The below thread details Tums going through the steps of building his customised machine: http://elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=118742 The physical steps of putting it together are reasonably straight forward - the components generally come with good enough instructions, and I'm sure there are lots of step-by-step guides on enthusiast sites elsewhere on the internet. The really tricky bit is choosing the components. If you're doing it to save money and are starting from scratch you may struggle to save anything - particularly as buying an OS (XP?) costs almost half as much as a cheap Dell PC anyway. I find the cost savings comes from reusing perfectly adequate components from an old PC that's being replaced - monitors, keyboard and mouse, optical drive, and 'transferring' the OS. If you're doing it just to get a perfectly customised machine that has everything just how you want it, be prepared to spend many hours reading reviews of hardware components!
You've got a big misconception. Nearly all of Dell's components are "off the shelf" just like other OEMs. While it's true that Dell often overprices upgrade components, their base and value models are quite cheap. Probably dozen times, I've priced my estimate of equivalent Dell components if purched at Newegg... and when there were savings, it was like $100. In my view, the correct evaluation of Dell is "average quality, and their base units are well priced".
I agree with gnome on the price point of almost all dell rigs. Very seldom can you build the same box for the same price. Especially if you are looking at a sub-600$ rig. Of course we aren't talking about XPS systems, we are talking low-mid range systems. In the few cases where you are going to beat thier price it is simply by cutting features that you wont ever use (like bluetooth, webcams, modems, etc). Not to mention if you purchase a rig from dell that is on sale or in thier refurb outlet, there isn't a chance to beat thier price.
This is a most absurd post. The Dell Precision workstations are NOT lacking in "quality" internals. I should know . . . I own one. Furthermore, the 3-year warranty is indicative of a company that already knows that it is a "durable" machine. Just think about that for a moment. Hell, my 5 year old Dell Dimension 8300 is still running strong today and has had ZERO problems, and it isn't even close to the quality that my Dell Precision workstation is at.
You tell 'em! We "Dell lovers" need to band together and lock arms agains all them DELL HATERS! Yeah!!
For the record, I don't want to get roped into the "dell lover" crowd. If anything, I'm a "dell hater". There was a time when owning a dell meant something. You paid for top of the line quality and service. If someone paid the money for a dell, they wanted something reliable that they would never have to worry about even if it breaks. My roomate in college had a dell and when his powersupply went out, they had a tech at our dorm room the next day to replace it free of charge. Now they are just a run-of-the-mill vendor. They've lowered thier quality of standards and service under the guise of "competition" whereas, in reality, they just wanted more of the lowend market share in addition to their almost monopoly of the high-end market share. As a result, they lost thier high-end market share due to getting dirt on thier nice white collars. In the end, they had to use thier dirty money to purchase more of it back (alienware acquisition). But even that pretty much failed. There is nothing special about dell anymore, but as I pointed out in my post above, its very hard to beat them on price. I would say that it is VERY easy to beat them on quality...but you are going to pay a premium to do so.
Dell is no different from Chevrolet. They build computer for the mass. They know what the 90% of the people want -- a middle of the road general purpose computer. And they build a good enough computer to satisfy 90% of the customer needs. Today's computer components are so over powered, even a low end computer would satisfy 90% of the people's need. BUT... If you do not fall into that 90% category, then Dell might not present a benefit to you. By the time you add up all the upgrades, you might be paying the same price as a custom build machine. (but still don't have all the specific components you want.) Some people would buy a cheap Dell, then upgrade it themselves with Newegg stuff. Then they are spending just as much time and effort and headache (if not more) as building a machine from scratch. Different strokes for different folks. Carry on, don't let me disturb your love-in. LOL
No Dell "love-in" as you state. I was simply responding to a previous poster's claim that I perceived as "absurd", given my own personal experience with several Dell computers, including a recently purchased T3400 Precision Workstation. And just as Chevrolet builds everything from Cobalt's to Malibu's to Impala's . . . they also build Corvette's.