Question Pre built or buy parts over time? Gaming desktop.

[rc001]

Hey all!

As the title says, I'm wondering if it will be cheaper or beneficial in any way to buy parts over time to build my new gaming PC or if a pre-built option is best? I am in no rush seeing as my current computer runs everything I need it to but I've noticed more and more games are having issues running at the level of graphics I would like. My current PC is about 13 years old.

Thanks!

 

[DSzymborski]

How much time are we talking about? That rarely makes sense since you're paying for parts that are doing nothing and growing obsolete. If you cant' afford all the parts at once, save the money and when you have enough to make the new PC only then get the parts.

 

[sizzling]

Get the parts all at the same time so you can build the pc straight away, this way you will find out much sooner if any part is faulty making it easier to return.

 

[Why_Me]

Hey all!

As the title says, I'm wondering if it will be cheaper or beneficial in any way to buy parts over time to build my new gaming PC or if a pre-built option is best? I am in no rush seeing as my current computer runs everything I need it to but I've noticed more and more games are having issues running at the level of graphics I would like. My current PC is about 13 years old.

Thanks!

You want to get all your components at the same time. With that said what country are you located, what is your budget and what is your monitor resolution?

 

[Nice Nicer]

Without a specific prebuilt in mind and no need to hurry, you might wait until something strongly appeals to you. Then you have something to compare against. You could use that as your minimal solution and see if you could build something similar, maybe cheaper or even more suitable to your preferences.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

I'm wondering if it will be cheaper or beneficial in any way to buy parts over time to build my new gaming PC or if a pre-built option is best?

i would never recommend a pre-built system if you have the competency to build one on your own, especially for gaming.

the majority of pre-built "gaming" systems out there are designed more for flash than actual performance.
they may have a lot of lights and some spaceship-themed case but you'll find that many of them skimp out on core hardware to net more profit.
even if they name a higher-end GPU & CPU pair you may find the rest of the components are garbage using lower quality power supplies, cooling, motherboards, memory, etc.
plus you'll usually end up paying up to 50% more than what it may have cost to build a similar system.

what are your expectations for this new system;
what type of games would you like to run,
what resolution would you like to use,
what in-game settings would you like to see(low, medium, ultra with RT effects, etc).

once you get an idea of the type of performance you'd like to see then you can start to estimate the potential cost and start saving.
as others have already stated, once you have the money then start looking at what's available and purchase the whole system ready to build.

 

[Tac 25]

OP

buying parts over time is a bad idea. You're spending money on things that won't do anything by themselves to age in your house.

save money, and purchase all parts of the pc you want at the same time. So you could check right away if something is wrong.

bought parts of my new pc at the same time, except for the gpu. Activated the pc on the next day, to check if everything is working properly - while they are still under store warranty.