{"id":127,"date":"2010-05-03T16:30:28","date_gmt":"2010-05-03T20:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/?p=127"},"modified":"2010-06-10T02:36:49","modified_gmt":"2010-06-10T06:36:49","slug":"how-to-save-on-a-new-computer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/how-to-save-on-a-new-computer\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Save 66% on a New Computer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kid<\/a>
Building computers can be fun and easy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I was 13, I wanted to build a computer. It was a pretty simple goal: I wanted to buy the parts, assemble it, hope it worked, and then use it. 9 years later I’ve assembled, repaired and torn apart hundreds of computers and there’s one thing I’ve noticed when teaching people about building computers: they’re amazed how easy it is to build your own PC and how much money it can save you. With computer parts decreasing in price yearly<\/a>, now’s a better time than ever before to assemble your own computer and saves hundreds–if not thousands–of dollars.<\/p>\n

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YOU CAN SAVE THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS BY BUILDING YOUR OWN COMPUTER.<\/strong> You’ve always heard doing things on your own can save you money. Well, this is especially true with computers. I configured a mid-range computer on Dell’s website and the total was $1,343 (not including shipping). Using Newegg<\/a>–a electronics supplier–I chose parts that matched, or in some cases exceeded, Dell’s configuration. The end result was the parts cost $741, nearly a 30% savings over the Dell configuration! Using websites like Anandtech<\/a>, Newegg’s Exxpert<\/a>, HardOCP<\/a>, GameSpot<\/a> PC Hardware forums and others, you can get peer advice on what parts to use in a build.<\/p>\n

Here’s a chart of the Dell configuration mentioned above to the Newegg parts:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

BUILDING A COMPUTER IS EASY.<\/strong> Building a computer is much easier than you think. Teenagers build them all the time, and you’re smarter than they are. WikiHow has a great article on how to build a computer<\/a>, complete with pictures and a video.<\/p>\n

FREE APPS TO FURTHER DECREASE THE COST.<\/strong> Buying Microsoft Office 2010 Home & Business will cost you $280<\/a>. Buying Adobe Creative Suite 5 (with Photoshop CS5) can cost you $2,500<\/a>. The price of software programs can easily exceed the price of the actual computer. However, there’s an alternative: go with free programs. Most people have heard of Linux, a free open source alternative to Microsoft Windows. Well, there are open source alternatives<\/a> to almost every for-pay program out there. Some of my favorites include Gimp<\/a>, an alternative to PhotoShop, OpenOffice.org<\/a>, an alternative to Microsoft Office that can open and save in .doc and .docx file formats, and Avira AntiVir<\/a>, an anti-malware program that takes the place of McAfee, Norton, etc. (all while detecting more viruses, according to independent tests<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Have you ever built your own computer? Success or failure? Were you able to quantify the results?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was 13, I wanted to build a computer. It was a pretty simple goal: I wanted to buy the parts, assemble it, hope it worked, and then use it. 9 years later I’ve assembled, repaired and torn apart hundreds of computers and there’s one thing I’ve noticed when teaching people about building computers: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-electronics","tag-computer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211,"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions\/211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}