Prebuilt PC cheaper than building

[Torn Mind]

You likely won't be able to overclock even with a better cpu cooler. The motherboard in that thing is likely garbage.
That in of itself is value you aren't including. Quality isn't cheap. I don't buy prebuilt because computers are a passion of mine and I can easily justify a couple hundred to have a quality build.
Also the video card is likely oem which I don't do either. I much prefer aftermarket. Quiet, cooler, better oc ing.

Why are making general statements in an attempt to "spook" the OP when it's all known what system is being bought and what the exact manufacturer of the PC is.

He has to spend ~$245, depending on tax and if he uses rebate sites and discounted gift cards, to spend on "corrections" to the PSU to match the quality of a "built" system. An upgrade to a high end PSU and cooling requires $200, tops. And he can upgrade RAM as well, whereas he'd go over $1100 if he priced out a 16GB system.
A better heatsink is a passive device that affects noise and overclocking. But for those who are satisfied with its noise level and don't care about its ability to handle overclocking, going "better" is not going to improve their utility one iota.

What's the difference in quality between the original Phanteks case and one with the CyberPowerPc branding on it? Is the logo so powerfully bad to lower the gauge of steel, sharpen the metal, de-temper the glass?
Is the MSI Bazooka in there made worse because it was put in there by a worker a CyberPowerPC instead of the buyer himself? No, for something mass produced, it is your own snobbery showing through.
The PSU, if it is the "Xtremegear" unit that often shows up in a CPP base config, is inded poor quality.
The CPU certainly is not any worse because it was prebuilt vs put in its socket by the users own hands.

Assembling together parts by yourself does not transfer anything sacred or make sacred the mass-produced printed circuit boards in a computer system. You can love building computers, but don't think the pleasure from that adrenaline and dopamine rush from building gives you have license to make irrational statements

 

[ibex333]

So why should I build?

A prebuilt gaming PC (Ryzen 1400, 8gb, rx580, MSI B350M, tempered glass case with full RGB) is $750 at Best Buy. It does have a spinning drive and a low wattage PSU, both of which I'll be replacing. It includes a junk gaming keyboard and mouse, which I won't be using.

Trying to build the same build on PCPartpicker comes out to over a thousand - if you can even source a GPU! So why should I build it myself again?

Well, for starters, for $750(by the way dont forget tax) I can build a PC which will absolutely decimate your Ryzen 1400 and the RX580. It's wont have a Ryzen CPU, I'll tell you that much. But if you are hell bent on Ryzen, I can do a better Ryzen build for $750 too.

So by building you get much better VALUE.

Also, don't forget that a custom build can be disassembled later and sold off for parts. Same cannot be said about a pre-built PC. The only few things you can sell are, CPU, RAM, Video Card and HDD. No one will want to buy your motherboard, case and PSU because they are custom made for that particular computer. The RAM and Video card may be a somewhat hard sell as well since the card will most likely be a custom design, and the RAM will be slow, budget RAM.

So again, a custom build gives you more money in the end.


If you are lazy, or money is not an issue, go ahead and buy pre-made. I wont judge you. But if money is important, never buy pre-made unless you get a crazy deal. Something like a clear $100-300 less than what it would cost to build with similar parts.

 

[Raduque]

Well, for starters, for $750 I can build a PC which will absolutely decimate your Ryzen 1400 and the RX580.

Money where your mouth is, let's go.

Requirements: Tempered glass case with RGB lighting, NEW PARTS ONLY, legit Windows 10 OEM (no Kinguin/CDKEYS/TechNet etc grey market keys).

I'll even make it easy on you by not requiring a PSU or storage.

I'll save you some time - I've done the legwork. A comparable system is over a grand, and without the extraneous shit (PSU, storage, kkm, wifi card) it's still over $100 more.

But by all means, go for it.

No one will want to buy your motherboard, case and PSU because they are custom made for that particular computer.

I'm actually thinking you didn't read past the title of the thread, now. If you had, you would've noticed further in I provided a breakdown of parts and costs. The CPP build includes a Phanteks Eclipse p400s case that simply has a CPP logo on the front, and uses standard off-the-shelf (if slightly budget) parts for the motherboard, PSU and GPU. Nothing is custom. Maybe the RGB lighting system.

 

[UsandThem]

Money where your mouth is, let's go.

Requirements: Tempered glass case with RGB lighting, NEW PARTS ONLY, legit Windows 10 OEM (no Kinguin/CDKEYS/TechNet etc grey market keys).

I'll even make it easy on you by not requiring a PSU or storage.

I'll save you some time - I've done the legwork. A comparable system is over a grand, and without the extraneous shift (PSU, storage, kkm, wifi card) it's still over $100 more.

But by all means, go for it.

 

[bigboxes]

Money where your mouth is, let's go.

Requirements: Tempered glass case with RGB lighting, NEW PARTS ONLY, legit Windows 10 OEM (no Kinguin/CDKEYS/TechNet etc grey market keys).

I'll even make it easy on you by not requiring a PSU or storage.

I'll save you some time - I've done the legwork. A comparable system is over a grand, and without the extraneous shit (PSU, storage, kkm, wifi card) it's still over $100 more.

But by all means, go for it.


I'm actually thinking you didn't read past the title of the thread, now. If you had, you would've noticed further in I provided a breakdown of parts and costs. The CPP build includes a Phanteks Eclipse p400s case that simply has a CPP logo on the front, and uses standard off-the-shelf (if slightly budget) parts for the motherboard, PSU and GPU. Nothing is custom. Maybe the RGB lighting system.

To be fair, you can't say you don't have to have a PSU or HDD (something you already have) and then saying that someone can't bypass the Windows requirement because they already have that covered.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I personally like to build as it means it's standard parts (motherboard, ram, etc) and expandable and it's fun to do. But yeah it seems it's WAY cheaper to just buy prebuilt now days. You can get a prebuilt computer for well under a grand now, it's very hard to build and have it come under a grand. Each part is going to be at least $100-$200. CPUs push more like $400 now days. Then add shipping.

Downside with prebuilts is that they are practically a black box that is very hard to upgrade. Often times you won't even be able to add a better video card without upgrading the PSU, which is going to be some awkward non standard size. There won't be any extra ram slots, and if you do take a higher ram or HDD option that's where they start to gauge you. They also seem to be very odd about what OSes they'll take. Like if you buy a computer that has windows 8 or 10, it seems it's practically designed for it, and won't work with anything else. Of course that is hit and miss, so you may get it to work. I've found that Linux will normally run fine on those machines, but not Windows 7.

 

[mnewsham]

which is going to be some awkward non standard size

Not always true.

I bought a Proliant ML10 Gen9 from Tigerdirect 2 weeks ago for $179.99. i3-6100, 4GB DDR4, no drives, no OS.

I had an old PSU laying around, standard ATX size. When it arrived I popped out the included PSU, put in the new one, threw in an old R9-270 I had laying around, as well as an old 500GB WD black HDD, and I had bought a 128GB SSD for boot for it.

Total out of pocket was ~$230.
It's a build for my brothers mother in law, so it doesn't need anything particularly fancy. About the most work it will see is when she lets her son play minecraft on it.

And actually now that I am looking at my bank statments, tiger direct still hasn't charged me the $180 for the barebones server. Not even a pending charge... :shrug:

 

[Red Squirrel]

True, but it's a gamble, you won't really know until you get it. A lot of times it's non standard sizes, or even connectors. I mean, not a huge deal to retro fit, but something to consider.

 

[Raduque]

I like how everybody is posting without reading the thread. The computer in question is using a standard phanteks eclipse case with off the shelf parts. Nothing proprietary here Squirrel.

 

[hoorah]

My main rig is a CyberpowerPC that I happened to find discarded in the trash, oddly with almost nothing wrong with it. Story for another day.

The case is a Corsair 300R thats no different than the retail case, it just has an extra logo glued (probably) to the front.

The motherboard is an off-the-shelf ASUS P8V77. There is no custom modification to the bios (no branding). Its just a regular old asus board.

The power supply was pretty cheap and eventually failed, so I had to put a new one in.

It even came with a K cpu that had been overclocked. I'm not sure if the previous owner did the overclocking or if it came that way from CyberPowerPC.

I've worked with a lot of self built systems and pre-built OEM systems. My biggest gripe with pre-builts is 1 - non-standard power supplies and power supply mounting and 2 - oddball Pegatron motherboards with limited CPU support and no BIOS updates. If a pre-built system is cheaper and doesn't suffer from those two deficiencies, it gets a thumbs up in my book.

 

[UsandThem]

I've worked with a lot of self built systems and pre-built OEM systems. My biggest gripe with pre-builts is 1 - non-standard power supplies and power supply mounting and 2 - oddball Pegatron motherboards with limited CPU support and no BIOS updates. If a pre-built system is cheaper and doesn't suffer from those two deficiencies, it gets a thumbs up in my book.

Reading this made me think of the recent change Dell did to their XPS towers. Over the past several years, these were a good choice for people who didn't want to build, and by watching for deals, they would come in significantly cheaper than a person could build on their own. They came with good quality 460w PSUs, and could handle longer video cards.

However, with the 8910 series they created a PSU swing:

It's apparently still a standard ATX PSU, but now it basically sits on top of the CPU. From what I read it can still handle a decent-sized GPU, however a person who does this should really only use a blower-style card that exhausts the heat.

 

[hoorah]

I've built some really awesome Dell Precision systems into gaming boxes. I think the XPS line is the Precision-lite.

They have beefier PSUs with usually dual 6-pin PCIE connectors and room for large GPUs (they were designed for quadro cards, usually). When it comes to 5+ year old systems, they are usually way more reliable than your typical inspiron/pavilian motherboards.

 

[Raduque]

oddball Pegatron motherboards with limited CPU support and no BIOS updates.

HP's OMEN gaming desktop line uses these. Even for the "overclockable" systems that ship with K CPUs. At least the CPPs use off the shelf MSI or Asus B350M boards.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I like how everybody is posting without reading the thread. The computer in question is using a standard phanteks eclipse case with off the shelf parts. Nothing proprietary here Squirrel.

I'm speaking more in general. A lot of the times prebuilt PCs use proprietary parts, connectors, etc.

 

[Raduque]

I'm speaking more in general. A lot of the times prebuilt PCs use proprietary parts, connectors, etc.

Not necessary on this thread. It's about building a PC vs a specific prebuilt that's cheaper than DIY.

 

[ibex333]

Money where your mouth is, let's go.

Requirements: Tempered glass case with RGB lighting, NEW PARTS ONLY, legit Windows 10 OEM (no Kinguin/CDKEYS/TechNet etc grey market keys).

I'll even make it easy on you by not requiring a PSU or storage.

I'll save you some time - I've done the legwork. A comparable system is over a grand, and without the extraneous shit (PSU, storage, kkm, wifi card) it's still over $100 more.

But by all means, go for it.


I'm actually thinking you didn't read past the title of the thread, now. If you had, you would've noticed further in I provided a breakdown of parts and costs. The CPP build includes a Phanteks Eclipse p400s case that simply has a CPP logo on the front, and uses standard off-the-shelf (if slightly budget) parts for the motherboard, PSU and GPU. Nothing is custom. Maybe the RGB lighting system.

Forget the aesthetics and the Windows 10. I am talking about pure performance! This PC will beat your Ryzen in games any day of the week. And I probably overdid it too. I could have went lower.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-7500 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($187.69 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI - Z270-A PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($91.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial - 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($62.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus - GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3GB Dual Video Card ($243.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill - REDBONE ATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On - iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($15.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $745.16
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-20 10:32 EDT-0400

 

[Thebobo]

Forget the aesthetics and the Windows 10. I am talking about pure performance! This PC will beat your Ryzen in games any day of the week. And I probably overdid it too. I could have went lower.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-7500 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($187.69 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI - Z270-A PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($91.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial - 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($62.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus - GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3GB Dual Video Card ($243.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill - REDBONE ATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On - iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($15.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $745.16
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-20 10:32 EDT-0400

OS?

 

[Torn Mind]

He has 15 days to return the whole thing with no penalty. One has to pay return shipping or (fraudulently) claim issue with the parts why buying online.

 

[ibex333]

OS?

OS is a non issue. Buy Win 7 key from someone on these forums for like $14, upgrade to Win 10 through "assistive technology" upgrade. But either way, I said I can build a computer that will beat his. I never said anything about the OS.

 

[Raduque]

Forget the aesthetics and the Windows 10.

No. Do it the way I want it, or don't do it at all. Because on your build, I have to add $100 for Windows 10 (I refuse to use Windows 7, and I'm not buying an NFR key), another $80-100 for a nice tempered glass case, and I don't even know how much for a RGB lighting kit.

You completely ignored several of my reasons for choosing this PC.

Edit: Optical Drive? Ew.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

No. Do it the way I want it, or don't do it at all.

So buy it already. You've already done the due diligence and clearly illustrated that it is a great value. Nobody is going to be able to beat it because your parameters are very specific.

 

[bruceb]

Not really a gamer, but when I go to replace my old Dell Diminsion 8200 I will look at prebuilt units. Probably a Dell as they seem to not break down. Only things I would watch for in other brands, would be what make & watts of power pack, prefer to install WD Hard Drives (don't want SSD as most new hard drives are plenty fast) and the ability to install 1 or 2 CD/DVD DL - Blu Ray drives. And I would want an Nvida GTX1080 card, along with USB 3 / Firewire / Serial / Parallel ports for some legacy items. Full size ATX tower .. It would probably end up with an I7 CPU .. Fancy looks are okay, not mandatory.

 

[VirtualLarry]

don't want SSD as most new hard drives are plenty fast

LOL. There's someone living in the past. You haven't actually gotten the change to try out a decent SSD, have you?

Edit: SSDs are anywhere from 10x to 100x as fast as a HDD, where it counts.

 

[bigboxes]

So buy it already. You've already done the due diligence and clearly illustrated that it is a great value. Nobody is going to be able to beat it because your parameters are very specific.

Meh. He's already made up his mind when he posted the OP. However, it's been something to talk about.

 

[bruceb]

They are known to fail now and then. And I have had very good results with Western Digital hard drives. I use what I trust most. SSD's have a place, but if I used them, it would be for the OS only, with all my downloads and personal files on another totally seperate drive.