Why building a PC yourself can really suck. Here's my experience

[applesuxD]

I regret building my own PC and for many reasons. 

 

Firstly, the random troubleshooting. When I get a random PC bug, I spend HOURS navigating the web to find a solution. They always say "redownload the drivers" but that was never the answer.

 

Secondly, A hardware failure is DISASTER.

My own fractal design Kelvin s36 burst, and water spilled all over the place. Here's the problem: they won't replace the whole PC because warranty only covers the part itself!

 

So I mailed to fractal, they took my PC to check and they said that there was no problem (miraculously) and sent back my items but they have yet sent me the replacement radiator that they promised to send back.  

 

Yes. They stated that they weren't obligated to give me a replacement model. My kelvin s36 was under the warranty period though. Then there is all these wierd blurry lines to how a warranty works. Is fractal supposed to fix my radiator and return it to me? Or what?

 

Then i have suspected failing RAM, I called to the shop and ask, and they asked me to email them, and until now, no news.

 

And now randomly, my motherboard is dying. My PC just has "no signal". And its dead. 

 

I brought my PC to a repairshop twice, having told that the PC just has dirty ram contacts. But I suppose the answer is that my MOBO is dead. Even then, now I may have to look online for answers or go to a repairshop to test individual parts again.

 

My PC isn't 10 years old btw, its barely 3. 

I7 5820k

16gb ram

r9 390

rm1000i 

etcetc.

 

"Well it seems like a random bunch of events, whats your point?" You ask.

 

I just have this to ask myself: "Was all of this worth it?" My story above is just a brief segment of all the troubles I had with my PC in just 3 years. The amount of time I spent fixing and troubleshooting my PC would have amounted to so much time I can go for a half month's worth of holiday. Or I can work in that two weeks to get money for new PC parts. I'd enjoy those alot more than fixing my PC. 

 

With a custom prebuilt, I can always just get the PC to the retailer and fix it no matter how minor or major the issue is. Even if it is a minor issue,leaving it to the professionals to fix my PC would have saved me so much time. The amount of fustration and stress just really killed my love for the custom PC thing. 

 

And now, in my current situation, I'm gonna have no choice but to go to a shop and ask them to test my individual parts. I'll probably sel those that are working and I'll get a custom prebuilt. 

 

I hope this helps those who are looking to build a PC. That if you are simply looking to game or you just wanna get the building done with and start using it, my advice to you is this:

 

You either make sure you know what you are doing, or get a prebuilt with warranty. Trust me, the amount of trouble you save will really save a few hairs of yours.

 

Perhaps I'm wrong, perhaps I'm just unlucky. But I really really regret building my PC. For 3k. i should have just gotten a prebuilt one. I thought it would've been a good 5 year investment for everyday use. Now its making my everyday a horror.

[TH3R34P3R]

your luck with tech my guy, is as bad as mine. it sounds painful. prebuilts are all i know as they can have warranties purchased on them. 

[applesuxD]

12 minutes ago, TH3R34P3R said:

your luck with tech my guy, is as bad as mine. it sounds painful. prebuilts are all i know as they can have warranties purchased on them. 

The worst part is that I would have actually saved so much more money in the long run with a prebuilt. Building a PC can cost alot more. 

 

Now I have not much money, I have to downgrade to an I3. 4 cores no hyperthreading. Like this is seriously the shittiest thing that can happen  

 

 

[TH3R34P3R]

dont sell the CPU you have. keep that man. its still really good compared to i3s from what i know. 

[Sauron]

Did you also happen to cut yourself while building it?

 

Memes aside, what do you think would have happened if you had bought a prebuilt and had ran into any of these issues just out of warranty?

23 minutes ago, applesuxD said:

With a custom prebuilt, I can always just get the PC to the retailer and fix it no matter how minor or major the issue is. Even if it is a minor issue,leaving it to the professionals to fix my PC would have saved me so much time. The amount of fustration and stress just really killed my love for the custom PC thing.

You can do this with a custom pc as well, there are plenty of repair shops that will troubleshoot and fix it for you. The time you "wasted" is simply time you chose to spend troubleshooting it yourself, and if you were to troubleshoot a prebuilt it would probably take a lot longer - you probably wouldn't have a manual for the motherboard, the parts might be of poor quality and the case and cable management would most likely not be very easy to work with.

[ELSknutson]

I love building computers for this reason the little quirks and head scratchers I enjoy allot. Also having worked though several of the types of issue you have had  i have come to know allot about the computer building process and now can build one one in under 30 min. But to each there own. 

[applesuxD]

3 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Did you also happen to cut yourself while building it?

 

Memes aside, what do you think would have happened if you had bought a prebuilt and had ran into any of these issues just out of warranty?

You can do this with a custom pc as well, there are plenty of repair shops that will troubleshoot and fix it for you. The time you "wasted" is simply time you chose to spend troubleshooting it yourself, and if you were to troubleshoot a prebuilt it would probably take a lot longer - you probably wouldn't have a manual for the motherboard, the parts might be of poor quality and the case and cable management would most likely not be very easy to work with.

There are comapanies like Ibuypower, anddd (idk aldy Im from singapore). Anyways. These prebuilt PC companies will probably put care into cable management and all? I mean linus has reviewed some of them (afaik). 

 

The thing about prebuilts is that (at least in my country) you can easily call up someone to help you troubleshoot. Kinda like apple care.

[Nicnac]

It's part of the hobby I guess. Like collecting classic cars. They will never be daily drivers, unless you know every bit and bolt about them. They will start acting up at the worst times (my dad's old mustang would pass every inspection but fail on every weekend trip lol). In the end it's up to you how much time, money and effort you are willing to spend. You always have to draw a line at some point.

[applesuxD]

11 hours ago, TH3R34P3R said:

dont sell the CPU you have. keep that man. its still really good compared to i3s from what i know. 

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..

 

11 hours ago, Nicnac said:

It's part of the hobby I guess. Like collecting classic cars. They will never be daily drivers, unless you know every bit and bolt about them. They will start acting up at the worst times (my dad's old mustang would pass every inspection but fail on every weekend trip lol). In the end it's up to you how much time, money and effort you are willing to spend. You always have to draw a line at some point.

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.

[TH3R34P3R]

what prebuilt did you get if you already got it?

[SolarNova]

Your mistake was buying a AIO.

 

Those things have but 1 use case. Small form factor cooling. If you have room for a big air cooler, they are most certainly the better choice, for the very reason you have found out..they add points of failure and have the 'chance' or catastrophic failure (leaking).

 

You made a mistake ..but just learn from it ... stick with self built, 9/10 they work just fine, urs is a worst case scenario.

[applesuxD]

11 hours ago, TH3R34P3R said:

what prebuilt did you get if you already got it?

I've yet gotten one. I'm looking at aftershock pc singapore

 

11 hours ago, SolarNova said:

Your mistake was buying a AIO.

 

Those things have but 1 use case. Small form factor cooling. If you have room for a big air cooler, they are most certainly the better choice, for the very reason who have foudn out..they add poitns of failure and have the 'chance' or catastrphic failure (leaking).

 

You made a msitake ..but just earn from it ... stick with self built, 9/10 they work just fine, urs is a worst case scenario.

I'm just too traumatised at this point. The time savings of prebuilt right now just seems alot logical to me >.<

besides I'm not gonna get a walmart pc.

My interest for building is also long gone as a result of this issue

[NineEyeRon]

That is a sad story, I am a convet from prebuilts.

 

I purposely chose not to get an AIO or any sort of watercool AND avoid overclocking of any sort for my first build.

 

Now I have built one I have the confidence and experience to build a rig that can OC and has an AIO.

[WkdPaul]

Just now, applesuxD said:

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?)

[PlayStation 2]

Frankly, PC building is all a pot shot, depending on who you are.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not that good at PC building (and specifically cable management) but I enjoy it and I somehow trust myself to do it, too. If it's not your cup of tea, well it's not your cup of tea and there's no shame in not really trusting yourself to build a PC.

[Mutoh]

Sounds like a PEBKAC issue tbh tbh 

[wasab]

If you do not have the skills, stick with the higher bills. Get a prebuilt. 

 

Your user name is awesome btw.

[applesuxD]

37 minutes ago, Mutoh said:

Sounds like a PEBKAC issue tbh tbh 

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

[PabloSL]

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

[applesuxD]

12 minutes ago, wasab said:

If you do not have the skills, stick with the higher bills. Get a prebuilt. 

 

Your user name is awesome btw.

Exactly. That's my lesson learnt in one short sweet summary.

 

you could have basic knowledge of building a pc but anytime some uncommon issue comes out you either carry your elephant of a pc to the pc repairshop or you try online solutions which never really worked because the issue is uncommon.

[PopsicleHustler]

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.

[OdinSword]

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!

[Sauron]

1 hour ago, applesuxD said:

There are comapanies like Ibuypower, anddd (idk aldy Im from singapore). Anyways. These prebuilt PC companies will probably put care into cable management and all? I mean linus has reviewed some of them (afaik).

Some will, but the good ones come at a significant premium over a self build pc.

1 hour ago, applesuxD said:

The thing about prebuilts is that (at least in my country) you can easily call up someone to help you troubleshoot. Kinda like apple care.

Good luck troubleshooting a mac's hardware without a board view software... help desk or not, you can't even open most of them without specific tools and some of them have parts soldered to the board. Dead RAM? Welp, I guess we have to throw out the whole motherboard...

[ELECTRISK]

 

1 hour ago, applesuxD said:

With a custom prebuilt, I can always just get the PC to the retailer and fix it no matter how minor or major the issue is. Even if it is a minor issue,leaving it to the professionals to fix my PC would have saved me so much time. The amount of frustration and stress just really killed my love for the custom PC thing.

Let me tell ya, those professionals are the best. 

[beyonddc]

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