What wold encourage you to BUY an Ubuntu PC vs build one?

[benweston]

Just interested really :) What would sway you into buying a prebuilt system vs building one yourself?

[insane_alien]

if prebuilts were cheaper than buying the components individually theni would consider it if i seen a nice specced prebuilt.

unfortunately i have seen neither of those two circumstances.

[tw3k]

FWIW: I'm on one of those "gPC". It came loaded with a derivative ubuntu, gOS. The driver for the onboard vid card was broken so I updated it to the regular gutsy dist. Hardy is running nicely on the machine now.

The short answer; it was cheap and easy. I like these mini PCs with preloaded linux.

[mozetti]

Same here. I've never seen a pre-built that was cheaper than sourcing components myself. Of course, some of that has to do with having Windows pre-installed and the costs involved with that. If someone sells pre-built Ubuntu boxes, then it's really only a matter of setting up one box for each configuration and then cloning the HDDs.

Another thing that keeps me from doing it is specs. Usually, there's some components that I want certain capabilities built-in. Generally, it's the combination of 2 or 3 specific features that i want, but any configuration doesn't have them all -- maybe 1 here, or 2 there, but no setup that includes them all.

But, it's mostly price.

[Wobedraggled]

If a pre-built has what you need and the price is right, then go for it. But as other's have said, they usually lack a thing or two and that would cause me to go shop for parts.

[Icehuck]

if prebuilts were cheaper than buying the components individually theni would consider it if i seen a nice specced prebuilt.

unfortunately i have seen neither of those two circumstances.

Dell has a basic desktop for $349. Can you piece one together with the same hardware specs for that price brand new?

[insane_alien]

With further thought, the ability to purchase it with a blank HDD would also be a nice touch. although i would say that that would be something you would have to request as average joe won't know wtf to do if he got a blank.


Dell has a basic desktop for $349. Can you piece one together with the same hardware specs for that price brand new?

See, i wouldn't be buying a 'basic' PC. i'd likely be getting one specced up the wazoo.

[Icehuck]

With further thought, the ability to purchase it with a blank HDD would also be a nice touch. although i would say that that would be something you would have to request as average joe won't know wtf to do if he got a blank.



See, i wouldn't be buying a 'basic' PC. i'd likely be getting one specced up the wazoo.

If you went all out, I still think you would be hard pressed to beat some of those pre built systems out there. I am definitely not taking into account Alienware/Dell/Apple.

[benweston]

Thanks for your replies. It's only that I'm thinking of expanding my business into selling Ubuntu systems online and want to get a better feel for what the community are after in regards to prebuilt systems.

I had already considered selling systems with no operating system at all and am very much focusing on as much customisability as possible.

How about options for preloaded and preconfigured software such as WINE, or a game like Quake 4 or Nexuiz? I'm thinking it would be good to include WINE by default anyway?

[eragon100]

I buy pre-built pc's because it is easy :lolflag:

[gn2]

There's nothing would persuade me to buy any pre-built desktop PC.
It would not be possible for a builder to offer the choice of components that I can source myself.
Also once assembled by a builder, it would not be possible to ship it. (massive heatsink)

My next laptop will have Ubuntu or another Linux distro pre-installed on it.

It will be one of the new smaller breed, Asus Eee900, ECS G10IL, MSI Wind, Medion Akoya Mini or Hp Mini-Note 2133.

The Linux variants of these smaller laptops are cheaper or are the same price with higher specs.

[amazingtaters]

Well I've not bought a pre-built since 1999. So, for almost a decade now I've been building my own. It's a little cheaper, and I know exactly what is in my computer. It's that level of control over what specific parts and brands go into my computer that I enjoy, and that is why I will never buy a prebuilt again.

This excludes laptops however, as they are in general much harder to shop for and harder to assemble for the average joe. I'm thinking of upgrading the RAM in mine, and while I'll buy the RAM myself from newegg, I'll take it in to the local computer repair shop to get the stuff put in. Cracking this case open still scares the bajeesus out of me.

[benweston]

Well I already sell 12" laptops with Vista, and personally dual-boot Ubuntu on one with full compatibility. It would be really quite easy to launch a laptop line of Ubuntu systems.

Do you reckon this is more the market for prebuilt Linux systems - i.e. light, long-battery life but not necessarily the most powerful laptops?

[red_Marvin]

My next system, when the time comes, I will almost surely build myself, if only for the experience and fun.
Ignoring that, what generally would persuade me to buy a prebuilt system is if I can pick what goes in, sort of like a well stocked components shop that also offers the service of putting the pieces together.
Oh and one thing, standard layout cases, maybe they were old ones, but I've seen some cases that were horrible if you wanted to change anything in it.

[gn2]

My own belief is that the new smaller size laptops will grow in popularity and it will be increasingly more normal for people to have both a small laptop and a desktop PC.

There's a fairly comprehensive list of them here (http://www.liliputing.com/2008/04/over-past-six-months-or-so-asus-everex_24.html)

[jaytek13]

Well, I am still stuck with a CRT monitor, so buying a prebuilt would be quite a bit cheaper since they include LCD's... I've thought about it but just decided to purchase a very large LCD instead on it's own and build my own computer again.

I prefer building them anyways. Better control over what's going into it, and a lot of prebuilt manufacturers lock you out of the BIOS that they ship with the motherboard so that's a real turn off.

[hessiess]

If you could actually get a decent spec masheen with ubuntu for a reasonable price.


Well, I am still stuck with a CRT monitor, so buying a pre-built would be quite a bit cheaper since they include LCD's... I've thought about it but just decided to purchase a very large LCD instead on it's own and build my own computer again.

CRT,s have much better contrast, more accurate colours, darker blacks and much faster response time than LCD,s

[aaaantoine]

If I could build my own custom laptop, I would.

Since it's not really a viable option, my only choice would be to order a pre-built one.

[benweston]

You can see the range of 12" laptops which currently have the Ubuntu option (soon to be 8.04 once I've finished testing) here - http://www.sugarpc.co.uk/store/duo/.

Please have a look and tell me what you think - I really need as much feedback as possible!

It's worth noting that this isn't advertisement per se because the ordering process has been removed so the site isn't really 'live'. I just felt this was the best place to ask for feedback from the community itself. All I'm trying to do is give Ubuntu users another option :)

[gn2]

The site looks great, not sure about the Sugar name does Sir Alan know about it yet? ;-)

As for the product, I'm afraid it's probably too expensive to succeed.

The screen res is great, plenty RAM, card reader, all good.

Conventional HDD, Celeron CPU, no mention of battery capacity or life, all not good.

Smaller, lighter, faster, cheaper: http://tinyurl.com/4oroej

What the Asus Eee 701 did was to bring the price of ultra-portables down.
The Eee 900 is scheduled to go on sale soon at an SRP in the region of £330 which is half the price of your cheaper model, so I doubt you'll have much luck unless you can limbo dance the price of your Celeron model to under the £450 mark.

[benweston]

Thanks! Yes, your comments were pretty much what I thought which is why I wasn't really looking at laptops originally as a viable option. VERY competitive market where prices can only be kept down through mass-bulk buying which my business really doesn't have the capacity for at the moment.

I shall introduce Ubuntu across the range when I relaunch the site with the new systems and just see how it fares.

As a slightly funny side-note: the spell-checker in Firefox on Ubuntu 8.04 doesn't have the word 'Ubuntu' in it and keeps marking it as a spelling mistake :)

[klange]

Either:
a) A mass shortage of all forms of removable media, making me incapable of installing myself (no CDs? No USB sticks to put the ISO on?)
or
b) Really low price for a really good piece of hardware.

[wolfen69]

I buy pre-built pc's because it is easy :lolflag:

i build my own because it is easy. :lolflag:

[wolfen69]

Well I've not bought a pre-built since 1999. So, for almost a decade now I've been building my own. It's a little cheaper, and I know exactly what is in my computer. It's that level of control over what specific parts and brands go into my computer that I enjoy, and that is why I will never buy a prebuilt again.

This excludes laptops however, as they are in general much harder to shop for and harder to assemble for the average joe. I'm thinking of upgrading the RAM in mine, and while I'll buy the RAM myself from newegg, I'll take it in to the local computer repair shop to get the stuff put in. Cracking this case open still scares the bajeesus out of me.

wait a minute. you build your own computers, but are scared to death to take out 2 screws, remove a small panel and pop in the memory? (very easy btw) WOW.

next time call me to do it for you. i'll gladly take your money for 2 seconds work.

[the_darkside_986]

The only way I'll ever buy another pre-built: if it contains purely open source hardware components, including wireless AND graphics. So of course, that means Intel graphics, unless the "nouveau" nvidia driver has made enough progress by the time I get another machine.

[heartburnkid]

Frankly, I can't remember the last time I actually bought a prefab PC, Linux-based or otherwise.

[Twitch6000]

If I could build my own custom laptop, I would.

Since it's not really a viable option, my only choice would be to order a pre-built one.

Then why not order custom made ones online?You get to pick the parts and such :).
Here is a good link I like myself.
http://www.nextdaypc.com/main/bto/default.aspx
Here is a list of links that sell custom built pcs that have Linux to offer.
http://www.linux.org/vendor/system/desktop.html