said by signmeuptoo :

The thing is, I don't want to be negative or bum you out.

Me? I am very poor, $10 for me is a luxury even, no kidding, I rarely even have that much to spare each month. So that affects my perspective, the way that I see value. I grew up under parentage that was very forceful about self sufficiency and doing things yourself. Although I am neither, I've pulled myself up by the bootstraps several times in my life with little help and don't like to have other men or women do things like fix my car for me, so that affects why I said what I did.

Consider this:

You paid extra for added warranty, which is probably a good idea, but let's think about that for a second:

I am unclear here, but it seems like you bought a second year of coverage, so you have just two years on everything. Let's compare that to a build your own warranty picture:

If you build your own, and if you are careful about seeking only products with better warranties while still shopping for great prices (believe me it can be done easy enough, I've done my part to help people know ways to find hot deals here at DSLR for that matter, just ask!), you can get individual part warranties that are pretty damned good, look:

Many mainboards have 3 year warranty and I believe even some have lifetime (?)

Hard drives have a year to 5 years, Seagate provides 5, there are some with 3 years I believe too from other makers.

RAM, has very long warranties, IF you ONLY BUY Quality RAM, in fact, most quality brands offer LIFETIME warranty!

Video cards vary, but many have 3 years and a lot even have LIFETIME warranties for the first owner, I've even heard of transferable warranties.

Processors in RETAIL packages come with about 3 year warranties, last time I checked, at NO EXTRA CHARGE (all the above I've listed are for no extra charge).

Optical drives vary in warranty, but they are dirt cheap with the exception of HD/Bluray, and even those have dropped in price incredibly! Even just a one year warranty on a DVD burner for, say, $25 is a bargain compared to the markup with a factory built system.

Good Quality power supplies aren't cheap, but dollar for dollar they are much much better value wise and often performance wise than a factory included power supply. The single most important part of your modern computer is the quality of your power supply, and there is a LOT involved in this. Sadly, most noob like computer users are very unaware of the importance of the supply and why cheap ones are bad, they are bad in ways that people unfamiliar with electronics are unaware unless they read the forums and sites well.

Well, a real quality supply can carry 3, 5, maybe more, years of coverage, and, generally, if one goes out in, say, 2.5 years, you will get a newer, better unit in replacement. That sometimes happens with hard drives and other parts too, instant upgrade on warranty!

Cases: Cases vary, but you can easily get as good as factory or better, and the *quality* of aftermarket cases is so much nicer and fancier and cooler and feature filled than factory cases that it is incredibly rare anyone ever needing warranty work on a case today. On top of this, Some factory built systems and their cases can lead to loud/noisy computers and a nice aftermarket case can be exactly to your personal specs, or nearly so. Remember, you can have 6 quiet fans moving more air than one noisy one, and the system with 6 can be quieter too!

But what you won't get warranty wise:

No factory will reinstall your system for you.

No factory will come to your house (better clean the place first, heh!)

No factory will leave you safe from being exposed: When you send in a computer for service, anyone that touches that system, from the tech to any thief who might steal it en-route, can access your private data like credit card numbers off of your system.

Few factory systems come free of garbage software that can be a pain to remove, or worse, even impossible to remove without borking things.

Now:

Some guys come here and ask how people like their "new boxen" because they are proud of it and want to brag just a little. That's ok but it can backfire on them if they didn't buy smart or didn't buy well.

Nothing I am saying here is because I wish to rub salt in any wounds if there are any. My sole desire is to provide information that might help others in future purchases and choices. Let's put it this way: Even IF I was the winner in the Powerball drawing next week I would still not be inclined to buy my computers from a factory. I am just funny that way, for me it's tantamount to having another guy kiss my woman to have someone build for me, which makes me obviously a control freak or something. If I had a few million I might buy one or two factory systems for certain uses, maybe, but my gaming rigs would definitely be built by myself.

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to others here at DSLR for much of my knowledge, kudos to all of you out there!

Before buying, spend time here and other good forums and sites, that is ALWAYS my advice.

HTH

P.S.

My deepest abologies if anything I said ruffles feathers for anyone, it's just me, my perspective, my take on things, and my opinion, like any opinion, is a dime a dozen in value...