Buying a PC under $900

[prolinelive]

Hi! I want to get my brother a PC and I am debating if I should buy a pc on Best Buy for $900 (http://) with the following specs:

• 
  Storage Type SSD, HDD
  Solid State Drive Capacity 256 gigabytes
  Hard Drive Capacity 1000 gigabytes
  GraphicsNVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB
  **Processor Speed (Base)**3.2 gigahertz
  Processor Model Intel 8th Generation Core i7
  Processor Model Number i7-8700
  Operating System Windows 10
  RAM: 16GB DDR4

The main thing that I am debating on is if the 1060 3GB version would last him through the future or not. Also if you guys have any other pc's in that price range that you can recommend please send them. Please lmk if you think this pc is worth it.
(FYI: Building a PC from what I checked on part pickers will end up being more expensive and I would rather buy a prebuilt)

 

[bmockeg]

It's a decent pc spec wise. The real questions are motherboard, RAM, SSD and PSU quality? Building your own ensures you know exactly what's going in and you have 3+ years of warranty on each part.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor ($159.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock - B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Team - Night Hawk RGB 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 250 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($52.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($45.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8 GB DUKE Video Card ($354.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design - Focus G (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - S12II 620 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $873.62
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-11 01:19 EST-0500

This option has a lower end but very capable CPU and much better gpu. Windows can be run inactivated to save costs up front.

 

[DSzymborski]

On the low-end, it tends to be hard for a pre-built to compete price-wise. But at this the midrange level and up, pre-builts have a *lot* of hidden costs.

- As bmock notes, pre-builts sneak in a lot of low quality parts when those parts aren't flashy ones they can put in the headline. So you get stuff like motherboards that can't overclock or have weak VRMs with high-end CPUs, slow RAM, junk-tier power supplies.

- Exercising warranties on pre-builts is tricky. You'll initially get the warranty from the pre-built (tends to be one year with a minority having three year warranties or a longer period during which labor is covered), but any repair will involve dealing with the entire PC, which means possibly having to ship and be without the PC for weeks.

- Post-OEM warranty, you frequently don't get support from the manufacturer. Some are more flexible -- EVGA is usually pretty good at this with GPUs -- but technically speaking, their product warranty is with the OEM that built your PC, *not* you. For example, neither AMD or Intel will allow RMAs from consumers with prebuilts for CPU issues, it's entirely the responsibility of the builder. So if you only have a one-year warranty and something goes weird with the 8700 after that year, you're buying a new CPU. Something goes wrong with the 8700k that's on the PC I'm using to write, I have three years to RMA if there's a problem.

 

[SgtScream]

Is there anyone you know that can assist you with building his computer?
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor ($159.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI - B450 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard ($104.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($157.55 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - 860 Evo 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6 GB SSC DT Video Card ($249.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair - Carbide 400C ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - EVO Edition 620 W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($35.06 @ B&H)
Total: $877.36
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-11 15:51 EST-0500

 

[prolinelive]

It's a decent pc spec wise. The real questions are motherboard, RAM, SSD and PSU quality? Building your own ensures you know exactly what's going in and you have 3+ years of warranty on each part.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor ($159.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock - B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Team - Night Hawk RGB 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 250 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($52.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($45.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8 GB DUKE Video Card ($354.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design - Focus G (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - S12II 620 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $873.62
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-11 01:19 EST-0500

This option has a lower end but very capable CPU and much better gpu. Windows can be run inactivated to save costs up front.

Does that pc have quality internals? The motherboard is Micro ATX and I heard that can be a problem

 

[bmockeg]

Micro ATX deals with the size of the motherboard. It has nothing to do with quality. You can get the same board in full ATX size if you rather.

 

[smorizio]

if your near a micro center look at there combo deals.