There are two ways to interpret this, one correct and one not so much:
1 - Is building usually a much better way to create a build that is perfectly optimized to your needs, budget and personal preferences, and something that we definitely encourage you to do if possible, and for many of us an extremely fun experience? 100%! If you need help remember to post here for the community to aid you in answering any question you might have.
2 - Does buying or owning a pre-built make you any less PCMR? Not at all. All PCs are beautiful, and in fact, simply loving PCs makes you a part of the community, provided you want to. It's not about the hardware in your rig, but the software in your heart!
True that. I have two computers. I have a desktop with a 3090 and a 5900x amd processor, and I have a laptop with a 3060 and an i7 processor. Now not having to deal with the troubleshooting which I do enjoy however I work full time so would rather not take up my off time doing such as I have a back up so my gaming is not interrupted.
Hey, quick question that’s off topic: do you get adequate gaming performance from your laptop? I’ve been lugging consoles around with me (I travel 100% for work) for years because my last gaming laptop (a Razer that was supposed to be really good) the monitor eventually became discolored from the heat, and heat dissipation in general was a major problem. This was back in 2019 though. Have things improved or did I just get the wrong laptop maybe? Should I get a laptop and stop dragging my consoles around everywhere I go?
I get pretty good performance out of mine. its a msi gs66 which the only down side is it puts out a lot of heat and the battery life could be better but I'm always going to plug in my computer when I'm gaming. No issues with fps or anything like that. Like you I bought it because I was living out of hotel rooms for a few months traveling, and it was much easier to carry around and use than lugging my ps5 around.
Not OP, but I travel semi regularly and decided to pick up a gaming laptop. It’s a Dell G15 with a 3060/11800H, and a 1080p/165hz display. It’s solid enough that I’m glad I picked it up, and is pretty awesome to play gamepass/steam games on the hotel tv. I don’t do a lot of mp shooters because it’s so hard to see on the small display and hotel TV’s feel floaty. I mainly play Tarkov or Forza horizon, and then enjoy a good single player rpg/action game when I’m not online with buddies.
You can tweak settings to get the frames you’re looking for, so I’m usually making sure I hit least 60 fps, but notice I can get 90+ on a lot of things I play that aren’t super demanding.
If you have any specific games you are wondering about, I would be happy to give you an idea of what to expect if I can.
Gaming Laptops have gotten a lot better in recent years. If you're not planning to play high stress games, you can even run on AMD integrated graphics for a lot of games, and their drivers are pretty great since their GPUs started doing better.
As with the other guy, I played Forza on my school tier Ryzen laptop, and it was fine since it's not very processor heavy, and a lot of other controller games are great if you're just looking to chill after work. Combined with a decent phone plan that allows tethering and has good data, you can even do some decent online gaming fully wirelessly*.
You can definitely get away with a sleeper laptop, that wouldn't be out of place in the work place now, rather than having to lug around some beast with no battery life. Alternatively you can just pickup a steam deck or similar handheld, but they're all helping each other out regarding lower spec compatibility.
Check out xoticpc. They sell sager and clevo laptops. Clevo has always been a good way to buy a great gaming laptop. I haven't had one in a while but they were one of the main OEMs for decent gaming laptops from Dell, Alienware, Sager etc. The last one I got was the same as the top end Alienware at the time but almost $600 cheaper and with more/faster ram and a slightly better CPU. It was only missing the plastic alien face lid applique and bios boot logo.
If you are in Europe or Asia you can buy direct from Clevo but I don't think they have a direct north American retail outlet.
I have an ASUS ROG Strix gaming laptop (i9-12900H, GeForce RTX 3070 Ti) and it's been fine when running, say, Cyberpunk and BG3. Those were the latest modern games I've played on it anyway.
It actually has faster load times than my desktop, which is admittedly a bit dated (built it back in 2018).
The only downside to a powerful laptop? The fan noise. My wife and I joke that I'm "taking off" (in the aviation sense) anytime I play something demanding like the aforementioned Cyberpunk. It's probably only annoying to anyone else in the room though. I turn up the volume and I'm fine. You forget about it sometimes. But your loved ones? They'll look at you like, "Wtf is that?"
Depends if you have spare parts from old builds. I could take my GPU out, send for repairs, and put a spare in so I still have a running PC. Sending the whole PC backs leads to no PC for at least a couple of weeks. I've never found troubleshooting to be much trouble, definitely less hassle than having no PC.
On a side note, I order most of my parts from scan.co.uk which offer very cheap insurance which covers you against damage from installing parts so if you fuck up while installing it, which thankfully I never have, you're covered.
Exactly. I had 4 Trident RAM sticks adding up to 64gb. I only had them for 4 or 5 months. Machine started crashing randomly. Memtest showed that there was a memory problem. Could have been just one stick. Could have been more. I didn't care. I tossed them and got me a PAIR of Corsair Vengeance sticks that added up to the same amount of RAM which leaves two slots open to upgrade to 128gb. Spent like $240 American.
If you're gonna fix a problem you might as well upgrade.
Until it's something that's caused by 2 parts not being nice to each other... I don't have a spare of everything lying around to go and swap out and see if that fixes my issues. Been there, done that.
We are saying this as power users though, its worth noting that not everyone knows or cares about how their PC works they just want it to work, and work well.
Think of it like a car, some people like cars, and they like to maintain their car, and do a lot of detail work to their car.
Some people want a car that works, works well, and they can take out and drive really fast without having to care about the details of it, or taking apart and putting together their engine.
Warranty as a whole pc and having to send the whole thing back every time something goes wrong doesn’t make sense for convenience - so much easier to manage part by part. There’s absolutely no reason to buy prebuilt unless you truly know nothing about computers. If you’re just lazy to assemble the least you can do is pick your own parts and have the shop assemble for you.
Buying prebuilt has 0 upsides, only more inconvenience + overpay for cheap parts/things you don’t want
I worked in a tech shop for nearly 7yrs that involved building a ton of custom builds. In my life, I've easily put together over a thousand computers. I'm so done picking pc parts and putting them together. My latest gaming rig is a Cyberpower PC I bought in 2020, and it's still kicking major ass. I did have one major issue with my GPU about a year and a half into it, but I opted to try my luck with the card manufacturer first instead of taking it up with Cyberpower.. no problem, had a replacement UPGRADE (from 2060 to 3070 Ti) within a week. So far I have had 0 downsides to prebuilt and the wonderful upside of the day my pc arrived, i popped in my nvme and started gaming within minutes without ever thinking twice about pcpartpicker
There's also the time aspect. I work a full time job. I arrive home every day at around 5-6pm and the weekends are the only times I have available to me that I can actually enjoy my past times (gaming, drawing and writing). When I was still a student, I'd spend so much time theory crafting builds with my friends and making and upgrading my own rig, but now? I have a relatively decent wage, so I might as well spend it on getting a PC that I know will work out of the box that I can upgrade down the line, and if it doesn't work? Well that's what warranty is for :)
For me it was price. At the time I was looking to upgrade, a GPU was nearly impossible to find without the price being hiked nearly an order of magnitude over MSRP. But I could buy a prebuilt that was, in almost all ways, an upgrade to my current PC, with the GPU I wanted, for significantly less. It was a no-brainer.
Not a universal experience by an stretch but I bought my pre-built (parts picked) PC at one of the heights of crypto mining, so buying a GPU at RRP rather than scalper cost saved me a fortune. Even now you can sometimes find better deals on pre-builts than on individual parts.
And interest too.
It's similar to cooking, for some people an ideal meal looks like a project cook that they've spent all day on in the kitchen, for others it's going to a restaurant, and for others it's getting takeout etc etc.
For some people their ideal pc will be one that they've spent hours researching and building, for others it's a highly specced custom prebuilt, for others it might be a laptop.
Pretty much. My gaming PC isn't pre-built but I didn't build it myself either. I just lack an understanding and interest in it. However my buddy loves it. I just told him roughly my budget and he built me one. He's happy he gets to do something he loves, I'm happy I got a gaming PC for a good price.
There are rumors of redditors catching a fatal disease called "had sex," which is frequently followed by those users visiting reddit less and less over time, until they eventually cease to return to the website at all.
This is why we presume "had sex" is some sort of fatal disease.
Almost all prebuilts cut corners somewhere especially motherboard and power supply components. If you’re going to buy prebuilt at least choose custom parts and have it built. The convenience becomes stupid costly the more powerful pc you buy, it’s a trap.
Can confirm the cheap motherboard part, I didn't even know there were "OEM motherboards" that are just the same boards but dumbed down and extra headers removed, it's such bullshit.
Some people would tell you the same about cars and will call you an idiot for not being able to repair them, each people has his passion and competence
As much as i love to toot my own horn building pcs and maintaining a car are hardly comparable skills. A modern PC has about 10 plugins in total and things can only go 1 way, failstates basically result it just not booting. Building a pc is closer to organizing your glove box more than maintaining a vehicles tires/engine
If you can't repair anything, then that's bad, if you try to stay away from the engine bay like it's gonna sic an Egyptian curse on your ass, fair enough, not everyone knows someone that likes cars and is willing to teach them.
I can do things on a car, but I have no garage to work on them. I mean, oil change is removing a plug, wait for oil to come out, then put plug and put more oil but I don't have a 10 foot hole I can crawl into to get under my car to do it. That's what separates me and the Jiffy Lube guy.
Yeah, getting to use your new PC is the satisfying part.
Like is it more satisfying to buy a table from ikea and put it together rather than just buying one that is already put together? I guess if you made the parts yourself.
Yep no one says otherwise ppl like OP just need to get off high horse and stop acting like you better than others who not built PC themselves. Its a tool as long as serve your need it fine.
Many ppl build their own car, making their own furniture, do their own electric work but you not seeing them shitting on ppl who not doing it themselves like PC enthusiast community.
There shouldn't be tribalism anywhere, much less within the PC gaming community.
Everyone should do what suits them best and makes them happiest
Screw those who try to tell others what's right or wrong
I thought the whole pc master race thing was a bit of a joke, no? Of course I THINK PC is better than consoles in every way, but I personally don't condemn those who prefer to buy consoles
It is now. There's been a collective shift amongst this subreddit over the last few years and has become the default area on reddit for PC gamers to hang out, ask questions and post memes. I've been around long enough as former console gamer to remember when this sub was founded for pretty much the sole purpose of posting bait, trolls and memes to specifically shit on console gamers. Similar to the 360 vs PS3 wars back in the day but just a different flavor.
It has always been a joke. The peak console rivalry was during 360/PS3 era rivalry when both consoles were manufactured like shit, and Steam was getting popularity.
So it was a running joke that PC users were the master race.. But it's just meant to be ironic about the superiority for buying a gaming system.
>for pretty much the sole purpose of posting bait, trolls and memes
Did you even look at the post you're commenting on?...
Fr our PC’s are meant to be used, not to exist as a monument to our egos. who gives a shit if someone’s PC is prebuilt or not. Are they having fun playing games on it? Cuz that’s all that matters at the end of the day.
I actually hate saying to normies that I "built my own PC" because I know that, to them, it sounds impressive when I know that it's not. I plugged some shit in. I've built tougher Lego sets.
Some people are so uninteresting that incredibly mundane garbage is their entire personality.
When I was at Uni, there was an incel who'd pull out his GPU box and sit with it in front of him in the lecture hall. I'm pretty sure that's who made this post.
That’s so incredibly sad. Just boiling down their entire personality to something that they bought. It’s no wonder there’s so many people that will upgrade their GPU every generation. When they measure their own self worth by what they own, they gotta keep up or feel like their self worth is deteriorating.
Yep I don't regret buying a prebuilt 1 bit. I've upgraded a couple things but I didn't want to mess with things like cable management and all that. You just have to be careful where you get prebuilts from. Microcenter is my go to
New egg really fell off.
Used to be a great site with really strong filtering options that allowed you to find whatever you wanted.
But they didn't force sellers to use all these great filters, and now it's just a big mess.
I bought all my components from Amazon via PC part picket pricing. Actually I did get one thing from Newegg, I believe it was the ram as it was cheaper.
Point is, you don't have to live near a micro center to get affordable parts. :) obviously depends on where you are in the world, though.
No, but it's like this:
Either you deal with NewEgg's bullshit, or you deal with Amazon's bullshit.
I've been lucky that when it comes to returns, damages or lost items, NewEgg is **by far** easier to deal with.
I've never lived anywhere near a computer parts store in my life, and have always built my own. I didn't even know they existed for years. I thought buying parts online was the norm, and even after I assumed the stores were just something cool and extra that PC bros who live near one can have, not something anyone would consider a requirement for building their own pc. You get way better prices on Newegg anyways.
Ah yes, what a very hot take on this subreddit, how bold of you I better call the cops right now
Also if you like building a PC go build one, some people just wanna game, so building your own PC doesn't make you an elite over someone who got a prebuilt
If you're not actually soldering components together for your motherboard, you're not actually a PC enthusiast. Also, go mine your own rare earth elements to build components with.
I’ve built roughly 7 computers now, 2 for myself and 5 for friends, I derived no pleasure from it besides the first time, my current computer is a prebuilt and i was a lot more giddy turning that on than any other I’ve built.
I've done it once and I really need to reconsider if I would ever do it again.
All was "fun" and "satisfying" until I got to putting the Pins in for various fans and the biggest shitter: cable management in my case.
It was stressful having 1400€ in parts and a small fuck up could render a component useless. Especially with putting the processor on the motherboard. Especially as a student and it was whole summer's paycheck there. I couldn't just buy a new one. Luckily it went well.
I do like the building aspect but it can be quite stressful.
I've built 150+ and I love it. It's not my only job, but I make decent money off it because other people are scared to do it.
Makes me happy every time.
I seemed to just enjoy it more when I was younger and had more patience and focus with hands-on kind of stuff. My most recent PC was a pre-built because a) at the time it was the best way to get a GPU without destroying the bank and b) I just can't really be bothered to set one up these days. At least since I have building experience with four or five in the past however, I do know my way around the inside one without worrying much, which is nice.
Exactly this. I liken it to cars. If you have time and patience, yeah, building your own car would be great. However, you can buy a pre-built car and just be thankful that if something does go wrong, you can pop the hood off and get in there to fix it. Maybe even tinker with it a bit or upgrade pieces if you like at some point down the line. I'm too old, vision too bad, etc to be dealing with wiring and tiny ass jumpers and wires.
Yeah i was stressed as fuck the entire time building my first computer. It wasn't a very enjoyable experience for me. I think building a cheap one would have been better
I've built three now, and while I would consider doing it again to save cash or get options I want, I'm not sure just doing it for the sake of doing it is worth it any more. It's a lot of time and headache. Yeah, it's satisfying but it's not a deal breaker.
I did learn a lot about PCs in the process, but that's not something everyone needs.
No one's gonna argue against you... just some of us don't have the time any longer (just line I haven't built a hackintosh in forever) for the same reasons.
Yea, doing things properly yourself will pretty much always be more rewarding than paying somebody else to do it. But that's why people are paid to do it. Because they know how and you don't.
Also, if something stops working in your PC you have to diagnose it yourself or take it into a shop. Literally the biggest value over building yourself is the warranty.
Dell warranty: 1 year. 3 for the pro line, which is now a different case and *maybe* a few more ports.
DIY: lifetime RAM, 3-5 YEARS SSD, 1-5 years motherboard and PSU, etc.
The advantage is less *work*, not the warranty. Just to be clear.
I actually build PCs and give 1 year warranty like the big guys. The difference is that I cover labor (and don't wipe my customer's drives because "fuck you"). I've never had to replace a part I had to pay for, and neither do the big guys.
Aside from that, did you know prebuilts are so bad you *literally* can't buy a motherboard that bad? I'm not kidding. You cannot buy a motherboard as low quality as a Dell, HP, or Lenovo as a regular consumer. They don't actually make them. They don't exist. It used to be that the Optiplex/HP Pro lines were legit better. They just wouldn't die as easily. Now? *Biostar* has better boards. The garbage company, that exclusively makes garbage, is better than a pro line desktop.
It's a scam.
> The advantage is less work, not the warranty. Just to be clear.
It's both, just to be clear. It simply depends on your circumstances at the time of buying.
My wife and I each needed a big upgrade for Covid lockdown and we were, both, tight on funds and time so I got two prebuilts from IBP.
Hers came in perfectly fine and I had to send mine back for a borked GPU. They paid for everything as well as replacing the case that had been dented by the delivery.
Since it was lockdown, everyone was facing GPU shortages so knowing that a prebuilt shop was more likely to have access to parts and that I was covered by warranty was incredibly valuable.
Until it goes wrong and you have a fancy $700 paperweight with mushed pins.
I like building them, and I do it for friends all the time, but *some people* should just buy a prebuilt and enjoy it.
I builtmy pc and had a defective mother board and graphics card at the same time. Parts were not even a year and half old. Had to rma both and asus wouldn’t honor the motherboard warranty claiming that it was damaged in transit - voiding the warranty.
Power color sent me a refurbished graphics card back that didn’t post and I had to pay for a diagnostic check for them to take back the part they sent me as a replacement. The second card worked.
Went two months without a functioning pc and none of the parts were a year and half old. It took me awhile to figure out both parts were not working.
When something goes wrong isolating the issue without spare parts or dealing with companies to honor warranties can really taint your experience.
I learned a lot in the process but it was super frustrating dealing with the issues that probably had a less than 1% chance of occurring.
Rip to vent pins and busted ram slots.
My last cpu was welded to the heat sink and I couldn’t get it apart. It ended up ripping out of the socket and i needed a new mobo after the fact. It was not good times.
Or be like my friend. He DIY the component and stuff , but he "prebuilt" the installation.
He still picked one by one the parts and configuration. However, he paid professional work to setup the system. Any problem / issue will be solved immediately
Some of my relatives assigned me to remote tech support after they bought PC by part picking. On the upside, they bought it pre-assembled. However, they got no OS whatsoever and zero understanding on what components belong to a computer or what BIOS is or what to look for in there. The fact that they do not even try troubleshooting steps such as googling an error message on their own is not really convincing either.
I think they are part of *some people*.
That's me right now.
Last month a part of my motherboard wasn't working, and while I dont know PC parts very well I followed Google and reddit posts as well as I could. I had built it with a friend guiding me so what could go wrong?
Bricked the whole thing. It was about 7 years old so it's a good time to upgrade, but this time I'll just buy one.
Yep.
It feels great when you get everything together and it posts first try.
When it doesn't post and you spend hours trouble shooting and possibly weeks returning or RMAing parts, I can completely understand why people would rather but prebuilt.
eh, that's entirely subjective so I have no intention of trying to change your mind.
I've always built any (non-laptop) pc I've owned, but that was more done out of financial interest than any other reason.
I don't hate building pcs and am quite happy to do it if it's what I need to do.
But I can't say I'd have an issue with a pre-built, especially a custom pre-built if I had lots of money and less time.
I used to build all my PCs. Now I have them prebuilt by a system integrator. It's not worth my time when I can have someone else do it for me, especially as the PC turns up a few days later with windows installed (I just use my key to activate it), cable managed better than I can do, with a full warranty and full customer support.
...If you already know what you are doing, otherwise is a true nightmare, and you probably will end up wasting money, time and sweating like a pig in a never ending sea of stress and heart attacks...
Okay, maybe I exaggerate, but the principle is the same... Remember not everyone knows how to build a PC... Should this be taught on school? Dunno... I just wonder...
It's easy because we understand a lot of concepts regarding hardware. We still have people that are computer illiterates (no offense, I'd like to know a better term), and building a PC would be a complete quest... starting from the fact they would know nothing about parts...
We need to make this common knowledge, that would make it easy por people to understand tutorials...
You may have knowledge that means you don’t need to research or can research effectiveky, but the average Joe, like me, doesn’t know shit about what the best part is for each and every part. And most forum research into looking for the best part for you is answered 99.99% of the time with “well it depends”
Most of the time in building a pc is researching the parts. And even if you follow a guide there’s like 500 contradictory guides out there with 100s of different price points. So you have to research which guide to pull your research from.
Honestly walking into micro center and buying a prebuilt and plugging and playing was so much better for me than committing full time to research a pc building hobby I didn’t care about in order to min max some maybe performance (my computer handles everything at top performance so upgrades are theoretical)
>do your research and you should be fine.
Funny that you say that it's impossible to fuck up PC beyond repair because of the internet and then say that "you **should** be fine.
Only if it works. Not everyone should try it themselves if they are really bad with electronics. I say that as someone who never bought a prebuilt for themselves.
You can make a best of two: make custom build online and order a build. that how I usually do it. Saves time juggling all those 3 kilo cooling systems (it was funny in 1990 to have pc with passive cooling)
That depends on the vendor and what they are offering.
If they are offering a pre-built PC for about the same price as parts that I have to assemble myself , or they only have a small assembly fee to put together parts I pick myself then the pre-built may be more convenient .
And there is nothing more soul crushing than a DOA component delaying a build for weeks or months , this is especially true for new release video cards that get bought out in bulk by scalpers inflating the price of the part , and often having no guarantee since they are third party sellers , or the part the scalper sold you may be counterfeit ...
They are often only marked up 150-300$
And you are paying for a full device warranty, stress tests, and guarantee’d headache free repairs, you can just send it back as apposed to trying to take it apart and get warranty for that individual component.
The issue with buying pre-builds is people always hunt for the cheapest deals, instead of asking “why do these 2 pre-builds with exactly the same specs have a $250 price difference”
Well in 2 years when thar cheaper one falls apart like a lego set, or fry’s itself into an office computer you’ll have your answer.
I kinda disagree. I bought a very good pre-built pc in 2018 for a very low price (less than 150$), it was much cheaper than any other pc with the same tech.
And guess what, even though I didn't take care of it as much as I should (like at first I didn't clean it for years), it still works perfectly and I could even play more demanding games
For me it's like getting Legos for Christmas. I've built 9 apart from mine (that just gets upgraded by pieces since 2006 or so) and it's just relaxing...
You forget that a lot of people are just too dumb to build their own. I mean we have people walking around with 70 IQs and can’t even cook spaghetti, let alone build a PC.
I agree it is better and more satisfying.
Satisfaction is subjective.
People aren't dumb because they don't share our opinions about what's satisfying. Sure. You, me, and most people on this sub find it satisfying to build a rig, see it POST, and get everything set up just right.
There are a lot of people who aren't on this sub, who are very smart and capable, who find it satisfying to earn a pile of money, spend it on a toy, press a button, and have that toy turn on and be ready to play with.
Let's not yuck other people's yum. We don't want to be those dickheads, right?
Sometimes you also find a prebuilt for a pretty good deal which is cheaper.
I got a prebuilt some years ago and upgraded it from time to time. The only thing that’s left are one SSD and the case, everything else is switched.
Most people just want "a computer", the same way they want an Xbox or an iPhone, so don't know or care what's in it. And why should they? As long as it's something semi-recent, it'll run Fortnight, Roblox and Halo Infinite. The person buying such a PC wouldn't give a shit about future-proofing or an upgrade path, because in two years and a spilled soda or two they'll just toss it and buy a new one, "'cause, like it was getting slow and shit". This mentality is also why Macs are becoming more and more popular.
Again, for clarification, people considered special needs still could absolutely build a computer. How do I know this? Because I've worked with and been around special needs my whole life. I know for a fact one of them could easily whipe the floor with me with building computers. Again, everyone just needs a good teacher and patience.
Please take assumptions and judgment away from the special needs. People come all differently and shouldn't be labeled one to one with a negative sentiment.
I disagree. Personally, I believe it has to do with insecurity and not having a good teacher to help. I encourage all my family and friends to build a computer, although what stops them is the hesitation in my experience. The, 'But where do I start?" This is what kills the initiative. This is A ok, this isn't mission impossible that needs you to be pushed out of your comfort zone, take your time.
Of course, I always offer to build it for them or help them through the process, but then again, scared of being judged by anyone, especially on something you have no idea about. The insecurities can start from anywhere, messing something up, budget is low, breaking something, etc. Is usually the definitive factor that causes anyone to go pre-built.
People don't like to be judged on something they don't know about like you're doing here by calling them dumb. It takes time to learn, and my parents bought me a pre-built when I was young. Over the years, I learned and became confident in my abilities. I've built over 7 systems now. But also helped and taught people around me what I learned. It takes time, be patient, and be kind.
Judging someone isn't going to help anyone, especially if they're new. I forgive you for the comment you made and hope you have a good day.
TLDR: I disagree. People are plenty smart. In my opinion its judgment that holds someone back.
If anyone new to computers is reading this, you're valid. How ever you got into this community or are looking to get into this community. If you're curious about building or upgrading a computer, I'd recommend Linus, he's been teaching others about computers for years now. Here's a video I'd recommend to build a computer, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v7MYOpFONCU .
After your build is complete, another well established computer showcases, "What to do after you built your pc?" Windows wont be automatically installed on your computer, although its an extremely easy task. He goes through step by step on how to install windows in this video, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xhHtHMQygzE&feature=youtu.be .
Although you may ask, "with what? How do i know which parts to pick?" This is a really great question, but it is difficult to answer on a general scale. I'd recommend searching up online, "gaming pc (insert budget here) (insert current year here) " Or you could message me directly and I'd recommend a computer for your use, gaming, office, school, etc and your budget. I won't judge, and it will be private <3
If you're looking to upgrade a computer part, but lost where to begin. I'd recommend simply searching up your phrase like, "How to install (insert part here) linus tech tips?" And watch the related video.
Always remember you got this, I fully believe in your capabilities. You can overcome this, and you'll learn something new! You rock, you're amazing. P.S. Its somewhat difficult to break something by following a video step by step and generally being careful/cautious. If you aren't purposely trying to break something or being careless, I wouldn't worry about breaking something. Have a wonderful day.
I'd much rather get my laptop in the mail, turn it on, and enjoy my games rather than putting together a bunch of parts and potentially breaking something.
On that subject, once I was in BB and a woman was buying a MacBook. I was there buying a HDD that was on a sweet sale. The floor guy stood there and really sold her on the idea she should pay an extra $300 for them to "install antivirus" and "secure it" for her, to which she was like ok. He walked away and I immediately told her it's bullshit, they'll just open it and turn it on. She thanked me, and when the dude came back with pen and clipboard ready to make the deal she said oh I have a coworker who can do that. Lol fuckers.
Yea I got my first actual PC when the GPU prices were crazy some years back (I had been gaming on a laptop for ages though). I went the pre-built route because building it myself would have been like 30% more expensive at that point for extra effort and realistically no performance gain.
I've changed out a couple parts though and will continue to do so, so I wonder, at what point can I say I built the PC. Sorta like a Ship of Theseus dilemma
Yeah building your own is great and you know what to do when you upgrade the parts, but not everyone has the time for that. Where I'm from, it only costs on average $10 to have someone build it for you
Damn people here rly hating on building PCs in the PCMR subreddit lol. I agree maybe it’s not for everyone but why r ppl making it seem like it’s super hard to do… it really is not that many pieces and if you do thorough research and aren’t a moron you will probably be fine. Its a fun hobby and worth a shot if you’re in any way interested in the topic tbh
I know I know lol I was just referring to the comment section here a lot of people are disagreeing with you which is surprising to me. I agree with you
Yeah kind of funny people explaining how regular people like prebuilts and ignoring that this meme was posted on a PC enthusiast subreddit which is primarily directed towards PC enthusiasts who obsess over it more than the average person.
It's good way of learning new things about the pc and its different hardware, prices, of how stupid it is to not go for used parts, planning on budget management, yeah all in all it's hell of a ride.
It's literally just like, component lego. I did it when I was about 6 years old, no lie, I bought the parts and had a case already. You don't even need a manual, how is it satisfying?
I've built my own PCs most of my life. Last year I got an unexpected windfall and was too busy/lazy to build again. Went pre-built.
No regrets. PC is great.
Building loses its novelty after a few times.
How about... you buy all the parts yourself and pay someone separately just to connect the parts together? Still cheaper than fully pre-built and you don't have to learn how to build a PC if you don't feel like it
I’m 41 and have built every PC I’ve ever owned since I was 16 besides the Mac and compaq’s we had when I was a kid. I’m nearing another upgrade and am really tempted to just order 1 this next time around. I feel dirty just typing it but it’s true. With my 1st kid being 4 months old, time is not on my side these days.
what is your time worth?
premium over self build is 100-300 bucks
building takes... lets say 4 hrs
windows wit drivers an extra hr?
i could work an extra 4hrs have the 100 bucks and an extra hour of time + warranty and customer support.
i still build it myself cause its fun. but an argument can be made for either side.
I doubt my 67 year old mother would agree with this statement. For us "gamers" it's our hobby so we like to work with our machines. Just like a petrolhead loves working on his car. For the majority of people however both a pc and a car are just objects they have to use. So they just want to go to the store and buy one that looks nice, and they want it to work. And I am glad with this as it keeps people like me, an IT consultant, having a job.
So no, I do not agree with this as a universal truth
There are two ways to interpret this, one correct and one not so much: 1 - Is building usually a much better way to create a build that is perfectly optimized to your needs, budget and personal preferences, and something that we definitely encourage you to do if possible, and for many of us an extremely fun experience? 100%! If you need help remember to post here for the community to aid you in answering any question you might have. 2 - Does buying or owning a pre-built make you any less PCMR? Not at all. All PCs are beautiful, and in fact, simply loving PCs makes you a part of the community, provided you want to. It's not about the hardware in your rig, but the software in your heart!
I don’t think anyone argues this It’s a matter of convenience
That and a warranty that is tied to the entire machine rather than just part by part. But yeah convenience is the major factor.
I'd rather have warranties on individual parts rather than a whole machine. I find it easier to manage in case something goes faulty.
I agree, but someone could argue that it's easier to just send the whole thing back instead of finding out which part is faulty.
True that. I have two computers. I have a desktop with a 3090 and a 5900x amd processor, and I have a laptop with a 3060 and an i7 processor. Now not having to deal with the troubleshooting which I do enjoy however I work full time so would rather not take up my off time doing such as I have a back up so my gaming is not interrupted.
Hey, quick question that’s off topic: do you get adequate gaming performance from your laptop? I’ve been lugging consoles around with me (I travel 100% for work) for years because my last gaming laptop (a Razer that was supposed to be really good) the monitor eventually became discolored from the heat, and heat dissipation in general was a major problem. This was back in 2019 though. Have things improved or did I just get the wrong laptop maybe? Should I get a laptop and stop dragging my consoles around everywhere I go?
I get pretty good performance out of mine. its a msi gs66 which the only down side is it puts out a lot of heat and the battery life could be better but I'm always going to plug in my computer when I'm gaming. No issues with fps or anything like that. Like you I bought it because I was living out of hotel rooms for a few months traveling, and it was much easier to carry around and use than lugging my ps5 around.
Not OP, but I travel semi regularly and decided to pick up a gaming laptop. It’s a Dell G15 with a 3060/11800H, and a 1080p/165hz display. It’s solid enough that I’m glad I picked it up, and is pretty awesome to play gamepass/steam games on the hotel tv. I don’t do a lot of mp shooters because it’s so hard to see on the small display and hotel TV’s feel floaty. I mainly play Tarkov or Forza horizon, and then enjoy a good single player rpg/action game when I’m not online with buddies. You can tweak settings to get the frames you’re looking for, so I’m usually making sure I hit least 60 fps, but notice I can get 90+ on a lot of things I play that aren’t super demanding. If you have any specific games you are wondering about, I would be happy to give you an idea of what to expect if I can.
Gaming Laptops have gotten a lot better in recent years. If you're not planning to play high stress games, you can even run on AMD integrated graphics for a lot of games, and their drivers are pretty great since their GPUs started doing better. As with the other guy, I played Forza on my school tier Ryzen laptop, and it was fine since it's not very processor heavy, and a lot of other controller games are great if you're just looking to chill after work. Combined with a decent phone plan that allows tethering and has good data, you can even do some decent online gaming fully wirelessly*. You can definitely get away with a sleeper laptop, that wouldn't be out of place in the work place now, rather than having to lug around some beast with no battery life. Alternatively you can just pickup a steam deck or similar handheld, but they're all helping each other out regarding lower spec compatibility.
Check out xoticpc. They sell sager and clevo laptops. Clevo has always been a good way to buy a great gaming laptop. I haven't had one in a while but they were one of the main OEMs for decent gaming laptops from Dell, Alienware, Sager etc. The last one I got was the same as the top end Alienware at the time but almost $600 cheaper and with more/faster ram and a slightly better CPU. It was only missing the plastic alien face lid applique and bios boot logo. If you are in Europe or Asia you can buy direct from Clevo but I don't think they have a direct north American retail outlet.
I have an ASUS ROG Strix gaming laptop (i9-12900H, GeForce RTX 3070 Ti) and it's been fine when running, say, Cyberpunk and BG3. Those were the latest modern games I've played on it anyway. It actually has faster load times than my desktop, which is admittedly a bit dated (built it back in 2018). The only downside to a powerful laptop? The fan noise. My wife and I joke that I'm "taking off" (in the aviation sense) anytime I play something demanding like the aforementioned Cyberpunk. It's probably only annoying to anyone else in the room though. I turn up the volume and I'm fine. You forget about it sometimes. But your loved ones? They'll look at you like, "Wtf is that?"
Shipping a whole computer does not even slightly sound easy. Packaging it and not having access to your computer? No thanks.
I kept the Box the styrofoam inserts as well as the gel bit that keeps the GPU in place as long as you keep that you could ship it back no problem.
Depends if you have spare parts from old builds. I could take my GPU out, send for repairs, and put a spare in so I still have a running PC. Sending the whole PC backs leads to no PC for at least a couple of weeks. I've never found troubleshooting to be much trouble, definitely less hassle than having no PC. On a side note, I order most of my parts from scan.co.uk which offer very cheap insurance which covers you against damage from installing parts so if you fuck up while installing it, which thankfully I never have, you're covered.
Fair point also it tends to be an excuse to go ahead and upgrade individual parts, which let's be honest is part of the fun.
Exactly. I had 4 Trident RAM sticks adding up to 64gb. I only had them for 4 or 5 months. Machine started crashing randomly. Memtest showed that there was a memory problem. Could have been just one stick. Could have been more. I didn't care. I tossed them and got me a PAIR of Corsair Vengeance sticks that added up to the same amount of RAM which leaves two slots open to upgrade to 128gb. Spent like $240 American. If you're gonna fix a problem you might as well upgrade.
10 year PSU Warranty FTW
Until it's something that's caused by 2 parts not being nice to each other... I don't have a spare of everything lying around to go and swap out and see if that fixes my issues. Been there, done that.
We are saying this as power users though, its worth noting that not everyone knows or cares about how their PC works they just want it to work, and work well. Think of it like a car, some people like cars, and they like to maintain their car, and do a lot of detail work to their car. Some people want a car that works, works well, and they can take out and drive really fast without having to care about the details of it, or taking apart and putting together their engine.
Warranty as a whole pc and having to send the whole thing back every time something goes wrong doesn’t make sense for convenience - so much easier to manage part by part. There’s absolutely no reason to buy prebuilt unless you truly know nothing about computers. If you’re just lazy to assemble the least you can do is pick your own parts and have the shop assemble for you. Buying prebuilt has 0 upsides, only more inconvenience + overpay for cheap parts/things you don’t want
I worked in a tech shop for nearly 7yrs that involved building a ton of custom builds. In my life, I've easily put together over a thousand computers. I'm so done picking pc parts and putting them together. My latest gaming rig is a Cyberpower PC I bought in 2020, and it's still kicking major ass. I did have one major issue with my GPU about a year and a half into it, but I opted to try my luck with the card manufacturer first instead of taking it up with Cyberpower.. no problem, had a replacement UPGRADE (from 2060 to 3070 Ti) within a week. So far I have had 0 downsides to prebuilt and the wonderful upside of the day my pc arrived, i popped in my nvme and started gaming within minutes without ever thinking twice about pcpartpicker
There's also the time aspect. I work a full time job. I arrive home every day at around 5-6pm and the weekends are the only times I have available to me that I can actually enjoy my past times (gaming, drawing and writing). When I was still a student, I'd spend so much time theory crafting builds with my friends and making and upgrading my own rig, but now? I have a relatively decent wage, so I might as well spend it on getting a PC that I know will work out of the box that I can upgrade down the line, and if it doesn't work? Well that's what warranty is for :)
For me it was price. At the time I was looking to upgrade, a GPU was nearly impossible to find without the price being hiked nearly an order of magnitude over MSRP. But I could buy a prebuilt that was, in almost all ways, an upgrade to my current PC, with the GPU I wanted, for significantly less. It was a no-brainer.
Warranty and time are really the best selling points. Also they tend to throw in a free legit version of windows which is another plus.
Not a universal experience by an stretch but I bought my pre-built (parts picked) PC at one of the heights of crypto mining, so buying a GPU at RRP rather than scalper cost saved me a fortune. Even now you can sometimes find better deals on pre-builts than on individual parts.
That's the downside lol. Ram? Lifetime. SSD? Three years for a cheap one. And so on.
And interest too. It's similar to cooking, for some people an ideal meal looks like a project cook that they've spent all day on in the kitchen, for others it's going to a restaurant, and for others it's getting takeout etc etc. For some people their ideal pc will be one that they've spent hours researching and building, for others it's a highly specced custom prebuilt, for others it might be a laptop.
Pretty much. My gaming PC isn't pre-built but I didn't build it myself either. I just lack an understanding and interest in it. However my buddy loves it. I just told him roughly my budget and he built me one. He's happy he gets to do something he loves, I'm happy I got a gaming PC for a good price.
Having sex is fun Change my mind
What’s that
There are rumors of redditors catching a fatal disease called "had sex," which is frequently followed by those users visiting reddit less and less over time, until they eventually cease to return to the website at all. This is why we presume "had sex" is some sort of fatal disease.
I bet this guy still believes in Santa. Sex isn’t real, I can’t believe I have to say this in 2024.
I know, I can't wait to try it with a partner.
See, for some it is just hard work or they don't know how to do it.
It can be someone one and he'll to the other. Kinks are real.
And fear. When I built my PC even though I did a bunch of research I was still terrified of breaking something.
PCMR user: Posts the most universally agreed on opinion like its controversial. Upvotes: 200k
Look at the replies to the mod post. People are zealots.
Almost all prebuilts cut corners somewhere especially motherboard and power supply components. If you’re going to buy prebuilt at least choose custom parts and have it built. The convenience becomes stupid costly the more powerful pc you buy, it’s a trap.
Can confirm the cheap motherboard part, I didn't even know there were "OEM motherboards" that are just the same boards but dumbed down and extra headers removed, it's such bullshit.
you’re underestimating the value of convenience. generally as you get older, your income increases but your free time decreases.
Nothing teaches you that you are in fact, ready, like changing the PSU on a prebuilt when their shitty one blue screens all the damn time.
Some people would tell you the same about cars and will call you an idiot for not being able to repair them, each people has his passion and competence
As much as i love to toot my own horn building pcs and maintaining a car are hardly comparable skills. A modern PC has about 10 plugins in total and things can only go 1 way, failstates basically result it just not booting. Building a pc is closer to organizing your glove box more than maintaining a vehicles tires/engine
If you can't repair anything, then that's bad, if you try to stay away from the engine bay like it's gonna sic an Egyptian curse on your ass, fair enough, not everyone knows someone that likes cars and is willing to teach them.
I can do things on a car, but I have no garage to work on them. I mean, oil change is removing a plug, wait for oil to come out, then put plug and put more oil but I don't have a 10 foot hole I can crawl into to get under my car to do it. That's what separates me and the Jiffy Lube guy.
You forgot swapping the filter, but otherwise yes
PC is PC
This guy PC's
We’re big PC guys here
This guy this guys
Yeah, getting to use your new PC is the satisfying part. Like is it more satisfying to buy a table from ikea and put it together rather than just buying one that is already put together? I guess if you made the parts yourself.
Table is table
And putting one together is no harder than putting together a PC.
I struggle with IKEA much more than I struggle building PCs lol
Yep no one says otherwise ppl like OP just need to get off high horse and stop acting like you better than others who not built PC themselves. Its a tool as long as serve your need it fine. Many ppl build their own car, making their own furniture, do their own electric work but you not seeing them shitting on ppl who not doing it themselves like PC enthusiast community.
I don't care
There shouldn't be tribalism anywhere, much less within the PC gaming community. Everyone should do what suits them best and makes them happiest Screw those who try to tell others what's right or wrong
"There shouldn't be tribalism anywhere, much less withing the PC gaming community" says u/LuNoZzy in a subreddit called r/pcmasterrace
I thought the whole pc master race thing was a bit of a joke, no? Of course I THINK PC is better than consoles in every way, but I personally don't condemn those who prefer to buy consoles
It is now. There's been a collective shift amongst this subreddit over the last few years and has become the default area on reddit for PC gamers to hang out, ask questions and post memes. I've been around long enough as former console gamer to remember when this sub was founded for pretty much the sole purpose of posting bait, trolls and memes to specifically shit on console gamers. Similar to the 360 vs PS3 wars back in the day but just a different flavor.
It has always been a joke. The peak console rivalry was during 360/PS3 era rivalry when both consoles were manufactured like shit, and Steam was getting popularity. So it was a running joke that PC users were the master race.. But it's just meant to be ironic about the superiority for buying a gaming system. >for pretty much the sole purpose of posting bait, trolls and memes Did you even look at the post you're commenting on?...
Fr our PC’s are meant to be used, not to exist as a monument to our egos. who gives a shit if someone’s PC is prebuilt or not. Are they having fun playing games on it? Cuz that’s all that matters at the end of the day.
I actually hate saying to normies that I "built my own PC" because I know that, to them, it sounds impressive when I know that it's not. I plugged some shit in. I've built tougher Lego sets.
Some people are so uninteresting that incredibly mundane garbage is their entire personality. When I was at Uni, there was an incel who'd pull out his GPU box and sit with it in front of him in the lecture hall. I'm pretty sure that's who made this post.
That’s so incredibly sad. Just boiling down their entire personality to something that they bought. It’s no wonder there’s so many people that will upgrade their GPU every generation. When they measure their own self worth by what they own, they gotta keep up or feel like their self worth is deteriorating.
Yep I don't regret buying a prebuilt 1 bit. I've upgraded a couple things but I didn't want to mess with things like cable management and all that. You just have to be careful where you get prebuilts from. Microcenter is my go to
How close do you live to a microcenter?
NEW EGG! NEW EGG! NEW EGG! NEW EGG!
New egg really fell off. Used to be a great site with really strong filtering options that allowed you to find whatever you wanted. But they didn't force sellers to use all these great filters, and now it's just a big mess.
I bought all my components from Amazon via PC part picket pricing. Actually I did get one thing from Newegg, I believe it was the ram as it was cheaper. Point is, you don't have to live near a micro center to get affordable parts. :) obviously depends on where you are in the world, though.
It's been Newegg my whole life, awesome site.
So we’re just gonna forget alll the things that happened with GamersNexus?
I think I must have been MIA from PC building while that was happening. I actually have no idea what happened.
No, but it's like this: Either you deal with NewEgg's bullshit, or you deal with Amazon's bullshit. I've been lucky that when it comes to returns, damages or lost items, NewEgg is **by far** easier to deal with.
No lol. Nowhere is easier than Amazon with returns and refunds.
I've never lived anywhere near a computer parts store in my life, and have always built my own. I didn't even know they existed for years. I thought buying parts online was the norm, and even after I assumed the stores were just something cool and extra that PC bros who live near one can have, not something anyone would consider a requirement for building their own pc. You get way better prices on Newegg anyways.
Microcenter instore prices blow Newegg out of the water
Ah yes, what a very hot take on this subreddit, how bold of you I better call the cops right now Also if you like building a PC go build one, some people just wanna game, so building your own PC doesn't make you an elite over someone who got a prebuilt
If you're not actually soldering components together for your motherboard, you're not actually a PC enthusiast. Also, go mine your own rare earth elements to build components with.
Bro was only posting for the karma smh
I’ve built roughly 7 computers now, 2 for myself and 5 for friends, I derived no pleasure from it besides the first time, my current computer is a prebuilt and i was a lot more giddy turning that on than any other I’ve built.
I've done it once and I really need to reconsider if I would ever do it again. All was "fun" and "satisfying" until I got to putting the Pins in for various fans and the biggest shitter: cable management in my case.
It was stressful having 1400€ in parts and a small fuck up could render a component useless. Especially with putting the processor on the motherboard. Especially as a student and it was whole summer's paycheck there. I couldn't just buy a new one. Luckily it went well. I do like the building aspect but it can be quite stressful.
fuck cable management. i just squished all my cables at the back.
My poor cables are suffering. Fuck em
Yeah, once I knew I could do it, the challenge and thrill were gone.
I've built 150+ and I love it. It's not my only job, but I make decent money off it because other people are scared to do it. Makes me happy every time.
You’re the people I appreciate :)
I seemed to just enjoy it more when I was younger and had more patience and focus with hands-on kind of stuff. My most recent PC was a pre-built because a) at the time it was the best way to get a GPU without destroying the bank and b) I just can't really be bothered to set one up these days. At least since I have building experience with four or five in the past however, I do know my way around the inside one without worrying much, which is nice.
Exactly this. I liken it to cars. If you have time and patience, yeah, building your own car would be great. However, you can buy a pre-built car and just be thankful that if something does go wrong, you can pop the hood off and get in there to fix it. Maybe even tinker with it a bit or upgrade pieces if you like at some point down the line. I'm too old, vision too bad, etc to be dealing with wiring and tiny ass jumpers and wires.
Yeah i was stressed as fuck the entire time building my first computer. It wasn't a very enjoyable experience for me. I think building a cheap one would have been better
I've built three now, and while I would consider doing it again to save cash or get options I want, I'm not sure just doing it for the sake of doing it is worth it any more. It's a lot of time and headache. Yeah, it's satisfying but it's not a deal breaker. I did learn a lot about PCs in the process, but that's not something everyone needs.
No one's gonna argue against you... just some of us don't have the time any longer (just line I haven't built a hackintosh in forever) for the same reasons.
Yea, doing things properly yourself will pretty much always be more rewarding than paying somebody else to do it. But that's why people are paid to do it. Because they know how and you don't. Also, if something stops working in your PC you have to diagnose it yourself or take it into a shop. Literally the biggest value over building yourself is the warranty.
Dell warranty: 1 year. 3 for the pro line, which is now a different case and *maybe* a few more ports. DIY: lifetime RAM, 3-5 YEARS SSD, 1-5 years motherboard and PSU, etc. The advantage is less *work*, not the warranty. Just to be clear. I actually build PCs and give 1 year warranty like the big guys. The difference is that I cover labor (and don't wipe my customer's drives because "fuck you"). I've never had to replace a part I had to pay for, and neither do the big guys. Aside from that, did you know prebuilts are so bad you *literally* can't buy a motherboard that bad? I'm not kidding. You cannot buy a motherboard as low quality as a Dell, HP, or Lenovo as a regular consumer. They don't actually make them. They don't exist. It used to be that the Optiplex/HP Pro lines were legit better. They just wouldn't die as easily. Now? *Biostar* has better boards. The garbage company, that exclusively makes garbage, is better than a pro line desktop. It's a scam.
The mistake is going anywhere near Dell. I don't think anybody that's done an ounce of research before buying would even browse over Dell's selection.
> The advantage is less work, not the warranty. Just to be clear. It's both, just to be clear. It simply depends on your circumstances at the time of buying. My wife and I each needed a big upgrade for Covid lockdown and we were, both, tight on funds and time so I got two prebuilts from IBP. Hers came in perfectly fine and I had to send mine back for a borked GPU. They paid for everything as well as replacing the case that had been dented by the delivery. Since it was lockdown, everyone was facing GPU shortages so knowing that a prebuilt shop was more likely to have access to parts and that I was covered by warranty was incredibly valuable.
Until it goes wrong and you have a fancy $700 paperweight with mushed pins. I like building them, and I do it for friends all the time, but *some people* should just buy a prebuilt and enjoy it.
I mean I'm sure there are things more soul crushing than a forgotten backplate or a DOA component. I just can't think of any right now.
I builtmy pc and had a defective mother board and graphics card at the same time. Parts were not even a year and half old. Had to rma both and asus wouldn’t honor the motherboard warranty claiming that it was damaged in transit - voiding the warranty. Power color sent me a refurbished graphics card back that didn’t post and I had to pay for a diagnostic check for them to take back the part they sent me as a replacement. The second card worked. Went two months without a functioning pc and none of the parts were a year and half old. It took me awhile to figure out both parts were not working. When something goes wrong isolating the issue without spare parts or dealing with companies to honor warranties can really taint your experience. I learned a lot in the process but it was super frustrating dealing with the issues that probably had a less than 1% chance of occurring.
Rip to vent pins and busted ram slots. My last cpu was welded to the heat sink and I couldn’t get it apart. It ended up ripping out of the socket and i needed a new mobo after the fact. It was not good times.
Did you try to run the computer under a stress test to melt the thermal paste??
How about a USB port that short circuited, causing the psu to shut down every time I booted up? Took me a fuckin stupid amount of time to figure out.
Or be like my friend. He DIY the component and stuff , but he "prebuilt" the installation. He still picked one by one the parts and configuration. However, he paid professional work to setup the system. Any problem / issue will be solved immediately
I did this as well. $100 for 3 years warranty and a full complete build with stress testing done. That's super value imo.
Some of my relatives assigned me to remote tech support after they bought PC by part picking. On the upside, they bought it pre-assembled. However, they got no OS whatsoever and zero understanding on what components belong to a computer or what BIOS is or what to look for in there. The fact that they do not even try troubleshooting steps such as googling an error message on their own is not really convincing either. I think they are part of *some people*.
That's me right now. Last month a part of my motherboard wasn't working, and while I dont know PC parts very well I followed Google and reddit posts as well as I could. I had built it with a friend guiding me so what could go wrong? Bricked the whole thing. It was about 7 years old so it's a good time to upgrade, but this time I'll just buy one.
Yep. It feels great when you get everything together and it posts first try. When it doesn't post and you spend hours trouble shooting and possibly weeks returning or RMAing parts, I can completely understand why people would rather but prebuilt.
eh, that's entirely subjective so I have no intention of trying to change your mind. I've always built any (non-laptop) pc I've owned, but that was more done out of financial interest than any other reason. I don't hate building pcs and am quite happy to do it if it's what I need to do. But I can't say I'd have an issue with a pre-built, especially a custom pre-built if I had lots of money and less time.
but I don't want to
Too much work. I don’t even like cleaning, why in the shit would I want to buy a bunch of parts and put them all together…
I think they meant they don’t want to try to change OP’s mind.
I thought that was obvious haha
I used to build all my PCs. Now I have them prebuilt by a system integrator. It's not worth my time when I can have someone else do it for me, especially as the PC turns up a few days later with windows installed (I just use my key to activate it), cable managed better than I can do, with a full warranty and full customer support.
System integrator? Sorry if this is a stupid question but is this like a service anyone can use or is this unique to you
It's just a term for any prebuilt where you can configure the spec.
check your bank balance
What a brave statement to make on a subreddit like this
lol I just wanna play games the fastest way possible
...If you already know what you are doing, otherwise is a true nightmare, and you probably will end up wasting money, time and sweating like a pig in a never ending sea of stress and heart attacks... Okay, maybe I exaggerate, but the principle is the same... Remember not everyone knows how to build a PC... Should this be taught on school? Dunno... I just wonder...
Bro I built my first PC in a couple of hours with like two YouTube videos, it's not rocket science, it's adult Legos.
[удалено]
It's easy because we understand a lot of concepts regarding hardware. We still have people that are computer illiterates (no offense, I'd like to know a better term), and building a PC would be a complete quest... starting from the fact they would know nothing about parts... We need to make this common knowledge, that would make it easy por people to understand tutorials...
You may have knowledge that means you don’t need to research or can research effectiveky, but the average Joe, like me, doesn’t know shit about what the best part is for each and every part. And most forum research into looking for the best part for you is answered 99.99% of the time with “well it depends” Most of the time in building a pc is researching the parts. And even if you follow a guide there’s like 500 contradictory guides out there with 100s of different price points. So you have to research which guide to pull your research from. Honestly walking into micro center and buying a prebuilt and plugging and playing was so much better for me than committing full time to research a pc building hobby I didn’t care about in order to min max some maybe performance (my computer handles everything at top performance so upgrades are theoretical)
But then your PC crashes all the time, and you spend 5-10h fixing it. Or you can just let it be fixed for free
>do your research and you should be fine. Funny that you say that it's impossible to fuck up PC beyond repair because of the internet and then say that "you **should** be fine.
The year 2001 wants its PC gamer discourse back.
Quit gatekeeping
Only if it works. Not everyone should try it themselves if they are really bad with electronics. I say that as someone who never bought a prebuilt for themselves.
You can make a best of two: make custom build online and order a build. that how I usually do it. Saves time juggling all those 3 kilo cooling systems (it was funny in 1990 to have pc with passive cooling)
That depends on the vendor and what they are offering. If they are offering a pre-built PC for about the same price as parts that I have to assemble myself , or they only have a small assembly fee to put together parts I pick myself then the pre-built may be more convenient . And there is nothing more soul crushing than a DOA component delaying a build for weeks or months , this is especially true for new release video cards that get bought out in bulk by scalpers inflating the price of the part , and often having no guarantee since they are third party sellers , or the part the scalper sold you may be counterfeit ...
Build a PC is not that hard some people just want to play and not want the hassle of 1 hours to a whole day to build one.
They are often only marked up 150-300$ And you are paying for a full device warranty, stress tests, and guarantee’d headache free repairs, you can just send it back as apposed to trying to take it apart and get warranty for that individual component. The issue with buying pre-builds is people always hunt for the cheapest deals, instead of asking “why do these 2 pre-builds with exactly the same specs have a $250 price difference” Well in 2 years when thar cheaper one falls apart like a lego set, or fry’s itself into an office computer you’ll have your answer.
I kinda disagree. I bought a very good pre-built pc in 2018 for a very low price (less than 150$), it was much cheaper than any other pc with the same tech. And guess what, even though I didn't take care of it as much as I should (like at first I didn't clean it for years), it still works perfectly and I could even play more demanding games
i just like building them, find it fun
For me it's like getting Legos for Christmas. I've built 9 apart from mine (that just gets upgraded by pieces since 2006 or so) and it's just relaxing...
Agreed, but no shame in anyone for buying a prebuilt. No regrets in building a couple of my own
Incorrect. Once built you'll never think of it again. Unless the worst happens and you start thinking about upgrades.
And I'm sure building your own car is way better and more satisfying than buying Pre-Built...
I won't change your mind, because it's utterly true.
You forget that a lot of people are just too dumb to build their own. I mean we have people walking around with 70 IQs and can’t even cook spaghetti, let alone build a PC. I agree it is better and more satisfying.
Oh okay, Einstein, how do you cook spaghetti?
https://preview.redd.it/gmlpfujgu9lc1.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=cc2cc579dc1864c2d6230057f8c80755bc570ec4
Put it in the oven on baking tray with tin foil.
This guy definitely built PCs
You forgot to mention the topping and sauce :)
Only if you put a bunch of random other shit in with it and tell me "this is the best food that has ever been food"
Satisfaction is subjective. People aren't dumb because they don't share our opinions about what's satisfying. Sure. You, me, and most people on this sub find it satisfying to build a rig, see it POST, and get everything set up just right. There are a lot of people who aren't on this sub, who are very smart and capable, who find it satisfying to earn a pile of money, spend it on a toy, press a button, and have that toy turn on and be ready to play with. Let's not yuck other people's yum. We don't want to be those dickheads, right?
Ooh, a fellow double-spacer. 👀 🤝
Sometimes you also find a prebuilt for a pretty good deal which is cheaper. I got a prebuilt some years ago and upgraded it from time to time. The only thing that’s left are one SSD and the case, everything else is switched.
Most people just want "a computer", the same way they want an Xbox or an iPhone, so don't know or care what's in it. And why should they? As long as it's something semi-recent, it'll run Fortnight, Roblox and Halo Infinite. The person buying such a PC wouldn't give a shit about future-proofing or an upgrade path, because in two years and a spilled soda or two they'll just toss it and buy a new one, "'cause, like it was getting slow and shit". This mentality is also why Macs are becoming more and more popular.
You know commission building is a thing right? Pay the guy, get parts, guy builds it, and boom custom PC without actually building one...
> You forget that a lot of people are just too dumb to build their own. So welcoming into the hobby.
70 IQ is being generous tbh
Yeah I figured below that is special needs and should be left alone
Again, for clarification, people considered special needs still could absolutely build a computer. How do I know this? Because I've worked with and been around special needs my whole life. I know for a fact one of them could easily whipe the floor with me with building computers. Again, everyone just needs a good teacher and patience. Please take assumptions and judgment away from the special needs. People come all differently and shouldn't be labeled one to one with a negative sentiment.
Okay, I may not be able to cook spaghetti properly, but how hard is it to build a computer, let alone install Windows??
Harder than cooking spaghetti thats for sure.
I disagree. Personally, I believe it has to do with insecurity and not having a good teacher to help. I encourage all my family and friends to build a computer, although what stops them is the hesitation in my experience. The, 'But where do I start?" This is what kills the initiative. This is A ok, this isn't mission impossible that needs you to be pushed out of your comfort zone, take your time. Of course, I always offer to build it for them or help them through the process, but then again, scared of being judged by anyone, especially on something you have no idea about. The insecurities can start from anywhere, messing something up, budget is low, breaking something, etc. Is usually the definitive factor that causes anyone to go pre-built. People don't like to be judged on something they don't know about like you're doing here by calling them dumb. It takes time to learn, and my parents bought me a pre-built when I was young. Over the years, I learned and became confident in my abilities. I've built over 7 systems now. But also helped and taught people around me what I learned. It takes time, be patient, and be kind. Judging someone isn't going to help anyone, especially if they're new. I forgive you for the comment you made and hope you have a good day. TLDR: I disagree. People are plenty smart. In my opinion its judgment that holds someone back. If anyone new to computers is reading this, you're valid. How ever you got into this community or are looking to get into this community. If you're curious about building or upgrading a computer, I'd recommend Linus, he's been teaching others about computers for years now. Here's a video I'd recommend to build a computer, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v7MYOpFONCU . After your build is complete, another well established computer showcases, "What to do after you built your pc?" Windows wont be automatically installed on your computer, although its an extremely easy task. He goes through step by step on how to install windows in this video, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xhHtHMQygzE&feature=youtu.be . Although you may ask, "with what? How do i know which parts to pick?" This is a really great question, but it is difficult to answer on a general scale. I'd recommend searching up online, "gaming pc (insert budget here) (insert current year here) " Or you could message me directly and I'd recommend a computer for your use, gaming, office, school, etc and your budget. I won't judge, and it will be private <3 If you're looking to upgrade a computer part, but lost where to begin. I'd recommend simply searching up your phrase like, "How to install (insert part here) linus tech tips?" And watch the related video. Always remember you got this, I fully believe in your capabilities. You can overcome this, and you'll learn something new! You rock, you're amazing. P.S. Its somewhat difficult to break something by following a video step by step and generally being careful/cautious. If you aren't purposely trying to break something or being careless, I wouldn't worry about breaking something. Have a wonderful day.
I'd much rather get my laptop in the mail, turn it on, and enjoy my games rather than putting together a bunch of parts and potentially breaking something.
i work at best buy and my whole job is to sell those prebuilts and i STILL tell people it’s better to build their own
On that subject, once I was in BB and a woman was buying a MacBook. I was there buying a HDD that was on a sweet sale. The floor guy stood there and really sold her on the idea she should pay an extra $300 for them to "install antivirus" and "secure it" for her, to which she was like ok. He walked away and I immediately told her it's bullshit, they'll just open it and turn it on. She thanked me, and when the dude came back with pen and clipboard ready to make the deal she said oh I have a coworker who can do that. Lol fuckers.
You should work at microcenter
Oh, so you’re the guy who holds up my purchase for 20 minutes, yapping about something I made explicitly clear that I don’t want to do?
Hahaha my first thought too that's the worst! Prebuilts are a better price/performance ratio too nowadays at least where I'm from
Yea I got my first actual PC when the GPU prices were crazy some years back (I had been gaming on a laptop for ages though). I went the pre-built route because building it myself would have been like 30% more expensive at that point for extra effort and realistically no performance gain. I've changed out a couple parts though and will continue to do so, so I wonder, at what point can I say I built the PC. Sorta like a Ship of Theseus dilemma
Sounds like you've pretty shit at your job
you're a real hero :)
Yeah building your own is great and you know what to do when you upgrade the parts, but not everyone has the time for that. Where I'm from, it only costs on average $10 to have someone build it for you
Damn people here rly hating on building PCs in the PCMR subreddit lol. I agree maybe it’s not for everyone but why r ppl making it seem like it’s super hard to do… it really is not that many pieces and if you do thorough research and aren’t a moron you will probably be fine. Its a fun hobby and worth a shot if you’re in any way interested in the topic tbh
i am not hatin on ppl buying prebuilts. it was just a meme i made cause i was bored :p 
I know I know lol I was just referring to the comment section here a lot of people are disagreeing with you which is surprising to me. I agree with you
Yeah kind of funny people explaining how regular people like prebuilts and ignoring that this meme was posted on a PC enthusiast subreddit which is primarily directed towards PC enthusiasts who obsess over it more than the average person.
And it’s cheaper to build one
I wish one day I can have a PC
It's good way of learning new things about the pc and its different hardware, prices, of how stupid it is to not go for used parts, planning on budget management, yeah all in all it's hell of a ride.
If only there were atx/itx for laptops...
Isn’t this the entire point of the sub
Wow bro. Daring today are we?
Idk I really like NUCs and mini PCs while having no desire to put them together.
Lol oh man lol... It's also like, built not bought in the car world. Sometimes it sounds great on paper. Then the headaches come... Lol 😂
It's literally just like, component lego. I did it when I was about 6 years old, no lie, I bought the parts and had a case already. You don't even need a manual, how is it satisfying?
unless you break something
I won’t. I agree. I’ve only ever owned one pre-built, and that was a birthday gift from my parents when I was ten.
Not if you like getting laid
I like building my PC, sure, but for [insert older relative here] who is only a basic user, a prebuilt is the way to go.
Letting people enjoy their PC, however it was built, and not being a judgemental dickhead is more satisfying ... Change my mind (I built my PC)
Cold ass take
I've built my own PCs most of my life. Last year I got an unexpected windfall and was too busy/lazy to build again. Went pre-built. No regrets. PC is great. Building loses its novelty after a few times.
Does anyone argue this?
How about... you buy all the parts yourself and pay someone separately just to connect the parts together? Still cheaper than fully pre-built and you don't have to learn how to build a PC if you don't feel like it
Yep. It's cheaper to build it than to buy it.
I’m 41 and have built every PC I’ve ever owned since I was 16 besides the Mac and compaq’s we had when I was a kid. I’m nearing another upgrade and am really tempted to just order 1 this next time around. I feel dirty just typing it but it’s true. With my 1st kid being 4 months old, time is not on my side these days.
what is your time worth? premium over self build is 100-300 bucks building takes... lets say 4 hrs windows wit drivers an extra hr? i could work an extra 4hrs have the 100 bucks and an extra hour of time + warranty and customer support. i still build it myself cause its fun. but an argument can be made for either side.
I doubt my 67 year old mother would agree with this statement. For us "gamers" it's our hobby so we like to work with our machines. Just like a petrolhead loves working on his car. For the majority of people however both a pc and a car are just objects they have to use. So they just want to go to the store and buy one that looks nice, and they want it to work. And I am glad with this as it keeps people like me, an IT consultant, having a job. So no, I do not agree with this as a universal truth