> From my limited experience buying a PC from a no-name local builder, I
> highly recommend it. It's cheaper than a name brand, which is nice, but the
> best thing is it doesn't come loaded with a bunch of vendor-specific ***
> loaded on it. I got a nice empty hard drive on which to install Windows the
> way *I* like it. That alone convinced me to never buy a PC from one of the
> big vendors again.
> So if you are comfortable installing everything on a blank slate of a PC, I
> recommend going that route. It's not as cheap as building it from scratch
> but it's not too far off either. And depending on the builder, you get some
> support.
> When I was considering building a PC, I priced out the parts, then
> considered that if I just screwed up one part while building the thing that
> would cover the increased cost of buying it built. So I bought it built.
> Can't recommend anybody to you though, since I live in Western Canada...
> > I want, no, I need to upgrade my current crappy machine (Celeron 433,
> > Voodoo3 2000, etc.). Thing is, I'm not that confident about building a
> > machine from scratch, coupled with being a lazy ****. So, anyone know of
> > decent UK shops/mail order companies that might sell, oh something like an
> > Athlon 1.4 with GeForce 3, 7200rpm HD, etc?
> > Perhaps building your own machine isn't that much cheaper these days,
> > anyway?
> > Jonesy
Ditto. My dealer is a little mom and pop shop that charges me
15% over the cost of the components. I can spec whatever I want,
but they know enough to make reasonable choices. They appreciate
my business, if a keyboard or other component they sell breaks they
can have a replacement to me.
The trick, as as Rob said, is finding someone you can trust.
Larry