Thread: Buy vs Build

  1. #1

    Buy vs Build

    I built my last PC, which is now roughly 6yrs old, so the stirrings of a need to replace is brewing.

    While building wasn't all that difficult, I'm not sure how much benefit I got from it other than, at the time, it was certainly the superior choice as far as spending was concerned.

    I've seen some articles that aren't too old that suggest that prices on parts are such that buying a pre-built PC might actually cost less, but since things can change in a month/2 months time, I'm not sure if that's accurate anymore.

    So I guess my question is whether building your own PC is a significant money-saver or not at this point?

  2. #2
    There's no hard and fast rule - if you can find a prebuilt for the right price, and if you can't build for less, then go for it.

    Personally, I prefer to build my own, because I know how to do it, and I know all the parts that go into it. The risk with prebuilts is that the builder will skimp on some parts, like using a shitty PSU or motherboard.

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by tyrlaan View Post
    I built my last PC, which is now roughly 6yrs old, so the stirrings of a need to replace is brewing.

    While building wasn't all that difficult, I'm not sure how much benefit I got from it other than, at the time, it was certainly the superior choice as far as spending was concerned.

    I've seen some articles that aren't too old that suggest that prices on parts are such that buying a pre-built PC might actually cost less, but since things can change in a month/2 months time, I'm not sure if that's accurate anymore.

    So I guess my question is whether building your own PC is a significant money-saver or not at this point?
    you have more control of your parts with building your own...most pre-built PCs usually have crap motherboards and PSU's and mediocre RAM. The extra cost(if at all) of having that control is worth it to me

  4. #4
    Usually pre-built computers are priced at a mark-up. Some places have reasonable prices but they use shoddy components like cheap power supplies, that's the most common. Boutique builders have a mark-up for the service.

    Either way you'll save money by doing it yourself. Prebuilts usually get another level of warranty. But buying yourself you get all the manufacturer warranties.

  5. #5
    From my personal experience, I say build it yourself is cheaper. I just built my new pc about a month ago and I spent only $840, on Ibuypower a pc that has similar specs was $1200. Also when I purchased my parts I was able to get RE2, DMC5, and The Division 2 all for free. I went with an AMD build.

  6. #6
    the big lure of buying a quality prebuild is the warranty policy. make sure you buy at a company that understands people might want to open up their pc or add some parts from time to time (and obviously a company that tells you the name of all parts). so if you ever run into an issue and you want a no hassle "just fix it" solution they won't cause a fuss. a good warranty policy can be worth a small price increase.

    sometimes the price difference is surprisingly small, so it you find a good one it can definitely be worth it.

  7. #7
    For the last two PCs, I've chosen "custom build" computers from Ironside over the DIY route. DH and I went with Digital Storm before that. They're also quite good (or at least were back then), but their offerings/prices didn't do it for me the last time I looked. I can and have built my own PC, but frankly, having worked in IT a zillion years, I'm over it and can afford the price difference.

    My advice: Go to a PC builder website and build a computer. THEN go to pcpartpicker.com and build an equivalent machine. Don't fret over the individual part price comparisons, look at the total build cost. Then, consider time/labor savings, the builder warranty, any tax differences, and then decide if it's worth it. Avoid big companies like Dell! Sure, you may get a PC that works great new (or not), but they drop support quickly, and with the proprietary parts, you're screwed.

    If you decide to check out Ironside and have questions, ask for Jared. He helped me with my "Intel Iron" PC and was great. He's a real PC enthusiast and patiently answered all my questions with impressive knowledge. Ran back and checked on parts several times (while apologizing for keeping me waiting!), so he could tell me how parts might look together (since I cared), or what brand/model part my build would get. Most parts you pick are specific, but for video card, for example, brand may vary according to what they have on hand - you just pick the GPU. I was in a rush, so I didn't request any special parts, but if you have your heart set on particular brand/model of something, they WILL source it and put it in - they did that for my last build when I wasn't impressed with the PSU selection at the time. [As an update based on horbindrs excellent advice, default warranty is 5 years labor, 3 years parts. If you have issues, they'll gladly ship you the parts at their expense for YOU to install if you're comfortable, and they pretty much expect you to open your case and add stuff.]

    Whichever route you go, good luck!

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by shadowfyre27 View Post
    From my personal experience, I say build it yourself is cheaper. I just built my new pc about a month ago and I spent only $840, on Ibuypower a pc that has similar specs was $1200. Also when I purchased my parts I was able to get RE2, DMC5, and The Division 2 all for free. I went with an AMD build.
    A quality pc builder will pass along any free software deals that came bundled with the hardware they installed (Ironside definitely does, as does DigitalStorm, if I recall correctly). Ibuypower is the last place I'd buy a machine.
    Last edited by Tazr; 2019-03-17 at 04:31 PM.

  8. #8
    Build your own...This way you know whats going into it and the only one cutting corners is you.
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  9. #9
    Please wait Temp name's Avatar
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    If you don't want to build it yourself, find a shop that let's you choose the parts, or go with a trusted boutique builder like maingear. They're expensive, but you won't have to worry about anything.

    That said, building it is fairly easy, so do that

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Temp name View Post
    If you don't want to build it yourself, find a shop that let's you choose the parts, or go with a trusted boutique builder like maingear. They're expensive, but you won't have to worry about anything.

    That said, building it is fairly easy, so do that
    Well, like I said, building is a thing I've done before and can do again - I was just looking for confirmation on whether its still the clear route for saving $$.

  11. #11
    Please wait Temp name's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by tyrlaan View Post
    Well, like I said, building is a thing I've done before and can do again - I was just looking for confirmation on whether its still the clear route for saving $$.
    Yeah, building it yourself is cheaper. It's typically a 20~% upcharge to buy a completely prebuilt, and 50-100USD in a shop if you bring the parts from what I know

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by RuneDK View Post
    you have more control of your parts with building your own...most pre-built PCs usually have crap motherboards and PSU's and mediocre RAM. The extra cost(if at all) of having that control is worth it to me
    This. You will get lower quality/cheap parts on any peripherals that the seller thinks they can get away with selling people. Sure, you will get the same CPU and video card. Everyone looks at those first when buying a gaming PC. But how good is RAM, Motherboard, Heatsink, Hard Drives, and Power Supply? When building yourself you can read reviews on all those items and make informed decisions about what exactly you want to get.

  13. #13
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    NZXT's https://www.letsbld.com/ is fairly price comparable to just buying the individual parts and building it yourself. Going pre-built in my experience isn't quite a drastic of a markup that it was a decade ago.

    - - - Updated - - -

    For instance this build
    https://www.letsbld.com/bld/step4?pr...aft=3382568994 $2500

    Buying individual parts:
    https://pcpartpicker.com/list/pCbZbX $2432
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  14. #14
    If you can spare a few hours to do some research and browse for components, there's now way pre-built is cheaper (unless it has some stupid configuration that just isn't appealing).

    And now the more important fact, even if the price is the same, pre-build is just that, sometimes just some components that just don't sell thrown in together which means you may end up with something you don't really want ... like an ugly case, or 500 ssd + 1-2tb hdd when in reality you may already have a 1-2 tb external and only want 500/1tb ssd.

    Simply put, building it yourself gets you exactly what you want and need and most of the time it's cheaper, especially if you also don't need it on the spot and can look around for 3-4 weeks at different stores. It's also exciting to put it all together (provided you don't do that for a living haha).
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  15. #15
    Please wait Temp name's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fahrenheit View Post
    NZXT's https://www.letsbld.com/ is fairly price comparable to just buying the individual parts and building it yourself. Going pre-built in my experience isn't quite a drastic of a markup that it was a decade ago.

    - - - Updated - - -

    For instance this build
    https://www.letsbld.com/bld/step4?pr...aft=3382568994 $2500

    Buying individual parts:
    https://pcpartpicker.com/list/pCbZbX $2432
    The only problem I have with BLD is that it bottlenecks you into only NZXT parts where they have them available. Other than that it's quite solid

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