Building Vs Buying - An Analytical Comparison

[Freddie]

Basement regulars will know that we will get a lot threads in here with people wanting to buy new PC's and other who want to build there own and want advice on components. Often when people come here for advice their told that rather then buying they should look at building there own instead, but how does building a custom PC stack up against a pre built PC.

For this comparison I'll be using a popular UK PC site called overclockers.co.uk because there fairly competitive on price but they only supply quality components which is exactly what your want when building a gaming rig. I'll compare there own pre built systems against buying the same parts from there own store.

- Pre built PC's come with no OS, monitor, keyboard & mouse by default at this store
- Pre built PC's are not overclocked

Mainstream PC

Titan Hailstorm Intel Core 2 Quad Core Q6600 2.40GHz DDR2 System



- Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
- Abit IP35 Pro XE Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
- Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775)
- OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel Platinum Series DDR2 (OCZ2P10664GK)
- Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail (21133-04-20)
- LG GH22NS40 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000333AS)
- OCZ ModXStream Pro 600w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Modular Power Supply
- Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound professionally hand installed by our technicians
- Coolermaster Elite 335

£776.24 inc VAT

Vs

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Not much of a saving here only £20 I suppose you do get a stock HSF you can sell on Ebay which can recoup you a few more £'s back. If you shop around for parts you could probably save yourself another £14-£20 on parts.

High End Gamer PC

Ultima Cyclone Intel Core i7 Quad Core 920 2.66Ghz DDR3 System



- Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366)
- Gigabyte EX58-UD4P Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
- OCZ 3GB DDR3 PC3-15000 (3x1GB) Reaper Low-Voltage Triple Channel (OCZ3RPR1866C9LV3GK)
- XFX ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2048MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail
- Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB 10000RPM SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD3000HLFS)
- LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray Reader & HD-DVD ROM Serial ATA Drive - Retail
- Akasa AK-967 Nero Direct Contact Heatpipe CPU Cooler
- OCZ ModXStream Pro 700w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Modular Power Supply
- Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound professionally hand installed by our technicians
- 1yr Onsite Collect & Return Warranty
- Coolermaster Elite 335

£1466.24

Vs

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

For a lot of us this is probably the absolute most we would ever want to spend on PC. Over £100 can be saved by building the PC yourself which could probably be done in an afternoon. £100 may not sound a huge amount but you try going out and earning that amount especially in this current financial climate.

Extreme Performance PC

Ultima Extreme Black Widow Intel Core i7 965 3.20Ghz Extreme Edition System



- Intel Core i7 965 3.20Ghz (Nehalem) Extreme Edition (Socket LGA1366) - Retail
- Asus Rampage II Extreme Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
- Corsair 12GB DDR3 Dominator PC3-14400C9 1866MHz (6x2GB) Triple Channel DDR3 (TR3X6G1866C9DF)
- 2x XFX GeForce GTX 295 1792MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) SLi
- Zotac GeForce 9800 GT 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) PhysX & CUDA
- LG GGW-H20L Blu-Ray Rewriter & HD-DVD ROM Serial ATA Drive - Retail
- 2x Intel X25-E Extreme 32GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive RAID 0
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB SATA-II 32MB Cache
- Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366)
- PC Power & Cooling Turbo Cool 1200W Power Supply
-Coolmaster HSF 932 Case

£5163.48 inc VAT

Vs

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Ok this comparison is interesting but lets face it there are very few people who can afford to spend this kind of money on a PC, but the look at the markup, 25%! By building it yourself you save yourself £1100 of the list price.


So what does this show us? Basically the more expensive your tastes are the more it makes sense to build your own PC and it pays to shop around for the best deal which is something that I haven't done here so that £20 and £100 saving on the mainstream and High end gamers could be more like £40 and £150 respectively.

[Stilgar CG]

Your analysis is fair enough, Freddie. There are some other considerations that are relevant for deciding to build or buy pre-built (specific needs, software/hardware knowledge, etc), but those will unlikely change the general conclusion you came to.

[zachattack]

The simple answer is the stronger the PC you want is, the cheaper it'll be to build it.

However, if you've never done it before, it might be worth sacrificing the extra $ (or pound, in your case) to save yourself countless hours of trying to figure out what does who.

[AlfonsoVIII]

But make sure store bought pcs have good enough psu and have a pci-e slot. Newer HP carry a 160 watt power supply ( not a typo one hundred sixty) and newet dells do not have pci-e slots on the mobo. Be careful of the pre-built systems.

[Selifator]

Only problem being that if you don't know how to build your own system, you might not know what the hell those things are or where to find all of them. Which is my situation.

[Freddie]

Only problem being that if you don't know how to build your own system, you might not know what the hell those things are or where to find all of them. Which is my situation.

It's not hard to build a PC and building a PC is a good way to learn how PC's work. Besides all the instructions you need can be found on the manuals that comes with the CPU and motherboard if you get stuck, the trickiest part of a build for myself is connecting up the front power switches and LED's but that's only because it's fiddly.

[Cyrus the Virus]

It's not hard to build a PC and building a PC is a good way to learn how PC's work. Besides all the instructions you need can be found on the manuals that comes with the CPU and motherboard if you get stuck, the trickiest part of a build for myself is connecting up the front power switches and LED's but that's only because it's fiddly.

The problem is when you encounter issues/problems, like Lusted has described here in the basement.
That can be troublesome. It ain't always easy, it's not just putting the parts together and power it up.

I agree on that power switches and LED's are difficult. Disconnected them earlier and when attempting to connect them back, I had to figure out what was minus and etc on the motherboard. That sounds stupid, doesn't it? Well that's me anyway, because it wasn't clear at all.

[Doono]

The problem I have with this comparison is that the prices on the components when bought seperatly may be artificially inflated to make it appear as the prebuilt is better value than it is. If you were purchasing he same components but a different version for example you save alot more money.
For example:

Saphire 4870 1GB is £212.74
Power Colour 4870 1GB is £190.89


To prove my theory further the exact same gpu (saphire 4870) is available for £193.14 from scan

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1Gb-S...MHz-PCIE-2xDVI

Basically all im saying is the values on the site may be tweaked to make you think your getting a better deal on the prebuild than you think.

[Freddie]

Well if they have inflated the prices to make the pre built system look better the comparison proves that not the case. Using the exact same parts brought individually it's still cheap then the pre built systems and that's before shopping around for cheaper prices.

[mrmouth]

Right now its a fantastic time to actually take advantage of so called bare bones kits here in the US. E-tailers like TigerDirect and Newegg are moving these packages, typically with brand name MB's, Phenom dual and quad cpu's, 1TB HDD's, decent PSU's, and upwards of 8gigs of brand name ddr2 ram for, $150-300 total. If your looking for a new PC to run ETW, now might be the time to spend a few hundred dollars.

Its not anywhere near bleeding edge, but any one of these packages knocks my PC out of the water by a good amount. And Im going to run ETW on medium/high settings.

So if you already have an OS, and a video card, you can get a new gaming PC for $150 with one of these kits, that should last a few years at least. And the price/performance/longevity balances out. I mean even one of the kits that are $150 I could stretch that for upwards of five years. Im into year five with my Athlon 3200 based PC.


I'm all for building your own PC, at least once. However, after that its a no brainer to have it built by a shop that will guarantee the build. These are guys who do nothing but assemble PC's. For maybe $30, you simply drop off the parts, and a day or two later, you have a PC with OS installed and updated.

And yeah, connecting LED's is a nightmare even on a well mapped and labeled board. Those little plugs are a nightmare.

[Pent uP Rage]

Of course, it depends on how and where you shop as well. Taking advantage of combo deals and rebates is key. And there's ALWAYS a deal or a rebate at any of the major e-tailers.

[OccamR]

Great job Freddie!
I'd recommend this go into the Computer and Games catalogue.

Also, you should mention warranties.

[Freddie]

Great job Freddie!
I'd recommend this go into the Computer and Games catalogue.

Also, you should mention warranties.

Pre built PC’s typically come with a standard 1 year return to base warranty which is what your get with most PC components.

[Gorrrrrn]

My previous PC was cobbled together from recycled items from older PCs plus a case/mobo/cpu/memory core that I assembled from new. I then upgraded various older components. I can recommend trying out your skills on older obsolete equipment so there's not too much money riding on it if you damage things.

My new machine was custom built by power computing but it's already had a couple of additions. If you're not confident about what you're doing or (like myself have eye-sight difficulties with tiny components) then it might be a good idea to get the core of the system built for you by a reputable dealer (not a box shifter) and have them test it and make sure it's working. You'll also get a guarantee which is good for as long as the dealer stays in business (no guarantees of that in a recession!) Once you have a solid base you can add extra drives, cards etc. (those are relatively easy to do.)

[AlfonsoVIII]

And some mom and pop places that sell computers, like me, offer 3 year warranties on all our prebuilts, which is what the manufacturer of the prebuilts give us. They are not name brand, they are the same quality pre-builts that many of us in the basement have.