Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Warranty
The retail-boxed components you'll use to build your own PC include full
manufacturer warranties that may run from one to five years or more,
depending on the component. PC makers use OEM components, which
often include no manufacturer warranty to the end user. If something
breaks, you're at the mercy of the PC maker to repair or replace it. We've
heard from readers who bought PCs from makers who went out of busi-
ness shortly thereafter. When a hard drive or video card failed six months
later, they contacted the maker of the item, only to find that they had OEM
components that were not under manufacturer warranty.
Save Those Receipts
Keep receipts together with the “re-
tain this portion” of warranty cards
and put them someplace they can be
found if required for future warranty
service. This goes for software, too.
Ron Morse puts all that stuff in an
envelope and tapes it to the inside of
the case cover, or some other out-of-
the-way location. That keeps all the
papers in one place and everything
associated with that particular com-
puter…well, associated with that
particular computer.
Experience
If you buy a computer, your experience with it consists of taking it out of
the box and connecting the cables. If you build the computer, you know
exactly what went into it, and you're in a much better position to resolve
any problems that may occur.
Upgrades
If you design and build your own PC, you can upgrade it later using industry-
standard components. That's sometimes not the case with commercial
systems, some of which are intentionally designed to be incompatible
with industry-standard components (although this is a less common prac-
tice today than when we wrote the first edition of this topic). PC makers
do this because they want to force you to buy upgrade and replacement
components from them, at whatever price they want to charge.
Intentional Gotchas
These designed-in incompatibilities may be as trivial as
nonstandard screw sizes, or as profound as components that
are electrically incompatible with standard components. For ex-
ample, some Dell PCs have used motherboards and power sup-
plies with standard connectors but nonstandard pin connec-
tions. If you replaced a failed Dell power supply with a standard
ATX power supply—or if you connected the nonstandard Dell
power supply to a standard motherboard—the power supply
and motherboard were destroyed as soon as you applied power
to the system.
Brian Bilbrey Adds
Another egregious offender in this realm was eMachines,
which put proprietary, really terrible power supplies in their
systems. For a while there, I was putting compatible quality
replacements in those for friends and family…from PC Power &
Cooling.
Ron Morse Comments
You missed one of the best reasons to build your own PC, at
least if you have children (or grandchildren). Building a PC
is one of the best mother/father-daughter/son weekend
projects I can imagine.
Brian Bilbrey Adds
I second this, especially since you can't buy a Heathkit tube
radio or television anymore.
