site banner

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 27, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

3
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I've built a PC with my dad before, have bought a couple of prebuilts from other brands, my partner built a PC, and I have bought the Alienwares and they all seem to have 'significant' issues every 2-3 years or so. It just feels like a gaming PC thing, although I've had issues with Macs too. Random bluescreens, fans suddenly failing, GPUs artifacting/going faulty after a few months, a water cooler failed, a stick of ram was faulty, whatever.

You lose a lot of modularity with a prebuilt as restrictive as dells. The last time I checked they use all kinds of proprietary shit, if you build you can replace/upgrade much easier.

Sure, but the proprietary shit doesn't matter. At a time when 3080s were selling for 3x MSRP and an RMA took/takes 2 months for most manufacturers, I got a new card the next day after mine got bricked. That's a unique level of service.

But why are your things breaking so often??

I've built well over 20 PC's in the last few years for friends, families and small businesses. It is not nearly as common as its been for you.