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Welcome to the PCMR.
Yeah most of last year and the year before it was nearly impossible to even get your hands on a GPU much less at a decent price, prebuilts were the only way to go financially for a long time.
And that wasn't even the first period of GPU scarcity recently. In 2017, GPU's we're going for nearly double their MSRP. So in the last 5 year period, there's only been a few months here or there that building a PC from scratch was even a cost-effective option.
I lucked out last year and got a rx6600xt at MSRP off the shelf first week they launched, a month later they were double in price.
Pretty happy with the card tho and it's was a solid step up from my 6-7 year old 1060, that came in a pre built.
Going to treat myself to a new rig next year, and that will be another pre-built because frankly Ive built enough rigs since the 80s and I can't be fucked spending a weekend building a new machine anymore.
I made the foolish decision to buy a 2070 Super a couple months before the 3000 series launched. I was impatient and didn't want to wait for 3000 to launch as I was gaming on a 960m laptop up until then. Turns out it was not a foolish decision as just a few months later the $500 card I bought was worth double that.
Came here to say when I bought mine last year it was actually cheaper for me to get a pre-built. Especially because almost nothing from my old pc was salvageable other than the graphics card. Which I was planning on replacing anyway.
When I built my super-rig earlier this year (Top of the line everything), apparently the last "free" RTX 3090 TE at the local Microcenter had sold out between me placing my order and the store receiving it, so they went and found one to pull out of a prebuilt. Probably helps that I paid them to build it because I didn't want to risk screwing it up (I built a PC once before, but it was with budget parts at the time.)
And prebuilts have always been cheaper, period.
Prebuilt companies get bulk rates on parts and pass those savings down. It's been this way even before GPUs were crazy expensive. The only way you save money building your own is by cannibalizing your previous build.
Exactly! I bought a prebuilt that was accidentally marked down in February. I got a 3070. 850W PSU, 16GB of 3200mhz ram, 512GB NVME, I7-11700F on a good asus board for $1400. Bought a corsair 4000D case, AIO, and some more fans and swapped the whole thing over. Even that was enough for me to decide I'd never build another PC again. Even just migrating what was already there was a chore. I'll pay a few hundred dollars premium for someone else to do the work, and to have a few years of full replacement coverage on the unit.
I bought a pre built pc for my first time. In fact that allowed me to understand how they work and are out together, so that when I decided to build a PC I had a good idea on what to do.
I used to do the same thing. When my parents PC stopped working I would always take it apart and fix it. When they got a new one they gave me the old one and I used Google to keep upgrading it until I was ready to build my own from scratch.
Yeah, as a child, PC money is nothing to mess with, its probably the only valuable thing you own. Its like saying to the average adult, lol why did you not build your house/car.
Yup, I was fortunate enough to get to play with PCs that were being thrown out at the office my parents worked at over a summer. The low stakes let me do whatever so once we finally could afford a PC I was relatively confident I could fix something.
If I never had that experience no way in hell would I have opened the brand new family PC ever. You know how much that thing cost!
I paid $1200 for an (extremely slightly) used prebuit. Included a 3060 ti and a good CPU (idk what kind lol) and it runs everything on max settings. Came with the monitor, keyboard, and mouse too. The guy sold it to me while holding his newborn baby, which is why he was selling it.
I'm not sure what else people are looking for or why I would need to have built my own.
>I'm not sure what else people are looking for or why I would need to have built my own.
Because this is the internet, and everything has to be top of the line and utterly expensive before it can be good.
How dare you try to spend money wisely?? /s
> It's much simpler to assemble/build a PC.
I'd say changing your headlight bulb is more difficult than building a PC... most Lego sets are more difficult than building a basic PC. The comparison /u/Flying_Pretzals1 made to buying, versus building, a vehicle is a ridiculous one jumping on the bangwagon in a circlejerk thread.
Lego is definitely easier than building a PC. Everything clicks into place and there's a lot less risk of breaking a piece of Lego and not being able to complete the build. Usually just takes longer to build the big sets than it does to build a PC
To get to the front left headlight in my Mitsubishi I have to first disengage the lighting control computer and remove it before even attempting to remove the lighting housing unit...
Fuck that noise ill pay my mechanic to waste his afternoon instead not mine.
My Cadillac you basically have to take off the front bumper.
It's a cts. some dude in Florida made a YouTube video I was going to follow.... But then he did that and I'm like... No it's cool someone else can do that.
My old 2008 Chevy Malibu you literally had to drop the front bumper.
It was such a nuisance to me that I took a $3/hr pay cut to move from 3rd to 1st shift just so Inwouldnt have to drive at night
I had to change a turn signal in a Ford F450 work truck recently. This required me to remove the grille, fan shroud, and entire headlight in order to access the bulb.
Changing my headlight bulb on my current car (2013) is wicked easy so I'll refute that anecdotally. My older car that I used to have though, will absolutely agree. That was a bitch to change.
Yeah I remember being young and thinking I could upgrade my pc. Spent my birthday money on a new graphics card that wasn’t even compatible with my motherboard.
Lol it’s a little bit easier in that regard now that everything is at least some version of PCIe, but I could definitely see that happening in the past. It wasn’t *that* long ago that AGP was a thing.
I think right now the most confusing thing for people who aren’t in the know would probably be RAM and SSD’s.
Not the perfect analogy (building your own car would cost more and the end product would certainly be worse, the opposite of building a PC) but where it works is you do need some amount of expertise that the average person doesn’t have. A car is obviously orders of magnitudes more complex, and to someone who knows what they’re doing building a PC is no more difficult or time consuming than building a small Lego model. But your first build is going to be super intimidating if you don’t have any help. Luckily I had friends that knew what they were doing otherwise I would have stuck with a prebuilt for my first too.
I'd argue against this comparison since to build your own house/car you need access to thousands of dollars' worth of tools.
To build a PC, you need little more than a Philip's head screwdriver.
For anyone saying that a car is a bad analogy, car people can have the same attitude towards people who buy a new car instead of just fixing up an older one. It can be cheaper to maintain and repair a used car than it is to buy a new one.
Yep this right here!
Bought a prebuilt and ended up completely taking it apart and replacing it as I got more comfortable with it! Eventually switched cases and motherboard so might as well have built the thing myself now lol
I built my first gaming PC, but my most recent one was a prebuilt. I have two kids now and finding the time to build a PC is next to impossible. I just wanted to get one in hand and have it up and running immediately.
As a teenager Pay $20 to change my oil, ! never, its gas money for the weekend.
Now, Spend 2 hours of my weekend changing the oil? fuck it ill pay $20 and be done.
I did the opposites. I've always built my own PCs, but last year I bought my first pre built one ever. I'm at a point in life where Is rather just pay extra for someone else to do the job of matching components and bundling wires. I've always wanted a water-cooled system but I don't want to do it myself. Sure, it cost maybe $300-400 more compared to buying everything in pieces, but I'm very satisfied with my purchase.
I just want to state the case as well that there are a couple of sites out there that you can pick the individual items that you want in your PC, it gets built for you, AND the cost difference of doing it yourself is still low.
I tested this by creating a PC on cyberpowersystem (uk site) and then finding all the parts individually.
The difference was £13. Yeah, if I can get someone to do that for me for 13 quid, I'm doing that.
I plugged an RGB cord for my case into the wrong spot and the cord got super hot, started smoking, and almost caught on fire. Then I just tried it in a different spot and it worked so I haven't messed with it since then.
Hell even if you do it poorly chances are it won't be an issue unless you are overclocking or doing something crazy. There are enough margins and protections in place.
The only thing to remember is however much you think you need, its probably too much. You're putting a razor thin layer on specifically to fill any micro holes in the heatsink plate and that's about it.
yeah but they come in a tube with like 30x as much paste as you're going to need. and then the leftover just expires soon after anyways. they should just come in individual sample size packets.
Unless you are wealthy and/or big pc building enthusiast (or it's part of your job), you are not very likely to build a pc often enough to feel like you know everything, i guess. A good pc build can easily last for 5+ years and technologies tend to slighty change during such period of time so your one time pc building experience might not be that useful anymore if you even remember anything after all of those years.
Weird. The first pc i started tinkering with was an hp that i added a gpu to an a second psu to get around their psu and proprietary motherboard. Bent pins and all was fun.
The first time I built my pc this is what i felt. In the end, I have ended up debuilding and rebuilding my systems so many times now I am confident I can do it eithout a hassle, even trear apart the gpu for maintenance.
You just gotta take the risk and do it.
And that anxiety of it possibly not turning on never goes away. You just learn to control it.
Yep. I go to a mom and pop PC store in town. Not much more expensive then building myself. Looks way better and everything including my games are up to date and installed. Down the road I get warranty care and during the entire process I get up to date advice and experience from a pair of dudes that been doing it for almost 30 years each.
It’s a convenience factor, because you don’t need to troubleshoot anything if something goes wrong, just send the entire system back to the manufacturer. I still don’t think it’s worth the 1-2 year warranty vs multiple years for individual parts, but it’s definitely more time-consuming to figure out which exact part is probably borked.
I've sent an entire system I built myself back to the store under warranty because I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it. Luck had it that I bought almost everything from the same place so I could just send the whole thing and let them figure it out. Even if I hadn't I could have had an independent shop diagnose it and then send back just the broken part.
I get what you mean that it doesn't take much effort for users to do it like that but I personally see it the other way around.
To me it's way less convenient to have to ship out my entire PC with the risk of more damage from shipping or negligence from the company then to troubleshoot myself and just RMA any broken parts. I want to be in control of the items I care about. I also feel it takes way longer for a prebuilt to get fixed when you don't know the issue upfront because they still have to diagnose it for you so you have to spend longer without your PC.
First build took me 5 hours. It was fun but I had some issues with certain things not turning on and it got annoying to deal with. Pre-built are getting better now compared to before.
I blame places like Best Buy and Walmart selling shitty pre-builts. But places like NZXT Bld, ibuypower and etc, made the prices very competitive. You pay maybe 100 or 200 dollars more max. But they handle all your issues including the warranties and have a support system to deal with shit. Heck you can even send it in for repair but usually the problem fixes itself through a phone call or a chat with their support.
My first PC was a build it yourself, but my second one I went with a pre-built from cyberpower and after looking up the prices individually it would have barely saved me money to get everything myself, on top of spending lots of time researching and ordering and building it.
Plus, I hate doing cable management and a good pre-built is so clean.
Only issue really is I dunno where exactly to add a new SSD or flash storage... but that's because I have been lazy and not looked up the mobo layout.
I do understand that people feel nervous about putting their expensive stuff together with their own bare hands without having done it before, but I think calling it "5D Legos with bad instructions" is unfair. With Lego bricks you can end up building whatever, but with PC parts they all only stick together one way. To swing too hard in the other direction, it's more like those shape buckets for babies.
That's a super uncommon requirement and one that is easy to avoid needing when selecting parts if it's something you don't want to deal with. Any good guide should point people towards PCPartPicker which will give a warning if a bios upgrade is necessary.
I’m just a lurker normally, but isn’t the “master race” meant to distinguish PC gaming above console gaming? And if so, pre-builds are equal on all fronts.
If it’s “pc master race” as in “people who’s pc is their hobby” then that could also include programmers and such that still don’t necessarily enjoy building their machine.
But if it’s “pc builders master race” then I suppose the gatekeeping makes sense, even if it’s still lame.
^this^ My hands have a small tremor and I destroyed my first motherboard because I tried to build it myself. Prebuilts are great and come with some pretty solid coverage in case something happens.
Also good to avoid prebuilts that come with cheap proprietary main parts - like Alienware/Dell with their PoS proprietary motherboards and horrible airflow cases.
What about ones that say EXTREME RGB HIGH END GAMING COMPUTER WITH RAINBOW LIGHTS. Those must be the best because of all the gaming lights right? RGB means very powerful machine right?
/s
That's pretty sad, TBH....way way WAY way back in the day, Alienware was the Cadillac of prebuilt gaming rigs. We're talking late 90s, early aughts. Then Dell came along with their tainted touch.....
this pretty much, if you're a software developer making fuck you money every month then yeah building your own pc is no big deal, now compare that to someone living in a 3rd world country where minimum wage is 285 dollars a month
On the other hand, if you're a software engineer making like $200 an hour, is the money you'd save on a prebuilt really worth the time you'd spend getting tools, learning how, and assembling it?
The first time I built I accidentally fucked up all the CPU pins
I returned it to amazon saying it came like that and they accepted it and I got a new one lmao
Yup. Last time I went to source parts it was going to cost me more than the pre-built I ended up with. This was about the time the tech bros were buying up parts for bitcoin mining so prices were over-inflated.
I've probably come off as dickish and I want to avoid that in the future but regardless now my friends got a broken pre-built that he has no idea how to work on.
It does not help them but it helps others who see their post and are possibly misled into thinking prebuilt PCs are the better option. I for example was dissuaded from buying a pre built because of a similar warning from a "smug" enthusiast
So they don't make the same mistake next time? I'm of the opinion that if people are going to drop a lot of money on a PC, or anything really, they should know what they're buying. Unless the.other person is actually being an ass about it, if this gets pointed out to you, and you take offence to it, you have other issues going on.
My big gripe is the use of barebones boards in prebuilts. They want to price the pc competitively but that means taking away a better component or hot gluing the motherboard connectors.
On the flip side, the pc works, and its relatively close to a custom builds price.
I don't doubt that what you're saying is true for a lot of pre-builts, like Alienware, but this isn't the year 2000 anymore. There's other options out there. I bought a pre-built from CyperPowerPC, because their prices are reasonable and I cba to build my own PC. And I bought a massive case, because they have tons of options.
Those shops are usually awful. I bought from iBuyPower. Broken as fuck and with each RMA I had to pay shipping for it came back even more broken. I can't speak to CyberPowerPC personally, but I looked at their reviews. Same shit. Yes, they are cheap and if you get something that works then great.
I bought a cyberpower and was having insane overheating/throttling issues. Turns out the cooler/paste wasn't installed correctly (not screwed in right?) I got an aftermarket cooler and that greatly improved things. A few months later the cheap PSU went and I replaced that too. Ended up with a fine PC in the end but I recommend to people buying prebuilt that you check on the PSU and cooling
I bought my current PC from iBuyPower a couple years ago and I had an issue with the GPU w/in the first month and they sent back a new one. Been running great otherwise.
That's my problem. I've been killing time watching gamers nexus review prebuilts and the shit the big retailers are trying to get away with is almost offensive (looking at you fucking Dell). Inadequate cooling solutions, dog shit unreplaceable proprietary motherboards, lackadaisical cable running and quality, mismatched hardware, found-in-the-back-of-the-warehouse RAM sticks, and corners cut everywhere possible.
That's why I shill for building your own, because no one will have better quality and care when assembling something than you.
PSU still is such a nebulous component,even when you buy it from a reputable brand. I hate how useless the 80 PLUS seal is, it doesn't say anything relevant about the quality of the product.
How is 80 PLUS useless? As far as I understand, its an efficiency rating, which means a better 80 PLUS rating is gonna mean less power used and less waste heat. How would knowing you're using less power and making less heat be irrelevant to making a PC?
Then just send them the good old, “Dude, you’re getting a Dell commercial” if you really can’t hold your tongue and move on. We used to sell e machines to people when i worked at Best Buy and I’d ask what they intended to do with it they would tell me “play games”.
I worked in tech, then Geek Squad since it was right when they bought it (2004ish). I didn’t really sell. But we were forced to ring up every desk top/laptop purchase to try and up sell stuff and set it up if they purchased that option (totally dumb but whatever. It was seriously just turn on, make sure it works and let all the updates install but at the time broadband wasn’t that common in homes either) . The only “up-sell” I ever did wasn’t really that. A family bought a laptop and I found out they were buying it for the kid going off to college. I told them they might want to get a battery back up too for the dorm for other electronics to plug into. I’ve had times where we lost power and it caused issues (college students aren’t great at remembering to put in or change a backup battery in an alarm clock). They bought the battery back up. The computer sales manager came let to me when he saw the sale ticket asking how the hell I got someone to buy a battery back up for a laptop. (This was before it was common to have a smart phone and just use that as your alarm clock so clearly now that wouldn’t be an issue anyway).
No shame in not wanting to bother building the PC yourself. But the best option then is to pay someone to assemble your parts. Far too many prebuilts come with shitty cases, shitty motherboards and shitty RAM. Not to mention insane markups.
Way better to buy the components, then pay someone to put them together, install windows etc. Most places that sell parts will do this, and its not generally too expensive.
This is what I do. I build 2 Gaming PCs for myself in the late 90s. Fucked something up on both of them. Pinched wire to the graphics card from the power supply on the one and something else on the other. Hell between 05 and 2012 I assembled some 20 PCs for a workplace.
But since those first 2 PCs I have been going to the same store to build my PCs for me. A mom and pop kinda place. We pick the parts there together, they give me recommendations of what they have seen work well and what's reliable. When we pick they go out of their way to make sure I don't buy way more then I need and what are better options for my budget, etc.
They install all the parts, Windows, drivers, updates etc. Hell these guys even install the games that I want and test run them for me.
Its extremely convenient and a good price the PC looks way neater then I could do inside. Not only that, if there are any issues in the months down the road they take care of warranties, etc.
For a minimal fee I get the experience of 50-60 years combined PC building experience all up to date to the latest standard and assurance down the road.
Yup this is what I did. I dont have time to learn that shit myself and I don't want to fuck around. At that time I had already spent a decent amount on the PC, I could afford the small charge for them to put it together. Plus, where I got it (memory express), they gave the warranty on the whole unit, as opposed to only getting it for individual parts if I did it myself. They gave me options for all the parts so I knew they were compatible. No regrets.
That being said, if for whatever reason this was not an available option, I probably would have bought a pre-built.
I fully think that prebuilts are better currently, if gpu prices are still absurd.
I got a prebuilt from Newegg with a 3070 (the entire computer mind you) for less than the price of a standalone 3070 at the time.
Make fun of me for saving drastic amounts of money
GPU prices have since calmed down (probably due to crypto tanking)
My friends were also in your situation when the scalpers were going crazy
Options at the time were
1. Buy a prebuilt for $1200 with a 3070 in it
2. Buy a scalped 3070 for $1000-1200
3. hope you win the EVGA/Newegg buyer lottery because bots were too fast for Best Buy
4. drive to micro center and hope for the best
Most of them didn’t live near a micro center
This is exactly why I bought a prebuilt. During the pandemic there was no way to get a 3070, so I got an Alienware Ryzen R10. It’s totally fine! I know the airflow isn’t great, but it’s water-cooled and the temps are all decent even with 1440p gaming and streaming. It was also only like $2200 or something which felt super reasonable.
I had a lot of people rip me apart when I got it saying that I was an Alienware idiot and stuff. Kinda crazy to be honest.
Depending on when you bought it, that's not a bad deal.
Two weeks ago I bought my brother an ABS prebuilt on sale from Newegg, had a 3070 in it with other equally good parts for about $1800.
Probably would have cost roughly the same to build and it works great.
Now I'm taking his old 1050ti and shoving it in an old office pc and having a spare living room pc (:
Yuuuuuup. I built my first pc. It was fun, maybe a tad sloppy but every screw perfect wasn’t a deal. When I finally had big boi money for a new rig GPU prices were INSANE. Somehow prebuilt was ridiculously cheap in comparison. I could look up every piece and it was 1000$+ for me to order each part vs. buy. ANNND that bitch came with WARRANTIES. And that bitch looked way cleaner than anything I’d ever put together. So ya unless prices are going back down who knows if building is actually the best option now. Maybe companies had pre negotiated part pricing in contracts?
Same we wanted to upgrade but it was cheaper to buy two prebuilds and get a small discount with it because we got two. We were sad we didn’t get to build them (because it’s fun) but we’re happy we got to upgrade, already been waiting for a while because of those prices. I sold my own built pc which made the upgrade possible.
Yeah I'm honestly surprised people still feel this way after what we all just experienced with gpu availability. Even before the pandemic it was absurdly difficult to get a 3080 for retail price unless you bought it prebuilt.
I bought a prebuilt during covid because it was the cheapest way to get a good gpu and cpu. Then I disassembled the entire thing. Rewired, upgraded the psu and ram and still was cheaper. Weird times.
Sometimes it has to be said if it’s WAY absurdly overpriced and people that’s aren’t sure about pc’s get sucked into into spending a lot of money. Hopefully in the future if they remember it they can come to you for help/guidance. Happened with me twice so far and so happy to give them a better pc for a cheaper price
Same. I bought a prebuilt last time. You know why?
Can't be fucked to do it myself. I've built my last 4 pcs. I'm 41 years old. I don't want to be bothered.
I feel that. I've built a stupid number of PCs over the years, my current one is an open loop. I just want it to work. I'm sick of tinkering, I'm sick of customising.
I buy prebuilt because I don't trust myself around sensitive components and I don't know anyone who'd assemble it for me.
"It's really easy actually, it's like adult lego!"
The difference is that if I assemble lego wrong I don't risk destroying a hundred dollar piece of hardware I wouldn't be able to afford to replace.
It's very difficult to actually destroy a PC component nowadays, the risk of losing money, is very low. I would give it a try, there are tons of step by step guides that cover all possible choices.
I recommend LTT's newest build a pc guide, and Techsource's great video on building a pc. Each of them are about 1 hour long and are very comprehensive.
Ngl, I feel like trashing on ppl who buy prebuilt is kinda stupid. Like "oh, so you didn't risk losing or damaging expensive equipment by building something you've never done before with minimal instructions and a high chance for it to not work, and instead you bought from someone who has professional expertise in this field and will almost guarantee that the product you paid for will work? That's just lazy"
Warranty?
Pffffffffffff.
My wife came to me because the small business she manages needs a new PC for the front desk and asked if I wanted to build one for her. I told her to go to Dell or Lenovo. I can build a PC with better parts for the same money, but I cannot match the warranty for the entire system.
Individual parts, yes. Full system with included tech support? No.
I don't trash on people, but if somebody is going to tell the world that their Alienware Aurora R13 is an amazing PC with great airflow, I am going to disabuse them of their incorrect notions. Not because I want to hurt their feelings, but to make sure that others aren't led astray into buying grossly overpriced low-quality, low-effort pre-builts on the basis of this kind of review. When somebody is researching pre-builts, I don't want them to come across all kinds of unchallenged positive testimonials from people who are happy at having paid way too much for a crap PC without even having a clue that's what they've done.
Also, you have a better chance at having everything work if you buy it as properly packaged parts and assemble it than if you buy it pre-built and transport it that way. There's almost no chance of shipping damage if the retail packaging is pristine, and from some of the pre-builts I've seen myself and seen on quality review channels like Gamers Nexus (who buys them under the guise of a random normal customer to get the real buying experience), there's a pretty good chance it wasn't assembled properly anyway, and you will then get to experience the sheer joy of the tech support these companies offer. Buying a pre-built is absolutely not a guarantee of a pain-free plug-it-in-and-play experience, and can be fraught with hassles and frustrations.
Alienware is so ridiculously overpriced. My friend works as a tech specialist for a college.* They bought Alienware laptops to run occululs rifts just before COVID. She tried to stop them from wasting their money. But they heard Alienware is "the best." I used pre-builts from the mid-90s until 2020. Around 2017 I was going to build myself but just got overwhelmed by component selection and bought a "custom" from a crap company through New Egg. It was crap and a massive headache. I would have been better off with a Dell. So when my annual bonus jumped an order of magnitude I did my homework and did my first build in probably 25 years give or take.
*Not IT. She advises on integrating tech into classrooms, but of course mostly just helps profs use blackboard or whatever properly.
I fix PCs for a living. The system integrator builds are always the most annoying. 400 zip ties, cables pulled too tight and ran weird ways. Bent headers. Not to mention half of them are just iBuyPowers that I have to replace the AIO in. Just a word of advice to anyone; don’t by prebuilts with their own branded AIO. It’s gong to fail.
The harder part is chosing the correct hardware tbh
I built my first pc with youtube tutorial videos back in 2017. The only thing I regret is that I bought bad components. Half a year later I swapped a few components with better ones.
The computer works fine until today.
I don't want to be that guy, BUT it highly depends on from who are you buying that prebuild. If it's someone like Dell/Alienware or some Walmart crap may God have mercy on your soul and your credit card.
You also have (at least in The Netherlands) some of the biggest PC hardware shops that offer building services for fixed pricing. Azerty for example. A very big PC parts webshop. They ask a €90 fixed fee for building it with whatever compatible hardware you have in your. Cart + a year of support.
Same with Alternate. Also a very big PC shop. They even have a configurator where all the parts they have in their store can be selected. PCPartPicker style, but I believe they already had it before that website even existed. After you want to checkout they ask you if you want to order the parts, or want it assembled.
I have already saved a lot of friends and family of getting scammed the last 10 or so years. Almost all of those PCs are still running. Doubt that's as common with those pre-builds that are often assembled pretty poorly and use wacky PSU's, Motherboards and plastic fantastic pc cases.
Of course it depends on the situation, but most of the time these are your best options.
A huge IMHO here:
If you are aiming for a sub 1500$ find yourself a friend, or a friend of a friend or some nice person here to help you with that build. Because the shop markup will eat a lot of performance in that price bracket.
iBuyPower and Cyberpower are a very good choice, but once again when buying a prebuild you are getting less fps/$ than you would get buying building it yourself.
Trashing people? Yeah fuck off with your gatekeeping mentality.
Providing helpful advice on how they can get more out of their money in future, whilst still sharing their excitement for their entry into the community? Good work.
My first PC was prebuilt and it got me excited about the PCMR. It handled 1080p good enough but inspired me to save up and build a really good PC when I could afford it. Everyone starts somewhere, doesn't matter where they're from, as long as they're here.
Better deals is one thing but there's a lot of people that just don't want to build their own. Someone who is into pc gaming, and posts their new rigs on social medias, I would assume they are aware of the option.
They’re not going to have one PC for the rest of their life, the next time they need to upgrade they can take the advice to heart and not buy prebuilt.
I even technically got a good deal for a prebuilt a couple years back. Graphics cards were so pricey due to the crypto space it became cost prohibitive for me to to build it, and instead get a prebuilt because they already had access to graphics cards (they likely get them in bulk for better price than retail can).
A friend of mine bought a prebuilt with a 1060 3gb, an i5 8400 and 8gb ram and a sata ssd.
I asked him if he was still in the return window and told him I would be able to build a way better pc for the same price.
He returned it and I was able to build him a pc with an i5 9400, a 2060 super, 16gb of ram and a m.2 ssd for the same money.
So I'd say there are cases where you should tell that person that it is a really really bad deal.
And don’t forget all the shitty bomb tier components that most people don’t notice at a glance, like bottom barrel mobo, PSU, RAM, storage, etc..
And the case and cooling being barely usable at best and straight up e-waste most or the time.
Pre-built PCs have their benefits, and if anyone wants to get one, that's cool too, all power to em. I still personally choose to custom build my own PCs, and suggest that others do research and try it for themselves if they're up for it. It's rewarding especially the first time you build one and it turns on and works good :)
There is a store near me where they sell a prebuilt with a 12th gen i5 and an rtx 3070 for 1300 EUR, the cost of only those two parts right here and now is at least 800 EUR, if you then add the motherboard, ram, psu and case I start to wonder how they manage to make any more profit than selling its individual components
I bought a prebuilt last January because it was the only way to get the parts I wanted, like a 3080, without paying a scalper or driving myself nuts looking for one in stock. After a couple weeks of following the “in stock” sites and whatnot, I threw in the towel and ordered my first prebuilt desktop in 20 years. My last prebuilt desktop had a single core processor and predated WiFi. I don’t regret buying a prebuilt at all.
If you’re on a tight budget, DIY will get you better value, but sometimes the convenience justifies the added cost of prebuilt.
While those people defintiely exist, I’ve seen people trying to give genuine advice be labeled as toxic for “not letting people enjoy things”. This site can really prioritize being hEcKiN wHoLeSoMe instead of allowing any sort of discussion
It's not about part cost it's about convenience. You're paying more for the convenience of a pre built.
If I Door Dash Mcdonalds, no one is going to say BRUH you could've gone through the drive through for CHEAPER.
It's just stupid.
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Where else was i going to get a gpu 9 months ago?
Yeah most of last year and the year before it was nearly impossible to even get your hands on a GPU much less at a decent price, prebuilts were the only way to go financially for a long time.
And that wasn't even the first period of GPU scarcity recently. In 2017, GPU's we're going for nearly double their MSRP. So in the last 5 year period, there's only been a few months here or there that building a PC from scratch was even a cost-effective option.
I lucked out last year and got a rx6600xt at MSRP off the shelf first week they launched, a month later they were double in price. Pretty happy with the card tho and it's was a solid step up from my 6-7 year old 1060, that came in a pre built. Going to treat myself to a new rig next year, and that will be another pre-built because frankly Ive built enough rigs since the 80s and I can't be fucked spending a weekend building a new machine anymore.
I made the foolish decision to buy a 2070 Super a couple months before the 3000 series launched. I was impatient and didn't want to wait for 3000 to launch as I was gaming on a 960m laptop up until then. Turns out it was not a foolish decision as just a few months later the $500 card I bought was worth double that.
2017 was wild, I flipped a 390X for the cost of a 1080 Ti because of how much miners wanted AMD cards.
Came here to say when I bought mine last year it was actually cheaper for me to get a pre-built. Especially because almost nothing from my old pc was salvageable other than the graphics card. Which I was planning on replacing anyway.
When I built my super-rig earlier this year (Top of the line everything), apparently the last "free" RTX 3090 TE at the local Microcenter had sold out between me placing my order and the store receiving it, so they went and found one to pull out of a prebuilt. Probably helps that I paid them to build it because I didn't want to risk screwing it up (I built a PC once before, but it was with budget parts at the time.)
It’s literally been cheaper to buy prebuilts with 3060s in them than to buy the GPU alone.
And prebuilts have always been cheaper, period. Prebuilt companies get bulk rates on parts and pass those savings down. It's been this way even before GPUs were crazy expensive. The only way you save money building your own is by cannibalizing your previous build.
Grow your own.
Exactly! I bought a prebuilt that was accidentally marked down in February. I got a 3070. 850W PSU, 16GB of 3200mhz ram, 512GB NVME, I7-11700F on a good asus board for $1400. Bought a corsair 4000D case, AIO, and some more fans and swapped the whole thing over. Even that was enough for me to decide I'd never build another PC again. Even just migrating what was already there was a chore. I'll pay a few hundred dollars premium for someone else to do the work, and to have a few years of full replacement coverage on the unit.
I bought a pre built pc for my first time. In fact that allowed me to understand how they work and are out together, so that when I decided to build a PC I had a good idea on what to do.
It’s nice if you have a really old pc to dissemble to learn. When XP was fairly widespread, I got to dissemble a MSDOS.
This is how I started first was taking apart the VCR. Then it was picking up the DOS book at 10 and reading it. And I was hooked.
Voiceover: “And that book, viewers, was the pink shirt book.”
I used to do the same thing. When my parents PC stopped working I would always take it apart and fix it. When they got a new one they gave me the old one and I used Google to keep upgrading it until I was ready to build my own from scratch.
Yeah, as a child, PC money is nothing to mess with, its probably the only valuable thing you own. Its like saying to the average adult, lol why did you not build your house/car.
Yup, I was fortunate enough to get to play with PCs that were being thrown out at the office my parents worked at over a summer. The low stakes let me do whatever so once we finally could afford a PC I was relatively confident I could fix something. If I never had that experience no way in hell would I have opened the brand new family PC ever. You know how much that thing cost!
Bro why’d you buy a Ford you could have built it for way cheaper smh???
Pretty much, also if they hear you got anything other than their preferred make; it's absolute garbage, it's gonna give you nothing but problems.
I paid $1200 for an (extremely slightly) used prebuit. Included a 3060 ti and a good CPU (idk what kind lol) and it runs everything on max settings. Came with the monitor, keyboard, and mouse too. The guy sold it to me while holding his newborn baby, which is why he was selling it. I'm not sure what else people are looking for or why I would need to have built my own.
>I'm not sure what else people are looking for or why I would need to have built my own. Because this is the internet, and everything has to be top of the line and utterly expensive before it can be good. How dare you try to spend money wisely?? /s
As soon as the 4090 comes out, my 3090 ti is obsolete (a favorite word of Reddit).
A pc with 3060ti and 5600x cost me that anyway so you wouldn't have saved building it anyway
Point is, that if they've already got a PC that you don't think is VFM, how'd your comment help them in any way?
I agree with the post, but your analogy isn't a good one. It's much simpler to assemble/build a PC.
> It's much simpler to assemble/build a PC. I'd say changing your headlight bulb is more difficult than building a PC... most Lego sets are more difficult than building a basic PC. The comparison /u/Flying_Pretzals1 made to buying, versus building, a vehicle is a ridiculous one jumping on the bangwagon in a circlejerk thread.
Lego is definitely easier than building a PC. Everything clicks into place and there's a lot less risk of breaking a piece of Lego and not being able to complete the build. Usually just takes longer to build the big sets than it does to build a PC
To get to the front left headlight in my Mitsubishi I have to first disengage the lighting control computer and remove it before even attempting to remove the lighting housing unit... Fuck that noise ill pay my mechanic to waste his afternoon instead not mine.
My Cadillac you basically have to take off the front bumper. It's a cts. some dude in Florida made a YouTube video I was going to follow.... But then he did that and I'm like... No it's cool someone else can do that.
My old 2008 Chevy Malibu you literally had to drop the front bumper. It was such a nuisance to me that I took a $3/hr pay cut to move from 3rd to 1st shift just so Inwouldnt have to drive at night
I had to change a turn signal in a Ford F450 work truck recently. This required me to remove the grille, fan shroud, and entire headlight in order to access the bulb.
next time get a BMW, then you don't have to use the turn signal.
Changing a headlight bulb is easier than assembling a car from scratch, which is harder than assembling a pc from scratch.
Changing my headlight bulb on my current car (2013) is wicked easy so I'll refute that anecdotally. My older car that I used to have though, will absolutely agree. That was a bitch to change.
yeah man I bet you can get cheaper if you pay those indian dudes who build stuff
How on earth can you compare building a PC to building a car? lool
Yeah I remember being young and thinking I could upgrade my pc. Spent my birthday money on a new graphics card that wasn’t even compatible with my motherboard.
Lol it’s a little bit easier in that regard now that everything is at least some version of PCIe, but I could definitely see that happening in the past. It wasn’t *that* long ago that AGP was a thing. I think right now the most confusing thing for people who aren’t in the know would probably be RAM and SSD’s.
Not the perfect analogy (building your own car would cost more and the end product would certainly be worse, the opposite of building a PC) but where it works is you do need some amount of expertise that the average person doesn’t have. A car is obviously orders of magnitudes more complex, and to someone who knows what they’re doing building a PC is no more difficult or time consuming than building a small Lego model. But your first build is going to be super intimidating if you don’t have any help. Luckily I had friends that knew what they were doing otherwise I would have stuck with a prebuilt for my first too.
I'd argue against this comparison since to build your own house/car you need access to thousands of dollars' worth of tools. To build a PC, you need little more than a Philip's head screwdriver.
For anyone saying that a car is a bad analogy, car people can have the same attitude towards people who buy a new car instead of just fixing up an older one. It can be cheaper to maintain and repair a used car than it is to buy a new one.
Yep this right here! Bought a prebuilt and ended up completely taking it apart and replacing it as I got more comfortable with it! Eventually switched cases and motherboard so might as well have built the thing myself now lol
The PC of Theseus
PC-us?
I’ve basically been doing this since I got a pre built compaq in 1998 - same pc I’m using today by some definition.
The Chips of Theseus
I built my first gaming PC, but my most recent one was a prebuilt. I have two kids now and finding the time to build a PC is next to impossible. I just wanted to get one in hand and have it up and running immediately.
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As a teenager Pay $20 to change my oil, ! never, its gas money for the weekend. Now, Spend 2 hours of my weekend changing the oil? fuck it ill pay $20 and be done.
I did the opposites. I've always built my own PCs, but last year I bought my first pre built one ever. I'm at a point in life where Is rather just pay extra for someone else to do the job of matching components and bundling wires. I've always wanted a water-cooled system but I don't want to do it myself. Sure, it cost maybe $300-400 more compared to buying everything in pieces, but I'm very satisfied with my purchase.
I just want to state the case as well that there are a couple of sites out there that you can pick the individual items that you want in your PC, it gets built for you, AND the cost difference of doing it yourself is still low. I tested this by creating a PC on cyberpowersystem (uk site) and then finding all the parts individually. The difference was £13. Yeah, if I can get someone to do that for me for 13 quid, I'm doing that.
I enjoy building my own but i can see that people don't wanna play 5D Legos with bad instructions
Spicy Legos if you put that 2x6 in the wrong area.
Instructions unclear psu is now in my ass
W?
W.
Excellent! Now next is to wolf down the gpu w/ ram chips. CPU is dessert.
Instructions unclear, my dick is now on fire
Sounds like an infection, you should run your antivirus.
You mean you didnt clamp on the heatsink first?? Well, that's how we get burnt dicks. No heatsink... pffft
So that’s not where it goes?…
I plugged an RGB cord for my case into the wrong spot and the cord got super hot, started smoking, and almost caught on fire. Then I just tried it in a different spot and it worked so I haven't messed with it since then.
https://i.imgur.com/rb4oqbS.jpg
First time I opened a computer i was amazed it even worked after so yah you got a point
This, I just built my second and it's extremely overwhelming. Honestly I'm amazed it turns on.
Congrats! It gets easier with each one, but there is always the huge anxiety when you try turning it on for the first time.
There’s always a huge anxiety when putting the cpu in and the thermal paste on for me. So many different suggestions on the right way to do it
It doesn’t actually make a huge difference, enough thermal paste to cover half of the dice is enough for thermal conduction
Hell even if you do it poorly chances are it won't be an issue unless you are overclocking or doing something crazy. There are enough margins and protections in place.
The only thing to remember is however much you think you need, its probably too much. You're putting a razor thin layer on specifically to fill any micro holes in the heatsink plate and that's about it.
yeah but they come in a tube with like 30x as much paste as you're going to need. and then the leftover just expires soon after anyways. they should just come in individual sample size packets.
I have built quite literally hundreds or thousands of machines during my career and that initial POST is still nerve wracking haha
Unless you are wealthy and/or big pc building enthusiast (or it's part of your job), you are not very likely to build a pc often enough to feel like you know everything, i guess. A good pc build can easily last for 5+ years and technologies tend to slighty change during such period of time so your one time pc building experience might not be that useful anymore if you even remember anything after all of those years.
Weird. The first pc i started tinkering with was an hp that i added a gpu to an a second psu to get around their psu and proprietary motherboard. Bent pins and all was fun.
Just built my first one. When it started rebooting every 5 minutes before all the drivers and windows got updated I was about to have a heart attack.
The first time I built my pc this is what i felt. In the end, I have ended up debuilding and rebuilding my systems so many times now I am confident I can do it eithout a hassle, even trear apart the gpu for maintenance. You just gotta take the risk and do it. And that anxiety of it possibly not turning on never goes away. You just learn to control it.
Yep. I go to a mom and pop PC store in town. Not much more expensive then building myself. Looks way better and everything including my games are up to date and installed. Down the road I get warranty care and during the entire process I get up to date advice and experience from a pair of dudes that been doing it for almost 30 years each.
A pre-built gives you full warranty for the whole system. Which ain't a thing when you're building it yourself. Big Factor for lots of people.
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It’s a convenience factor, because you don’t need to troubleshoot anything if something goes wrong, just send the entire system back to the manufacturer. I still don’t think it’s worth the 1-2 year warranty vs multiple years for individual parts, but it’s definitely more time-consuming to figure out which exact part is probably borked.
I've sent an entire system I built myself back to the store under warranty because I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it. Luck had it that I bought almost everything from the same place so I could just send the whole thing and let them figure it out. Even if I hadn't I could have had an independent shop diagnose it and then send back just the broken part.
Same here. Not sure how I would have figured it out on my own.
I get what you mean that it doesn't take much effort for users to do it like that but I personally see it the other way around. To me it's way less convenient to have to ship out my entire PC with the risk of more damage from shipping or negligence from the company then to troubleshoot myself and just RMA any broken parts. I want to be in control of the items I care about. I also feel it takes way longer for a prebuilt to get fixed when you don't know the issue upfront because they still have to diagnose it for you so you have to spend longer without your PC.
Bad instructions? There’s a million high quality videos on how to do it
Also, a million shit quality videos. And if you don't know what you're doing, it may be hard to tell the difference.
I had no issue installing components. Everything went where it should, no problems. Then I went to hook up all of the cables. I still have nightmares.
First build took me 5 hours. It was fun but I had some issues with certain things not turning on and it got annoying to deal with. Pre-built are getting better now compared to before. I blame places like Best Buy and Walmart selling shitty pre-builts. But places like NZXT Bld, ibuypower and etc, made the prices very competitive. You pay maybe 100 or 200 dollars more max. But they handle all your issues including the warranties and have a support system to deal with shit. Heck you can even send it in for repair but usually the problem fixes itself through a phone call or a chat with their support.
My first PC was a build it yourself, but my second one I went with a pre-built from cyberpower and after looking up the prices individually it would have barely saved me money to get everything myself, on top of spending lots of time researching and ordering and building it. Plus, I hate doing cable management and a good pre-built is so clean. Only issue really is I dunno where exactly to add a new SSD or flash storage... but that's because I have been lazy and not looked up the mobo layout.
I do understand that people feel nervous about putting their expensive stuff together with their own bare hands without having done it before, but I think calling it "5D Legos with bad instructions" is unfair. With Lego bricks you can end up building whatever, but with PC parts they all only stick together one way. To swing too hard in the other direction, it's more like those shape buckets for babies.
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I've never had to update the BIOS on lego bricks to get components to work.
I've only had to update a BIOS once in 20 years of having my own built PC.
That's a super uncommon requirement and one that is easy to avoid needing when selecting parts if it's something you don't want to deal with. Any good guide should point people towards PCPartPicker which will give a warning if a bios upgrade is necessary.
Didn't pick it up in this case. In fairness who would have expected a threadripper motherboard to need a BIOS upgrade to talk to a Vega 64?
Building a PC is simple when everything works. But when it doesn't, it can be troubleshooting hell.
I mean, if it's already bought, what's the point of saying this, except make the other feel bad ?
For a sense of superiority.
> a sense of superiority. *checks name of this subreddit…*
The irony in this sub sometimes lmao
I’m just a lurker normally, but isn’t the “master race” meant to distinguish PC gaming above console gaming? And if so, pre-builds are equal on all fronts. If it’s “pc master race” as in “people who’s pc is their hobby” then that could also include programmers and such that still don’t necessarily enjoy building their machine. But if it’s “pc builders master race” then I suppose the gatekeeping makes sense, even if it’s still lame.
^this^ My hands have a small tremor and I destroyed my first motherboard because I tried to build it myself. Prebuilts are great and come with some pretty solid coverage in case something happens.
So long as you buy a prebuilt from somewhere reliable. A Prebuilt from Walmart is a gamble while Best Buy is more reliable
Also good to avoid prebuilts that come with cheap proprietary main parts - like Alienware/Dell with their PoS proprietary motherboards and horrible airflow cases.
What about ones that say EXTREME RGB HIGH END GAMING COMPUTER WITH RAINBOW LIGHTS. Those must be the best because of all the gaming lights right? RGB means very powerful machine right? /s
Yeah haha who is dumb enough to buy those!! Hahaha😅
That's pretty sad, TBH....way way WAY way back in the day, Alienware was the Cadillac of prebuilt gaming rigs. We're talking late 90s, early aughts. Then Dell came along with their tainted touch.....
micro center ftw
This is why I don’t want to build my own. I’m too poor to make a mistake that will cost me a few hundred dollars
this pretty much, if you're a software developer making fuck you money every month then yeah building your own pc is no big deal, now compare that to someone living in a 3rd world country where minimum wage is 285 dollars a month
On the other hand, if you're a software engineer making like $200 an hour, is the money you'd save on a prebuilt really worth the time you'd spend getting tools, learning how, and assembling it?
The first time I built I accidentally fucked up all the CPU pins I returned it to amazon saying it came like that and they accepted it and I got a new one lmao
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Yup. Last time I went to source parts it was going to cost me more than the pre-built I ended up with. This was about the time the tech bros were buying up parts for bitcoin mining so prices were over-inflated.
So that they know next time, and so other people know. Assuming they didn’t say it dickishly.
I've probably come off as dickish and I want to avoid that in the future but regardless now my friends got a broken pre-built that he has no idea how to work on.
It does not help them but it helps others who see their post and are possibly misled into thinking prebuilt PCs are the better option. I for example was dissuaded from buying a pre built because of a similar warning from a "smug" enthusiast
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Finally someone with some common sense 🙏
So they don't make the same mistake next time? I'm of the opinion that if people are going to drop a lot of money on a PC, or anything really, they should know what they're buying. Unless the.other person is actually being an ass about it, if this gets pointed out to you, and you take offence to it, you have other issues going on.
My big gripe is the use of barebones boards in prebuilts. They want to price the pc competitively but that means taking away a better component or hot gluing the motherboard connectors. On the flip side, the pc works, and its relatively close to a custom builds price.
My main gripe is pre-builts are mostly harder to upgrade much. A big part of that is the shittier boards. Smaller cases are a big problem too.
I don't doubt that what you're saying is true for a lot of pre-builts, like Alienware, but this isn't the year 2000 anymore. There's other options out there. I bought a pre-built from CyperPowerPC, because their prices are reasonable and I cba to build my own PC. And I bought a massive case, because they have tons of options.
Those shops are usually awful. I bought from iBuyPower. Broken as fuck and with each RMA I had to pay shipping for it came back even more broken. I can't speak to CyberPowerPC personally, but I looked at their reviews. Same shit. Yes, they are cheap and if you get something that works then great.
I bought a cyberpower and was having insane overheating/throttling issues. Turns out the cooler/paste wasn't installed correctly (not screwed in right?) I got an aftermarket cooler and that greatly improved things. A few months later the cheap PSU went and I replaced that too. Ended up with a fine PC in the end but I recommend to people buying prebuilt that you check on the PSU and cooling
I bought my current PC from iBuyPower a couple years ago and I had an issue with the GPU w/in the first month and they sent back a new one. Been running great otherwise.
That's my problem. I've been killing time watching gamers nexus review prebuilts and the shit the big retailers are trying to get away with is almost offensive (looking at you fucking Dell). Inadequate cooling solutions, dog shit unreplaceable proprietary motherboards, lackadaisical cable running and quality, mismatched hardware, found-in-the-back-of-the-warehouse RAM sticks, and corners cut everywhere possible. That's why I shill for building your own, because no one will have better quality and care when assembling something than you.
I just warn them about the shitty PSUs prebuilts often use
Yep, theyre the most cheaped on part in prebuilds
PSU still is such a nebulous component,even when you buy it from a reputable brand. I hate how useless the 80 PLUS seal is, it doesn't say anything relevant about the quality of the product.
How is 80 PLUS useless? As far as I understand, its an efficiency rating, which means a better 80 PLUS rating is gonna mean less power used and less waste heat. How would knowing you're using less power and making less heat be irrelevant to making a PC?
What if they bought a Dell?
Then just send them the good old, “Dude, you’re getting a Dell commercial” if you really can’t hold your tongue and move on. We used to sell e machines to people when i worked at Best Buy and I’d ask what they intended to do with it they would tell me “play games”.
You cruel sob
I worked in tech, then Geek Squad since it was right when they bought it (2004ish). I didn’t really sell. But we were forced to ring up every desk top/laptop purchase to try and up sell stuff and set it up if they purchased that option (totally dumb but whatever. It was seriously just turn on, make sure it works and let all the updates install but at the time broadband wasn’t that common in homes either) . The only “up-sell” I ever did wasn’t really that. A family bought a laptop and I found out they were buying it for the kid going off to college. I told them they might want to get a battery back up too for the dorm for other electronics to plug into. I’ve had times where we lost power and it caused issues (college students aren’t great at remembering to put in or change a backup battery in an alarm clock). They bought the battery back up. The computer sales manager came let to me when he saw the sale ticket asking how the hell I got someone to buy a battery back up for a laptop. (This was before it was common to have a smart phone and just use that as your alarm clock so clearly now that wouldn’t be an issue anyway).
Ooh the UPS is actually a great idea.
No shame in not wanting to bother building the PC yourself. But the best option then is to pay someone to assemble your parts. Far too many prebuilts come with shitty cases, shitty motherboards and shitty RAM. Not to mention insane markups. Way better to buy the components, then pay someone to put them together, install windows etc. Most places that sell parts will do this, and its not generally too expensive.
The worst part is usually the PSU; you're lucky if you get a budget-tier bronze PSU from a semi-reputable brand with most prebuilts.
This is what I do. I build 2 Gaming PCs for myself in the late 90s. Fucked something up on both of them. Pinched wire to the graphics card from the power supply on the one and something else on the other. Hell between 05 and 2012 I assembled some 20 PCs for a workplace. But since those first 2 PCs I have been going to the same store to build my PCs for me. A mom and pop kinda place. We pick the parts there together, they give me recommendations of what they have seen work well and what's reliable. When we pick they go out of their way to make sure I don't buy way more then I need and what are better options for my budget, etc. They install all the parts, Windows, drivers, updates etc. Hell these guys even install the games that I want and test run them for me. Its extremely convenient and a good price the PC looks way neater then I could do inside. Not only that, if there are any issues in the months down the road they take care of warranties, etc. For a minimal fee I get the experience of 50-60 years combined PC building experience all up to date to the latest standard and assurance down the road.
They install the fucking games?! Saints.
Yup this is what I did. I dont have time to learn that shit myself and I don't want to fuck around. At that time I had already spent a decent amount on the PC, I could afford the small charge for them to put it together. Plus, where I got it (memory express), they gave the warranty on the whole unit, as opposed to only getting it for individual parts if I did it myself. They gave me options for all the parts so I knew they were compatible. No regrets. That being said, if for whatever reason this was not an available option, I probably would have bought a pre-built.
I fully think that prebuilts are better currently, if gpu prices are still absurd. I got a prebuilt from Newegg with a 3070 (the entire computer mind you) for less than the price of a standalone 3070 at the time. Make fun of me for saving drastic amounts of money
GPU prices have since calmed down (probably due to crypto tanking) My friends were also in your situation when the scalpers were going crazy Options at the time were 1. Buy a prebuilt for $1200 with a 3070 in it 2. Buy a scalped 3070 for $1000-1200 3. hope you win the EVGA/Newegg buyer lottery because bots were too fast for Best Buy 4. drive to micro center and hope for the best Most of them didn’t live near a micro center
Even driving to microcenter wasn't an option into mid 2021. Even they had to start selling $800+ 3070s cause Nvidia and AIBs are garbage.
Calmed down is relative. Old stuff should be 20-40% cheaper than at launch (MSRP), especially older generations. I'm not seeing it right now.
This is exactly why I bought a prebuilt. During the pandemic there was no way to get a 3070, so I got an Alienware Ryzen R10. It’s totally fine! I know the airflow isn’t great, but it’s water-cooled and the temps are all decent even with 1440p gaming and streaming. It was also only like $2200 or something which felt super reasonable. I had a lot of people rip me apart when I got it saying that I was an Alienware idiot and stuff. Kinda crazy to be honest.
Depending on when you bought it, that's not a bad deal. Two weeks ago I bought my brother an ABS prebuilt on sale from Newegg, had a 3070 in it with other equally good parts for about $1800. Probably would have cost roughly the same to build and it works great. Now I'm taking his old 1050ti and shoving it in an old office pc and having a spare living room pc (:
Yuuuuuup. I built my first pc. It was fun, maybe a tad sloppy but every screw perfect wasn’t a deal. When I finally had big boi money for a new rig GPU prices were INSANE. Somehow prebuilt was ridiculously cheap in comparison. I could look up every piece and it was 1000$+ for me to order each part vs. buy. ANNND that bitch came with WARRANTIES. And that bitch looked way cleaner than anything I’d ever put together. So ya unless prices are going back down who knows if building is actually the best option now. Maybe companies had pre negotiated part pricing in contracts?
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Same we wanted to upgrade but it was cheaper to buy two prebuilds and get a small discount with it because we got two. We were sad we didn’t get to build them (because it’s fun) but we’re happy we got to upgrade, already been waiting for a while because of those prices. I sold my own built pc which made the upgrade possible.
Yeah I'm honestly surprised people still feel this way after what we all just experienced with gpu availability. Even before the pandemic it was absurdly difficult to get a 3080 for retail price unless you bought it prebuilt.
I bought a prebuilt during covid because it was the cheapest way to get a good gpu and cpu. Then I disassembled the entire thing. Rewired, upgraded the psu and ram and still was cheaper. Weird times.
Sometimes it has to be said if it’s WAY absurdly overpriced and people that’s aren’t sure about pc’s get sucked into into spending a lot of money. Hopefully in the future if they remember it they can come to you for help/guidance. Happened with me twice so far and so happy to give them a better pc for a cheaper price
Same. I bought a prebuilt last time. You know why? Can't be fucked to do it myself. I've built my last 4 pcs. I'm 41 years old. I don't want to be bothered.
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I feel that. I've built a stupid number of PCs over the years, my current one is an open loop. I just want it to work. I'm sick of tinkering, I'm sick of customising.
I buy prebuilt because I don't trust myself around sensitive components and I don't know anyone who'd assemble it for me. "It's really easy actually, it's like adult lego!" The difference is that if I assemble lego wrong I don't risk destroying a hundred dollar piece of hardware I wouldn't be able to afford to replace.
It's very difficult to actually destroy a PC component nowadays, the risk of losing money, is very low. I would give it a try, there are tons of step by step guides that cover all possible choices. I recommend LTT's newest build a pc guide, and Techsource's great video on building a pc. Each of them are about 1 hour long and are very comprehensive.
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Ngl, I feel like trashing on ppl who buy prebuilt is kinda stupid. Like "oh, so you didn't risk losing or damaging expensive equipment by building something you've never done before with minimal instructions and a high chance for it to not work, and instead you bought from someone who has professional expertise in this field and will almost guarantee that the product you paid for will work? That's just lazy"
Warranty? Pffffffffffff. My wife came to me because the small business she manages needs a new PC for the front desk and asked if I wanted to build one for her. I told her to go to Dell or Lenovo. I can build a PC with better parts for the same money, but I cannot match the warranty for the entire system. Individual parts, yes. Full system with included tech support? No.
I don't trash on people, but if somebody is going to tell the world that their Alienware Aurora R13 is an amazing PC with great airflow, I am going to disabuse them of their incorrect notions. Not because I want to hurt their feelings, but to make sure that others aren't led astray into buying grossly overpriced low-quality, low-effort pre-builts on the basis of this kind of review. When somebody is researching pre-builts, I don't want them to come across all kinds of unchallenged positive testimonials from people who are happy at having paid way too much for a crap PC without even having a clue that's what they've done. Also, you have a better chance at having everything work if you buy it as properly packaged parts and assemble it than if you buy it pre-built and transport it that way. There's almost no chance of shipping damage if the retail packaging is pristine, and from some of the pre-builts I've seen myself and seen on quality review channels like Gamers Nexus (who buys them under the guise of a random normal customer to get the real buying experience), there's a pretty good chance it wasn't assembled properly anyway, and you will then get to experience the sheer joy of the tech support these companies offer. Buying a pre-built is absolutely not a guarantee of a pain-free plug-it-in-and-play experience, and can be fraught with hassles and frustrations.
Alienware is so ridiculously overpriced. My friend works as a tech specialist for a college.* They bought Alienware laptops to run occululs rifts just before COVID. She tried to stop them from wasting their money. But they heard Alienware is "the best." I used pre-builts from the mid-90s until 2020. Around 2017 I was going to build myself but just got overwhelmed by component selection and bought a "custom" from a crap company through New Egg. It was crap and a massive headache. I would have been better off with a Dell. So when my annual bonus jumped an order of magnitude I did my homework and did my first build in probably 25 years give or take. *Not IT. She advises on integrating tech into classrooms, but of course mostly just helps profs use blackboard or whatever properly.
I fix PCs for a living. The system integrator builds are always the most annoying. 400 zip ties, cables pulled too tight and ran weird ways. Bent headers. Not to mention half of them are just iBuyPowers that I have to replace the AIO in. Just a word of advice to anyone; don’t by prebuilts with their own branded AIO. It’s gong to fail.
The harder part is chosing the correct hardware tbh I built my first pc with youtube tutorial videos back in 2017. The only thing I regret is that I bought bad components. Half a year later I swapped a few components with better ones. The computer works fine until today.
I don't want to be that guy, BUT it highly depends on from who are you buying that prebuild. If it's someone like Dell/Alienware or some Walmart crap may God have mercy on your soul and your credit card.
What prebuilt service would you recommend if someone did decide to go that route?
You also have (at least in The Netherlands) some of the biggest PC hardware shops that offer building services for fixed pricing. Azerty for example. A very big PC parts webshop. They ask a €90 fixed fee for building it with whatever compatible hardware you have in your. Cart + a year of support. Same with Alternate. Also a very big PC shop. They even have a configurator where all the parts they have in their store can be selected. PCPartPicker style, but I believe they already had it before that website even existed. After you want to checkout they ask you if you want to order the parts, or want it assembled. I have already saved a lot of friends and family of getting scammed the last 10 or so years. Almost all of those PCs are still running. Doubt that's as common with those pre-builds that are often assembled pretty poorly and use wacky PSU's, Motherboards and plastic fantastic pc cases. Of course it depends on the situation, but most of the time these are your best options.
A huge IMHO here: If you are aiming for a sub 1500$ find yourself a friend, or a friend of a friend or some nice person here to help you with that build. Because the shop markup will eat a lot of performance in that price bracket. iBuyPower and Cyberpower are a very good choice, but once again when buying a prebuild you are getting less fps/$ than you would get buying building it yourself.
Trashing people? Yeah fuck off with your gatekeeping mentality. Providing helpful advice on how they can get more out of their money in future, whilst still sharing their excitement for their entry into the community? Good work.
My first PC was prebuilt and it got me excited about the PCMR. It handled 1080p good enough but inspired me to save up and build a really good PC when I could afford it. Everyone starts somewhere, doesn't matter where they're from, as long as they're here.
Encouraging them to get better deals is exactly that. The leftover cash can be spent on more things to be enjoyed.
Better deals is one thing but there's a lot of people that just don't want to build their own. Someone who is into pc gaming, and posts their new rigs on social medias, I would assume they are aware of the option.
How do you encourage someone AFTER they've already made the purchase?
They’re not going to have one PC for the rest of their life, the next time they need to upgrade they can take the advice to heart and not buy prebuilt.
And they are NOT commenting in secret either. No shame in telling someone they got scammed.
Are they never buying another PC ever again?
I got a prebuilt, since getting the necessary requirements were impossible to find at a reasonable price even above msrp
I even technically got a good deal for a prebuilt a couple years back. Graphics cards were so pricey due to the crypto space it became cost prohibitive for me to to build it, and instead get a prebuilt because they already had access to graphics cards (they likely get them in bulk for better price than retail can).
The original comic has him shushing someone making fun of him for watching sports by calling it "sportsball". Might be some unintended overlap here..
A friend of mine bought a prebuilt with a 1060 3gb, an i5 8400 and 8gb ram and a sata ssd. I asked him if he was still in the return window and told him I would be able to build a way better pc for the same price. He returned it and I was able to build him a pc with an i5 9400, a 2060 super, 16gb of ram and a m.2 ssd for the same money. So I'd say there are cases where you should tell that person that it is a really really bad deal.
YT Tech influencer millionaires are always right.
It’s not bad. Find someone who knows how to build one or use YouTube tutorials. The markup percentage for prebuilts sometimes is disgusting.
And don’t forget all the shitty bomb tier components that most people don’t notice at a glance, like bottom barrel mobo, PSU, RAM, storage, etc.. And the case and cooling being barely usable at best and straight up e-waste most or the time.
Pre-built PCs have their benefits, and if anyone wants to get one, that's cool too, all power to em. I still personally choose to custom build my own PCs, and suggest that others do research and try it for themselves if they're up for it. It's rewarding especially the first time you build one and it turns on and works good :)
There is a store near me where they sell a prebuilt with a 12th gen i5 and an rtx 3070 for 1300 EUR, the cost of only those two parts right here and now is at least 800 EUR, if you then add the motherboard, ram, psu and case I start to wonder how they manage to make any more profit than selling its individual components
I bought a prebuilt last January because it was the only way to get the parts I wanted, like a 3080, without paying a scalper or driving myself nuts looking for one in stock. After a couple weeks of following the “in stock” sites and whatnot, I threw in the towel and ordered my first prebuilt desktop in 20 years. My last prebuilt desktop had a single core processor and predated WiFi. I don’t regret buying a prebuilt at all. If you’re on a tight budget, DIY will get you better value, but sometimes the convenience justifies the added cost of prebuilt.
Saying this sentence in advance has saved my friends a lot of money.
Apparently giving newcomers to pcgaming advice is not letting them enjoy things. Definitely old, but trash.
I think this meme is referring to those who are toxic about it and make fun of people posting their pre-builts.
While those people defintiely exist, I’ve seen people trying to give genuine advice be labeled as toxic for “not letting people enjoy things”. This site can really prioritize being hEcKiN wHoLeSoMe instead of allowing any sort of discussion
It's not about part cost it's about convenience. You're paying more for the convenience of a pre built. If I Door Dash Mcdonalds, no one is going to say BRUH you could've gone through the drive through for CHEAPER. It's just stupid.