When did buying a prebuilt PC become a taboo in the PC community?

[skynet1990]

The Problem ist people only see this from their own perspective. It is totally fine to have an prebuilt PC everything has advanatges and disadvantages. I know many people who have prebuilt ones out of different reasons.
The biggest con of a prebuilt computer is cheap hardware in the important parts. Most bigger prebuilt Companies tend to go bigger on smth they can advertise like OMG this PC has 20 GHz then put that CPU on a cheap msi Mainboard with little Features and so on.
I think this Opinion is a ghost from the past where the choice of those "shitty Hardware" like Elitegroup Mainboards or Mainboards with SIS or Via / nForce Chipsets where much bigger.

[DemonDays]

Alienware hasn't been a company in, what, over a decade? They are a brand managed by Dell and have been for a very long time. HP bought VooDoo PC around the same time. Both acquisitions happened in 2006.

Currently there are better companies like Skytech Gaming who offers pre-built PCs as well as PC Part Picker Assembly where you pick what you want, they assemble it and do clean wire-management and ship it to you. They also do the assembly in SoCal to support American jobs.

What point are you trying to make exactly with Alienware. It's pretty common knowledge DELL owns them.

I agree with your second point though. Which is what I said in the rest of my post. There is no taboo to buying pre-built as long as you do your research and buy from reputable companies like the ones I mentioned from Australia.

I mean with a pre-built you get super clean cable management and a warranty.

[chazus]

Considering my hourly fee, yeah, definitely cheaper to get a premade or have my parts built by the company for a small premium.

The idea of "My time is worth money" is only really applicable when you're doing something you don't want to, or doing something your job entails outside your job.

That's like saying you send your wife an invoice every time you make dinner because hey, that hour of cooking costs your hourly fee.

[nocturnus]

Let's get a few facts out of the way;

1. Pre-built computers are not per definition worse than DYS ones.
2. Pre-built computers are not per definition more expensive than DYS ones

It's all relative to what you order, how long it would take you to build the system yourself and you build it for personal entertainment or not.

The idea of "My time is worth money" is only really applicable when you're doing something you don't want to, or doing something your job entails outside your job.

That's like saying you send your wife an invoice every time you make dinner because hey, that hour of cooking costs your hourly fee.

If you want to compare your computer to a wife, sure.

The point is, if you're an enthusiast that enjoys building PCs, obviously you have no business buying pre-made ones. But if you don't, pre-builts are actually a better option - financially speaking.

[Thunderball]

Considering my hourly fee, yeah, definitely cheaper to get a premade or have my parts built by the company for a small premium.

Nah. If your time is important enough that figuring out a build and doing it is not worth for you just hire someone to pick parts and build for you. Pretty sure there's even some people willing to do it for free.

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1. Pre-built computers are not per definition worse than DYS ones.

Depends on the criteria, obviously.

2. Pre-built computers are not per definition more expensive than DYS ones

Now that's definitely false. False even if you consider including the pricing of 3rd party support in.

It's all relative to what you order, how long it would take you to build the system yourself and you build it for personal entertainment or not.

You dont have to build the system yourself for it to not be a pre-build.

[nocturnus]

Nah. If your time is important enough that figuring out a build and doing it is not worth for you just hire someone to pick parts and build for you. Pretty sure there's even some people willing to do it for free.

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Depends on the criteria, obviously.



Now that's definitely false. False even if you consider including the pricing of 3rd party support in.



You dont have to build the system yourself for it to not be a pre-build.

If you don't build the system yourself, it's a pre-built. FYI, when you order a PC at Dell, HP, or whatever, you also pick parts. You might not always have the option to pick a motherboard, or memory type, but most other parts you'll be able to customise.

Anyway, I do understand why you would say it's different.

[dacoolist]

you dont get to have INSANE signatures like: BIGDICK CPU || BIGDIX GPU || MOAR RAM THAN NASA || MOTHERRUSSIANUCLEARPOWERRRRRSUPLLLLYYYY

and all that shit then if you dont BUILD IT URSELF OP

[xxcloud417xx]

Let's get a few facts out of the way;

1. Pre-built computers are not per definition worse than DYS ones.
2. Pre-built computers are not per definition more expensive than DYS ones

It's all relative to what you order, how long it would take you to build the system yourself and you build it for personal entertainment or not.

If you want to compare your computer to a wife, sure.

The point is, if you're an enthusiast that enjoys building PCs, obviously you have no business buying pre-made ones. But if you don't, pre-builts are actually a better option - financially speaking.

So, I was busy with school and constantly commuting between School and Work and Home. Work and Home were in the same town, school was in the city about 30mins away. So I would often stay overnight at a friend's in the city if I had no work. Point is, I bought a gaming laptop, and I get the constant shit from both the DIY PC Builder crowd AND the Desktop pre-build crowd. You want to calculate the better financial decision? I could have saved probably over $1000 if I had bought a desktop PC or built one, sure I won't deny that. However, I would have used it maybe 25% of the time I used my laptop. Gotta also factor in that actual usage time in the price if you ask me. Why spend money on a PC, even if it's a lot less than a laptop, if you can't even sit down at home to use it? That's the real waste, you're basically buying a useless piece of furniture for your home.

Anyway, I agree with you, gotta look at more than just the price of the machine when it comes to finances. You need to look at your own lifestyle and use of time. I know for a fact I got way more use out of my laptop for the money I paid.

[Azerate]

I'm not from the US, so my experience will probably differ heavily from most of the other posters here

I don't know about what people believe in "pc building communities" because the only time when I ever search for those and look into them is whenever I'm upgrading my PC which is like once in 5 years. I see no reason to hang around sites discussing pc building all the time. Same with cars, furniture and mobile phones.

As for the prebuilt PCs, my main association with that is a PC that you could buy in a hipermarket in 1990s. These were basicallly giant stores with everything from groceries, to some furniture and also media. They offered absolutely no customization, support or anything like that. You could just waltz in, watch a couple premade PCs and pick one. These were known among everyone who had any kind of knowledge about computers to have criminally bad parts in them. They were basically bait for grandparents to buy for their grandchildren. Buying this kind of a prebuilt PC resulted in the person becoming a laughing stock automatically at school. Now of course today I don't condone bullying anyone, but purchasing this kind of PC just showed your complete ignorance when it comes to how PCs work, or even which CPU or GPU is the one you should get. So I can kind of understand why people who bought such PCs were laughed at.

These days in Poland we don't really have prebuilt PCs as such, outside of again those hipermarket ones, but those have mainly switched to selling laptops. What we do have is we have great on-line and real life stores with PC components that also sell services such as assembling those parts into an actual working computer. My current PC was actually created like that. I can do research and I understand more or less what stuff I need inside my PC. Hell, if push came to shove I could probably also assemble it myself, but I don't feel confident enough to just buy all the parts and do it myself. Instead, I picked everything I want in it, and bought it on-line along with the assembly service. It arrived via a courier to my house ready to be plugged in. Does that count as prebuilt? Maybe. But obviously it's not trash garbage that grocery stores sell with components that you can't even customize. In fact, I got a 100% discount on that assembly service for buying all of the components at their shop. Someone could probably make fun of me for not knowing how to assemble a PC, but they sure can't for buying some trash setup for inflated price.

So to indirectly answer the OP's question - buying a prebuilt pc (in the sense of prebuilt without your explicit customization from distributor who has no idea what components a good pc should have) was always a taboo, or something to scoff at, at least in my experience.

[Alvito]

Because you'll get ripped off and it's almost impossible to fuck up building a PC.

I don't know how it could be a taboo though, how will anyone ever know what your pc is unless you tell them?

While you can rare plug the wrong things into the wrong places, you can absolutely buy the wrong parts or ones that when combined under perform. That alone is enough to keep pe8from doing it. It also takes time and space people don't have.

[Dadwen]

Not my current game computer, but the one before that was a pre-built (open box special) was a good deal, bought it then sold the video card and drive out of it and replaced it with better option,s but I got the computer for less that buying the parts at the time would have cost.

Personally I don't see issues with getting a pre-built sometimes you can get a good deals and the OS thrown in but I kinda enjoy building them myself from the ground up.

[Nnyco]

Prebuilt PC's cost so much more and building it yourself is just so easy.

[nocturnus]

So, I was busy with school and constantly commuting between School and Work and Home. Work and Home were in the same town, school was in the city about 30mins away. So I would often stay overnight at a friend's in the city if I had no work. Point is, I bought a gaming laptop, and I get the constant shit from both the DIY PC Builder crowd AND the Desktop pre-build crowd. You want to calculate the better financial decision? I could have saved probably over $1000 if I had bought a desktop PC or built one, sure I won't deny that. However, I would have used it maybe 25% of the time I used my laptop. Gotta also factor in that actual usage time in the price if you ask me. Why spend money on a PC, even if it's a lot less than a laptop, if you can't even sit down at home to use it? That's the real waste, you're basically buying a useless piece of furniture for your home.

Anyway, I agree with you, gotta look at more than just the price of the machine when it comes to finances. You need to look at your own lifestyle and use of time. I know for a fact I got way more use out of my laptop for the money I paid.

Aye. Look, I spent half a day building my new 1070k system in this tiny h210i that I can barely fit my hands in. Then I spent a few hours installing software, tweaking my fan speed and learning a new BIOS to achieve a stable 5.0ghz OC on all cores to start with. That's a full day; I could've bought an entry Mac Pro, worked the day and still have had more money left in the end if I didn't go for a DYS build.

Note that I didn't even take into consideration the time I spent researching parts and reading reviews.

Like everything, it's all relative.

[PACOX]

In the Internet allows anyone to gatekeep anything.

You will probably save money if you custom build, but that goes for anything in life. Some people just cant/don't want to build they own so they are willing to pay someone to do it for them. Fine.

Its cheaper for me to change my oil than to go to a shop. In don't want to do it myself so I pay someone a little extra to do it for me.

[Hellobolis]

iirc when i was a kid, all the store bought stuff was just bad crap with bulk purchased parts mashed together even if it made no sense. and maybe 1 or 2 companies that sold good pre-build stuff, but not domestically and for high prices.

now a few decades there are more companies that build good pre-builds and since the average consumer is becoming more tech savvy, big chain stores are also stocking not-crap things. and if you account for warranty/service, it often isn't even that big of a premium anymore.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Better to have an expert do it then myself.

[agentsi]

I hang around in the PC building communities on reddit, facebook, etc and recommending a prebuilt PC is a recipe for downvotes or getting made fun of. Not everyone has the time or the skill to build a PC. The amount of posts on tech support forms from people screwing something up is really high. Nobody can recommend a prebuilt without being shit on.

Since 2001. Boutique PC companies make 20-50% off their product, just for putting them together for you. Most knowledgable gaming PC enthusiasts, are also pretty smart with their money and don't want to overpay. PC gamers don't want to be taken advantage of, or preyed upon. And that is exactly what those companies do.

So if you've been around those communities as long as you say, then you should already know the answer to this dumb question.

[scelero]

It becomes taboo the moment you learn how to build your own.

[endorus]

Definitely a two fold answer.

a. Cost/Performance - Once you build a PC you realise how much you get ripped off buying pre-built.
b. Jealousy - because back in the early 2000 everybody wanted but nobody could afford an Alienware Predator 1

I can't believe you spent all that money buying that, I build this which is just as good and it only cost me x.

My first self-build PC was done using a "how to" article in a PC Gamer Magazine in 2003.

[Kagthul]

Considering my hourly fee, yeah, definitely cheaper to get a premade or have my parts built by the company for a small premium.

This argument only works if you are losing time you could be making money.

Which, you likely aren't. Unless you're taking time off work, its moot.

Your hourly in your area of expertise is not your hourly for everything.