New Gaming PC: Pre Made vs. Custom

Looking for advice from the GB community. Let me start with my history and knowledge to hopefully save time. I have built a gaming pc before but it was 10 years ago. I also understand that custom builds are a lot easier now. I am no longer up to speed on the modern tech but want to learn it. I understand that building a custom is more cost effective than a Pre Made. I also know that a Pre Made might limit upgrading in the future which is a huge concern for me. That all being said, I still have young kids and not a ton of time right now. As I stated earlier, I’m not up to speed on the modern tech. I’ve heard that getting Pre Made might be the only way to get the newest GPU’s. I’m not on a budget as I’m so lucky in my life.

Wow, that whole lead up made me sound like a complete ass.

So all of that out of the way:

1) Should I try an attempt at a custom even though I have a pretty good tech gap, or, get back into PC gaming with a Pre Made?

2) Any suggestions on Pre Made PC’s. I’ve heard (I believe from Jeff) that Alienware cases are nightmare fuel if you want to upgrade.

Thanks all, my first forum post! Go easy on me all!

If you're willing to dig around and do a bit of research you're better off with a custom build. It's easier than ever and you'll get exactly what you need/want.

The top of the line GPUs are pretty difficult/impossible to find right now but you could do well with a 2080 and not worry about upgrading for a hot minute.

Personally, I usually shop for prebuilds because of budget reasons and there always seems to be a trade-off. Maybe you get the right GPU but a slow CPU. Maybe the RAM never goes higher than 8GBs. Something always seems to be lacking.

Find one of those PC part picker websites, spend an hour putting stuff together, and you should be more than fine.

Like @finaldasa said, any prebuilt is gonna have trade-offs. A recurring thing I've found is a really luckluster power supply that is entirely non-modular, meaning you are stuck with pretty much exactly what's in the case and not a piece more. Prebuilt cases are also extremely tight and difficult to work with, so any upgrading is going to be a struggle for space if not absolutely impossible.

I'd recommend surfing Reddit for some good deals, but I'd recommend a mid-range AMD-compatible mobo (this is not my forte), a Ryzen 7 CPU (the non-X models come with coolers as well I believe), at least 16gb of RAM, and at least a 500gb SSD if not 1TB, as they can be had relatively cheap compared to where they were, and a 750w gold modular PSU. Fractal Design cases are very spacious and have a ton of wiggle room for future upgrades.

As for GPUs, yeah, prebuilt is likely the only way to get one without taking a week off of work and life and keeping an eye on Discord servers and alert bots. If you're not absolutely dying to build a PC, I'd say wait 3-6 months for the supply to even out, so you can make a decision without worrying which parts you can get.

If you have an hour to do some research on what you want, I'd say definitely go for a custom. As others have said, one of the biggest problems with prebuilts is having to make tradeoffs with the different components which can introduce so much unnecessary cost or limitations.

Keep in mind that going for a custom build doesn't mean you have to put it together yourself if you're concerned about that, look around for companies/services that will help you source parts and build it for you if you're so inclined.

That being said, if you're absolutely dying to get your hands on a 3080 now then yeah, pre-built would likely be a better option but if you're willing to wait a bit then it's not impossible to get your hands on a GPU after waiting in a queue for a bit.

Finally, here is my suggestion for the only pre-built PC that matters.

I'd always recommend a custom build personally. If you look up some premade systems that catch your eye and then check out the reviews on the individual components to see if they suit your needs. As said already they sometimes cheap out on certain components in those systems to cut costs, even with parts bundles they might have good deals but not what you are after. It all depends what you need and how you are going to use it, PCs can be very subjective.

I just built an mITX system reusing old parts I had to cut costs where possible and every game I've tried looks great at 1080p. We stream so there is no need to go any higher than that and my wife is also a gamer but gets first dibs on the main TV so I use a small 22" monitor (that we also use for streaming) on the coffee table once our son has gone to bed. In my case there isn't much need to have more power but I needed it to be small and portable.

The specs I went with was a Silverstone SG13 case, Ryzen 5 3600, Cougar 120L AIO cooler, MSI B450i gaming plus AC Mobo, 1Tb Seagate SSD and reused 16Gb Corsair 3000mhz Ram, Corsair 550W semi modular PSU and a trusty Gainward GTX970. I'll probably upgrade the GPU to a 1060Ti/super or a 2080 at some point but bills come first. The 30 series GPUs are real expensive here and nigh impossible to get but can be bought if you also get a mobo and CPU at the same time.

I mostly play things like Satisfactory, Subnautica, Mudrunner, Spintires, FS17, Astroneer and other sim games but will also play Roguelikes and the odd shooter with no issues. In the end it all really does come down to how you are going to use the hardware, if you can wait for prices and production to stabilize then you might be better off but you can also pick up some good second hand deals.

Wow! I didn’t expect so many great responses so fast! Thanks all! Pretty much the only forum I would post something like this on given the ample opportunities for less than helpful responses.

Thanks!

@imhungry: And yes, you totally got me with that link. Brought a massive smile to my face so thanks.

Why do I actually want that?

I would also take it a step further.

If you ARE willing to put in the research time, but don't have time to learn how to put it together yourself(totally understandable in your situation and in many others'), try reaching out to people here or friends of friends or something that might be willing to build it for you.

If you're comfortable with that of course. Shipping wise it's no worse than buying a pre built in the first place.

I only recommend pre-built if you have cash to burn. You'll want to buy a model with enough overhead to accommodate 2-3 video card upgrades without having to upgrade the entire machine to get a good 6-8 year run with the one machine. That would require a pretty penny because of how much of premium pre-builds place on such parts.

It's rarely ever worth it to budget your way to a pre-built gaming PC because somewhere along the chain you may have skimped on a power supply or CPU which you'll then have to overhaul when you do get a new strong video card. Video cards don't have to be high end in a pre-built if all the other parts are solid because that's an easy upgrade.

Normally I'd say build your own, but literally every new GPU on Newegg is out of stock, so pre-built is the more practical option at the moment.

@facelessvixen: I refuse to support scalpers. It just doesn’t feel morally right. Given the last several hundred years, I’m not willing to support systems that are designed for people of privilege to have accesses that less privileged people do not. I could though. I just don’t want too.

Sorry, no intention on making this political at all.

@gloveslipper: Huh?

Newegg, and most outlets, are not selling GPUs standalone and are favoring bundles. This is because it increases the profit margins and they know folk will pay it.

Buying a prebuilt is just a really big bundle and is still "reasonable" if you want a recent nvidia or AMD gpu. It has nothing to do with scalping or "systems that are designed for people of privilege".

I am personally waiting until I can get a standalone 3080. But if you want something in the next few months, a bundle or a prebuilt is the way to go.

@gloveslipper: Hey, i recently came across a cool application to get recommended a PC build.

NewEgg build, PCPartPicker and NZXT builds are totally huge resources of help but they focus on the computer parts and not the game itself.

GamingOwls will let you get pc build based on your games.

I bought a prebuilt pc with my chosen parts (graphics card, cpu, fans, etc.) back when the gtx980 was new and, after returning two to one company, came away happy with the second company I tried out. It'll cost you more money than building it yourself, but that's the price of convenience I suppose. I've only bought one pc from them and haven't done any research on them lately, so I'm not going to promote them here, but that's the direction I'll be going once the new graphics cards are more widely available.

@gloveslipper said:

That's good to know, but I was referring to buying a pre-built PC from a system integrator such as CyberPower, iBUYPOWER, Digital Storm, Origin PC, and Puget Systems, just to name a few; not scalpers.

@gloveslipper: I'll just echo what many others said about preferring a custom self-built PC, if you can find all the parts that you want. Honestly the selection of those parts will take you far longer than actually putting the thing together.

If you are trying to find a new GPU, I'd suggest checking a Microcenter, if you are lucky enough to have one in your area. The one near me seems to get a couple 30xx (mostly 3070s, currently) cards every week or so, but they don't last long. They are only selling them in store, to avoid the issues with online bots.

If you decide on a pre-built, I'd avoid less expensive brands like iBuyPower. Those are rarely built to order, and you almost certainly won't be able to find our information about things like brand of motherboard, RAM, storage, or power supply. Generally they seem to be marketed only by brand/model of CPU and GPU. Those are, of course, very important, but are hardly the full extent of a PC build and can be bottlenecked by poor selection of other parts. I'd suggest a more boutique builder like Origin or Maingear. They're more expensive, but you should get more options to customize all the individual components.

Edit: Also, if you do go pre-built, I would suggest avoiding the allure of a full custom-loop water cooling system. No doubt they look good as hell, and the cooling performance can be near top of the charts, but you don’t want to have to disassemble and reassemble it if you want or need to change the CPU or GPU later on. Unless you really like that sort of tinkering, in which case go wild.

These days i bridge the gap by paying for someone else to build a custom PC for me, i ALMOST... ALMOST went Alienware last year, but by all accounts that would have been a big mistake.

@cikame: That’s a great middle ground. I’m currently buying parts here and there for what will be my partner’s PC but it would also be my first mini ITX build so I may just end up bringing the parts to a shop and having them put it together.

So much good information. I cannot express my gratitude enough. I appreciate every second/minute of thought you all put into getting me answers. Peoples time is the most valuable thing they can share.

That being said, you all have convinced me to dust the cobwebs off the part of my brain that is capable of learning (won’t be easy, I’ve been in the same job for a long time) and build my own PC.

My wife kept asking me what I was looking at and smiling all night. I just said, “lots of strangers being helpful!” What a great community.

I don't think you have to get a prebuilt but they are selling bundles instead of solo to help curve scalping, and at least neweeg had an option to return the parts you don't need (not sure if that's still good).

That said, I don't think it's impossible to get a GPU just time consuming, you need to follow retailers or get on (i think) evga's list. I would always go custom because it's just way more fun and you feel more ownership but if you want to try pre-built this video seems pretty helpful for a pretty in-depth evaluation of brands from costumer service to value per dollar.

Also, depending on how old your kids are I think building a PC together would be a cool idea.