The cost difference in building vs buying computers?

[JacobWest]

I mean i know that you save money by building your own computer but how much do you think that you save by building rather than buying? 

[Hirad123]

Depends on the computer. There is no way to guess how much you'd save without seeing which components you are getting.

[asickduckie]

I mean i know that you save money by building your own computer but how much do you think that you save by building rather than buying? 

For high end computers (800$ or more), you'll probably save a lot of money (possibly around 30% to 50% cheaper) and get better quality parts than say an alienware. For low to midrange PCs, it's often cheaper to buy prebuilt because they get cheap windows licenses, so when there's good sales, it might be worth looking at prebuilts. Otherwise, stores like NCIX will build you a PC for only $50 more than the price of the parts. 

[Elven]

@JacobWest

 

You don't really save that much these days. There are many places for a small charge (e.g. NCIX charge $50) to assemble, test and validate a stable system.

 

You get more for your money from custom built machines as appose to retailers such as PC world etc.

[T.Vengeance]

I also find that many prebuilts are horribly balanced.

 

Case in point this: http://www.futureshop.ca/en-ca/product/asus-asus-desktop-pc-intel-i7-4770-2tb-hdd-12gb-ram-windows-8-m51ac-ca004s/10268368.aspx?path=f4780e87c7a4bbfa3e9b45340ea9f723en02

 

A 4770k + Gt 650 + 12 GIGS OR RAM?? What. GG

[Scia]

Depends.

 

A prebuild Dell system for 300$ you probably won't get cheaper by building it yourself, as you'd already have to spend 100$ for Windows if you do not wish to deal with the hassle of cracking it.

 

But from a 600ish$ + price point [excluding peripherals] you'd be able to amp up the machine you're getting.

[SirReallySam]

I mean i know that you save money by building your own computer but how much do you think that you save by building rather than buying? 

I would like to show you this

 

 

But btw in my case (no pun intended ) it was like £400 a saving... Actually maybe more

[JacobWest]

you guys are a really great community

[Uehm]

I know this question was pretty much answered..

 

but there was this reddit post a couple of years ago on r/buildapc: http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/kssvg/this_is_why_we_build/

 

It basically showed a prebuilt system by HP costing $4000 and then in the comments someone built something similar for about $1,600.

[theawesomejman]

Depends, do you care about saving 50-100$ dollars? Or do you care about spending 50-100$ dollars and getting a warranty for your PC as a whole, not just each part's individual warranty.

 

Personally I'd say, if you're spending 1000$ or more, buy prebuilt and customize all you want. Just for that peace of mind in case it explodes.

 

If you're spending 1000$ or less, just build your own and get the satisfaction and if it does fail you know what you did wrong, because you did it.

[bmxtricky5]

Depends, do you care about saving 50-100$ dollars? Or do you care about spending 50-100$ dollars and getting a warranty for your PC as a whole, not just each part's individual warranty.

Personally I'd say, if you're spending 1000$ or more, buy prebuilt and customize all you want. Just for that peace of mind in case it explodes.

If you're spending 1000$ or less, just build your own and get the satisfaction and if it does fail you know what you did wrong, because you did it.

No just no...... Never recommend prebuilt that's a bad idea. I will always recommend you always build yourself unless the PC is under $300

[TheDigitalRealm]

Depends, do you care about saving 50-100$ dollars? Or do you care about spending 50-100$ dollars and getting a warranty for your PC as a whole, not just each part's individual warranty.

 

Personally I'd say, if you're spending 1000$ or more, buy prebuilt and customize all you want. Just for that peace of mind in case it explodes.

 

If you're spending 1000$ or less, just build your own and get the satisfaction and if it does fail you know what you did wrong, because you did it.

I'd disagree with that completely. I'd be more likely to build a system the more expensive it is.

[JacobWest]

I also have another question, is buying an expensive Motherboard a wise decision? Will it increase performance?

[AHaskin14]

You save pride if anything. nothing feels better than showing someone your sweet custom computer and saying tht you built it yourself, and then face palming yourself if they ask "where did you learn to do all that" or the infamous "you made all those little parts?"

[scaryjam823]

I'd disagree with that completely. I'd be more likely to build a system the more expensive it is.

I agree. I don't have the piece of mind knowing I just spent $1000-$3000 on a computer and that the shipping carrier handled it properly. They can mishandle individual parts and generally they will be okay.

 

I also have another question, is buying an expensive Motherboard a wise decision? Will it increase performance?

Performance, not really. It will give you the ability to add more performance easier in the future but itself doesn't do that. What it does do is give you a quality board, quality solder joints, capacitors etc. Thus making it last longer, be more reliable and feel better about putting your expensive parts in. 

 

Same with a power supply, don't skip there because for the same reasons as above. Quality manufactures are what matter most.

[theawesomejman]

Lol guys we're talking average joe here, I can build a PC with custom waterloop, I'm sure you all can. But if you're gonna drop 3000$ dollars on a PC and watercool it yourself, and then it fails, kills every part in it. You're fucked. period.\

 

If you buy a prebuilt for around 100-200$ from like cyberpower or something and the water cooling breaks and everything is fried up, your warranty will get you a NEW ONE, COMPLETELY FREE. Because they fucked up, not you.

 

Get it?

[T.Vengeance]

Lol guys we're talking average joe here, I can build a PC with custom waterloop, I'm sure you all can. But if you're gonna drop 3000$ dollars on a PC and watercool it yourself, and then it fails, kills every part in it. You're fucked. period.\

 

If you buy a prebuilt for around 100-200$ from like cyberpower or something and the water cooling breaks and everything is fried up, your warranty will get you a NEW ONE, COMPLETELY FREE. Because they fucked up, not you.

 

Get it?

Not everyone in the custom pc building space opts in for watercooling. The majority just use air cooled systems because of the high cost of waterblocks and watercooling in general. And AIOs are also an option as well.

[ThatAngryGnome]

I also have another question, is buying an expensive Motherboard a wise decision? Will it increase performance?

Usually, you just have to check if it has some basic necessities such as PCI 3.0 [6gb/s] (more bandwidth for your GPU), USB 3.0, and appropriate fan headers. More expensive motherboards aren't really any better, unless you're going enthusiast and and overclock like a mad man. The sweet spot price for non-enthusiast PCs IMO are around 120-150 bucks. Any more, and you'll usually paying for looks, accessories such as fan controllers, and potentially better cooling and overclocking due to better power distribution. Bottom line, no. Expensive motherboards are just for people who have that kind of money, and it won't increase performance. 

Be sure to read the reviews to make sure the mobo is reliable. Using a super cheap mobo will probably just end up in a blown transistor or something.

[ThatAngryGnome]

Lol guys we're talking average joe here, I can build a PC with custom waterloop, I'm sure you all can. But if you're gonna drop 3000$ dollars on a PC and watercool it yourself, and then it fails, kills every part in it. You're fucked. period.\

 

If you buy a prebuilt for around 100-200$ from like cyberpower or something and the water cooling breaks and everything is fried up, your warranty will get you a NEW ONE, COMPLETELY FREE. Because they fucked up, not you.

 

Get it?

CyberPower?! They're so over priced!

[EpicGeekonFire]

Well mostly you always save money building yourself. 

[TheDigitalRealm]

When water cooling is involved, I would DEFINITELY build it myself. I already feel uncomfortable about transporting water-cooled builds myself. One slip-up or a few knocks during transport coupled with a hastily put together loop and you've lost your whole system. I'd rather handle more risky things myself. That's just me though.

[Ertman]

Depending on price point, sometimes there is savings and sometimes there isn't. Higher-end systems tend to have better margins and diy leads to significant savings. Lower-end systems can but won't necessarily be cheaper to buy vs Diy but parts quality will often be sacrificed.

The real benefit of building it yourself is in the getting to choose the parts to meet your needs and wants. Saving money is a nice benefit if the system build allows.

[SirReallySam]

you guys are a really great community

and you're part of it! Therefore we congratulate you for being an awesome community as well

[EclipseSkye]

I get to save a bit by building myself. Went to the most reasonably priced seller and asked for a discount because I'm buying most of the parts from her.