[Joe Wicked]

Ron,
That is a big part of it. A few years back, I started my own business building computers. I started to get quite a few orders (about 4-5/week) and I was starting to make my plan of how to expand into a storefront and quit my primary job when the price on Gateway, Dell, etc... fell through the floor. I could no longer compete with the basic PC. The only time I became an option to people was those that wanted a really high end system, but did not/could not build it themselves. Most of that group prefers to go to the name brand as they "Know" they will get good quality. Within just a few weeks I went from 4-5 built/week to 4-5/month, and now I haven't built one for a customer in 2 years. A big part of how the big guys keep prices down is they buy in bulk. They will buy just a few different mother boards, processors, etc... and buy a lot of them. This bulk pricing helps keep the cost low and the majority of the customers do not care/know what brand what is inside. They just care that it powers on, they can get on the web/read email/play solitaire.

I believe in over building everything. If it is built to handle AB and I only ever use A, then it should hold up for a long time. Like I said the old one still runs fine, but with some of the new games my wife plays, the processor can't keep up anymore. The new one, I will expect to last for years as well.