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Old 7th July 2008
wnsi wnsi is offline
Real Name: Mitch Morrison
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Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 8
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For me it comes down to the following criteria:

Is this computer for someone other than you or your immediate household?

Is this computer a notebook?

Does this computer need a lifespan of less than 3 years?

If the answer is yes to any of the above, then I buy pre-built. Otherwise I like to build. I find that I am the only one who meets my specs.

At the university I work at you have to justify any system that is not Apple, Dell or Sun. And with the Dell you have to justify if it is not a specific model of Dell. While it seems draconian, it has saved lots of money over the past 2 years in both hardware costs and personnel hours. From the helpdesk side it makes life so much easier to eliminate the part of the script that starts with "What kind of computer do you work on?" And when you can go to Dell and say with certainty "We will be purchasing around 7000 Optiplex stations this year" you tend to get a better rate.

Or at least that is what the administration claims.
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