I am curious how long DIY PC's work * problem free *. When I say problem maninly I refer to things that take hours to fix or parts failing. I have always bought pre-built PC's, Dells if you will, I know some of you are rolling your eyes, but with the exception of the occasional hiccup, they have run for years with very few problems, I compare this with the 2 PC's I have buit so far:

2 Bad PSU's, 4 weeks of downtime.
1 Set of Bad Ram, 1.5 weeks of downtime.
3 Motherboards that either died or would not post, 1 month of downtime.

The above of which I have spent way too much time trying to figure out what was wrong to finally and hopefully find the problem.

I read a million post on how easy and fun building a PC is, but it so far, at least in my case has been utter frustration. I am not a total noob when it comes to PC's, I work as a Software Engineer and have been messing with PC's for 15 years or so. My problems can of course be blamed on user error but I do take the time to read and post any questions I have, yet something always seems to go wrong and ends up costing me hours on hours of frustration. I know I am not in the minority here, just read these forums. Should DIY come with a big asterik?

They are about the same.
Some build up PC manufacturers are using the same components as a DIY PC.

Building your own PC is sometimes a toss up. When you build your own, you get the benefit of getting the system at a cheaper price (and cutomized to your own liking), but sometimes, people skimp on the wrong parts/have bad luck and get a doa part, which gives you that downtime you speak of.

My dell that I bought in 2002ish has run strong since I bought it, with the only problem being a corrupted XP file.

I've built 3 pc's and only had one problem as well (my psu is dying after a year).

I think a lot of it comes down to user error and...well, luck.

Building you own always comes with the possibility of acquiring a defective part but the same thing can happen with a prebuilt from Dell or any other major brand name dealer, but the difference is Dell preassembles the machine then tests it as a whole operating unit, before its shipped.

If in their test phase a part fails they simply replace the defective hardware with another and test again, easy on their part cause the replacement part is right there on hand to swap out.

Their components are of a descent quality but not top of the line unless you're after their very top end computer, their hardware is mass produced and if they have a bad one its no big deal to them, they just swap it out and the consumer never knows the difference.

Building your own and ordering your parts online gives you the option of the level PC you want to build, budget, mainstream, or high end, so basically each hardware level has its pretested quality targets, and as always we get what we pay for, but we do expect it to work, and if it doesn't we don't have a replacement on hand and the RMA game begins.

Thats the downside and the downtime of building your own, however the upside is well worth the trouble, the satisfaction of building your own machine outweighs all the possible trouble that may or may not happen.

Having a machine built for you and researching the individual parts if you ventured inside the machine to find the brands and model #s of the hardware it was constructed with can be seriously disappointing if you research what it all amounts to, whereas when you build your own, you know whats in it.

I presently have 2 machines up and running the oldest has never had the first problem and is presently about 3 yrs old, the newer is 1 1/4 yrs old specifically built for gaming and is on her 3rd M/B, the first M/B failed after three months and was RMAd and replaced, the othe M/Bs were just improvements for overclocking purposes, no failures there.

Theres always the possibility of getting a bad component, sometimes it can happen in shipping, sometimes the component failure occurs and if it had been pretested a few minutes longer by the factory that made it, it would have failed and never left the factory in the first place, and that can also apply to Dell, they've had to replace their entire machines, but you usually don't hear about that kind of thing, Dell doesn't advertise that possibility.

RMAing a part usually cost less than RMAing an entire computer, but what do you do if your Dell fails? Do you not still have downtime? Or does Dell have instant transport capability now, so you can beam it back to the factory for instant repair like Star Trek?

No They Don't!

I hope I've given you some food for thought, and if you decide to build your own, feel free to PM me anytime, I'll help you all I can. Ryan

Well, you gotta figure that most people who build their systems kinda know what they're getting into. At the manufacturing plan, Dell and their ilk do all that pain in the arse testing before you get the computer. Besides that, they use parts that are proprietary. Naturally, at least from the start, you will probably experience fewer problems on a Dell than you would a DIY. When you DIY, you are ordering the parts from a bevy of places which can experience harsh handling which could lead to some malfunctions. In addition, you're only ordering one part of a certain type (motherboard) and if it goes bad, you have to send it back and hope for better luck next time. All these things can lead to a much more frustrating experience at the start.

However, once the system is built, it's been my experience that my systems have been more reliable than Dell-type systems. And, I don't have down time due to technical support since I can replace parts or fix most issues myself. I've built three computers and haven't had many problems with any of them. It's quite rare for me to have an issue with my DIY systems. Careful research and buying the best parts has a lot to do with that, I think.

So in the beginning, the crown goes to Dell-type systems because the up-front testing has already been done. But in the end, the DIY system, built correctly, is more reliable in my experience.

What brands? What BIOSes? What memory?

There is a bit more research involved with DIY pcs and this can give the perception they are less reliable, same goes for PC in general actually, Apple would have you believe that PCS never work.
I've built my own pcs since 1995, I've never had problems that weren't software, or cheap hardware.
Over the years I've learned what brands to avoid, how to flash bioses, research proper memory population, etc, after that my current system... even overclocked to the hilt, has been as rock solid as anything I've ever seen.

Same goes with pre-built, how "good" they are is usually directly related to how much they cost, not to mention the user itself.

I've found that for experienced DIYers, DIY is not only less expensive in most cases but far more reliable because they know more about what happens when you do what.

There is an enormous software library out there for pcs, not all of it is foolproof, far from it, yet invariably the PC itself as an entity, and/or the "Windows" is usually to blame. There are an untold amount of brands out there making all types of peripherals but if they fail, again, the "PC" or, Windows is to blame. To be 100% honest, Windows XP, Windows 98, Windows 2000, and even Windows 95 OSr2 have all be rock solid for me once I learned what to avoid, and when some ****head hacker or malware wasn't trying to mess with me, or I wasn't putting crappy hardware in it.

We could get 100% testing and 100% ruthless hardware/software control over every single item that could ever be put into a PC, but then we'd have an overpriced MAC with 1/10000th of the software library.

Yes Windows has its own problems, of course it does, but I rarely run into one that is truly "Windows" fault and not the fault of the buggy software I'm trying to run on my impossible to predict combination of hardware. You don't get that with MACs, but you also get 1/2 the system for twice the amount. Once apple drops their prices and gets a gaming software library like the pc does, I'll consider them, until then I don't care how white and pretty they are.

I didn't mean to turn it into a mac flame, they are what they are and in my opinion appeal to a completely different market anyway. As far as DIY goes, it's not fair to say they are "Unreliable" when it, like any other component, completely depends on the manufacturer (yourself) and parts like anything else.

Just sharing some thoughts, no reflection on the OP.

I would chalk up any DIY issues as learning experiences and call it par for the course. First thing I learned about building a pc was that you get what you pay for, especially when it comes to psu's and memory. I've had bad mobos when I bought cheap/no name boards like Syntax, Skywalker, and ECS. Since then I've kept my mobos to the names like Asus, aBit, Tyan, Supermicro, etc.

I don't think that DIY pc's should come with a big asterix, but there is a minimum amount of knowledge required. Most people are smart enough to research the build but forget about the back-end with maintenance and upgrades. I do think that Joe Average Email WebSurfer should stick to buying a Dell as opposed to a DIY pc.

I've built a number of machines over the years for myself as well as friends and family with minimal issues. Most issues have been softwre related with little to no hardware failures. The machine I'm running now is about 2 years old with the original install of XP64 and runs 24/7 and has never had any failures or unscheduled downtime. There is a Skt423 P4 machine with 1GB of RDRAM that I built 4 years ago that my brother still uses today. I've also got an old K6-2 450MHz with 512MB PC133 now set up as a linux box and that's around 8 years old.

I built my first computer 3 years ago and not a single piece of hardware has crapped out on me. I may be lucky, but I also purchased a quality PSU and motherboard.

The best part, at least for me, about building my own computer is I can troubleshoot my own problems. I don't have to call some random customer service rep and spend hours just trying to explain the simplist of issues. I make a quick post on forums or surf the web and can problem solve most issues.

The only think I regret....is buying an Intel mobo and not knowing you can't OC them... Won't make that mistake again.

So far all of my home built computers work well with little or no trouble. except one that kept restarting because the Tempature Probe Cable was touching the mobo and causing shorts. oops

best thing is no bloatware on a home built computer

Of the DIY PCs I've built, none have ever croaked for reasons that:
A) would not have croaked a pre-built unit (e.g. a massive power surge, or an eventual HD crash)
-AND-
B) were not caused by inferior parts I probably ought to have known not to use (such as a $15 PSU about 6 years ago).

They have also never died of problems that afflict mass-market PCs, such as overheating, and all have been upgradable, whereas many prebuilt boxes are very limited.

If a pre-built unit croaks, the MTTR is going to be a lot longer (days or even weeks) than if your DIY unit fails. You won't be confined to a tediously scripted troubleshooting process, and won't need to be concerned about the competence of the Rent-A-Geek who has the service contract. Also, you won't need to worry about personal data being accessed by random others.

I think that large companies like Dell do a decent job of testing stuff before it goes out the door... yes, I know some people still receive DOA systems, but I'd wager than many more are caught before they ship. That said... I imagine the failure rates are the same... it's just that Dell's (I'm using Dell as a synonym for the PC industry as a whole) testing procedures catch a good many before they reach the customer. That's part of what you're paying when you buy a brand name computer and that's part of the risk you assume when you DIY.

My personal experiences with DIY have been wonderful... but maybe I was just lucky.

With a little bit of research there aren't any real risks involved in DIY.
However, DOAs happen to the best of us.
DOAs aren't that big of a problem though, if anything they are preferred to something that is poor quality and happens after the warranty period.
If a sketchy company told me that they could guarantee me a non-DOA unit, that doesn't mean anything to me. I want to work over time.
I've repaired many many many pre-built systems and it's always due to inferior parts. However, I won't point out a specific company since I've repaired as many Gateways as I have HPs or Dells or anything else. One constant I have noticed though is that vast majority of repairs are on the "cheap" systems. That are typically built when corners are cut, either in component quality (usually) or the level of detail/inspection put into their construction.

Great replies all. I kept reding the word luck mentioned a lot, with so much randomness involved in the DIY process, I guess it does indeed take a little bit of luck. Maybe I have just been on the short-end of that stick. For example, since I replaced my wife's PC PSU, it has been fine for 2 months now, no BSOD, or anyting like that. I guess I am just frustrated with my build, where I did buy better components (~$1200) and in 3 months it has been up maybe 3 weeks. I am on my 4th motherboard, DS3 -- BSOD one night, never posted again, P6N Plat would not post (ram related maybe), P5K worked fine, but when I OC'ed, bios corruption (according to Asus, I could not recover the bios). So now I am waiting for my 4th board in 1 month. I then look over at my Dell's I have had for years that still work... All of this is just making me second guess my decision about building my own PC. I hope when I get past all these issues, like many have said it will be well worth it. But now I am sitting back thinking what else is going to go wrong, kind of like buying a bad used car atm.

But your talking Apples and Oranges here... I got a million dollars for you if you can send me a Dell with a factory installed P5K in it. You want a rock solid DIY computer - put a Intel board in there. One that has been out for awhile (nothing brand new).
Wife's - Intel DH965WH in an Antec Sonta 2(w/antec PSU), E6300, 2x512 Mushkin running Vista Home Prem. ROCK solid - never a problem.
Mine - Abit IN9-32 Max (brand new board w/ brand new infant bios) see my sig for the rest. Now I've never had a hardware failure on this stuff, but bios issues with Ram compatiblity for sure... It's stable now but it was "fun" getting it going.
My point is your listing "state of the art / cutting edge" stuff here and then trying to compare it to some tried and true Dell. Doesn't wash.

If you're talking about a very entry-level system... the cost of DIY is so close to that of a manufacturer's price, that you do begin to question what is the right choice.

However, once you start looking at gaming rigs, the numbers change drastically. Manufacturers absolutely rape consumers on high-end upgrades... examples from Dell include:

$370 to upgrade from 1 GB to 4 GB
$170 to upgrade from a 250 GB HD to a 500 GB HD

In contrast... the DIY route those same items (not upgrades, just the items alone) will cost considerably less...

Here's a 4 GB memory kit for $224
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820220227

Here's a 500 GB HD for $115
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136073

$540 > $339... the math is pretty simple... and don't forget, Dell keeps the 1 GB RAM and 250 GB you upgraded from... that's not a rape... that's a gang rape!

The only problems I have had (been into computers from the 80's) was the same anyone runs into...mostly a bad cap on the MB that fails just after the warenty runs out or just befor.

Asus in the early 2000's gave me the most parts problems with both caps and chipset fans.

As for your hardware problems....they are probibly related to the first bad PSU you had.
It only take one of those to mess up everything else.

DIY is better then most Dell (again, all prebuilts) systems because you ahve 100% control over what goes in and what doesn't. Remember most people who have problems with new DIY computers is because they choose a crappy PSU--it dies on them a few weeks later! Still, other problems can occur. I have a Intel D845PESV with a single DDR DIMM slot burnt out. Shit happens.

Maybe I was just naive, I thought I would buy these great parts, hook them all up and have this killer machine at a