Is buying pre-built PCs close to / similar price now compared to building yourself?

[VincentVolaju]

I'm going to the states soon for a year and was planning to build a new PC. Looking at the prices of graphics card though seems pretty insane. Like a 3080 for example cost more than the entire PC I built for myself 2 years ago.

At the same time however, I'm seeing some pre-built PCs (like ABS ones from Newegg) that have 3080s in them and are only costing like $500 more than the card itself.

 

Is it worth it now a days to buy an entire pre-built PC that comes with the video card in it that you want, compared to just buying all the individual parts and building it yourself?

Are the prices practically the same now? Or is it still better to just buy all the parts separately, even spending $1500 on a video card etc.?

[fuzz0r]

It's actually cheaper I think nowadays to buy a prebuilt than to build yourself.

Because, as you wrote, the prices are just out of this world atm.

[Tech87]

2 minutes ago, VincentVolaju said:

I'm going to the states soon for a year and was planning to build a new PC. Looking at the prices of graphics card though seems pretty insane. Like a 3080 for example cost more than the entire PC I built for myself 2 years ago.

At the same time however, I'm seeing some pre-built PCs (like ABS ones from Newegg) that have 3080s in them and are only costing like $500 more than the card itself.

 

Is it worth it now a days to buy an entire pre-built PC that comes with the video card in it that you want, compared to just buying all the individual parts and building it yourself?

Are the prices practically the same now? Or is it still better to just buy all the parts separately, even spending $1500 on a video card etc.?

There are a few limited prebuilts out there with all around quality parts, but you'll be paying more for those.

The cheaper prebuilts will typically have subpar PSU, case, hard drives, motherboards, and cooling.

Then you have the issue of proprietary parts in many of them. That's just garbage imo.

 

I would personally pay the extra bit of money to part everything myself.

Look for deals, and you'll be in good shape.

[aisle9]

It's a lot closer than it used to be, and with the price of GPUs, it's possible to find a prebuilt that costs less than a home build. Catch the right sale and you can get a whole PC for less than what the GPU inside of it goes for.

[Mark Kaine]

2 hours ago, VincentVolaju said:

Are the prices practically the same now

nope, prebuilt is generally far cheaper as you already noticed 

[Arika]

3 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

nope, prebuilt is generally far cheaper as you already noticed 

And i'm finding that some laptops are even cheaper than pre-builts

[VincentVolaju]

Wow, I'm surprised that this seems to be the case now.

 

So then I suppose for people like myself who actually need an entire new system, rather than just a video card upgrade... then buying a full pre-built might actually be the way to go.

 

Does anyone have recommendations for pre-built systems that are made with good quality parts?

Are the "ABS" systems on Newegg usually worth getting?

[Mark Kaine]

2 hours ago, VincentVolaju said:

Are the "ABS" systems on Newegg usually worth getting?

probably your best bet. gn tested and actually recommended it and a friend got one and is happy with it,  it seems overall solid (and was actually cheap as hell)

 

10700k + 3070 + 16gb 3200 ram + 1tb nvme + apparently half decent evga psu, 1200 bucks "on sale" (iirc, you'd have to calculate with 1400 tho probably) 

[wseaton]

Pre built what may I ask? And define "prebuilt". Some prebuilt's are just a store that assembles enthusiast parts and charges you a fee to put it together. Some people define pre built as a Dell Optiplex. Big, big difference.

 

There is no way I will buy a pre built, high performance gamer PC from Dell, Alienware, etc. You are far better off studying up on DIY forums and putting it together yourself.

 

If I'm buying an office PC for a client and they just need integrated video I will scrounge around Dell's scratch and dent site. You can get outrageous deals there, but you need to be fast and look at the details.

 

 

[Heliian]

1 hour ago, wseaton said:

define "prebuilt".

It's a broad term but prebuilts like dell are another category, like oem maybe. 

 

My next upgrade path is an ABS, they use off the shelf parts. 

[Vishera]

No,they are not cheaper.

If you look at the quality of the components you will see that pre-builts have components of horrendous quality.

Motherboards with no heatsinks on the VRMs and chipset,

Tiny and loud CPU coolers

DRAM-less QLC SSDs

Single channel high latency RAM

and more.

[thrasher_565]

2 hours ago, Vishera said:

No,they are not cheaper.

If you look at the quality of the components you will see that pre-builts have components of horrendous quality.

Motherboards with no heatsinks on the VRMs and chipset,

Tiny and loud CPU coolers

DRAM-less QLC SSDs

Single channel high latency RAM

and more.

catchup and muster psu... not only that the bloatware installed... but if i sapos so you get the other parts cheap enough i guess so... not onl that the case air flow is normally bad too.

[COAGULOPATH]

Prebuilts are generally cheaper than buying the same set of parts and building it yourself.

 

The big dogs like Cyberpower/iBuyPower can squeeze manufacturers for bulk discounts that the average user cannot. They can also afford to sell PCs at a loss.  

 

Where DIY can save you money is when you're bringing across parts from an existing computer. My current DDR4 modules have been in about 3 different builds so far. If I was to get a prebuilt, I'd be paying for RAM I don't want.

 

And DIY gives you control - you know exactly what's on your PC, and what's been done to it. It's hard to put a dollar value on that.

[Ben Lucier]

Something you might want to consider if you're willing to spend $100-$200 for assembly.

 

A few weeks ago, I walked into Canada Computers and (surprise!) they didn't have the parts I wanted because they hold their relatively low stock for pre-build machines. But-- I was able to get everything I wanted if I paid them to build a custom PC for me. I didn't even know that was an option!

 

Anyhoo... the point I'm trying to make is that you might be able to get what you want if you use the pre-build angle. All of the parts we're regular price, and I paid $200 for everything to be installed-- it's on the high side, IMO, but it was worth it to get a new computer during the chip shortage mess!

 

In case you're wondering, here's what I bought: 

• Intel i9 12900K
• Asus Z690 Motherboard
• 32GB DDR5 6000 Trident G.skill RGB
• NVIDIA 3080TI
• Samsung EVO Pro 980 M.2 NVMe
• no display (already have)

It took them a week to install, and burn-in the PC. Totally worth it, IMO.