1. #1
    Herald of the Titans RicardoZ's Avatar
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    Is Building Your Own ALWAYS Better?

    I'm kind of stumped on this question because I don't know anything about building computers. I honestly have no clue how I would even start, apart from the videos that I've seen on YouTube that always seem to edit out the parts that I have questions about.

    I've been looking into various builds on Cyberpowerpc and then looking for parts over at New Egg, Micro Center, and Best Buy sites, but the price difference between the components and the Cyberpowerpc is always negligible at best, even with shipping. In fact, if I were to buy all of the parts separately, pay tax on them, and have them shipped, I'd come out losing money compared to Cyberpower (especially on the Intel i5 builds I've been whipping up), let alone the fact that once they got to my place I'd sit there scratching my head and probably break something trying to do it.

    So, I'm left with the question...is building your own ALWAYS the best solution now that things like Cyberpower, iBuypower, etc. are out there and selling top quality builds for relatively cheap prices? I've always been told that I'd save hundreds and hundreds of dollars by building my own and that it's so easy a small woodland creature could do it...but for just $75 shipping and all kinds of special deals and having your system handcrafted by a professional, is it really worth the trouble anymore to build your own system?

  2. #2
    If you know what your doing, yes its always better and less expensive, if your not 100% sure and have the money, just buy a costum pc for any good computer store or site, do not buy complete branded ones like for exempel Dell.

  3. #3
    It may be different with you living outside of the United States, but building your own here can save you a $100-$300 along with being able to customize everything that goes into your system. With you not feeling comfortable with building your own though, I think you should just go with what makes you most comfortable.

  4. #4
    Deleted
    it's mostly for the experience that people say it's better. experience in multiple ways:

    1) you learn how to build it yourself, which could be useful later on, if you would need to replace a part or something;
    2) it makes some sort of a bond with your computer. not saying some people view it as a pet, but if you've put work into it, you're less likely to try dumb shit with it.
    3) it used to be cheaper because most firms had a big markup (hi thar Alienware). markup is less these days.
    4) you had more control over what parts to use, because most firms had templates with 1 or 2 differences.
    5) there wouldn't be any bloatware with it, but there are tools that remove them nowadays.
    6) the major reason was because most computer stores didn't have any decent computers, so you had to order the parts yourself and build it yourself if you wanted a decent gaming machine.

    these days, most of these problems are fixed and if you don't think you're up for the task, you can order one at a comparable price from online stores.

  5. #5
    Herald of the Titans RicardoZ's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Danno View Post
    It may be different with you living outside of the United States, but building your own here can save you a $100-$300 along with being able to customize everything that goes into your system. With you not feeling comfortable with building your own though, I think you should just go with what makes you most comfortable.
    Well all the sites I've been looking are American, in USD. The price of computer parts is pretty much the same here, although hard drives are a lot more expensive for some reason, and if you have a Mac then Lord help you you're paying 5x the US price for everything.

    I just don't understand why people are always telling me I'll save hundreds of dollars making it myself, when the parts come out more expensive than the entire price for everything on Cyberpower in a lot of cases.

  6. #6
    Builds I have done never cost the same from PC retailers. I always save a couple hundred dollars. Maybe taxes and shipping are biting you hard. I use Amazon for all my parts though and don't pay taxes or shipping (Amazon Prime).

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by RicardoZ View Post
    Well all the sites I've been looking are American, in USD. The price of computer parts is pretty much the same here, although hard drives are a lot more expensive for some reason, and if you have a Mac then Lord help you you're paying 5x the US price for everything.

    I just don't understand why people are always telling me I'll save hundreds of dollars making it myself, when the parts come out more expensive than the entire price for everything on Cyberpower in a lot of cases.
    Are you really comparing the exact same parts? You can't just compare i7 to i7 and generic Dell case to a nice custimizable case, not to mention the power supply. My view (after having a few brand work PCs and a few home built PCs) is that my home built ones have a longer lifespan.

    I built some really cheap ones too (just picked AMD cpu, cheapest mobo, cheapest RAM, cheapest HD, cheap ass PSU) and definitely got under DELL prices, but after one year its barely powerful enough to surf the web, if it works at all (those cheap PSUs goes first).

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