If you are about to purchase a new gaming PC, you are probably faced with a crucial question: build your own gaming PC or buy one?
As with almost all decisions, there are advantages and disadvantages.
Build your own gaming PC or buy one – I was once faced with the question as well.
After the first "custom build", I would no longer consider buying an off-the-shelf system. However, there are also arguments in favor of a ready-made PC.
Three ways to a new gaming PC
Assemble PC yourself
Hardware geeks and longtime PC gamers usually go this way.
You inform yourself about which components you want in your gaming PC and check whether the hardware harmonizes well with each other and meets your requirements.
If you decide to assemble the gaming PC yourself, you have to invest some time to inform yourself.
At the end of the day, a gaming PC is just a PC.
Since PC games have higher hardware requirements than many other PC applications, the hardware has to be chosen carefully.
Usually, you have to plan a higher budget for a gaming PC than for many other PC configurations.
Use PC configurator
A PC configurator facilitates the selection of components.
Many online stores offer a PC configurator.
Store operators sometimes maintain a database in the background to check whether components are compatible with each other. Mostly however no warranty is given for it.
In addition, you can usually book an assembly service for your gaming PC assembled in the PC configurator. In this case, the technicians from the online store will take over the assembly for you.
Buy a ready-made gaming PC
System providers offer gaming PCs "off the shelf", which you can buy ready-made.
The selection of components is determined by the PC manufacturer.
Based on the specifications, you can check whether the PC meets your requirements and buy the ready-made gaming PC.
Ready-made PCs also come with support services from the manufacturer.
Advantages and disadvantages of building or buying a gaming PC yourself
When deciding whether to build or buy a gaming PC, you should consider the following advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages of building a gaming PC yourself
- Cheaper price: In almost every case it is cheaper to build the gaming PC yourself than to buy it. You can compare prices for each component and buy the hardware at the lowest price of the day.
- Precisely fitting PC configuration: If you buy a gaming PC ready-made, you leave the tuning of the components to the PC manufacturer. If you assemble the gaming PC yourself, you can select exactly the hardware you need.
- Pride of work: This is often overlooked! Building a gaming PC yourself can be a lot of fun. Research, purchase, assembly and the first boot process make the self-built gaming PC a special experience – no joke.
- No bloatware: PC manufacturers probably mean well. Often a whole bouquet of programs and tools is pre-installed. Only I do not want them at all! If I build it myself, I get a "clean" installation.
Disadvantages of building a gaming PC yourself
- Time expenditure: It’s always faster to buy a gamer PC ready-made. If you build it yourself, you have to spend more time for the selection of the components and also effort for the assembly of the PC.
- No support: For ready-made PC systems, PC manufacturers usually offer manuals, FAQs on the website, a customer forum, a hotline and a well-maintained driver database. If you assemble your PC yourself, you have to take care of any problems yourself.
- No warranty: Many finished gamer PCs come with a manufacturer’s warranty, or at least the statutory warranty. With a self-built gaming PC, guarantees and warranties only apply to individual components, so you have to isolate and fix any problems and defects yourself.
Important tips for the first PC self-build
- Match components carefully: The components in your gaming PC must match each other. Especially mainboard, CPU, graphics card and RAM have to be tuned carefully. There are also some things to consider for the case, power supply, hard disk and optical drives.
- Determine wattage from power supply: According to the installed components you have to determine the appropriate power from the power supply unit. A power supply calculator helps here.
- Avoid electrostatic charge: Your own body can emit electricity when you touch components, which can damage sensitive parts. That’s why you can get an ESD wristband for your own construction.
- assembly instructions: you should take enough time for assembly. Read this step-by-step guide to prepare yourself, for example.
Avoid at all costs: Common mistakes in PC self-assembly
- The components are not compatible at all – the worst mistake with the first own "Rig. Example of this: the CPU does not match the motherboard.
- Installing a cheap power supply – this can’t backfire (YouTube video).
- Manuals nobody needs – wrong. Especially important is the mainboard manual, because here the single PC components are mounted.
- Volatile assembly and the PC doesn’t boot up. Plug-in cards usually have to snap in, cable connections as well. Otherwise there is simply no contact.
- No galvanic isolation during assembly. This can send the expensive, new components to nirvana in no time at all.
- A sinfully expensive PC, mediocre peripherals: If you spend money on a high-end PC, you shouldn’t skimp on the monitor, speakers, keyboard and mouse. Online gamers also need fast Internet access.
- No internet ready device – if questions arise during the assembly, solutions can often be found by a short google search.
Conclusion – rather build your own gaming PC or buy a ready-made one?
More than 15 years ago, I built my first gaming PC myself – and I wouldn’t want to miss the experience at all!
Patrick Woessner, author at Tech Junkies
What is the best way for you personally, depends on what you expect from your PC.
If the price is an important purchase criterion for you and you either already know a lot about hardware or you want to learn more about the subject, you are probably best advised to build the gaming PC yourself.
If you are looking for an "all-round carefree package" with support and warranty, a ready-made gaming PC is probably the better choice for you.
In this case you have to pay more for the same performance, but you get access to services from the manufacturer and you don’t have to invest time in assembling it.
I’m Patrick and here I blog about various topics around technology, gadgets and more. Earlier I had several blogs about this topic. In the meantime Tech Junkies is the center of attention.
Hey can you possibly tell me a good website where you can assemble a PC yourself?
some online stores have PC configurators, but I find them only partly helpful.
The best source is m.E. Online communities, where the component list of the PC build can also be posted for discussion.
Now comes the current BUT: Currently it’s very difficult to assemble a good gaming PC. The reason is that due to the chip shortage, graphics cards are difficult to deliver and if they are, then partly astronomical prices are called up.
Against this background, ready-made gaming PC configurations are currently more interesting than usual, as long as you can get something here at a usable price and immediately deliverable.
Many greetings,
Patrick
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