How much even is the "Prebuilt Tax"?

[ve4grm]

Budget (including currency): Not a factor for this. I know the main things I want, and am trying to figure out how not to completely overpay for everything.

Country: Canada

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Gaming, Fusion 360, Civil 3D

 

So, I've been looking to upgrade since late 2019/early 2020, and it's just been the worst timing as we all know. Spent a lot of time waiting for the next gen cards and CPUs, then waiting for all this to blow over, etc.

And now the advice seems to be to look at prebuilts. I know prebuilts tend to be a couple hundred over the base parts, covering assembly and warranty and such, but my numbers aren't adding up.

 

I'm running 1080p 144hz, and looking for something with a 3070 or 3060ti to cover those frame rates reliably for a while. I find things like this ($CAD)

 

 

Then I go on PC Part Picker, and price out everything but the GPU:

 

Plus maybe $800 for an MSRP RTX 3070, would make this around $1550-1600. With a roughly equivalent AMD CPU, faster RAM, and a 2TB HDD.

 

Am I missing something important in my build? Or is the Prebuilt Tax really $600 CAD right now?

 

My situation is such that I'm only kind of hurting for the upgrade. I'm running a GTX 970, so I'm still alright most of the time and I can probably wait for the market (or a lucky GPU drop) if I need to, hence wanting to compare to an MSRP GPU. But these prices are confusing me.

 

Thanks.

[Sakkura]

They're using a more expensive motherboard and CPU, though you're right that the CPUs are pretty comparable in performance. You also haven't included a CPU cooler and Windows key.

 

So maybe the prebuilt tax is more like $500 Canadian in this case. Still shows you why prebuilts are not normally recommended. There may still be better prebuilt deals around, but this certainly isn't the worst you could pick.

[dizmo]

For starters, you're not comparing identical parts. That's inaccurate.

Second, you have to compare what's available on the market. They know it's one of the only ways to get a GPU, and they've priced their systems accordingly.

If you went with Dell there's less of a prebuilt tax.

[wall03]

4 minutes ago, dizmo said:

If you went with Dell there's less of a prebuilt tax.

there's also a reason for that...

[trag1c]

It really depends on who you're getting it from. If you get it from somewhere like Memory Express where they charge a flat rate (typically an hour of shop time) for assembly services you're only paying like $50 CAD on top of part costs. If you get from someone like Origin, Alienware etc. they a charge markup on each and every component which could be several hundred dollars. However, you still have to look around and look at what you're getting. Some prebuilts may only be like $100-200 over what it would cost to assemble it your self with the same component selection. Though a large issue with prebuilts is you're paying for a lot of stuff that you typically don't need, a large portion of the cost may be on a really fancy motherboard that is functionally the same as one that is $200 cheaper. They're (typically) not as optimized as they could be for a given budget/price range.

[dizmo]

Just now, wall03 said:

there's also a reason for that...

Yes, non industry standard parts. However if you don't plan on upgrading then it's not an issue, and really, a lot of people just rebuild the entire thing when their system needs updates anyway

[trag1c]

1 minute ago, dizmo said:

Yes, non industry standard parts. However if you don't plan on upgrading then it's not an issue, and really, a lot of people just rebuild the entire thing when their system needs updates anyway

I would also add the worst support and warranty service on the face of the planet. lol

[ve4grm]

True that the CPU isn't exactly the same. I would have grabbed one with a 3600, but the only one they have with that is $400 more than the one I posted.

 

CPU cooler - 3600 comes with that, I believe, and I see no real reason to upgrade given what I've heard. Windows key is fair, but I don't need a new one so...

 

I'm also now realizing that tarifs might come into play here, since a lot of these SI's offering prebuilts are probably in the states.

[ve4grm]

Alright, so what I'm seeing here is that I'm not crazy, though. If I can wait, I probably should. If I can afford an extra $500, then this is an option. Fair?

[dizmo]

4 minutes ago, trag1c said:

I would also add the worst support and warranty service on the face of the planet. lol

Eh, not like you really get any better warranty from anyone else. Plus the chances of needing it are quite slim.