Building pc vs buying

[John the bae]

My friend and I have been arguing about which is cheaper. I thought building was cheaper, not to mention you can upgrade easier, but I may be wrong.

[Fate]

Building is cheaper unless it's like a $300 computer from walmart that includes a monitor.

[Thorium19]

If it's a really low end system, then it's better to buy, so that's sort of the £100-250 region, but above that it's almost certainly going to be cheaper to build it yourself.

[C0LL0SS0S]

Upgrades should be the same in both PCs, but here in europe you safe atleast 200€ with buiding it yourself plus you get this awesome feeling of proudness and know every detail of you PC.

[Enderman]

Sometimes its cheaper if the system builder gets a special deal on parts, but most of the time it will be more expensive.

[mark201200]

Build it:

• It's Fun
• You learn how to create a pc
• You can select every part of your system
• No Pre-Installed software
• Much cheaper
• More expandable

[CoronaBlue]

You should also consider the fact that most (if not all) of the systems you can get from big box stores like Best Buy come with tons of shovelware that you are just never going to use. Also, have you ever opened one of those things up? I'd be willing to bet that the cable management is universally horrible. That is a temperature issue just waiting to happen.

[A.D.A.M]

Unless its the really cheap ones bundled with monitor, keyboard and mouse made by the big guys like HP It's generally cheaper to build your own plus it's fun to build your own computer.

[Guest]

it depends. if you work a high end job then taking time off work to build a pc could cost you more than its worhh

[GarnetDevil]

Build a PC is a hell lot cheaper and higher upgradability

 

I almost made a mistake buying an Alienware X51, and now I'm extremely glad that I didn't and build a PC myself

[SeriouslyMikey]

It's cheaper to build. However, many people refuse to because they don't trust themselves to do the job well. I can understand that. 

[Thony]

Low end PCs pre-built or not are about same price and they come with OS.

Gaming and productivity rigs are cheaper when built by owner not to mention value/performance/sense ratio.

Pre-builts have very limited upgradability options..

[GarnetDevil]

It's cheaper to build. However, many people refuse to because they don't trust themselves to do the job well. I can understand that. 

Some local folks provide building PC service

 

it's just we don't trust them with the cable management stuffs

[rentaspoon]

Build it:

• It's Fun
  
• You learn how to create a pc
  
• You can select every part of your system
  
• No Pre-Installed software
  
• Much cheaper
  
• More expandable
  

Build it:

[*]It's nerve rakking

[*]You learn how to break a pc

[*]You can select every part of your system and notice its not as fast as you expected

[*]No Pre-Installed software, you have to "buy"

[*]Much cheaper until you have to RMA it

[*]More expandable (I've got nothing)

:P:P:P

Seriously I would still build it regardless, one extra is you don't get a rip off case and the cable management isn't awful.

[Yoinkerman]

Buying is strictly cheaper than building, but the quality is much higher if you build.

Typically off the shelf computers use utter garbage mobos and psus that can literally catch fire and burn your house down. Literally 100% not joking.

If you build your own or have a custom one built for you this problem doesn't happen because you pick all the parts.

Edit: for comparable quality computers, building one yourself is less.