Better Warranty Building your Computer

[Black Mage]

As I was taking notes of specs for building my own computer, and then went to sites such as HP, Dell, or Apple, I noticed something that was saving me money. To begin, I'm saving about 200 dollars building my own quad-core computer. But then under warranties for the big companies, they make you pay 100-300 dollars extra for warranty on the computer.

But when reading the specs and warranty of the parts I'm buying individually, I get free 3 year warrant for the motherboard, limited lifetime for the RAM, 5 years for the hard drive. So after doing all the math, buying a computer from a big name company with a warranty vs building my own, i'm saving up to 400 to 500 dollars.

Has anyone else not realized this fact how big named computer companies are just ripping people of their money?

[sloggerkhan]

I never thought about it, though it seems somewhat valid. I've always just assumed that paying for extened warranties from an OEM is a ripoff and never bothered with it.

[stmiller]

It is usually always cheaper to build your own, but not everyone wants or knows how to do that. Also with Dell you are paying for a year or so of technical support which is a big part of the extra cost.

As far as the part warranties, that's where it gets fishy. Dell uses WD (and other) hard drives, and other standard parts. But they are sold to Dell as an 'OEM' hard drive which usually only have a one-year warranty. So I agree with your comments about the warranties.

[popch]

As a 'corporate buyer' I usually buy a three year's warranty. However, that not only covers parts but also the labor.

It pays off because I do not have to have staff which can do repairs, buy replacement parts and so on.

However, that's not really comparable to your situation.

[fatality_uk]

As I was taking notes of specs for building my own computer, and then went to sites such as HP, Dell, or Apple, I noticed something that was saving me money. To begin, I'm saving about 200 dollars building my own quad-core computer. But then under warranties for the big companies, they make you pay 100-300 dollars extra for warranty on the computer.

But when reading the specs and warranty of the parts I'm buying individually, I get free 3 year warrant for the motherboard, limited lifetime for the RAM, 5 years for the hard drive. So after doing all the math, buying a computer from a big name company with a warranty vs building my own, i'm saving up to 400 to 500 dollars.

Has anyone else not realized this fact how big named computer companies are just ripping people of their money?

But the BIG named pc manufacturers are not building PC's for people who know how to slot a GFX card into a PCI-E slot, remembering to discharge any static beforehand lol . They build them for my mum, her friends, the guy down the road who's a builder and needs to keep basic accounts on a PC.

These people will usually NEVER see the inside of their PC and want a phone number, email or a guy in a shop to speak to when it wont switch on. That support costs money I am afraid, and YES, quite rightly, at the end of the day, they do want to make a profit as well.

[logos34]

The warranties on the individual parts you mentioned is probably the second most important reason I built my own pc (actually 2 so far). And I was wise to do so: a power supply failed 16 months after purchase, but it was under 3-year warranty, so the manufacturer (antec) promptly replaced it (minus $10 shipping). Had that been an OEM machine with standard 1 yr, then forget it. $75 down the drain.

[amingv]

In my case at least, I have a different reason. I try to avoid them whenever I can because I wont pay for something I will void ~0.5 seconds later. (Who doesn't LOVE the smell of new, shiny, dustless silicon and plastic? Ahhh...) Plus it allows me to set it up just the right way. No Geek Squad member knows better than me what I want in there

[Black Mage]

But the BIG named pc manufacturers are not building PC's for people who know how to slot a GFX card into a PCI-E slot, remembering to discharge any static beforehand lol . They build them for my mum, her friends, the guy down the road who's a builder and needs to keep basic accounts on a PC.

These people will usually NEVER see the inside of their PC and want a phone number, email or a guy in a shop to speak to when it wont switch on. That support costs money I am afraid, and YES, quite rightly, at the end of the day, they do want to make a profit as well.

Ah yes, I'm not saying making a profit is bad. Profit=good, its why I can afford to buy computer parts. But I'm just noting the prices for these warranties and the amount of profit made off of them.

stmiller said that Dell uses Western Digitial hard drives. Western Digitial gives a three year warranty on their hard drives for parts and labor, Dell will only give you one with the included price. And then lets look at the prices for warranties and support.

A computer brought from Dell with a year warranty cost 1,298. Now for two year warranty the price is $1,581 and three years is $1,641.

Honestly, I don't know how much support is actually needed. An average user might need support but I've never called support all my life, and I use Mac and Dells. So for people who only uses operating such as Ubuntu, and rarely windows, it would make no sense for them by from a big name company. Why spend almost $400 dollars more for a warranty than could be free from the original manufacturer?

So I'm just noticing the clever marketing scheme these companies have.

Infact, Dell is not cheaper than HP. HP computers cost more but the warranty/coverage cost less. So for the average person, the final amount is about the same.

[Myglaren]

I have always built my own after the first (486) that I was given due to the owner being too scared to dump it in the tip (he's an accountant and had sensitive info on the HD).

After selectively swapping major components I went out and bought a pile of bits and constructed my own.

Then one for my son for Uni.

Then another for me, being a bit more knowledgable and selective about the hardware choices.

All are still running and the only hardware issue has been a failed hard drive - the replacement failed after a year too, bad batch of IBM Deskstars - lesson learned there. And a power supply that died and was replaced with a spare within ten minutes of failure.

No need whatsoever for warranties, wouldn't have claimed on them anyway so would have been money down the drain, instead it went into slightly better hardware.

The only computers I have bought off the shelf are a pair of Toshiba laptops. Not so easy to build your own laptop.
No extended warranty. Taking the risk that the laptops will last three years and a replacement after that time will cost less than the warranty would have been.

Having had quite a few Dell, HP and Packard Bell machines to repair, I see why you need a warranty though. And don't even mention E-machines/Tiny/Time. Abysmal.

[gn2]

Not only that but you won't charge yourself premium rate for phonecalls to listen to the on-hold music of the computer company's warranty department if anything goes wrong with the PC.