^^^yeah, in my opinion HP's are the best premade comps....
what i do when i need a new comp is, i buy a premade and then i mod the hell out of it...so in the end, it in no way resembles what it was...for instance with my current comp, which is a HP, i plan to drop 2gig DDR400, a x700 and another high-speed hardrive for initial start-up and basic function crap....the MB/Proc. is fine for now, though i would like to upgrade the proc. to a higher speed AMD...

 

wow....i dont understand any of this....all i know is my computer is a brand new HP, 200GB hard drive space, dvd/cd burner built in, all that stuff, its way, way better than our old, '98 computer

 

I never was able to build a computer cheaper than I could buy similar one. This is because you are buying parts retail with shipping, not wholesale. The fun side is another story, though

 

all things eventually break, even hondas and e-machines. lol.

 

Not everyone's life is long enough to see this, though...[8D]

 

true. However, I went to best buy to do some comparison and found that my pc > theirs of equivalent price. I know that they also give you a crappy monitor, but aside from that, a lot of them use AMD which is currently inferior to intel. Also, the upcoming intel quadro will work with mobos that support core 2 duo. And lastly, pre-built computers are not as upgradeable and most are hard to OC and I havent seen anything with true SLI support

 

And that's the fun side, right?
BTW, I would never go to brick and mortar store to buy a computer unless they have some crazy promotions (I remember buying notebook for my friends with $500 rebate at CompUsa - but this was the only time I did it). When I need just quality machine for cheap, I buy Dell on eBay.

 

Are you talking thin client?

 

When you compare mid/high end to mid/high end, custom computers will usually be cheaper. However, when you compare low end to low end i doubt you will be able to build a computer for a cheaper price than a prebuilt unit.