Build or buy a computer?

I have been considering for a while about building a computer and buying all the separate parts. Do you think there is much reason to build one instead of buying it? I was liked the idea of learning how it works a bit better, but I am really worried about buying parts that won't work together correctly or break them. I have heard you should only build it for things like gaming or video editing. I'm not much computer-gamer, but I have been considering it more and more, and I would like to keep my options open. So would you suggest building one? thanks.

There's a lot of reasons, but the two big ones are cost and quality. The cost is substantially less, especially if you wait a while and stock up on the parts you want as they go on sale (Newegg is great for this!). You also get (imo) a lot better quality. The quality of your own worksmanship on your own hardware is almost always going to be better than some factory worker in china. Plus you generally end up with better quality parts from the beginning. I've yet to get my hands on a prebuilt that felt as solid and well put together as the components in my computer I built for myself. Plus, you always get exactly what you want in it.

I would also suggest that you build it yourself since then you get better quality(As D3matt said) and you can save alot of money if you find the parts cheap etc.
I got my computer from my cousin, But I quickly bought new parts for it like RAM, graphic card, processor, motherboard and more.
And it was much cheaper than buying a new computer..
I'm not sure but my specs is Radeon 4800 HD(Graphic card), 4 gb RAM… That's what I remeber anyway…

Anyway, It's best to build the computer yourself :)/>

If you know what you're doing, you can really save a lot of money. However, if you screw up, or if the computer breaks down the line, there's no warranty. If you think you can do it, definitely go for it.

Dlcruz129, on 30 June 2013 - 11:33 AM said:

However, if you screw up, or if the computer breaks down the line, there's no warranty.

That depends on the place where you buy the hardware.

Dlcruz129, on 30 June 2013 - 11:33 AM said:

…, there's no warranty. …

Almost every component producer has an RMA policy. At the very least, they'll replace it for a low cost (unless they're Gigabyte, then you wait 3 months for them to say they recieved the item, then a day later they ship it back saying you don't qualify for repair/replacement).

Anyway, on topic, after building my first computer, I've been unable to stop. It saves a massive amount of money (sometimes, if you're lucky, you can build a computer for half the price of a similar prebuilt). It's also a bit more rewarding. On top of that, you don't have the bloatware that prebuilts generally come with, and you get to choose the specific components that you want.

I build all my computers. Been doing this for three decades now. I never have liked the "pre-Built" trash you buy in the stores. You never get a powerful enough machine. When you build it yourself, not only do you know your computer better, but you also, for the same price as the ones in the stores, can build a better computer with more advanced parts. You just need to supply the Operating System and boom, your set.

I HIGHLY suggest you watch youtube videos on how to install the CPU because if you have never done it before, you can potentially damage your CPU. Same with any part. Once you have done it once, you'll be a pro in building computers in no time though. You have to start somewhere. It's really a lot simpler to build a computer then people realize. And youtube is your friend. :D/>

My current specs are :
Quad - i5-2500K @ 3.3Ghrtz per core
8 Gigs Ram ( Soon to be upgraded to 16 )
NVidia GTX 660Ti w/ 3 Gigs Ram
2 x 27" BenQ gaming 3D monitors + 3D Glasses.
250 Gig SSD Hard Drive

And I even consider my computer old. But since I built it myself, I can just upgrade any part I want. And as for warranty, warranties on those pre-built trash get voided the moment you open the seal to upgrade anyhow. And since you ALWAYS need to upgrade the part just to play games, then the warranty is not really a problem. Build this yourself and you can still get parts replaced if needed.

And that is the other thing, with a pre-built, you have to send the whole computer back to get it repaired. If you built it yourself, you can order one part, while sending the other part in to be replaced, if your still within the time frame. But you can still go in and buy / order the part and get your computer back in action a LOT faster.

Just some ideas to ponder over.

I built my two computers… But the missus insisted on buying her pc. … Mine has run for 4 years perfectly fine. Her's is running fine. BUT, To setup her pc we had to take the power cable out from inside the case… (they placed the cables inside the pc for transport…. *glares at the manufacturers*) this means that any warranty that the computer had was void the second we tried to set up the pc. (nice escape clause for them there in the warranty questions if something should ever go wrong).

My two computers cost a total of 700 english pounds. (I already had the monitors). The missuses pc cost approx 750 pounds (6k danish kroners). Admittedly one of my pc's is now getting a little long in the tooth (windows xp sp3, 3.05Ghz amd 2 core processor, 2gb ram, 512mb graphics, 3TB hdd space.) but it still works fine.

My main machine being amd phenom 4 core, 6gb ram, 1GB graphics, 2TB hdd space (nearly full of programs etc. lol) Win 7 Pro, pre-purchased from the times of windows7 beta testing.
The machine was built at the release of windows7. ( it will not see a copy of windows8. :P/> )

The BEST thing about building your own pc is you choose what OS you use and what programs you install on it. *Cough not norton cough*

albrat, on 04 July 2013 - 03:15 PM said:

The machine was built at the release of windows7. ( it will not see a copy of windows8. :P/> )

The BEST thing about building your own pc is you choose what OS you use and what programs you install on it. *Cough not norton cough*

I agree. You get to put your own OS in your built machine right off the bat. And yea, Win8 sucks so bad.

TorakTu, on 04 July 2013 - 04:24 PM said:

albrat, on 04 July 2013 - 03:15 PM said:

The machine was built at the release of windows7. ( it will not see a copy of windows8. :P/> )

The BEST thing about building your own pc is you choose what OS you use and what programs you install on it. *Cough not norton cough*

I agree. You get to put your own OS in your built machine right off the bat. And yea, Win8 sucks so bad.

I agree, Windows 8 is horrible.

If you know how, build a PC. If not, or if you want a mac, buy one.

I just ordered a Powerbook. :D/>

I just but a higher end office PC and replace the Graphics Card and Ram.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys! :)/>

I have a friend who recently bought a build it yourself PC.
He's had way more problems with it in the first few weeks than I have had in 1-2 years of using my shop-bought laptop.
First there was no cable for connecting it to the monitor, then the sound wasn't working, and now he's had to go out and get a new monitor because the one it came with isn't showing colours up right.

Some people build their own and things work out fine.
sometimes people buy premade computers and they outdo most DIY computers bought for the same price.

Ultimately it depends how much confidence you have in your knowledge of computers and how much effort you want to put in.
Sometimes it's best to just buy the premade stuff because at least you can't be blamed for putting it together wrongly.

PS- you should have made this a poll.

I disagree on watching the youtube videos. I never watched a single one. Just be careful, take your time, and read the directions. If you have to force something in, it generally doesn't go there. Everything is designed to fit together, if it doesn't fit together easily, something is wrong.

The exception being heatsinks. Once the CPU is properly seated (MAKE SURE!) you will probably have to manhandle that bad boy into place.

Pharap, on 08 July 2013 - 01:12 AM said:

sometimes people buy premade computers and they outdo most DIY computers bought for the same price

No. Barring some crazy deal, absolutely never.

D3matt, on 08 July 2013 - 03:47 AM said:

Pharap, on 08 July 2013 - 01:12 AM said:

sometimes people buy premade computers and they outdo most DIY computers bought for the same price

No. Barring some crazy deal, absolutely never.

Do allegories mean nothing these days?

Pharap, on 08 July 2013 - 04:12 AM said:

D3matt, on 08 July 2013 - 03:47 AM said:

Pharap, on 08 July 2013 - 01:12 AM said:

sometimes people buy premade computers and they outdo most DIY computers bought for the same price

No. Barring some crazy deal, absolutely never.

Do allegories mean nothing these days?

I think that it's more the fact that your statement is pretty close to literally always false. The issue is more that people try to dive into building a PC but not understanding what they're doing. They don't realize a lot of things that prebuilts already come set up with, such as drivers. A computer you build yourself yet install no drivers on will inevitably perform badly compared to a prebuilt computer that's already got all of its drivers installed.

Though, I will say there's a far higher failure rate on components in a home build than a prebuilt. With a prebuilt, it always feels like, since they're being mass produced, that there's more testing done and less hardware failures, while with individual components, there's less testing done across all of them, giving a higher failure rate. An example is my old Sapphire AMD Radeon GPU had to be replaced 3 times and each time they replaced it, they shipped back another card that ended up being defective. It taught me to never buy a Sapphire GPU again, same as Gigabyte's RMA policy where they denied my RMA request without giving a single reason behind it. Those are 2 component producers I'll very likely never deal with again.

ShadowedZenith, on 08 July 2013 - 08:48 AM said:

I think that it's more the fact that your statement is pretty close to literally always false. The issue is more that people try to dive into building a PC but not understanding what they're doing. They don't realize a lot of things that prebuilts already come set up with, such as drivers. A computer you build yourself yet install no drivers on will inevitably perform badly compared to a prebuilt computer that's already got all of its drivers installed.

Though, I will say there's a far higher failure rate on components in a home build than a prebuilt. With a prebuilt, it always feels like, since they're being mass produced, that there's more testing done and less hardware failures, while with individual components, there's less testing done across all of them, giving a higher failure rate. An example is my old Sapphire AMD Radeon GPU had to be replaced 3 times and each time they replaced it, they shipped back another card that ended up being defective. It taught me to never buy a Sapphire GPU again, same as Gigabyte's RMA policy where they denied my RMA request without giving a single reason behind it. Those are 2 component producers I'll very likely never deal with again.

This person had no issues with the drivers. The faults were all actual hardware faults, all the software worked fine. They've actually had to go out of their way to replace the screen, even after taking their PS3's HDMI cable to use because the computer was missing its cable.
Whether it's uncommon or not, it's more issues than any of my immediate family have ever had setting up shop-bought computers.

Pharap, on 08 July 2013 - 01:15 PM said:

ShadowedZenith, on 08 July 2013 - 08:48 AM said:

I think that it's more the fact that your statement is pretty close to literally always false. The issue is more that people try to dive into building a PC but not understanding what they're doing. They don't realize a lot of things that prebuilts already come set up with, such as drivers. A computer you build yourself yet install no drivers on will inevitably perform badly compared to a prebuilt computer that's already got all of its drivers installed.

Though, I will say there's a far higher failure rate on components in a home build than a prebuilt. With a prebuilt, it always feels like, since they're being mass produced, that there's more testing done and less hardware failures, while with individual components, there's less testing done across all of them, giving a higher failure rate. An example is my old Sapphire AMD Radeon GPU had to be replaced 3 times and each time they replaced it, they shipped back another card that ended up being defective. It taught me to never buy a Sapphire GPU again, same as Gigabyte's RMA policy where they denied my RMA request without giving a single reason behind it. Those are 2 component producers I'll very likely never deal with again.

This person had no issues with the drivers. The faults were all actual hardware faults, all the software worked fine. They've actually had to go out of their way to replace the screen, even after taking their PS3's HDMI cable to use because the computer was missing its cable.
Whether it's uncommon or not, it's more issues than any of my immediate family have ever had setting up shop-bought computers.

So a single bad monitor? That doesn't justify condemning building your own PC. At least, that's what it sounds like you're getting at here. Components go bad regardless of if it's in a prebuilt package or home built. Also, I've never seen a computer, prebuilt or otherwise, that included an HDMI cable. a VGA or DVI cable, sure. I've got tons of them laying around from my builds that have come with monitors or GPUs, but never an HDMI cable.

ShadowedZenith, on 08 July 2013 - 02:01 PM said:

Pharap, on 08 July 2013 - 01:15 PM said:

ShadowedZenith, on 08 July 2013 - 08:48 AM said:

I think that it's more the fact that your statement is pretty close to literally always false. The issue is more that people try to dive into building a PC but not understanding what they're doing. They don't realize a lot of things that prebuilts already come set up with, such as drivers. A computer you build yourself yet install no drivers on will inevitably perform badly compared to a prebuilt computer that's already got all of its drivers installed.

Though, I will say there's a far higher failure rate on components in a home build than a prebuilt. With a prebuilt, it always feels like, since they're being mass produced, that there's more testing done and less hardware failures, while with individual components, there's less testing done across all of them, giving a higher failure rate. An example is my old Sapphire AMD Radeon GPU had to be replaced 3 times and each time they replaced it, they shipped back another card that ended up being defective. It taught me to never buy a Sapphire GPU again, same as Gigabyte's RMA policy where they denied my RMA request without giving a single reason behind it. Those are 2 component producers I'll very likely never deal with again.

This person had no issues with the drivers. The faults were all actual hardware faults, all the software worked fine. They've actually had to go out of their way to replace the screen, even after taking their PS3's HDMI cable to use because the computer was missing its cable.
Whether it's uncommon or not, it's more issues than any of my immediate family have ever had setting up shop-bought computers.

So a single bad monitor? That doesn't justify condemning building your own PC. At least, that's what it sounds like you're getting at here. Components go bad regardless of if it's in a prebuilt package or home built. Also, I've never seen a computer, prebuilt or otherwise, that included an HDMI cable. a VGA or DVI cable, sure. I've got tons of them laying around from my builds that have come with monitors or GPUs, but never an HDMI cable.

Firstly, if you'd listened properly, it was more than just one bad monitor. Secondly I am not condemning the act of building a PC, I am saying it's not all it's cracked up to be. The computer wasn't supposed to come with a HDMI cable, it was supposed to come with a cable to connect the monitor (not sure if it was VGA or DVI). The point is it was supposed to be there and it wasn't. And I have known computers to come with their own VGA cables, this was one of those cases, with the exception that the cable didn't come with it like it was supposed to because someone screwed up when they shipped it out.

Pharap, on 08 July 2013 - 02:53 PM said:

Firstly, if you'd listened properly, it was more than just one bad monitor. Secondly I am not condemning the act of building a PC, I am saying it's not all it's cracked up to be. The computer wasn't supposed to come with a HDMI cable, it was supposed to come with a cable to connect the monitor (not sure if it was VGA or DVI). The point is it was supposed to be there and it wasn't. And I have known computers to come with their own VGA cables, this was one of those cases, with the exception that the cable didn't come with it like it was supposed to because someone screwed up when they shipped it out.

All you said was that they had to replace the screen. You never really gave any specific hardware issues outside of the monitor realm. What other kinds of issues did they have? As for the cable, some monitor producers might not provide VGA/DVI cables. I've seen it happen on generic monitors a few times (though, very rarely). Strange of them to do, and pretty impractical.

@Pharap,
If your friend bought the computer kit where you build it youself, its no wonder you think buying prebuilt is better. Those kits are no better.

Because you said this :

I have a friend who recently bought a build it yourself PC.

This is why I believe it was a kit your friend had.

Newegg sells kits. So do a few other sites / stores. This is why you do research and buy each part seperately and peice your dream machine together. This takes time and research. It always comes out better then any kit or prebuilt. And as Shadow is saying, HDMI cable is never included with any packages. And those who say they do, they need to prove it. Because no where does one get included with the computer monitor or video card. I have been building computers from scratch since the late 70s. Had only 3 total instances where I had a part that was bad when it arived at my home. No worries, I returned it or RMA'd it and got it replaced. The parts that were RMAd, their companies paid for all shipping as well.

Bad parts happen, but those pre-built computer kits are useless. And if a part is bad, you usually have to return the whole thing. That is a hassle.

As for youtube videos, they DO come in handy because you can physically see how things are put together and you get reviews on what part works best with another. Example : RAM on a specific motherboard. And how to properly set it up in the BIOS. That info is valuable. So never underestimate youtube. Plenty of proffesionals use youtube to teach PC building.