Building vs. buying?

[Philly90]

Hello,

New to the site! I have been racking my brains and going back and forth between building a computer, buying a cheap one and upgrading, or just buying one with what I need already in it. I mainly need a computer for video/photo editing, coding, and computer science related things (computer science major in college right now), and the usual web browsing, YouTubing etc. Virtually little to no gaming. I'm inclined to build one because of my CS Major, but feel overwhelmed at times. So any help and or advice would be great. Thanks!

 

[ssddx]

if you have the time, know how and confidence building it yourself is the best option. while you might not do it for much under the cost of buying a premade what you do gain are higher quality parts for the same price. this can mean greater stability, options, reliability and more supportive of upgrades.

i wouldnt expect much from buying a cheap pc and upgrading it. your options for upgrades would be a bit limited and you might end up pushing more money into other components than you would have from just building the pc you wanted to begin with.

buying a computer isnt a bad option if you do not have confidence to do it yourself however to make money companies often cut corners to shave the price of components down. this could mean lower quality ram, budget level or low wattage power supplies, off branded parts, etc compared with what you could build for the same cost on your own.

sort of midway between 1 and 3 would be having someone build it for you, say NCIX which will do it for a small cost extra if you purchased all the parts from them. you get to pick your components and for similar cost of prebuilts but dont have to do it yourself. the downside is that you might be restricted on part choices to what they have, may not get the absolute best deals and are shipping a complete computer.

your choice however 1,3 or 4 would all work depending on your needs, ability level and budget.