[SOLVED] Is there anywhere buying a PC that is close to cost of building it yourself?

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Jb122

Jan 8, 2021
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I can build a PC but I am not good at it. At least not with cable management. Are there any websites that sell PC builds for around the same cost it would cost me to buy parts and build?

I don't need a monitor or keyboard ect I just need a new PC. If the difference is small then it's worth it to me but if they charge hundreds extra then not worth. Thanks for help.
 
Solution
g-unit1111
To me, I think there's really two markets for pre-builts: people who have super strict budgets and people who have really deep pockets. If you have a super strict budget, you have no choice but to go with a big box vendor like Cyberpower or Dell or HP, or one of Amazon or Newegg's minion brands. But on the other hand if you really want a custom tower and have lots of money to blow, there's tons of boutique vendors out there like Falcon Northwest, Origin, Maingear, and so on and so forth that would happily take your high dollar money to build the PC of your dreams.

But for most of us, the only way to get a pre-built that gets you exactly what you want is to buy the parts and have someone build it for you. If you have access to a store...
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Jb122 said:
I can build a PC but I am not good at it. At least not with cable management. Are there any websites that sell PC builds for around the same cost it would cost me to buy parts and build?

I don't need a monitor or keyboard ect I just need a new PC. If the difference is small then it's worth it to me but if they charge hundreds extra then not worth. Thanks for help.
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None that I've ever come across. It's cheaper to order your parts and have a local PC shop put it together than order a prebuilt.
 
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Jb122 said:
Are there any websites that sell PC builds for around the same cost it would cost me to buy parts and build?
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Good question. Boutique PC builders normally do not market to people like us. Their claim to fame has been to attract people who simply cannot build their own and want something special. People with deeper pockets and champaign taste. But something special and cheap do not mix. Boutique builders in order to make money usually do not offer totally "up to date" hardware either as they need to first be exausting their existing stock. Many also stuff their pre-build boxes with non-brand or second grade hardware for even higher profits.

Tip: My buddy met several smaller PC vendors (shops) at the local computer show. A follow-up trip to their strip center store turned out that they can build him a brand new gaming PC ATX case for less than $800 (cash is king, no taxes) which otherwise would have run him $1,200+. But part of the sale and apart from the other "all new brand name" hardware and a greymarket WIN 10 Pro key, was a used cryptominer "980ti" GPU. Complementary new keyboard and mouse. Harry can now play Metro Exodus and Wolfenstein in all of their glory.

Yes...this is what one can find and buy in neighborhood stripcenters where the rent is low. Madhu from Varanasi in India said: "The Harry's of the world are our bread and butter, our word of mouth and nobody can beat our prices. Our waranty for the first year on all new-builds is unlimited. Parts and labor all free. No if's and but's. And if you have a problem you can just drive-on over to our shop and we can fix it on the spot."

Now that is service not possible by any others selling on the net or Amazon. Besides it's great to hang-out at the shop with the others, having a few laughs and learning tricks. Making new friends and connections. Early mornings free donuts and coffee is being served.
 
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Jb122 said:
I can build a PC but I am not good at it. At least not with cable management. Are there any websites that sell PC builds for around the same cost it would cost me to buy parts and build?

I don't need a monitor or keyboard ect I just need a new PC. If the difference is small then it's worth it to me but if they charge hundreds extra then not worth. Thanks for help.
Click to expand...

I'm a layperson so I'm more like you. But you still need to know what to look for. There is always something "missing" in a pre-built. Either enough ram, or an up to date video card, or a not-low-power cpu...my strategy for years was to buy a prebuilt and just add on what was missing. I'm definitely not anti-prebuilt though. I've had three last a ridiculously long time. (IBUYPOWER and HP, I don't remember the third one.) I never replaced fans or thermal paste or did any maintenance beyond compressed air for dusting so I'm not being contrarian, I'm genuinely surprised and impressed that they lasted so long, lol. But while I intentionally replaced some parts, I unintentionally went through cheap power supplies like water, which validates everything these guys are saying, because it's just luck that bad psus didn't make anything else go bad.

But for instance: I think this one is pretty good, and at the time it was around $1000, maaaybe $1100? But imo it's light on ram and storage. Ram is cheap enough though, and I have storage, and that video card is money, so it's a good deal. And knowing what I know now, I would buy a fantastic new psu with all the money I saved and I would wait to see how it performs before thinking about a cooler. Naturally, It's been out of stock since the beginning of November. lol

About building a pc: it's super expensive the first time, and even the second. I've done two since november-ish, yikes. I ended up doing trial and error and that's just bad for the purse strings. Plus no one knew the motherboards turbo boosted 10th gen intel cpus automatically. I had to buy a whole new case and fans and I'm on my third cooler because figuring that out was out of order and messy. It's very exciting though. And I will end up with a killer system, way better than that ABS Mage. And it will last forever. Except I have to work on my voltages but that's for another day.
 
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Jb122 said:
I can build a PC but I am not good at it. At least not with cable management. Are there any websites that sell PC builds for around the same cost it would cost me to buy parts and build?

I don't need a monitor or keyboard ect I just need a new PC. If the difference is small then it's worth it to me but if they charge hundreds extra then not worth. Thanks for help.
Click to expand...
How about this one, it was such a good deal I bought two!

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/8pac...980xe-and-intel-core-i7-10700k-fs-006-8p.html
 
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To me, I think there's really two markets for pre-builts: people who have super strict budgets and people who have really deep pockets. If you have a super strict budget, you have no choice but to go with a big box vendor like Cyberpower or Dell or HP, or one of Amazon or Newegg's minion brands. But on the other hand if you really want a custom tower and have lots of money to blow, there's tons of boutique vendors out there like Falcon Northwest, Origin, Maingear, and so on and so forth that would happily take your high dollar money to build the PC of your dreams.

But for most of us, the only way to get a pre-built that gets you exactly what you want is to buy the parts and have someone build it for you. If you have access to a store like Micro Center, they can do that for you, and the fees aren't that much more than what you would get if you build it yourself. Building it yourself does have its' pluses and minuses. On one hand you can control exactly what goes into your PC. On the other hand, you're on your own for technical support and RMA'ing your products.
 
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