Cheaper to buy Pre-built PC's, suggested builders?

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biggles

2[H]4U
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With the continuing high prices for gpu's due to crytocurrency mining, it has become more economical to buy a pre-built PC rather than upgrade or assemble on your own. I believe this is because the PC builders buy in bulk and get the gpu at MSRP.

So, which builders are recommended that are reasonably priced with decent quality? I tried Cyberpowerpc in 2014. They were okay, not great but not terrible. What do folks think of ibuypower or alienware?

Prefer to avoid the super expensive places like Digital Storm or Falcon Northwest.
 
I just built last week. Its still far better to me to build out of quality parts with the features you want than going OEM with the cheapest parts internally possible (for them).
 
I think it all depends on what you want. I don't really go "looking" for these deals, but IGN regularly in their "Daily Deals" more or less ALWAYS has a midrange PC getting listed amongst the deals. Usually Dell or Alienware (which no doubt are advertising partners).

Still, today's deal was this machine:
http://deals.dell.com/productdetail...acd=12309198375458460&VEN3=112504270207583705

$1050 for an i5 8400 + 1070 + 16GB of Ram. (Select the 1070 in the options).

Of course the area in which all of these OEMS can skimp are the PSU and the motherboard. There is no mobo info on the listing other than the form factor. I'm sure you could find this information if you cared to try and dig it all up, but it's safe to assume it's the cheapest possible parts that they could procure (or manufacture themselves), while still generally able to survive their warranty period.

I also read up on Slickdeals most every day via Feedly. I'll generally see a gaming machine on sale somewhere at least a few times a week. So if getting a deal is what you want and you have the cash and are ready to pull the trigger, I'd say it's more or less on you to do the work of grinding through deals every week until the right one comes by.
 
biggles said:
With the continuing high prices for gpu's due to crytocurrency mining, it has become more economical to buy a pre-built PC rather than upgrade or assemble on your own. I believe this is because the PC builders buy in bulk and get the gpu at MSRP.

So, which builders are recommended that are reasonably priced with decent quality? I tried Cyberpowerpc in 2014. They were okay, not great but not terrible. What do folks think of ibuypower or alienware?

Prefer to avoid the super expensive places like Digital Storm or Falcon Northwest.
Click to expand...

I've been buying Alienware for my past two systems. Both times it was more cost effective buying the Alienware rather than building my own.

Once you include the 15% discount almost anyone can get, and an additional 5% cash back it's very price competitive. You also get a pretty decent warranty.

I miss the 'adventure' of building my own PC, but the Alienware's have just been more cost effective and easier.

The only thing to remember that they do price gouge on is storage. Get the lowest end storage option you can and just do that on your own. Memory is the same story. GPU used to largely be the same as well, but with current prices that likely isn't the case anymore.
 
I feel that even with the increased cost of certain parts (notably GPUs - and there ARE ways to mitigate things like this by the way. Staples price match for instance, or going in person to MicroCenter etc), building your own machine will have greater benefits now and in the future, as well as better overall value. The benefit of knowing you are getting a quality top-to-bottom build with a name-brand power supply and motherboard, chassis that is "standardized" that you picked yourself etc...as well as avoiding markup seems a bonus compared to pulling something off the shelf. From how you describe things, you don't want to go for any of the more expensive "boutique" builders (and thats okay), but that will mean the large corps - Dell, HP. Lenovo etc, or some of the "no-name" OEMs, each of which has their own set of more likely problems and challenges.

This is not to say you can't find some fantastic deals now and then, but these are typically time limited offers that pop up now and then - check out Slickdeals, various sub-Reddits dedicated to computer hardware deals (ie /r/buildapcsales ) and more. If you really want to buy prebuilt and aren't going to camp for a black-friday-like deal, I suggest the "specialist" builders who are a step below "boutique" and typically are less expensive. For instance, lots of people have great experiences with www.xoticpc.com (and if you're open to/want to support Linux, check out www.system76.com ). These kind of places build with "real, name brand" components, but unlike the "boutique" Falcon Northwest / Voodoo / OriginPC etc... don't do so much auto-quality painting or making uber-expensive, custom cases w/custom water, so their prices are better. Note that I hear that OriginPC is a good company though, if the prices work for you.

Good luck!
 
UnknownSouljer said:
I think it all depends on what you want. I don't really go "looking" for these deals, but IGN regularly in their "Daily Deals" more or less ALWAYS has a midrange PC getting listed amongst the deals. Usually Dell or Alienware (which no doubt are advertising partners).

Still, today's deal was this machine:
http://deals.dell.com/productdetail...acd=12309198375458460&VEN3=112504270207583705

$1050 for an i5 8400 + 1070 + 16GB of Ram. (Select the 1070 in the options).

Of course the area in which all of these OEMS can skimp are the PSU and the motherboard. There is no mobo info on the listing other than the form factor. I'm sure you could find this information if you cared to try and dig it all up, but it's safe to assume it's the cheapest possible parts that they could procure (or manufacture themselves), while still generally able to survive their warranty period.

I also read up on Slickdeals most every day via Feedly. I'll generally see a gaming machine on sale somewhere at least a few times a week. So if getting a deal is what you want and you have the cash and are ready to pull the trigger, I'd say it's more or less on you to do the work of grinding through deals every week until the right one comes by.
Click to expand...

I just saw that computer on SD with a $200 rebate. $30 more gets you a 1070TI. Seems like a heck of a deal for a prebuilt. Can even get close to building something similar for the price. Toss in a SSD and you good to go.

https://slickdeals.net/f/11272059-d...1070-850-after-200-slickdeals-rebate-free-s-h
 
I've bought from MAINGEAR many times and have never been disappointed.
 
I bought the core of a system from iBuypower and was happy with what I got. Definitely make sure things are tight when you get it (especially the cooler - they can shake loose in transit) but it was otherwise a solid purchase. At the time I bought it, it was the same price as buying the same stuff a la carte. They tossed in the Windows license and a couple games at no charge. Ditto with a bare bones but functional KB/M combo.

My wife still has about 1/2 of those components and the case up and running right now sans any issues.
 
Falcon Northwest has been around forever. I remember PC gaming mags recommending them back in the early 90's.
 
The Dells appear to have only a 1 year warranty, is this correct? Not good vs 3 years on average for a gpu purchased on its own. I think EVGA even used to have lifetime warranties. With the inflated prices on gpu's lately the warranty is now more important than before.
 
before building myself back in the day I bought one of my first gaming rigs from Falcon Northwest...really great builder...the wiring job was amazing...I also remember Alienware being big back then but I never liked them for some reason
 
Alienware just needs to ditch the weird cases and makes something halfway normal. I think Raidmax tried to copy Alienware for years and had some success.
 
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883152324
How about this one? It is out of stock almost everywhere, however, there is another configuration available:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883152376
Looks like the same thing except 8700 non-K cpu and air cooling instead of liquid.

I have had a couple of MSI gaming laptops that have been excellent, the only bad part being bloatware which can be removed.

These desktop gaming PC's look good due to cooling (low noise and good temps), price, looks (subjective), hardware features, and potential for upgrades. Not a lot of reviews on them, the Inifinite X models are the successor to the Infinite A product.
 
biggles said:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883152324
How about this one? It is out of stock almost everywhere, however, there is another configuration available:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883152376
Looks like the same thing except 8700 non-K cpu and air cooling instead of liquid.

I have had a couple of MSI gaming laptops that have been excellent, the only bad part being bloatware which can be removed.

These desktop gaming PC's look good due to cooling (low noise and good temps), price, looks (subjective), hardware features, and potential for upgrades. Not a lot of reviews on them, the Inifinite X models are the successor to the Infinite A product.
Click to expand...

Check Slickdeals my dude. This seems to be the best deal on there now:


HP OMEN Desktop - 880-010z Ryzen 5, NVIDIA GTX 1080 $1012.49

Use code 25BMSM2018 for (25%OFF)

If You have AMEX Simplicity Business card and have selected right category, You can get additional 3% back

AMD Hexa-Core RYZEN 5 1600
8 GB memory
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1080 8G
500 W Bronze efficiency power supply
Windows 10 Home
Black Interior Paint; Air Cooling Solution (65w Processor)
1 TB HDD storage

https://slickdeals.net/f/11336859-o...x-1080-1012-49?src=catpagev2_catnav_computers


OP, I went through the system builder and you can upgrade to the:

Ryzen 7 1800X ($170 option)
Black Interior Paint; Liquid Cooling Solution ($70 option (Required for CPU choice))
Nvidia GTX 1080 8G ($350 option)

Totals: $1,489.99 (Ships April 3rd)

Apply Coupon Code: 25BMSM2018

Brings Total to $1,192.49.

I think this deal is the best out there for prebuilts. Have to wait a little bit, but that price for a Ryzen 1800X and a GTX 1080 is pretty boss.

Product link isn't working. Here is the correct link on HP's website:

http://store.hp.com/us/en/Configure...0151&urlLangId=&catEntryId=1736154&quantity=1
 
Last edited:
After doing some reading I decided against the Ryzen based system in the HP. Also, some bad experiences with HP in the past, so not a preferred builder.

Regarding the MSI Infinite X, I think the video card orientation would reduce thermal performance with the glass side panel, correct? There is not much space between the gpu and side panel. The PC actually comes with a standard metal side panel with vents, so using that one should solve the problem. Are these good assumptions?

I found some information on this from reviews in foreign languages that seem to validate the above.
https://translate.google.com/transl...ne-un-pre-assemblato-non-da-poco/&prev=search

Google translate is not perfect, but it seems to say the gpu is reaching 80c during gaming. Normally the MSI gtx 1070 should max out around 72c with its cooling (based on reviews elsewhere).
 
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