building vs buying

[namicle]

I was recently thinking about building a computer, but i recently came across an ibuypower that was my same cpu and gpu for $100 less. Its such an no brainer. But my problem is I dont know what there mobo is. It could be crap. same goes with the case. On my build that I may buy, it has a $200 dollar case and a 200 dollar mobo

 

[Savvy_01]

It all depends on the specs. In my experience, building a PC has always been cheaper, the rig I built cost about 1200 (2 grand if the parts hadn't been on sale/used). No matter what, you will always build a PC for less UNLESS there is some sort of promotion going on. If they're cheaper than building than either they used an inferior/less feature-full motherboard or lower frequency ram, etc... or they're lying. Btw, I had an ibuypower machine that I just got rid of... they're good in the quality department but they got me on the specs. I was a noob to computers and only looked at the 2.9Ghz processor that I thought was boss and the 8 gigs of ram. Low speed ram, extremely low end processor, crappy GT 520.. worst 500 bucks I ever spent. But that's my fault, not their's.

 

[velosteraptor]

Link the ibuypower PC and then do a partspicker list of the pc you planned on building. ibuypower is definately more expensive than homebuilt, so there is probably a major difference.

If you post the two systems we can definately point you in the right direction, or make some reccomendations to make your homebuilt build better.

 

[namicle]

Link the ibuypower PC and then do a partspicker list of the pc you planned on building. ibuypower is definately more expensive than homebuilt, so there is probably a major difference.

If you post the two systems we can definately point you in the right direction, or make some reccomendations to make your homebuilt build better.

Here is my soon to be build. The ram is actually an amd 1866 2x4gb
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1hIig

and here is the ibuypower.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227466&Tpk=ibuypower%207950&IsVirtualParent=1

 

[Savvy_01]

Well, honestly, for once, it looks like Ibuypower has custom built beat. I built the exact same computer (with liberties taken with the hard drives) and Ibuypower comes out 150 bucks under custom built. Add on the fact that the prebuilt is on sale and no shipping, and you actually have about the same prices. I can't imagine why they would cost the exact same, but I suppose in this case, it's up to you. Pay a little extra and build it yourself, or buy it prebuilt for the less... Yeah, just buy it prebuilt, Ibuypower is great with warranty even though they do seem to outsource all the calls to India.