Build it myself or buy from Newegg?

[Freddymaster922]

Budget (including currency): $699 USD

Country: US

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Sound Design, Games like Among us, Roblox, and Minecraft.

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): Upgrading from a chromebook, he wants a device that can run most games at 60+ fps, and I'm helping him decide on parts as he knows nothing about computers. We created this list: 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor	$134.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4S ATX AM4 Motherboard	$139.99 @ Newegg
Memory	Team T-FORCE VULCAN Z 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory	$57.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Team MP33 256 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$35.99 @ Newegg
Video Card	Asus GeForce GTX 1650 4 GB Phoenix OC Video Card	$208.99 @ Amazon
Case	Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case	$59.99 @ B&H
Power Supply	EVGA BR 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply	$49.94 @ Office Depot
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$687.88
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-10-14 12:28 EDT-0400

 

Except, I think that for that price, even with building it himself, wouldn't be the best deal he could get, and so I found this prebuilt newegg, their ABS line on sale, and even though prebuilts are never good, I wanted to ask you guys if I should go with the prebuilt, or if there are any alternative parts lists that you guys could come up with? 

[svmlegacy]

Maybe I'm a bit nit-picky, but why the X570 motherboard for this rig? There's nothing here requiring more than a A520 (if money is tight) or B550 chipset.

Keep in mind the pre-built has an A320 motherboard, and 8 GB of 3000 MT/s memory.

Building a computer also comes with the learning involved. There's value there.

[dizmo]

• Get a B series motherboard
• With the money saved, get a 3600
• You're going to run out of space awfully fast if that's all the storage you have

The prebuilt isn't better, just different. It has a shit motherboard and less RAM.

[Energycore]

4 minutes ago, Freddymaster922 said:

Sound Design

If this was just a gaming computer I might tell you to go for the prebuilt, but for sound design you will benefit from faster cores or more cores depending on the workload. The parts list you have is not super well balanced, so I'm not surprised a discounted prebuilt can compete with it. Here's a couple changes.

 

Notice the system has a GPU upgrade, SSD upgrade and CPU upgrade and it all comes in at a lower price. The GTX 1650 Super is significantly faster than the normal 1650.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$199.99 @ Best Buy
Motherboard	Gigabyte B550M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$94.99 @ B&H
Memory	Team T-FORCE VULCAN Z 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory	$57.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Crucial P2 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$52.99 @ Amazon
Video Card	Zotac GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER 4 GB Twin Fan Video Card	$169.99 @ B&H
Case	Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case	$59.99 @ B&H
Power Supply	EVGA BR 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply	$49.94 @ Office Depot
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$685.88
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-10-14 12:46 EDT-0400

 

[Freddymaster922]

2 minutes ago, dizmo said:

• Get a B series motherboard
• With the money saved, get a 3600
• You're going to run out of space awfully fast if that's all the storage you have

The prebuilt isn't better, just different. It has a shit motherboard and less RAM.

B-series would be around $30 less, not enough to get a 3600 instead of the 2600, and more storage would also go overbudget. That's why I'm asking about the prebuilt. Better CPU, GPU and Storage for the same cost.

[Grabhanem]

1 minute ago, Freddymaster922 said:

B-series would be around $30 less, not enough to get a 3600 instead of the 2600, and more storage would also go overbudget. That's why I'm asking about the prebuilt. Better CPU, GPU and Storage for the same cost.

You're also paying about $60 more than you have to for that GPU.

[Freddymaster922]

3 minutes ago, Energycore said:

If this was just a gaming computer I might tell you to go for the prebuilt, but for sound design you will benefit from faster cores or more cores depending on the workload. The parts list you have is not super well balanced, so I'm not surprised a discounted prebuilt can compete with it. Here's a couple changes.

 

Notice the system has a GPU upgrade, SSD upgrade and CPU upgrade and it all comes in at a lower price. The GTX 1650 Super is significantly faster than the normal 1650.

The prebuilt has the same 3600 and has a 1660 Ti instead of the 1650 super.

[svmlegacy]

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$199.99 @ Best Buy
Motherboard	Gigabyte A520M S2H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$64.98 @ Amazon
Memory	Patriot Viper 4 Blackout 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-3000 CL16 Memory	$38.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Team GX2 512 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$42.99 @ Amazon
Video Card	MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB VENTUS XS OC Video Card	$239.49 @ Newegg
Case	Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case	$59.99 @ B&H
Power Supply	EVGA BR 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply	$49.94 @ Office Depot
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$726.37
	Mail-in rebates	-$30.00
	Total	$696.37
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-10-14 13:01 EDT-0400

 

It can be done if you stoop to the same level as the prebuilt. For this, you get the bonus of a more modern A520 motherboard, and guaranteed dual-channel memory.
Costs could be shaved further with a cheaper case, single DIMM, etc... to make up for the rebate.