Custom Built Computers vs. Major Manufacturer Produced

Your friend offers to build a computer for you, in which you can pay over time to build the perfect system. A boon to anyone who can't afford two grand for a computer until they figure out that their tech friend is offering a system for a lower price that isn't competitive with those offered from a major manufacturer like Dell. Or perhaps you would prefer to abandon all risk and go with an E-Machine because it is cheaper than the aforementioned solutions, and sells at Wal-Mart for $399.

On the one hand Dell offers some of the most competitively priced systems around and does indeed offer you the most for your money. You do have to pay shipping and handling of course but they often throw in a monitor or some peripheral for free and will offer to upgrade your system for $99 to include a digital camera, or a DVD-writer, as opposed to a 24 speed CD-writer. Then again E-Machine offers an even better deal than Dell, or so it seems, albeit there is no shipping but your tech friend tells you that E-Machines contain "cheap, refurbished parts", which technically could be true of anything you buy from a discounter. Yet they used to say the same thing about Gateway 2000 products.

Having your friend build a computer is going to be akin to having someone in a body shop customize your car. You'll get a lot of bells and whistles that are great for individuals who are looking to tweak the performance of their system, like 2 MB of video ram, that may or may not be the best for your own needs. Even if you have a shop that sells used computers build you a machine you have to take into consideration that they are not buying the prices in bulk, and are not getting the unusual discounts one may acquire by buying thousands of components at a time. They may charge you $300 for a monitor you would pay $150 for in the store. On the other hand, they won't waste your time with an Intel processor if they know that AMD processors are faster and cheaper to implement.