Anyone ever switch to prebuilts after building a couple pcs?

[mamamia88]

Alright just finished my 4th or so pc build this morning. From start to finish things that annoyed me. Honestly I wouldn't mind paying someone like $50 to do it while I go take a hike and get a beer next time. 

1. Tiny ass m.2 screw big ass screwdriver. 

2. Wraith cooler install. (I thought that my board might have shipped with the backplate on backwards). 

3. why won't the stupid io shield get in the stupid hole? 

4. why the hell are the front panel connectors so hard to plug in? 

5. 5ghz somehow wasn't detected at first boot so juggled around adapters this morning

6. I cheaped out on the case and one usb port doesn't work maybe i can get a partial credit. 

 

My next build if i do one i will not cheap out on the case and get one with a psu shroud and the psu will be completely modular as well as using all m.2 drives to make it as easy as possible to cable manage. 

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

the only prebuilts i'd ever buy are Mac's. i don't mind building computers. 

[Letgomyleghoe]

ill never buy pre-builts as they tend to look good from the outside but once you take dive deeper into the specs there is always a downfall or reason it is so cheap 

unless you pay an extreme premium, like from apple...

i wont buy apple because i have no idea how to repair them, and the genius bars around my area are far from geniuses 

[Kilrah]

Yes... laptops.

[Mooshi]

Unless it's a laptop, not going down that route any time  soon. Don't like the idea of paying a premium for a cheap motherboard, low end ram, questionable PSU etc.

[Kilrah]

Friend of mine bought a prebuilt recently... Was overheating, found out they had mounted all the fans pushing into the case. 

Turned half of them out, much better, but the CPU cooler was still trash and noisy so had to swap that too.

 

2nd friend bought the same and it was identical, so not just a one-off. Was a pretty good deal with a sale, although as noted you never know what brand PSU/GPU/MB you get and how decent they are.

[mamamia88]

2 minutes ago, Twilight said:

the only prebuilts i'd ever buy are Mac's. i don't mind building computers. 

I don't "mind" but, I'm disorganized. I still don't know where the screwdriver I started the build is. It's just frustrating when simple things aren't because you can't see what you're doing or the space is too tight. Or you need to reapply thermal paste after finding out the ram won't fit properly facing the one way. It's not hard it's just frustrating sometimes. Like Why can't they make the hole for the 4+r pin big enough to get the cable through once the board is screwed in already? Why can't the extra 4 pins on the 24 pin connector all just be part of the 24 pin connector instead of 2 pieces? Why can't they make a single connector for front panel connectors? You get my drift? 

[Tristerin]

I bought prebuilts in my very early years of gaming - never again, what a waste of resources imho.  

 

While I have shared your same frustrations - 90% of them have always been my issue lol (I.E. I didn't do something right..be it leave a PSU switched off and troubleshooting until you realize that you are a moron for example) while rarely its the hardware.  Personally I have shied away from SFF builds or even mATX builds because of not wanting to get frustrated about small spaces lol.  

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

Just now, mamamia88 said:

You get my drift? 

no? i've never found any of those things to be an issue. i plan out my builds and take my time, like my average build takes at least 2 hours because i take my time... 

[Tristerin]

3 minutes ago, mamamia88 said:

 You get my drift? 

Depending on the board they do this (include breakouts that you pin into then just insert to mobo) - I agree with @Twilight when I take my time I have fewer frustrations - when I (and I am the guy that loses his screwdriver the entire time) rush something I get all pissy and make mistakes.

[Kilrah]

I just rebuilt my 5 year old X99/5960X build today after complete disassembly/cleaning/SSD upgrade. Assembly took 3 hours but I didn't see them go by. (I have 4 SATA drives, an HDD dock at the top of the case, an ODD, a card reader/6-port USB hub in a 5.25 bay, an eSATA port, bunch of cables).

The front panel connector has one of those breakouts so I had no need to redo that, but even then... 1 minute at most.

[mamamia88]

20 minutes ago, Tristerin said:

Depending on the board they do this (include breakouts that you pin into then just insert to mobo) - I agree with @Twilight when I take my time I have fewer frustrations - when I (and I am the guy that loses his screwdriver the entire time) rush something I get all pissy and make mistakes.

Yeah I think I'll get high before the next one I build. I'll probably forget to do something but, I'll definitely take my time

[Tristerin]

Just now, mamamia88 said:

Yeah I think I'll get high before the next one I build. I'll probably forget to do something but, I'll definitely take my time

I have sausage fingers so either way I feel your pain when putting mobo pins on in tight places or poorly labeled lol

[mamamia88]

1 minute ago, Caroline said:

1. wrong tools

2. there's no backwards and if you flip it the screws won't fit

3. a gentle push with 2 fingers is better than slamming it with your fist

4. you plug one at a time

5. 5ghz is dumb

6. you might have snapped one of the tiny cables while trying to do something

 

only it's only a PC... why you have to be mad?

Easy things that should be easy not being easy. 

[mamamia88]

1 minute ago, Tristerin said:

I have sausage fingers so either way I feel your pain when putting mobo pins on in tight places or poorly labeled lol

I slept on my glasses a few weeks ago. Fell off a couple times doing the build. Literally anything that could frustrate a person did. I guess I should have waited for everything to show up before building. I bet it would have been alot easier to just read reviews for the best way to cable manage a case rather than try to prerun all the cables and find out that they interfere with getting the motherboard in place. And keeping the cat away long enough. 

[FracturedRaptor]

I've always built mine. This time I went with Digital Storm because I didn't feel like dealing with the returns process on DoA parts, which New Egg has been notorious for with me and my friends. It might just be bad luck but at least with this company you can still build it to your desire. I'd never buy off a shelf though. You end up spending more to both buy the PC and upgrade it. I have a total of four computers in the house right now ranging from the late nineties to current day. Every five years or so I build another one to make sure I stay on top of the coming games. The recent switch will be a 970 GTX and 6700k to a 2080 ti and 9900k. 

[mamamia88]

21 minutes ago, FracturedRaptor said:

I've always built mine. This time I went with Digital Storm because I didn't feel like dealing with the returns process on DoA parts, which New Egg has been notorious for with me and my friends. It might just be bad luck but at least with this company you can still build it to your desire. I'd never buy off a shelf though. You end up spending more to both buy the PC and upgrade it. I have a total of four computers in the house right now ranging from the late nineties to current day. Every five years or so I build another one to make sure I stay on top of the coming games. The recent switch will be a 970 GTX and 6700k to a 2080 ti and 9900k. 

You should see how the box for my motherboard from Amazon looked. Didn't even put it in a box. Just slapped a label directly on box and shipped it

[FracturedRaptor]

28 minutes ago, mamamia88 said:

You should see how the box for my motherboard from Amazon looked. Didn't even put it in a box. Just slapped a label directly on box and shipped it

 

... that's pretty lazy and pretty scary to receive. 

[Founders]

No, the only pre-built PCs I buy are laptops. I've been building PCs for 20 years now and I still enjoy it, probably because I don't build them as frequently as I used to. I'm sure if it was something I had to do everyday for work though it would take the fun right out of it.  

[Dreamer758]

13 hours ago, mamamia88 said:

Alright just finished my 4th or so pc build this morning. From start to finish things that annoyed me. Honestly I wouldn't mind paying someone like $50 to do it while I go take a hike and get a beer next time. 

1. Tiny ass m.2 screw big ass screwdriver. 

2. Wraith cooler install. (I thought that my board might have shipped with the backplate on backwards). 

3. why won't the stupid io shield get in the stupid hole? 

4. why the hell are the front panel connectors so hard to plug in? 

5. 5ghz somehow wasn't detected at first boot so juggled around adapters this morning

6. I cheaped out on the case and one usb port doesn't work maybe i can get a partial credit. 

 

My next build if i do one i will not cheap out on the case and get one with a psu shroud and the psu will be completely modular as well as using all m.2 drives to make it as easy as possible to cable manage. 

yes laptops or cheap ebay optiplex for a family member with an ssd upgrade just bought a laptop with an  R5 3550h and a weird gtx 1050 almost ti varient its great for $450 but serious builds need to be hand built so that they are perfect to your liking

[Pineapple_MountainDew]

16 hours ago, mamamia88 said:

Alright just finished my 4th or so pc build this morning. From start to finish things that annoyed me. Honestly I wouldn't mind paying someone like $50 to do it while I go take a hike and get a beer next time. 

1. Tiny ass m.2 screw big ass screwdriver. 

2. Wraith cooler install. (I thought that my board might have shipped with the backplate on backwards). 

3. why won't the stupid io shield get in the stupid hole? 

4. why the hell are the front panel connectors so hard to plug in? 

5. 5ghz somehow wasn't detected at first boot so juggled around adapters this morning

6. I cheaped out on the case and one usb port doesn't work maybe i can get a partial credit. 

 

My next build if i do one i will not cheap out on the case and get one with a psu shroud and the psu will be completely modular as well as using all m.2 drives to make it as easy as possible to cable manage. 

I'm actually considering buying a prebuilt. I love building pcs and will definitely continue doing so but i need a pc for school and I have a grant for it and i have to buy one and cannot build one.

So i started exploring the market,damn i love sff dell optiplex and the intel nuc. They come cheaper at the cost of upgradability. I'm willing to give up some upgradability for a clean and powerful pc

[Zodiark1593]

1 hour ago, Pineapple_MountainDew said:

I'm actually considering buying a prebuilt. I love building pcs and will definitely continue doing so but i need a pc for school and I have a grant for it and i have to buy one and cannot build one.

So i started exploring the market,damn i love sff dell optiplex and the intel nuc. They come cheaper at the cost of upgradability. I'm willing to give up some upgradability for a clean and powerful pc

I'f I really had to buy a prebuilt for myself, it would, at the very minimum, buy a laptop. Or buy my PC parts anyway and hope I don't get caught.

 

In the case of businesses though, unless you've some specific requirements that are otherwise expensive to meet, pre-built all the way. There's no way I can tender support to hundreds of computers in use at a business.

[Atmos]

I know a couple people who only buy prebuilts now, after having each built a couple or more gaming PCs.

 

both of them I would say are less than enthusiasts, but more than casuals, and the reason each of them switched was for easier warranty service. instead of each component having its own manufacturer to go through, they can just go to their SB and have any and all issues sorted. They also like that their systems are built to a higher standard than they could manage because they never put in a lot of effort into building them, but thats a secondary point. Its mostly just the warranty stuff. 

 

Both had some pretty unlucky hardware, one with a 1070 that died in the first year of ownership and the other had a plethora of issues with his components when he tried to build his system a couple years ago. IIRC at our annual computer upgrade party, (yes its just an excuse to spend money and drink) he tried to rebuild his entire system and had a DOA mobo, ram, and monitor was dead pixel hell.

 

There are legitimate reasons to go for a prebuilt over homebrew, and some people just dont enjoy the process of spending 3 hours cable managing for a clean build, but like having a clean build anyway. Ill even admit, after close to a decade and a half building my own, and countless other friend's computers I still could work on my patience in planning my cable management. lol. (I could have routed the radiator fans through the front to avoid them showing, and just couldnt find a single dang way to route the h115i pro's sata power off the block in a way that looked good and still reached my rats nest of 5 storage drives and bundle of sata power. also the clearance of fitting an h115i pro in a phanteks p300 is well... its pressing up against the fp I/O controller pcb. Also rip my predator rgb kit. RMAs take so dang long... also cablemod cables once i shake off this damn 1800$ bill lmao)

[kaiju_wars]

I've never switched but I wouldn't be entirely against it.

 

If say, something like the mining craze happened again, and I needed to upgrade, and we were seeing deals during such craze where prebuilt dells with 1600s and RX 580s being much cheaper than building... yeah I'd go that route.

But if you look at my specs on my profile, I won't need to upgrade for a long while.  So unless something like that is going on at the time I do have to upgrade, I'll probably build it myself.

[RonnieOP]

Personally I hate the act of building PCs these days.

 

After soo many over the years its just boring and a waste of time.

 

I wouldnt mind going the prebuild route tbh. but they never really have a prebuild with the exact parts i want so its never worked out.