"There are smaller shops and folks at home like my husband and myself who can repair all sorts of machines for considerably less than the big stores."
I've never had to get a computer repaired, but I've priced repair costs. Large stores will charge up to $50 just to put in a network card! Hard to believe but this is what it's like. If I ever need to shop around I will definitely look at smaller shops and home based businesses. Probably for my next computer I might just build it from scratch. I've heard it's not hard at all.
Probably for my next computer I might just build it from scratch. I've heard it's not hard at all.
Take your time getting the CPU and Heat Sink mounted on the motherboard -- that's the only part that has a non-trivial difficulty factor. It's pretty easy to toast your CPU, especially AMD's, which you can fry in a New York second. One place Intel has an advantage is in surviving cooling failures.
Or go the the Resellerratings.com site, and custom select your components from one of the top rated sellers there. They will assemble, test and ship, if you like, allowing you to end up with a system that has all the hand picked components you want, without the effort of putting it together.