With so many retailers now offering customisation on their machines along with a decent warranty is there a decent cot saving/benefit of self-building a machine? Is self-building a dying art?
If you have the patience to shop around and find the deals (especially with eBay and Gumtree), it's definitely still cheaper to self-build - but as you say, the convenience and warranty of a pre-built system is increasingly difficult to overlook nowadays. Proper bespoke systems like the Corsair One are especially tempting as you still get something a bit more unique, but all the same benefits of a Dell or Acer.
It hasn't been cheaper to self-build since the days of choosing between the kit-form and pre-assembled Sinclair ZX81. Buying off-the-shelf will always be cheaper, 'cos while you're buying one motherboard Dell's buying a billion. The exception: e-peen "custom build" stuff from Scan and what have you, where everything's in silly colours and with a billion lights and blessed by holy TIM from some overclocker with numbers in his name, which will always be cheaper to put together yourself. Mainstream, though? You build for flexibility, quality, and to get exactly what you want, not to save cash. [citation needed] Here's my working: Entry-level Dell XPS Tower: £898.99 delivered. Parts for a system to the same spec on Ebuyer, including a motherboard with Wi-Fi on it: Huh, I sit corrected. That'd be £710, unless I'm missing something - though the Dell has a much nicer case (and I never thought I'd be saying that!) So, looks like you're right and I'm wrong, @Wakka - or I picked the wrong system to use for my example!
I think much depends on warranty conditions (if you like to tinker and upgrade), but I don't think I'd buy any pre-built model that I could feasibly build myself. The Corsair One is a good shout - different enough to make it worthwhile and might have tempted me if I didn't already have a bee in my bonnet about ditching it all for a laptop and eGPU. I suppose I'll just have to throw a dbrand skin on my XPS if I want to be different.
I think it depends on what you want and how patient you are. Dell often has good deals and offers student discounts. I don't know if they have these deals on desktops but I find tons of great deals on laptops and monitors. The main difference to me is quality of parts and being able to upgrade. I remember Dell having proprietary case design, boards and PSU that would not support a GPU upgrade. If a family member or friend is asking, point them to something like the Dell desktop so that you aren't technical support.
From scratch outright? Probably cheaper to get a prebuilt. If you already have a bunch of still usable components (e.g. case, PSU, SSDs, RAM if already on DDR4) then purchasing components may well work out cheaper. Even moreso with a healthy second-hand market. It depends on your circumstances, and how much you value a manufacturer warranty.
This is exactly what would put me off buying a Dell or similar pre-built desktop machine - proprietary components that make future upgrades difficult or even impossible.
Honestly if it’s for gaming Pre build works out a lot cheaper at the high end and is sometimes the only way to get a specific card I worked out if I had gone pre build I would of saved about £300 lol case would of been worse and not probably as much fun to do but still Mid range is where it varies on a case by case basis now. Low end pre build has always been cheaper due to windows cost. DDR 4 memory and high end gpu pricing is a lot of the blame. If ddr4 memory came back down to a more respectable price then pre built comes back into its advantages same as gpu prices There was a point last year where if you wanted a 1080ti the only way your getting one close to retail is pre built pc.
When I have looked in the past the cost difference is marginal e.g. +/- 10%. The reason to self-build is to get exactly what you want, in the case that you want, plus its fun / satisfying. Especially when you factor in a good warranty and after-care I think the costs differences are really marginal.
In my 12+ years of PC building I've only ever had to use warranty twice - once for a DOA CPU in 2009, which is extremely rare, and once for faulty memory. With that in mind, I tend to buy preowned because it's a lot cheaper and the savings are considerable. There are some exceptions, but even if you mix and match a bit you will still save a lot of money over a pre-built system. As edzieba said, it comes down to the value you attach to a warranty, which for most consumers is placebo more than anything else.
Other than critical storage and PSUs, I have an 'ASH' [All Second Hand] policy for PC builds. Parts that are a generation or 2 old are more affordable and not risky. Interestingly, some stuff becomes more expensive as it ages (Z77 motherboards anyone?) as well as more risky with age. In 10 years I've had only 2 failures: cheap Zotac s775 motherboard and my beloved Asus Maximus VI Impact this year. The MP is good, and Ebay used with care can be a good source. Gumtree locally too, if you're sure what you're getting. I can imagine that high end, as mentioned is a different game
Z77 boards aren't the only ones, its pretty widespread among mobos. A lot of it has to do with failure rates, CPUs are practically indestructible while mobos aren't, so supply and demand are heavily skewed as everyone has piles of working used CPUs and no boards to go with.
