applesuxD

For people that don't like tinkering, then no, it might not be worth it. I am the tinkering type. I love to build and tinker with computers. I'm rebuilding one of mine soon mostly for shits and giggles. Rebuilt my main rig recently for basically the same reason (that and I just didn't like the motherboard I had so I replaced it). I'm also one to work on my own cars. I can afford to take them and have them worked on, but I like doing a lot of the work myself. Especially on my project car.
 
I'm glad that PC building is growing in popularity, but I feel too many people just see videos on YouTube and are like "oooh, I wanna build a PC too" without too much knowledge on computers in general. The thing is, I learned a lot about computers from troubleshooting pre-builts for YEARS before building my first computer. YouTube didn't exist then so I learned to build a computer through disassembling my parents' old Gateway and rebuilding it, reading the build guide that came with my Gigabyte GA-7N400-L motherboard, and TechTV shows and forums. Hell, I built that computer almost 15 years ago when I was still in high school, and I'm still learning new stuff all the time now. I find that stuff fun though. I mean, yeah, it'd suck ass if a radiator leaked like that. But, I'll be honest with you. That's why I don't do liquid cooling on my main computers.
 
Basically, if it's bothering you this much, for this long, and you don't enjoy it, maybe PC building isn't for you. There's no shame in buying a pre-built. I work at an office with 500+ people in it. The largest department is IT. I know ONE guy in IT that built his own computer and his last build was done like 4 years ago.

I can see where someone in your situation is coming from. Everyone who only has one machine gets a little perturbed when their machine stops working, especially if they've sunk a lot of money and time into it. It's a little less bad when you have more than one machine.

But there is an additional consideration here that I think has been glossed over: If your only knowledge of how a computer works is that "the processor is the brain", "the RAM is temporary storage", and "the hard drive is for long term storage", then yes, troubleshooting hardware problems can be overwhelmingly difficult, because you won't even know where to start looking when a problem rears it's ugly head, and the sad truth is that 90% of the answers on Tom's Hardware are just "me too" replies from people just as confused as you are.

However, if you stick with it, then over time you will acquire a troubleshooting skill set that will allow you to know both where to start looking, and how to test the problems to identify them. You might not always be able to come up with the answer yourself, but you'll atleast be able to get far enough to ask a specific question and get help, rather than just shouting "my machine bluescreened, what's wrong?".

That really sucks. I think the problem most people have with pre-builds is that they often are way more expensive than they need to be or have some low quality parts like no name PCUs. But if you are willing to invest some time and find some reputable companies I'm sure that it could save much effort and money in the long run.
You often see how people compare building a PC to building a set of logo, but sometimes it can be a 10,000 piece lego set that falls into pieces for no apparent reason.

If that's the case, all the more people shouldn't build PCs because there are too many things needed to be learnt for the average joe. 
 
You gotta admit. PC building now is all over youtube and its promised to the masses that anyone can do it because its so easy.
 
Yeah building it is easy. But maintainence?
 
I had to watch so many videos, like learn about dual rail/single rail PSU, how single or dual channel ram affects the bandwidth, etc etc.
 
only after building then i learnt what a CMOS was.
 
you see, you are supposed to know quite alot more than those "gaming pc build guides" promise. 
 
If your definition of a PEBKAC is one that doesn't spend at least a week or two on research on PC's then there are many. 
 
But how many people actually want to go through that hassle? There are so many people who just wants to play overwatch or fornite on high settings but is all that trouble worth it for them? 
 
Let alone the possibility of having my situation which is catastrophic for a PEBKAC

I think part of the problem with the DIY builder scene are the people who have like 3+ years under their belt are saying it's so easy, a toddler can do it.  They just conveniently leave out the hard part (well, most of the time): you're on your own if something happens.
 
It'd be like me saying this: I think riding a motorcycle is easy. I don't even have to think about anything any more. I just do things. Surely anyone can ride a motorcycle!...  Yeah no, riding a motorcycle (at least the first one I had, which would be the equivalent of driving a classic manual transmission VW Beetle) isn't as straight forward.
 
But if there's one thing that prepared me when I built my first computer: I already had a few years under my belt tinkering and playing around with the computer I had before. Even down to installing the OS and drivers. Aside from installing a CPU and its heat sink, I've done practically everything else there was. I don't think anyone should jump into building their own until they've at least done more with their PC than simply use it. Play with something you know that works first before going into the wild.

For me, I just enjoy the process of building a new PC.  It's kind of a hobby.

sorry about your luck...i have had the exact opposite results with my custom builds. Every prebuilt I have owned in the past has been nothing but trouble. My custom builds have all been extremely reliable. Ill never buy a prebuilt again.
 
Hopefully you have better luck with your next PC!

It all depends on cost parts and expierence. You have to understand that things might go wrong at any moment, that's how life works. Pre-built might as Well go up in flames and you would get the blame for that. You never know.
 
I'm currently in a battle with eBay seller trying to refund 2 monitors with combined cost of 2500 euros because both have defects. But seller refuses to accept them saying that 'we do not accept returns, even though they must accept return if item is faulty. So I'm stuck with gaming PC with no monitor and 2 expensive at broken monitors. This year only I burned my CPU, and then 6 months later my GPU died. Life is hard, but I keep going.

I would just call that tough luck, I never had any issues other than the ones I caused my self (first overclocks mainly). The thing is if you want to build a custom PC just for saving money then don't do it, it is more about the hobby than it is about budget

If you do not have the skills, stick with the higher bills. Get a prebuilt. 
 
Your user name is awesome btw.

I can't really smack it into my prebuilt.
 
and I can't imagine getting a new MOBO and then it still has issues.
And now that its been three years, I must look at the used market and my God that can bring alot of trouble if i'm not careful. Once bitten twice shy..
 
Agree! I was going to compare pc building to this.
 
Too many people assume that you get an instant good deal by building your own PC. I beg to differ.

Don't take it personally, but that's a very small sample size. You had a bad experience with a custom build, and you agree with @Nicnac that compares custom PCs to having some old problematic car.
 
I'm in my 40's, and worked with pre-builds and custom PCs (same at home, I have pre-builds and custom builds).
 
Did I ever had issues? Of course, but that happened with both pre-builds and custom builds.
 
The difference is : are you ready and able to troubleshoot and fix issues (keep in mind that's going to happen with pre-builds too, because what happens when the warranty runs out, or if the issue isn't covered?)

Yes it's more than enough, test it by using a phone app volume tester. If it is 80-85dB that's pretty much the limit of how loud anyone will go before harming themselves.

Sorry, but I wouldn't have a clue. Any advice I give you now would just be leading you up the garden path. 

I have the EVGA 550w G2, and its fanless until 45C

Schiit is heavily shilled by the SBAF crowd and IMO the only things worth buying from them are the:
-Modi 2
-Magni 3
-Fulla 2 (If you can spend more I'd rather opt for the GOV2+)
-Yggy 
-Valhalla 2
Gumby is beaten by the Soekris dac1541 in its price range and the others are just too unimpressive to earn a recommendation. Don't get me wrong, some are really good (like the Lyr for planars) but only for a specific use case.

The magni 3 is a better solid state amp, there is really no reason to buy the vali 2 and LISST tubes. For tubes it doesn't really show the tube that much at all.

The jotunheim have some problems with the treble, it frankly isn't that well controlled and it has treble glare which isn't a good thing, but overall it has more detail than the stack, but I wouldn't recommend getting it, since a NFB 11.28 beats it.

No more analytical and lean does not mean smaller soundstage. The LISST tubes pretty much makes it like any normal solid state amp, but among the ones that lean a bit warm. 

Only thing in Assdrop worth buying for audio are the HD6XX, K7XX, TH-X00.

The first part is all up to you and what you think it is worth. 
 
The HD 800 show extremely well how good you DAC and amp is,  while the hd6x0 don't show it to the same degree, but they do improve well with higher end gear. 
 
You shouldn't buy a DAC and amp for lower end gear if you don't have noise on your onboard, because you would see a bigger improvement with a better headphone. There are Ofc somr exceptions to this,  but generally headphones before DAC and amp. 

if it is the OG ones, then nah not really, if it is the 2. gen then yes.
 
well cleanness and power doesn't go together, but the magni is cleaner sounding than the fulla 2 and it has more power

https://www.mrspeakers.com/terms-conditions/
 
The warranty is transferable if the original was bought from a local dealer. Warranty should be calculated as two years from the date on the purchase receipt. Purchase receipt is all you need to get an upgrade should one become available.
 
Normally I'd look to save more than $100 on used headphones, but the Aeon is new enough that any used stuff should be in good condition. I think it's worth buying used if above warranty stuff is valid and the headphones are in good shape.

no stupid questions, only stupid answers.
The modi 2 + magni 3 will offer you more detail, cleaner power, wider sound, less grain, no clipping and ofc a lot more power. The Fulla 2 does have enough power to power most headphones, there will be some where you need to turn it almost all the way up and some where it simply doesn't have enough power.
 
A tube is generally going to change the sound a bit or a lot depending on the tube and the design, and they do all have higher distortion than a solid state one, but as people say "it is good distortion".
 

I'd looked around for a cheap DAP with Spotify and after a far from exhaustive search, there isn't such a thing as a cheap DAP with Spotify. Your ZTE supports mSD up to 64GB, so you'll have no choice but to load that storage with some MP3's/FLAC/WAV (assuming its built in audio player support these formats).