Build Or Buy? Five Sub-$500 Store-Bought Systems Compared

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I agree that configuring a boutique PC would add a good third choice to this article. Whether or not a specific boutique vendor is available in a given geographical area, almost certainly at least a few are, if only by mail order.
It is hard to benchmark things like durability and reliability though, and that's an area where the boutique vendors tend to fail, for example using PSU-shaped objects that aren't as solid or upgradable as their [fake] wattages suggest.
 
[citation][nom]JohnnyLucky[/nom]Grandma's idea of gaming is a few rounds of Solitaire. The pre-builts will do for her.[/citation]
Summary: If only need a low performance system, you don't need a high performance system.

What insight!?
 
[citation][nom]icemunk[/nom]Phenom II X4 810 OEM CPU & MSI 870-G45 CrossFire DDR3 ATX Motherboard - ($149.99) (-$15 mail-in rebate)Corsair Cooling Air Series A50 Performance CPU Cooler AM2 AM3 ($19.99)Corsair Builder Series CMPSU-430CXV2 430W ATX Power Supply Active PFC 120MM Fan *3 Year Warranty* ($34.99)Powercolor Radeon HD 5770 850MHZ 1GB 4.8GHZ GDDR5 DVI HDMI VGA DIRECTX11 PCI-E Video Card ($109.99) - $20 mail in rebateLG GH22NS70 Super Multi 22X SATA DVD Writer Black OEM ($19.99)Coolermaster Elite 370 Black Mid Tower ATX Case 3X5.25 1X3.5 5X3.5INT No PS ($34.99)Corsair CMV4GX3M1A1333C9 4GB 1X4GB DDR3-1333 CL9 Memory Module $36.99Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB 3.5IN SATA 6GB/S With NCQ Internal Hard Drive OEM ($39.99)Total: $447.92 and minus another $35 if you use the mail in rebates.That system will play all the latest games on medium-high settings easily, and litterally blow the doors off any of those Store-Bought systems, and likely last much longer.[/citation]
LOL man. You did exactly what Tom's does - designs/builds a system that doesn't include the OS, keyboard, and mouse. Add another $120 to your cost to cover those items and total cost is as much as twice the cost of the pre-built systems in the article which include them (and more if we factor their pre-loaded software).

The challenge another reader put forth was to design a system costing around $400 that includes the OS, KB & mouse and can outperform these pre-built machines. Considering Win7 itself costs at least $90, it alone consumes one-fourth the budget. Can it be done? Yes, but would such a system really be that much better? That depends what on the builder's (or user's) desires.

As the author of the article points out early on, PC and PC component selection depend upon what the user wants and needs the PC to do. For some users, these pre-built PC's are sufficient. For a casual-to-moderate gamer, hardly.
 
Can't believe how many people don't factor in the cost of Windows, mouse, keyboard, speakers. You should really factor in the value of 24/7 tech support as well...which for some vendors is lifetime. Believe it or not, there are many long time gamers that are not very tech savvy.


 
[citation][nom]lordravage[/nom]I have a real problem with this article. It isn't comparing a $500 prebuilt system to a $500 home build at all. It compares 5 computers from Best Buy that range from $299 to $409, versus a $500 machine that lacks an OS, mouse and keyboard. Factor everything in and the home build costs almost TWICE as much as the cheapest competitor.I know you mentioned the discrepancies in the article, but if you aren't going to try a little harder to make a good comparison you shouldn't even make the article. Shop around online at better retailers than Best Buy, find the very best systems you can that cost about $550, THEN compare those to your own system.I still expect the prebuilt systems to fall behind, but the article we have here isn't even a real comparison.[/citation]
CONGRATS - prebuilts include windows 7 --- that would cost at least a hundred bux anywhere else and even the cheapest of keyboard, mouse & speaker set would be another 40 dollars,, the 500 dollar system should be compared to low six hundred prebuilts to give an absolute true comparison,, i run into this issue all the time as collegues/friends/family are always asking about building a computer for about 500,, i always have a hard time trying to build something in that range that they can't just go to the store and buy. Although, I would bring up the fact if you build it yourself, you usually have overclocking abilities, more quality parts vs cheap stuff, better warranties per piece,, most store bought pcs are 90 - 365 day warranties, most per parts are 3-5 years! Also, you usually can upgrade easily without having to go buy a different power supply or motherboard or realize you have no where else to mount that new hard drive
 
UM...........THIS TEST IS FLAWED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THE CUSTOM BUILD HAS NO OS IN THE PRICE! SO ADD ANOTHER $100 ON TOP OF THE CUSTOM BUILD!!!!!!!!!! Not ALL people are in MSDN. or PIRATE...TISK TISK TISK...THIS WHOLE ARTICLE IS A FAIL!
 
Just a quickie posts:

A friend bought a Dell AMD series for $450. For that he came with:
AMD Athlon II X3 CPU (3.1Ghz)
6GB RAM, 1TB HD... not bad.

For those on a budget and need a basic computer without the pre-loaded crap, Best Buy sells Lenovo Desktops. For about $400, its crapware free out of the box (other than McCaffe antivirus).

For basic users (non-gamers), $400~500 PCs are more than powerful enough for their needs... buying off the shelf Dell, HP, etc makes sense.

I helped a friend build a gaming PC, it ended up costing $550 (after tax), Windows7 OEM. But Microcenter is running a $40 off special... so for $140, he got the PhenomII X4 840(?) 3.2Ghz + Gigabyte 880 board. 1TB HD was $60. Windows7 was the most expensive part.

 
[citation][nom]blackened144[/nom]I just recently replaced my parents old machine which was a beast with something like the HP machine.. Its an Athlon II 250 ~ This system is even faster than the beast it replaced.. P4 3.2Ghz OC'd to 3.6Ghz

That bottom-end AMD chip is about 4 times more powerful than that P4... hence, its faster, especially after you un-install all the crap ware! (Like 500mb of HP Printer drivers?!) Its a pretty good deal, it works and they aren't gamers.


[citation][nom]RazberyBandit[/nom]LOL man. You did exactly what Tom's does - designs/builds a system that doesn't include the OS, keyboard, and mouse. Add another $120 to your cost to cover those items and total cost is as much as twice the cost of the pre-built systems ~~~ For some users, these pre-built PC's are sufficient. For a casual-to-moderate gamer, hardly.[/citation][/citation]

Yep, many here seem to forget that. My keyboard is was made in 1997... :)
BTW: the included mouse and keyboards in those systems usually go for $5 each and are pretty crappy.

Just built a gaming system for a friend, for about $550 at a retail store... not online, but they did some price-matching to newegg.

What he got:
- AMD PII X4 840(?) 3.2Ghz (He doesn't need OC)
- Gigabyte 880 board
- 4GB Crucial DDR3 ($40)
- 1TB Seagate 7200RPM ($60)
- LG optical drive ($18)
- case = Coolermaster HAF 912 ($45)
- Thermaltake TR-500watt PSU ($60)
- Gigabyte ATI 5670 card ($80) - best deal they had for his budget.
- Windows7Home (a real disc)
- Speakers ($30.)

Its easily faster than my old Intel C2Q 6600 I paid $200 on the CPU and $200 for the 2GB RAM.

 
Very interesting idea, just done in the wrong way. Like many have said before me; if your going to compare at least go with similar price points. A better route (I think) would be to go to multiple retail stores, pick out the best of the bunch (for $500-600) and then compare with the home built.

It would also be nice to see the home built included in the graphs, you know, for better comparison.
 
I have my own PC I built but let me add something.... You say the dell is the only one you can upgrade at $399. The $500 system builder PC Does not include a Copy of Windows 7. So if you have never built a computer and dont own a copy then the real cost of that one would be $600. That Gives you $200 for a GPU upgrade/PSU ( he spent $527 so really $227 to spend lol) So if someone were a little shy about building the whole thing from scratch they could get a 6850 and a mid grade PSU with the 6pin connector in there for the same price. Would that be the best way to go no, but the cost would be the same and level of difficulty slightly lower so that could be an option for someone who only had $400 now and wanted to play games later :). Just some fod for thought it sort of confuses me why toms never includes the price of windows in there builds it is sort of misleading to people looking to build there first PC. You cant reliably use a copy from a pre built PC on a new build So I think they should add that cost in there builds and then recommend a part or two to upgrade if you dont need to purchase windows.
 

For entry level PC's it is hard to beet the pre builts. However they start to add crazy markup for the real gaming rigs. I went to dell and built a gaming rig on there website the cost was $1800 and my PC in my sig is better and cost about $1050 so yeah that is more than enough to pay for windows and tech support :). Also as stated pre builts can have problems being upgraded so you loose value there. So basicly if you need a PC for school work and the internet get the $299 special if you plan on doing any real gaming build it yourself.
 
5.6 frames - 2.2 fps, i'm impressed, i did not think store bought machines would even boot crisis.
i had imagined the onboard vid chip smoking at the exe before engulfing the entire machine in flames.
this is why there are so many console gamers.
if you've got a neice or nephew or cousin that is a console gamer and stuck with their parents store bought machine, do them a favor, take a peak inside that store bought p.o.s. and see if it's upgradeable video/cpu/mem wise and make thier christmas merry!
help a kids learn how to upgrade and kill a console for life.
 
4 reasons not to buy pre-built systems:

1) Cheap pre-built systems may have impressive quadcores and more RAM than you'll ever meet but that comes with whack graphics and, by extension, a whack PSU.

2) Pre-built systems with decent graphics are very, very expensive, think Apple-prices, no wait, just don't even think about them.

3) Any upgrades will void the warranty on ALL original components!

4) Still want to upgrade? Well, let me remind you about that crappy PSU and let me introduce you to airflow-restricting cases, weird OEM-motherboards that don't play nice with some components for no apparent reason, have no chipset/BIOS upgrades available at even the darkest corners of the internet and are cursed with a BIOS that doesn't allow overlocking.

 
Hi Guys,

Thanks for the feedback. Admittedly, I could have done this better. After I wrote the article, I realized that we should have bought $600 machines for a fairer comparison. We could have tackled the topic better, but overall, I think it's a fair conclusion.

Oh and for the readers who are curious. I was referring to Windows 7 upgrade disc. ($70). You would have to install Windows XP first then install Windows 7 (http://news.cnet.com/windows-7-upgrade-dos-and-don-ts). Frankly, the additional 1 hour spent on installation is worth saving $50 for a full license. This is about a budget machine, so I doubt any serious TH reader is still running Win 98. Now if you have a pirated copy, that's a whole other story....

Cheers,
Andrew Ku
TomsHardware.com
 
[citation][nom]SteveLord[/nom]Can't believe how many people don't factor in the cost of Windows, mouse, keyboard, speakers. You should really factor in the value of 24/7 tech support as well...which for some vendors is lifetime. Believe it or not, there are many long time gamers that are not very tech savvy.[/citation]

You didn't think you'd get a mouse, keyboard and speakers with those pre-built systems did you? Yes, you get an OEM-version of Windows ("enriched" with a ton of crapware) forced down your throat by the store, but that's it.

 
[citation][nom]acku[/nom]Hi Guys,Thanks for the feedback. Admittedly, I could have done this better. After I wrote the article, I realized that we should have bought $600 machines for a fairer comparison. We could have tackled the topic better, but overall, I think it's a fair conclusion. Oh and for the readers who are curious. I was referring to Windows 7 upgrade disc. ($70). You would have to install Windows XP first then install Windows 7 (http://news.cnet.com/windows-7-upgrade-dos-and-don-ts). Frankly, the additional 1 hour spent on installation is worth saving $50 for a full license. This is about a budget machine, so I doubt any serious TH reader is still running Win 98. Now if you have a pirated copy, that's a whole other story....Cheers,Andrew KuTomsHardware.com[/citation]


But not many people have the luxury of being able to transfer a Windows XP license. So an upgrade version of Windows 7 isn't the most practical solution.
 
These pre-builts are not gaming rigs at all.

Right now you can get a PC from dell for $435 with windows 7 home premium, a 20" monitor and a Core 2 Duo. ( http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/featured-deals?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&~ck=mn&redirect=1 )

I challenge tom's hardware to build ANY pc with windows 7 and a 20" monitor. Those 2 components alone will cost you $210 at Newegg, add a cheap mouse and keyboard for $20, and you just can't build even a basic office machine for the $205.00 leftover. When windows is 1/4 of your system price, the big manufacturers have the market locked up.
 
You can strengthen the notion that building your own is better by including the fact you could find parts with better warranties, some of those lifetime, possibly.

Also, if you need support for a pre-built, be prepared to speak to someone from India who's reading a script. Several hundred dollars over the cost is worth it to avoid this headache.
 
[citation][nom]icemunk[/nom]True, of course it will run the system.. kinda like how you can haul a pretty heavy trailer with a small car (beyond what they recommend), but that will tax the powersupply more and shorten its lifespan.[/citation]

The gpu gets all of it's power from the pciex16 slot. i3 cpus and ddr3 ram both use power efficiently. So I really don't think that psu is being strained. Hell Gateway was selling basically the same computer (with the same 300w psu) but subsituted the i3 with an i5 cpu and put a HD5750 gpu in it.
 
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