[SOLVED] Are my reservations about pre-built systems unfounded?

[Barbatum083]

When I first began building PCs back in the early 2000s, the thought of buying some pre-built system was something I cringed at. That feeling has followed me since then, but I’m not as up with the times as I used to be. My current PC is nearing its time to be replaced, games are already requiring better than what I have.
A mixture of laziness, and just not knowing what’s good has made me reconsider my feelings on pre-built gaming rigs. Does anyone make reliable PCs these days, without tons of bloat ware on them?

 

[DSzymborski]

When I first began building PCs back in the early 2000s, the thought of buying some pre-built system was something I cringed at. That feeling has followed me since then, but I’m not as up with the times as I used to be. My current PC is nearing its time to be replaced, games are already requiring better than what I have.
A mixture of laziness, and just not knowing what’s good has made me reconsider my feelings on pre-built gaming rigs. Does anyone make reliable PCs these days, without tons of bloat ware on them?

Yes, but only from the boutique builders like Falcon Northwest or Puget Systems and you'll pay a hefty markup for those services. Otherwise, prebuilts are pretty much the same as always with a few exceptions. For example, there are mass market companies like ibuypower and cyberpower which generally use regular old aftermarket parts in the PCs they sell rather than proprietary ones. Unfortunately, the cheap corner-cutting for things like power supplies and motherboard quality are still there.

Unless you're going the boutique route, assembling it yourself is still the best way to go.

 

[MeanMachine41]

Hi Barbatum083

My bet is you still feel the same cringing about prebuilt systems.

Regain that feeling of pride having built a system of your choosing. The feeling of unboxing all the hardware and successfully putting it all together. Fine tuning the system to it's best performance and the pride of showing it off.
Give it a go M8 you have all the help you will need here.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

I don’t know. Maybe for gaming PCs but there are PCs on the market that are absolutely fantastic such as the GTR pro

 

[geofelt]

Pre built pc's these days will use standard parts.
That is good.
But, the power supplies will be only strong enough to support the initially installed components.
Some vendors will not use top quality units.

Then, there is the awkwardness of service.
You may have to ship your unit back to get something fixed.

The warranty on parts from the manufacturer may exceed that of the pc builder.
Ram will be lifetime, a psu may be 10 years, a ssd may be 5.
This is longer than a 90day or 1 year self built warranty.

If you want a pre built, I think Lenovo does a decent job.

 

[Barbatum083]

Thank you all so much for the advice! I reckon I’ll have to dust out the cobwebs and do the work required to build my own again, when the time comes.

 

[mdd1963]

a screwdriver, some patience, and an hour or two of careful reading of manuals, mounting /installation of CPU w/cooler, mainboard, and PSU are well worth the 1-2 hours spent assembling it, IMO... (I especially abhor the OEM's tendency to want an extra $200 for a better CPU that costs only $100 extra, $200 extra for 32 GB of RAM, and, often well over the costs of GPUs when upgrading above standard...; and after all that cost, really, it's often $1000 above what you could build it for yourself. (If Alienware, sometimes $2000 more!) (Sorry, mid/medium-range parts inside an Alienware case are not worth an extra $2k for me)

 

[coxbw]

I built my first system back before the Apple 2, my computer came with blank silk screened cards and tubes of chips and bag of parts to be soldered on the card (SWTP 6800) this was the Altair time frame. and I have built different systems over the years. but the last couple of ones I have bought pre-built, for just a few dollars more. I can save hours from building, and going thru the smoke test. both paths building and pre-building have pluses and minuses . my last purchase came from Microcenter, I bought a Ryzen 9 computer for 1499.99. It was very easy to setup and do any software updating needed, and my games have never run so fast. this time next year I plan on upgrading the 5700 GPU to one of the new ones 6800 XT. once they stop being bought out by BOTS. I have a 3900 cpu now, and the board will take a 5000 series if I want.but really do not need. so it wil be a mixture of pre-build nd personal upgrades .