What PC builder could I go with?

[John_The_Channel_Unnamed]

I am from the UK and today(Sunday 19th Febuary 2017)I went to the PC gaming weekender convention to have a greater look into what I wanted for my PC. I also noticed that at most booths there that there were pc builders and the main contender being alienware. But from personal beforehand knoledge of the price of the components I felt as if I was being taken as a joke as a consumer. Ive never bought an alienware product and I never will as because of their pricing. I wonder though as to what the best pc builder is out there? Buy that I mean by the cheapest people to actually do the job without incorrectly building the PC.

 

[Ecky]

I've not come across any that will both 1) pick the quality and balance of components I would, and 2) not charge an insane markup. I have a hard time recommending prebuilts to anyone.

 

[Crumpet 1]

No prebuilt is going to be cheap, but i've never personally purchased from one, so take anything I say with a grain of salt.

Scan.co.uk sells 3xs systems prebuilt, though their customer service took a bit of a nose dive last year. https://www.scan.co.uk/

My friend ordered from DinoPC a few weeks ago, I don't think he's got his system yet, they have a reputation for late delivery, and I got really worried when they were selling an overclocked i7 7700k and GTX1080 with a borderline wattage low end power supply... noope. http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/home.asp

OverclockersUK have had great customer service with me and my friends over the last year, so they might be a good start. https://www.overclockers.co.uk/

My local store are extremely helpful, and their prebuilt systems look really tidy! So might be worth giving them a look. http://computerorbit.com/

 

[John_The_Channel_Unnamed]

Just adding I can choose the specs myself I meant by the chance of them not building the pc properly say a fan not screwed in properly dropping off and hitting a expensive component.

 

[weberdarren97]

I don't believe prebuilt systems will ever achieve the kinds of hardware balance that a few experts chatting back and forth here on Tom's can come up with in under a day.

Thanks to advancements in technology and standards that have been widely adopted, building a PC is about as difficult as building with LEGOs. I actually commonly refer to the process as LEGOs for big kids.

Examples:
1)You can just slide your memory into a slot and it works. No electrical knowledge or soldering gun required.
2) You can just plug in a hard drive and it works. No fooling with jumper settings or entering drive information into BIOS required.
3) Finally, and this is a big one for me, power supplies have standard connectors. As long as it has enough power and is of acceptable quality, you just plug in the connectors and everything works, no (or very little) electrical knowledge required for attaching connectors or rewiring for a different style connector. I hated having to do that.

There's even a website that not only checks for compatibility for you, but compares prices from many online retailers. Many experts (including myself) use this site on a regular basis when helping users develop or refine their builds. http://www.partpicker.com/

 

[weberdarren97]

My local store are extremely helpful, and their prebuilt systems look really tidy! So might be worth giving them a look. http://computerorbit.com/

It appears that the number of users that I've seen recommend this retailer is now in the double digits. I'll have to look into them and see if I can find a pattern in terms of customer feedback.

This reply does not imply that I recommend Computer Orbit nor does it imply that I am against Computer Orbit. I don't yet have enough information on them to form a conclusion.

 

[Crumpet 1]

My local store are extremely helpful, and their prebuilt systems look really tidy! So might be worth giving them a look. http://computerorbit.com/

It appears that the number of users that I've seen recommend this retailer is now in the double digits. I'll have to look into them and see if I can find a pattern in terms of customer feedback.

This reply does not imply that I recommend Computer Orbit nor does it imply that I am against Computer Orbit. I don't yet have enough information on them to form a conclusion.

I've never bought from them online, benefits of being in the area. But they've been running the place for 25 years, super helpful guys and to be honest their prices are pretty competitive with the online stores, not bad for a tiny brick and mortar store.

They launched their Gorilla Gaming range late last year and in the flesh the stuff looks great. All the good components are on display for you to check out, including the monitors so you can check for colour quality etc, VR demo's etcetc.

My favourite guys at the moment. Genuinely considering applying to work part time for them when i'm done on this Uni course.

But like Weberdarren97 says, always check online reviews and do your own research before purchasing online.