Quote - One of the things I don't like about brand computers is the power supply. Usually underdimensioned. That Dell Quad core is going to be delivered with a 300W PSU. barely enough to power the CPU, the harddisk, the DVD station and the current graphics card. If you want to upgrade the graphics card, you will also have to upgrade the PSU.

Is there a site that shows the watts used per component so that I can add what I've got and decide if I want to upgrade the power supply?

I built the old computer I'm replacing. Since I'm going for as low a priced computer as I can for the performance I want, I'm not all that sure I can build one for the pre-tax $600 I'm paying for this computer. At the top of my head, a quad chip is $200, XP Pro $200, 320 Gb drive $80, 2 Gb RAM $60, motherboard $50. That's almost $600 there and I still need a case, power supply, DVD writer, and a few more items before I've got a comparable system. Components cost consumers more than they do computer makers. The components are packaged individually in commercial boxes for display. Individual warranties have to be made to consumers versus a computer seller assuming all those warranties. The operating system alone would cost me a third of what I paid for the computer and that's one of the areas where Microsoft is screwing consumers because it makes it difficult to build a computer for the same price. It's very hard to match the cost of a prebuilt computer when the OS costs are thrown in (Linux would be a nice free option, but has it's own problems with available Linux software). The cost savings comes in trading personal time for the cost of the computer company to make the machine. One of the big advantages of building a machine from scratch is making all the choices for components. Anybody building a high end machine can build a better one than any manufacturer will.

I didn't buy retail because I didn't want Vista and there aren't any store machines without Vista anymore (if there is, the computer is over a year old and no longer particularly current). Neither Dell or MS will replace Vista if it's not wholly compatible with the software I'm using. Dell sort of will if I ship the whole computer back, and I'd have to eat the shipping, and order a new computer. That seemed too much bother and I figure XP will be supported for at least a few more years even though it will no longer be sold in a few months. At least the new inexpensive minicomputers, like the ASUS EEE, will keep XP alive for longer than MS wanted. Although it would cost me a couple hundred dollars to buy a copy of XP, MS is almost giving it away to Linux ASUS EEE users for $25. Microsoft knows how to keep prices low when they have to compete. They aren't as considerate with their pricing when they have no competition. I also didn't buy retail because retail quad computers are usually priced near a grand. At that price, the other components are a little beefier than what I bought. I'd rather upgrade components in the future than pay the premium when building a computer.

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