Langa Letter: In Praise Of White-Box PCs

The $77 Core PC
The solution: Another generic PC "kit," although calling it a kit seems silly. The only fundamental assembly required was plugging the CPU into its socket and snapping in a stick of RAM. Beyond that, I also added the normal components--a hard drive, network cards, and so on--but the total hardware assembly time was only about 20 minutes.

The core bare-bones case, power supply, and motherboard with integrated USB, audio, and AGP video, cost just $77! The complete basic box, including 128 Mbytes of RAM, a 1-GHz Celeron chip with heat sink and cooling fan, plus mouse and keyboard, cost only $270.

And that wasn't the lowest-cost system available, by far. I could have spent even less on the basic motherboard bundle, except that I needed one particular (and unusual) combination of slots; this limited my choices somewhat. Still, the total package was so cheap that I splurged and actually bought far more CPU horsepower than I need for basic server use. The cost increment over slower chips was so small, it seemed a false economy to get the less-powerful CPUs.

Because our server isn't normally used as a workstation, things that might matter in full-time use--monitor, mouse, and keyboard--are less important. So, we use an old, slightly funky 14-inch VGA monitor for the server and opted for el-cheapo, no-name input devices. The mouse cost less than $2, and the keyboard (a spillproof, dustproof unit that shouldn't suffer from long periods of disuse) was less than $4. I also added a pair of cast-off speakers to the system so I could hear audio alarms or startup and shut-down sounds. But if I'd had to buy speakers, a basic pair would have cost only about $5.

I had drives on hand, but adding new drives wouldn't have cost a lot. You can buy a new floppy drive for less than $10 and a 20-Gbyte hard drive for $55. And although I opted for a motherboard with built-in sound and video (for simplicity, and to save slots), if you wanted, you could buy a separate basic audio card for around $5 and a generic video card for about $10.

In fact, if you bought everything new for this kind of generic system, you'd end up with a total cost of around $350, or about $150 less than the cost of a roughly equivalent pre-built system (such as the Gateway 910C Server, which costs $500). In other words, those 20 minutes of simple screwdriver work save you $150--not a bad ROI at all. (For links to places that sell PC kits and components and sites featuring build-it-yourself information, see the references at the end of the article.)

It's worth noting that I've never had any special reliability problems with the various kits I've built over the years. Take that 7-year-old system, for example. It's still going strong, with no mechanical or electrical problems. That's partly because many kit components use the same commodity items as the large manufacturers. And partly because tasks such as print and file sharing hardly put a strain on the system.

What About Nonserver Use?
White-box and generic systems can serve as full-bore workstations, of course, but the costs go up as you add higher-end graphics, better input devices, superior sound capabilities, and so on. At some point, the costs begin to approach what you'd pay for a name-brand system, so you might as well just go the name-brand route.

And although I have no qualms about using generic systems in simple, light-load applications, I'd hesitate before using a generic system in a high-end, complex, high-demand task. In such circumstances, the peace of mind of having a reputable vendor standing behind the system is worth the extra cost to me.

But for simple, light-load applications, white-box and generic systems can be great choices. They let you invest your money in the components that matter most for the task at hand, while economizing on the components that are less important. You end up with a customized box that's ideally suited for a specific job, at a price far below what you might otherwise spend.

Next time you need a special-purpose PC, think "generic." Your wallet just may thank you!

What's your experience with purpose-built generic or kit PCs? Does your company allow or mandate the use of custom PCs? If you've been involved in building custom PCs, where are the best places for parts and information? What's the lowest-cost system you've built or know of? What's most elaborate and powerful? Let's pool out knowledge in the Listening Post discussion forum!

Selected Hardware Resources
Many more are available via a Web search:

Info On Building PCs And Servers

Other InformationWeek Articles Of Interest