Buying a Non-Branded "White Box" PC
Date: May 7, 2004
You're thinking about buying a new desktop computer. But you're not sure you can get what you want from big-name vendors like Dell, HP, Gateway, IBM, Sony, etc.directly or through a storeor from "house brand" systems from stores like Micro Center, PC Connection, etc. You could get the box you want by buying the components and doing the assembly yourselfbut you want support for the whole system. Fortunately, you have another choiceor rather, lots of choicesnamely, buying a "white box" computer from a white box vendor.
What Is a "White Box"?
According to white-box computer vendor MyWhiteBox.com, "A white box computer is a custom-built computer with name-brand internal components...White boxes are generic computer systems that don't carry any particular brand name." White boxes typically come from computer stores that build their own systems from parts, like you could do, but (hopefully) providing more service and support than you'd get if you did it yourself.
White box vendors include the small storefront run by family or friends in a town near you, whose ads you might once have seen often in the (increasingly defunct) local newspaper, or local instantiations of computer tabloids. Vendors also include mail/web/phone-order companies such as AMS, CyberPower, Everex, IBuyPower, and Systemaxadvertisers whose magazine ads once plumped up the then phonebook-thick Computer Shopper (and occasionally still do so), but which these days primarily grace publications like MAXIMUM PC and Computer Power User (CPU).
The white box category arguably also includes some of the computer store franchises, like Computer Renaissance, with a few or a few dozen branches across close to as many states. In addition, to muddy the waters, established PC vendors like Dell may still be trying to get into the white-box market, offering unbranded versions of their systems. (See this August 2002 CNET news story, for example.)
My Own White Box Experiences
To date, I've bought nothing but white box desktops, six (plus upgrades) over the past fifteen years, from my local (greater Boston area) shopsMicroSmart, NPC, and PCs for Everyone.
My white box computers have ranged from a DOS 286 with 10MB disk, 4MB RAM, and a 1200-baud modem; through my current AMD 1700 and AMD 1800 Windows 2000 and Windows XP desktops (production and test machines, respectively), each with 1GB RAM and two 60GB hard drives, with an outboard hard drive and CD burner, still using a 15-year-old 17-inch CRT through a KVM switch. The main indulgence for my boxes from PCs for Everyone was nice Lian Li aluminum cases with extra fans. For the most part, I'm doing text processing, email, and web, so most of my power goes to keeping the operating system (OS) peppy.
The 286 cost me either $1,000 or $2,000 (I forget which) back in the late 1980s; my XP desktop ran me slightly over $1,200 or so a year ago, I think. In some cases, I could probably have gotten better prices from Dell, etc., but I've never had regrets. (Well, not about not having bought a mainstream system... I do regret some bone-headed decisions I made, but that's a different issue.)
I've been pretty happy with my boxes and vendors. Support has mostly been good, and I've been able to drive the machines in when something needed fixing or I wanted to upgrade something. When I call tech support at PCs for Everyone, for example, I get a knowledgeable human within seconds. I don't tend to open the box (although I did some modem card swaps on the older, now-gone boxes), nor do any OS whacking such as registry editing.
But it's reassuring to know that, thanks to the choices in hardware I was able to make by going to a white box shop, I could do such messing around because I've got a case that's easy to open, the part sizes are all standard, and I wouldn't void the warranty by putting in somebody else's components. (Although, in all honesty, I'd most likely take it in and let trained professionals do the work, especially for the computer with which I earned my living.)
Is a white box (which may actually be multicolored, transparent, wood, or some other wild case mod), and a white box vendor for you? It depends on what you're looking for, your comfort level with the pros and cons, whether a white box vendor you feel good about is located near you, and other factors.
Here's some advice on selecting and buying from a white box vendor, based on my own experiences plus watching/kibitzing/helping over the years as friends and family got their own white boxes.
Reasons To Consider a White Box Vendor
And that's a good segue to looking at some reasons why a white box vendor may make sense for you.
Specific Vendors, Parts, Configuration
When you order a computer from a name vendor such as Dell or IBM, you don't have a lot of control over what goes into the computer, and often you won't even know whose components are used.
In fact, what you get may not be the part you ordered. You get to choose the CPU (although you may not have any nonIntel choices), the type of memory (but not the vendor), possibly the hard drive and/or optical drive vendor (again, probably not the vendor). And good luck getting any OS other than Windows XP preinstalled. Dell currently offers a Windows-less system with FreeDOS; if you want Linux or something else, you have to add it yourself.
Good white box shops, by contrast, will give you many more component choices and lots more informationoften, a list of CPUs and motherboards; a range of sound and video cards; name-brand drives and memory; plus options for fans and other cooling, power supply upgrades, case mods. It's also easier to get systems with multiple hard drives and multiple optical drives. And you're more likely to be able to get the latest blazing-fast Asus motherboard, Corsair memory, or high-capacity ATA/SATA hard drive (although national brands like AlienWare will probably have the hottest stuff too).
Many shops provide links from their configuration pages to online reviews and information at sites like Tom's Hardware Guide or AnandTech. And you can even have real OS choices, including Linux distributions, BSD, multi-boot, preXP Windows versions if you prefer Windows 2000, or even no operating system at all. Although you'll pay the full retail price (or close to it) if you want a Microsoft OS, you'll get the Microsoft CD-ROM with itnot just a rescue disk.
Nonproprietary, Standard-Sized Parts
Another major advantage of buying a white box is that the builder is likely to use nonproprietary, standard-sized parts, which are easy to replace/update. If you've ever owned a car (or tried to do repairs or upgrades for your bathroom, perhaps) you may appreciate the problems inherent in owning systems that don't use standard-size parts. One friend of mine bought a name-brand computer; when the floppy drive failed, the vendor had to send an entire replacement system.
Volume-built major-vendor machines are also more likely to use motherboards with integrated video and sound, making it harder to upgrade these aspects separately. With standard-sized parts, if something like the motherboard or floppy or power supply goes south, replacing it should be far simpler. Even if an exact replacement isn't available, there's less likely to be the cascade effect of "This new part means that all these need to be replaced, too."
Standard-sized parts also means that hardware upgrades should be doableadding or upgrading a hard drive, optical drive, or video card, or going to a new motherboard.
Local Service and Support
Buy from Dell, IBMor, granted, many of the mail-order white box shopsand you're at the mercy of long-distance help. Long wait times for phone support, parts sent by mail, possibly having to box up your computer for depot service.
Buy from a local store, and if your problem seems to need hands-on work, you can throw (well, place) the computer in your car and drive it in, talk directly with technical support, possibly even have things resolved while you wait.
The downside, of course, is spending time chauffeuring your computer around instead of working, but you get to talk to somebody directly, and may get quicker problem resolution. And your computer won't get bounced around in transit unpredictably.
TIP
If you don't expect to stay in the same area for long, "drive-in local service" may not be useful, making purchasing from a national vendor (or store) perhaps more meaningful.
Price
Depending on what you want, a white-box desktop computer may or may not be cheaper. Ignoring parts differences, which may make it difficult to do a real apples-to-apples price comparison, apparent initial low costs on a major vendor deal may be quickly wiped out by shipping and warranty. On the other hand, including whatever sales, freebies, and rebates are available, that new Dell, HP, or IBM may indeed be a deal. But don't let a few dollars drive your decision, since there are bound to be more important differences.
"I don't see a big difference between any of the vendors," reports Dr. Louis Stuhl, who has purchased a number of name-brand and local white-box computers over the year for personal and business use. "The white box machines may have had to go back to the shop more, but it was easier to do that. Cost-wise, at present prices, the white box machines don't appear to be good values if a comparable configuration is available from HP or Dell, but are definitely the way to go if a very particular configuration is required and there's a chance of complications arising from the particulars of the configuration."
Which leads to the next issue, deciding where you'll buy.
Choosing Your White Box Shop
So you've decided you want to buy from a white box vendor. There are four steps to the process:
Decide roughly what you want.
Choose a vendor.
Price out the equipment.
Pick up your system.
Deciding What You Want
Put together a basic configuration: OS, CPU, RAM, hard drive(s), optical drives, etc.
What you need is driven by what you want to use this computer for, of course. Odds are that you're going to use this computer for standard stuff like Net access, office apps, maybe burning some CDs or DVDs, playing with digital photos and music, in which case you'll be hard-pressed to buy any new computer that's inadequate. You may want to price the fastest CPUor stick to the sweet spot, and consider putting the added money into more RAM, and maybe bigger/more hard drives. If you're into multimedia and/or gaming, higher-end video and sound cards may be on your shopping list, and perhaps a higher-end motherboard. (And more cooling!)
Decide what upgrades, additional components, and/or vendor-specific items you want: case, power supply, video card. This may rule out some white box vendors, not to mention some of the name-brand vendors.
Choosing a Vendor
First, decide whether you want a local vendor so you can chat, buy, pick up, and get service, or whether you're willing to shop online and get hardware service by mail. If you don't already have a place or two in mind, ask people whose judgment you respect for recommendations.
For local white-box shops, check locally distributed computer tabloids, troll down your town's business district, check for ads in the business section of your local paper, and perhaps check the phone book's yellow pages. For national mail/web/phone-order white box vendors, look in your favorite computer magazines.
Granted, buying from a name-brand vendor isn't a guarantee of system quality or a happy service/support experience. On the other hand, the odds are that leading vendors like Dell, HP, and IBM; or resellers and stores like CDW, CompUSA, Micro Center, or PC Connection are not going away in any hurry. (Over time, sure, not all will survive. But they're unlikely to fold overnightand for now, you know they're real, with sales and support reps you can talk to.)
Jason McKinney, a system administrator in the Silicon Rain Forest area, comments, "There's a lot of dodgy stuff out there, especially online... be careful about shopping at some place you don't have experience with." McKinney also cautions that it's important to understand the difference in retail versus OEM parts. "There's a certain amount of 'you get what you pay for.' When you buy a system from a local or mail-order shop, you don't usually get all the packaging or bundled software that you would if you bought the individual parts retail, and you typically get a reduced warranty. And there may be irregularities in the parts."
For component pricing and features, McKinney typically checks the online buyer guide at the Ars Technica site. "They give three tiers of price/performance comparison."
McKinney's general advice: "It's like auto mechanicsif you find a good computer store, hold onto them like grim death!"
Here are some basic questions to ask/issues to address:
What are their hours (sales, support)?
How long have they been in business?
What size is the operation: one small store? several? franchise? Are they independently owned and operated?
What kinds of customers do they tend to sell to (consumers, small office/home office, students, small businesses, gamers, hackers)?
Do they also sell name-brand systems, or just their own "house brand"? (For example, Micro Center has a house brand.)
How much information do they provide in terms of system componentsvendor, model, tech info?
How useful is their web site? Spend some time following through not just a "try to buy" but also related links.
What's their reputation? For example, what do your friends think of them? Where do they advertise?
What are their policies for support, returns, warranties? What's free? If it's not a local shop, who pays shipping (to and from)?
Do they carry what you want? Windows versions, nonWindows OSes, AMD/Intel CPUs?
Do they carry any specific vendor/parts you want? If not, will they let you bring parts in?
What are their payment methods? Do you pay a deposit, or do they require full payment in advance?
For Windows systems, do you get original Microsoft disks?
How long do orders typically take? Remember, unless you're getting a prebuilt system with only minor changes, they need to build it and "burn in" to make sure the parts are all good. (Especially during back-to-school times)
What are their policies regarding customer-installed hardware upgrades? If you're planning to overclock or do other performance tweaks, does this activity impact their warranty and support?
If possible, go to the vendor and check out the "vibe." Do customers seem happy or unhappy? Do salespeople seem knowledgeable? Do they seem to be listening to customers, or pushing some things heavily? Consider trying their tech supportcall and see how quick you get a human being. And check their web site out thoroughly.
Pricing It Out
I recommend starting by pricing your target system with Dell and perhaps IBM and another major online vendor or two as a baseline. Don't forget to include (use estimates, if necessary) tax and shipping, as well as support (1, 2, or 3 years). You might want to price out the components, as if you were going to build the system yourself, through some place like NewEgg.com.
Obviously, you'll want to figure out whether you're trying to "load it up" now with a high-end CPU and motherboard, lots of RAM; or go for a sweet-spot system; or stick with low end.
I urge you to talk with a sales rep, stress what you intend to use the system for, and be sure to confirm that all the parts you've selected work together. For example, if you're planning to use Linux, are drivers available (and will they install them)? Are sales folks on commission? If so, try to work with just one. (If you're doing anything at all radical or funky, however, you might see if you can get a second opinion from an additional sales rep.)
Once you've got a configuration and price, do another quick comparison run-through with Dell, just for a sanity check.
Reconfirm the return policy, including whether there are restocking fees.
When you place your order, be sure to get the full name and phone extension of any sales reps, and make sure that any special requests or concerns are noted in writing somewhere on your order.
TIP
Get/make a copy of your invoice!
Picking Up Your System
When you get your systemwhile in the store, if picking it uppower it up and check as much as you can immediately. If you're in the store, see if you can plug into a LAN.
Check for preinstalled software. Check for disks for any software you purchased. (Take a notebook to start recording ID numbers, and a box for disks, manuals, etc.)
CAUTION
Of course, you'll be installing software firewall and virus protection ASAP, and connecting the computer to a UPS and a hardware firewall/router.
Easy Mistakes To MakeOr Avoid
Based mostly on my own experiences, here's some things I suggest you keep in mind:
Make sure that all the components "play together." For example, do you have drivers for whatever operating system(s) you plan to run? Are there hardware conflicts? Can you use the intended video card with the selected motherboard?
Unless you have specialized, hard to find, and/or expensive hardware, don't unnecessarily reuse parts from your old systems. Reason 1: Driver support (sigh). Reason 2: New hardware with greater capacity/performance is probably not that much more expensive. Reason 3: Older parts may break sooner than the new stuff. Reason 4: You're adding complexity. If you do feel the need to use legacy equipment, be very clear to the sales rep what you wantyou may even need to get somebody more tech savvy to confirm that this arrangement will be okay.
Don't get unnecessarily complicated/cute add-ons. In principle, for example, things like removable hard drives make lots of sense. Until something doesn't work, because the pins bend or whatever. Apply the KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid).
Internal versus external devices? Think carefully. Devices such as burners and hard drives are available in both internal and external versions. The externals obviously offer more flexibilityyou can use them with more than one computerbut they cost more, run slower, and may take more fussing to get right, or may not work with apps such as disk imaging.
Don't get too much stuff you don't think you'll need. It'll only get cheaper later.
Try to buy on the early-adoption side of the curve. The more established technology is cheaper, but it gets obsolete faster, too.
In general, my advice for buying (and using) white box computers is the same as for any other kind of system:
Be sure to do regular full-data backups and periodic system backups.
Have and use virus and firewall software, UPS, and hardware firewall/router.
If possible, have a spare system you can switch to, using your backed-up data.
Keep receipts, serial number info, disks, and other key info easily at hand.
If you're careful and do your homeworkand don't jump at "too good to be true" bargainsthere's no reason you can't get the computer you want, hopefully from a local computer store you like.
Key Points for Reference
Main points for evaluating potential white-box vendors:
What are their hours (sales, support)?
How long have they been in business?
How large is the company (staff, locations)?
What's the return policy? Warranty?
Can you install your own hardware without voiding their warranty?
How long does it take to get a support person on the phone?
If you're buying Windows, do you get original Microsoft CD-ROMs?
For component price baselines, see NewEgg.com. For technical component information, see any of the following:
Here are some well-known OEMs you might want to try: