Buy vs Build

I may get some crap for this one, but hear me out. Occasionally somebody will come to me asking if they should let their boyfriend's, neighbor's, cousin's, math tutor who took a computer course in 1997 build their computer for them instead of buying one from someplace like Dell. Short answer? Please for the love of all things sacred, such as Cool Ranch Doritos, DON'T DO IT!

Yes, there are people out there who are capable of putting a machine together for you. But most of us who are, are really not that eager to. Let me give you a few reasons why:

Warranties are win. You know what's great about them? For at least a year (more if you purchased extra) after you get your new Dell, HP or whatever home, if something goes wrong, somebody else gets to fix it! I can't express how exciting this is. Sure, calling tech support and having some lispy guy on the other end talk to you like you're 7 years old isn't fun but wanna know what's less fun?  Realizing your motherboard just melted, and you may have to sprawl on the floor of your office trying to figure out how to replace it. One time a client's baby spit up all over the company's new expensive gaming laptop. We had the foresight to purchase same day support for these bad boys. I let that sucker dry out for a day, called the manufacturer for support, and looked as confused as I could when the tech came out. "Gee...it just stopped working." What? Don't you judge me, you wouldn't want to deal with that either!

I know I sound like a jerk, but if somebody has come to you brimming with excitement over building a computer for you, they probably haven't a clue what they are doing. Don't believe me? Ask anybody in the IT industry how excited they are to build a computer for their third cousin when they get home from work. We're not! Sure we could do it in our sleep but when we get home, we want to play video games and eat pizza. Anybody bubbling over to put hardware together for you, is excited because they are new to it and can't wait to apply what they just learned to your $1200 worth of components. If it doesn't work like the book they checked out from the library last week tells them it should, they are not going to have the years of experience they'll need to figure it out and you'll be left with a very expensive paper weight.

It's really not cheaper to build your own computer. Again, I know I may get some crap for this, but when you factor in the costs of things like operating systems AND the fact that maybe your time is worth a little something, the savings are just nowhere to be found. Yes, you can prove me wrong on this. If you're up for standing in line for the hard drive deal at Best Buy on black Friday at 4am, more power to you! I'll be happily recovering from my tryptophan coma from the safety and comfort of the blanket cocoon I like to make for myself when I go to sleep at night.

I concede, that if you want to build your new computer yourself, because you're interested in learning, I can't give you a hard time for it. I did it too! It was one of the first things I did when I went back to school to learn the IT biz. It was hard, expensive, and as easy to navigate as a buttered floor but I learned quite a bit and I wouldn't try to take that right of passage away from any of you future Help Desk Technicians. But if you're just looking to save a little money by letting a well intentioned acquaintance do it for you, I'd advise against it.