home built vs pre-built/advice

[jstib]

Hi all, ive been torn on the decision to build my gaming pc or to buy a pre-built, and have been leaning toward pre built for various reasons, mainly time constraints and lack of experience. Anyway my question is what company would give me the best bang for the buck with performance and reliability in the mix.

Thanks for any and all responses!

 

[resiroth]

Build it. It doesn't take that long, with a screwless case you could probably build it in 2-3 hours. You'd save money, you'd know what you're getting and you'd probably be able to fix anything if it went wrong. Also, places like cyberpower don't say what video card brand or ram brand they use since they are cutting corners. resellerratings.com search for the store before you buy. Personally I'd go with building it yourself.

 

[mad-dog]

Steer well clear of Cyberpower, i have heard nothing but horror stories about them, her, him, it...whatever is doing work over there.....
Falcon Northwest and ABS are the only 2 i can recommend to you for pre-built.....however i wish i could talk you into building it yourself with our help, there is so much you will learn and the satisfaction is unrivaled.
I have thought about assembling pc's for little to nothing just for people like you that don't have the time or knowledge but still want their fingerprints on it and wouldn't give Dell the time of day...
Good luck

 

[SPARTAN-117]

Alienware or Dell are the 2 best IMO for pre-builts. Falcon Northwest is in between pre-built and DIY just because of the wide selection you have for PC parts in their rigs (although this equals a premium price). As far as DIY goes, you'll spend a 1/4 of the cost of the same pre-built and get exactly what you want. I spent $2500 3 months ago on my rig and the exact same thing that I built would have cost me nearly $8000 at Alienware. In addition to this, this PC that I built was my first ever and I had absolutly no help what-so-ever! So it's not that hard, just approch it with a Spartan's attitude. Don't force things to fit but be fearless and just plow through like a Spartan and you'll be fine.

My System:

AMD 64 X2 3800+ OC'ed to 2.2 Ghz
BFG 7900 GTX 512 mb OC'ed
ASUS A8N-SLi Deluxe
2 Gb Kingston Value RAM CAS Latency 2.5-3-3-6
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 4
Westen Digital 74 Gb Raptor ADFD
2x Western Digital 250 Gb Caviar SE
3x Thermaltake Hardcano 14 HDD coolers
Thermaltake Blue Orb II CPU cooler
Zalman VF-Cu 900 Blue LED VGA cooler
Thermaltake Extreme Spirit Northbridge cooler
PC Power & Cooling 510w PSU

SPARTAN-117