Do westerners buy parts of computer more than the branded whole one?

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smith

How much percentage of the consumers bought their whole computers from named
brand, such as HP,DELL? And how much percentage of them bought different
parts of hardware and installed together later? Which is better for users?
Upgrading is more convinient for the latter? But it needs more professional
knowledge in hardware...
 
Past issues of "PC Magazine" and "Computer Shopper" have asked this same
question of their readers. You may be able to find a valid percentage of
store bought versus home built from their archive. Personally, I prefer home
built and recommend that to anyone that asks.
 
By westerners, do you mean people West of the Missouri River?

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
Well... I am in Asia. I heard that the situation in Asia is quite different
from Europe or America..:)
 
smith said:
How much percentage of the consumers bought their whole computers from named
brand, such as HP,DELL? And how much percentage of them bought different
parts of hardware and installed together later? Which is better for users?
Upgrading is more convinient for the latter? But it needs more professional
knowledge in hardware...
Click to expand...

It's generally cheapest to buy a whole computer from dell, or hp. But a
lot of folks are happier with one they built themselves. Or at any
rate, they have no one else to blame for it's shortcomings.

Many people ave no problems with basic upgrades, such as RAM, or a
wireless card, or stuff like that, but balk at building their own
computer.
 
"smith" said:
How much percentage of the consumers bought their whole computers from named
brand, such as HP,DELL? And how much percentage of them bought different
parts of hardware and installed together later? Which is better for users?
Upgrading is more convinient for the latter? But it needs more professional
knowledge in hardware...
Click to expand...

We almost always order parts/white box computers so that we can get the
best quality of everything we need for the purpose the machine will be
used for.

As an example, if we need a server, while we can buy an HP, we can get
the same quality, better performance, and without the added cost of the
HP Logo/Support, and just support it ourselves.

For a game machine, most vendors provide a "safe" machine for the
masses, but we spec a very stable, but fast machine, and end up spending
less than it would have cost for the same machine from a big box vendor.

Where big box vendors can get you better pricing is on their mass
produced, one size fits everyone solutions.
 
'cause I built my own computer, I don't know if those big box vendors
provide full technical support including OS related and hardware for users
in case that cosumers bought the OS as well.

For my experience, if one built his/her computer, it would probably make
himself/herself a Geek.. He/she can not solve problem with the OS from the
whole computer vendors.

But why the home built computers are more common in Asia than in the West
just because they are much cheaper? or because Asian guys are more
enthusiastic with new technologies?
 
It's generally cheapest to buy a whole computer from dell, or hp. But a
lot of folks are happier with one they built themselves. Or at any
rate, they have no one else to blame for it's shortcomings.

Many people ave no problems with basic upgrades, such as RAM, or a
wireless card, or stuff like that, but balk at building their own
computer.
Click to expand...
 
You claim to be from the area. I'm sittin' in a chair in TX. How would I
know the price differences you mention?

More likely, the "home" builder overseas is out to make a buck using other
than commonly purchased/sourced hardware. That, I understand, is more
prevalent.
--
Jonny
smith said:
'cause I built my own computer, I don't know if those big box vendors
provide full technical support including OS related and hardware for users
in case that cosumers bought the OS as well.

For my experience, if one built his/her computer, it would probably make
himself/herself a Geek.. He/she can not solve problem with the OS from the
whole computer vendors.

But why the home built computers are more common in Asia than in the West
just because they are much cheaper? or because Asian guys are more
enthusiastic with new technologies?
Click to expand...
 
We make our own computers by using generic parts and also, we use
pirated/cracked software like you do in Asia. How did Asia develop so
fast? Was it by using pirated software? We have a lot to learn from
you guys!!!!

John Hacker
 
I misread your time zone. I thought it was -0800, but it's +0800. Heck of
a difference, that.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
smith said:
'cause I built my own computer, I don't know if those big box vendors
provide full technical support including OS related and hardware for users
in case that cosumers bought the OS as well.

For my experience, if one built his/her computer, it would probably make
himself/herself a Geek.. He/she can not solve problem with the OS from the
whole computer vendors.

But why the home built computers are more common in Asia than in the West
just because they are much cheaper? or because Asian guys are more
enthusiastic with new technologies?
Click to expand...

In Eastern countries (China), they probably build their own computers more
(or at least buy "barebones" systems) because of pirated software. China is
supposedly cracking down on software pirating, but as far as I know it is
still a significant problem.
In Western countries (USA), they buy more whole systems from big vendors
because most people who buy the computers are novices. Kids today are
growing up with computers, but the majority of the population (at least over
30 years old) knows very little about computers.

Big vendors offer customer support (someone to call when you need help
configuring your software or your PC crashes), and they tell their customers
what hardware they want. Novices need that.
Computer experts don't want to buy from big vendors because they tend to
charge more for their hardware to cover the customer support, and (since
it's their job to sell hardware) they tend to sell you hardware that will
need upgraded sooner. I see a lot of companies right now pushing systems
with 512MB of RAM, while it is recommended to have at least 1GB of RAM for
Windows Vista.
You also have to bother to research if you want to build the best system for
yourself, as a lot of hardware is not compatible. Most (Westerners at
least) don't want to spend the time on research, so if they try to build
their own PC, they could end up with RAM that doesn't work in their
motherboard.
 
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