Does it make sense to go with a prebuilt pc or build my own pc currently?

Oswin · May 2022

Hiya,

Looking for some advice on what to do. I mostly use my computer for gaming (Overwatch, Minecraft, Halo, No Man's Sky) and coding. I'm not quite sure what to get when I try to build a list. The prebuilt's are tempting because they're already done and seem to be better for the wallet but I've had problems in the past where some of the parts in prebuilt's are not that great. I would enjoy building my own because I get to choose my parts (don't know what to choose though) and I like the process of building it. I do have an 850w PSU already so I can save some money there but I do need the cables (the cables that came with it are defective). My current setup is an MSI Trident 3 8th gen. It's still working but getting a bit old. I don't want to do this again because I want to be able to upgrade parts in the future when needed. My current budget is $2000 but I'm willing to budge if it makes sense. I don't want to sacrifice performance if the pc will last me a few years.

Thank you,

Oswin

Ian · May 2022

Greetings,

Pre-builts can be priced almost the same, or sometimes with the right sale, slightly less than building your own. Really up to you which route you want to go.

Our house brands PowerSpec: https://www.microcenter.com/site/brands/powerspec.aspx are solid pre-builts with typically the latest gen processors, motherboards and video cards in them.

You could also go the barebones route if you didn't want to go full pre-built, some barebones kits from ASUS and Bitpower are available with us, some are missing just a choice of processor, others are missing video card so you can still have some customization.

If you want to build, I'd suggest start looking at https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/custom-pc-builder.aspx and other user's builds at https://www.microcenter.com/search/builds.aspx to get an idea of what's in your price range if you want to go that route.