Gaming PC building and buying is a russian roulette

Multivitaminico

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The problem with the gaming PCs around $500-800 made by Cybertron, Cyberpower, Ibuypower, and all other custom gaming PC companies, is that they are half ass built and have low-quality parts. They have hundreds of bad reviews all over Amazon, Newegg, and so many other websites. People complain that they all crap out or malfunction in some way. Also, their guarantee policies are shady and even if you send the PC for repair, you will have to spend money on shipping, with no guarantee that it will be repaired. In many cases, it comes back unrepaired.

Thus, the average noob who simply wants buy and play cannot win, he is screwed and they take advantage of this fact. It is a game of Russian roulette, where some people get lucky (their system lasts longer) while others get screwed. These machines are overpriced and not made to last. You cannot buy or build a legit long lasting reliable gaming PC for $500. It is simply not possible no matter what the internet has you believe.

On the other hand, you have the snobs who build their own PCs and make it sound as if is as easy, cheap and risk-free as assembling a lego. The problem with this is that you are on your own, there is no guarantee, except for the parts. If you screw something up, good bye $500. Also, most people buy the cheapest parts they can find (trying to save money, which is the whole purpose of building it yourself in the first place). The result is a system that will not last and it will prone to malfunctioning just like the custom gaming builders. At the most, it may be slightly better, but it will still crap out sooner or later.

The only LEGIT solution is to stop trying to be a cheap ass and impress others with your cheap build and invest thousands in the legit companies, such as Asus, Lenovo, Toshiba, Acer, etc that are know to build reliable PCs and even those can also come with problems from time to time.

In summary, buying or building a gaming PC is a russian roulette, where you have to be a lucky, if not you get screwed and lose hundreds, the noob who doesn't care about learning PCs, taking risks and all he wants is to plug and play, cannot win, might as well get a ps4 and call it a day. They work without problems in 95% of the time, which is why they are preferred by the majority of people.


 
Ok?
Im taking it you didnt have a good time with systems in the past.
Everyone already knows prebuilts from sites such as the mentioned are a bad idea. You generally get ripped off, and components such as the MOBO and PSU are cheaped out on.
That being said, building a PC is relatively easy if you actually take your time. Even if you mess up, its not the whole system gone, only a portion of the cost that can easily be avoided with some proper common sense. CPUs have mounting arrows, graphics cards only go in one way, PSUs are labeled, and ports are not interchangable, headers are labeled, and software is easy.
There are certain pre-built units that are solid, but they take time to come across. Proper research and planning makes for a very easy, painless, and cheaper approach to PCs.
 

Multivitaminico

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In the PC gaming community, they only show the successful builds, but nobody posts or talks about the hundreds, if not thousands of noobs, who followed youtube videos and internet guides to the T, and invested their money in parts, only for their system to crap and lose most of their investment. Nobody posts the bad stories, only the good ones, where X person magically built a $2000 system for $500.

Most people simply want to plug and play. If you refuse to take a huge risk with PC building, your only solution is to spend more money on the big companies who are known to build good system from the factory, which also comes with decent warranties. I have been researching PC gaming building and it is a chaos, where there is conflicted advice everywhere and 99% of guides and videos just simply suck. They are not detailed at all.

Most noobs come to this realization on their own. You cannot win with buying custom pre-built system or building it yourself. You take a huge risk in both, even more so when building it yourself. My only solution is to fork out more than 1k for a decent gaming PC from the big computer companies.
 

viewtyjoe

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I must have great luck, then, because I've built 2.5 systems (did a motherboard and processor swap on the newer one) and had not a single component fail outside of normal expectations (crappy PSU died, I was expecting it)

As Gam3r01 states, building a PC is easier than most people think as long as you are willing to slow down and do some research if you aren't sure what you're doing.
 
Its not a huge risk. If little ol 13 year old me could figure it out, most everyone with common sense can. 6 years later ive completed 7 additional builds for friends, plus subsequent upgrades, and countless repair jobs, without issue.
Nobody posts about that on youtube because its a media site, the people who make the videos get paid based on their viewer base. Everyone wants to see a video about a 2000 dollar system for 500, but that is exactly why youtube is not the place to go for computer advice.
Thats like going on instagram because your water heater is out.
 

Multivitaminico

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^^^ I'm not new to this game. I have watched and read many guides and videos on the internet. They all suck and are vague as hell. I dare you to link me to a super detailed guide, where it basically takes me by the hand like a baby, where to buy, what to do exactly, and even if you follow the guide to the T, there is no guarantee that the build will be successful. I simply refuse to take that big of a chance with my hard earned money and possibly lose hundreds just to play some GAMES. How ironic, the whole reason to try and build it yourself, is to save money and then, something bad happen, and you lose it lol

I want peace of mind, knowing that I won't lose money and this is not something that custom PC builders like buypower, etc or trying to build it myself can give me

 

Multivitaminico

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What if I follow the guide, assemble the PC and it craps out, who helps me then? who covers my losses? you? Tomshardware? I don't want to lose money. I have read bad stories of people who got screwed by following internet guides.
 
That depends on what you consider losses. If its your fault (IE dropping things) you are responsible. If a component fails however, it is the manufactures responsibility to replace it, and they will treat you much better than any other warranty for prebuilt units.
If someone cant follow an online guide (which is written by real people you know) then how else could they do it. Spoken words? No. Written? These are written too.
 

viewtyjoe

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I have heard enough stories about people who have had bad experiences driving, flying, or any other number of activities. Everything in life has an inherent risk level. If you aren't ready to be on the hook for a few hundred dollars' worth of precision electronics, that's fine, accept that you pay a premium to have someone else take on that risk. You can't have the cheapest, most effective PC, but also have coverage against anything. It's a balance of risk to reward.

As Gam3r01 and I have both indicated in our anecdotes, we've successfully taken on the risk of building systems and succeeded. In my particular case, one system failed, and because it had been running long enough, I had no recourse with manufacturers. So I built another one. It's not any different than buying a new smartphone aside from assembly being required.

If you're that paranoid about something failing, look into insurance policies or get the Newegg warranties or whatever you want to defray the risk, but accept that there is a dollar cost to doing so.
 
Its kind of like going to Ikea and complaining they give you a box instead of a built chair. Some things you have to do on your own.
Or you can spend hundreds to have a handyman come do it for you.

Taking it a step further. Instead of hiring and electrition my father taught me how to wire outlets and similar. At my job they were about to buy a new (used) spotlight for several hundred dollars to replaced our current one that stopped working. I went inside and fixed the broken wiring and now it works. Could someone else have dont it? Yes. Would it have been their issue? Yes. Would it have cost more? Yes. Would I have gotten promoted? No.