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May 17, 2013

CNET Community
Does it still make sense to build your own computer?

Dear CNET members,

Happy Friday! I hope this newsletter find you all well and in good health. Unfortunately for me, I have been sick for the past couple of days. So why am I here? Well, I didn't want to leave you all hanging, wondering where Friday's Commmunity newsletter was. I'm going to keep this brief, so this week's format will not include the Q&A for the week. However, if you have any additional advice for member Norm on how to fix his write-protected USB flash drive, I urge you to add it to the discussion thread right here, and I will present it in next Friday's Community newsletter.

Instead this week, I have a couple things I want to bring to your attention: The first one is for the Get Hooked Up Sweepstakes, where you can enter to win a BlackBerry Z10 Smartphone of your very own! Just cast your vote in my coworker Liza Maloy's poll for what's the coolest feature of the BlackBerry Z10 and get a chance to win one of five phones they are giving away. It's that simple -- so don't miss out on this opportunity. Here are the official rules.

The second thing I want to bring to the table is an interesting topic that I came across on CNET: "Does it still make sense to build your own computer?" I think many of you will have an opinion on this. I personally used to build my own PCs; it not only saved me money, but it was fun and they were built to my specifications. Today, I buy ready-made PCs for home use. Sure, I still find it fun to do it myself, but as far as being a cost-saving factor, it's not worth the effort anymore -- beside my tinkering time is limited as my kids take up most of my time. Maybe one day when they are older I will show them how it's all done, but for now I'm buying off the shelf. So what do you have to say to topic? Has the DIY PC era come to an end? Do you still build your own PCs? Read the article and tell us what your take is.

Have a great weekend, everyone! And again, I apologize for not hosting the regular Q&A topic of the week.
Lee Koo

Lee Koo
Community manager

View profile  |  Email

Next week's question
Q: Help! USB flash drive suddenly became write-protected
I have a 64GB USB flash drive that suddenly went "write-protected" (read only). It has no tiny little switch to unprotect it, but seeing as there really wasn't anything critical to be lost, I decided that a simple reformat would fix it up. Unfortunately, W7 can't format it because it's write-protected. The error message says to undo the write protection before formatting (starting to look like an old "Catch-22" scenario). I bought it on eBay from China and can't identify the manufacturer, so there is no help there.

I scoured the Internet to find what I was sure would be a simple solution. I've tried virtually every suggestion and freeware tool that numerous Google searches have proffered. My drive is still unusable and to my surprise, it turns out that there are quite a lot of us out there getting increasingly frustrated with the same problem. Short of smashing the drive with a hammer, I don't see how else to end this dilemma.

Frankly, you are my last resort. Unless some genius out there has a solution that actually works, I'll definitely resort to using a hammer. If it comes to that, I bet I will even smash it with relish. That's how frustrating this seemingly simple problem has become for me.

Anyhow, thanks in advance for any help you can hook me up with.
-- Submitted by: Norm B.
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Next week's question
Quick PollHave you ever built your own computer?

·  Yes.
·   I tried but failed.
·  No, but I'm considering it.
·  I've never considered it.
·  Does rebuilding one count?
·  The word "build" and I don't belong in the same sentence.
·  I want to, but I'm afraid.

Click here to Vote on the poll.
Security Alerts and Updates
• Microsoft security bulletin advance notice: May 2013
• Security news for May 17, 2013
• Vulnerabilities and fixes for May 17, 2013
CNET Crave giveaway
This week's prize comes in two parts, one hardware and one software. Is it your computer's lucky week? Click here to enter the Crave giveaway.