I could have total control over it.

I have to say, getting ahold of the parts is quite a challenge. They are everywhere to buy, but price is the main factor. If at all possible I went non-retail, but I stayed away from OEM, because for me, I wanted some of the stuff out of the box, mainly the warrenty, but otherwise I was able to get retail products rather cheaply. There were a few places where I was forced to go retail due to circumstances beyond my control. The Graphics Card, Audio Card, and OS were the main culprits. I was not able to find a good price anywhere for my graphics card..because after taxes and/or shipping it ended up being the same as if I went to CompUSA, so thats what I did there. As for the Graphics Card, I went through 2 different vendors to get it. First one was one from the computer show, they refunded my money after 3 days and said they were not able to obtain the product and were unsure of when they would get it back in stock. Ok no big deal, I would just try CDW, the next in line on my list of low prices. Well all was cool with them tell they e-mailed me to tell me that my order was on backorder status and would take at least 3-4 weeks before I got my product, so I promptly requested a refund and was forced to go and buy it at CompUSA. OH well. Same for the OS, I was going to go with WinXP Pro, BUT once again vendor problems. The two places I was looking at, and very reputiable sources as well, were not able to deliver so I went WinXP Home (Full Verison) and just sucked it up and paid for it. Oh well. All in all I did manage to make some great deals and come out ahead. I saved a good $1004.55,which to me is rather darn good. Keep in mind that savings is based on if I built this computer solely via retail parts. As far as software is concerned, I lucked up and had all I needed lying around the house here, Office, AntiVirus, etc, as well as my backups off my older computer. So I saved a lot there. I do have to say that this is a fun, but expensive hobby.

And for everyone who is dying to know. At the bottom of this page I have an itemized table of my expensives comparing them to retail, enjoy!