Building primarily makes sense to those who are particular about which components they use and want the added scalability a custom rig tends to provide.

I have to assert that it is NOT the best choice for the vast majority of PC users, or even PC gamers.

It's not always just about sourcing the cheapest game capable rig, which varies depending upon what games you want to play.

The irony comes when builders source cheaper components as many brand name manufacturers do to keep costs down on thin margins, often the source of premature component failure down the line.

So, super cheap builds in the $500, even $600 range, without an OS are not the best choice, IMO unless you're using quality components found at bargain prices.

But in 2-3 years, it's to be expected that most PCs in this range will be replaced anyway, so this is less of an issue.

The trade off for a custom build is that you can hand pick your components, balancing price to performance, including available deals on quality components, but at the added and real cost of time, effort and risk (the real possibility of destroying expensive components).

For builders, the trade off is worth it, particularly if you are experienced at building, customizing as well as sourcing parts and optimizing performance.

For the vast majority of people, they are far better off finding a good deal from a reputable PC manufacturer and then simply upgrading the video card to something that will provide far better GPU capabilities than the typical underpowered stock cards pre-configs ship with, yet well within the safe efficiency range for the PSU, which in pre-configs, is usually just adequate in terms of quality, rails, and output.

A sub $500 PC with even a 350w PSU still fits the bill. You could probably even run a 9600GT, which if you shop around, can be bought for about $100, give or take. Should run everything but game like Crysis on optimal settings.

I've done enough upgrades on a mid-range Q6600 based HP that I'll eventually just build a second PC using the new components and restore the OEM PC to its original configuration with an upgraded video card.

I always recommend building or getting a friend to build, but there are some that simply find it easier to buy a prebuilt then upgrade it with a card.

My friend has I guess what you would call medium tech knowledge. He probably could build a PC no problem, but he felt it'd be a hassle.

His computer after putting in a new card was just fine...beat my PC I had at the time...the only annoying thing was the "Dellware" that comes on the PC that is nigh impossible to get off. He ended up wiping his system and trying to get rid of all the Dell crap slowing down his system, and nearly messed up his bios doing it.

So there are a few downsides.

One significant factor a lot of people dont seem to take into account when they upgrade their computers is this. When you put an 8800gt or an HD 4850 you're increasing the total power usage and heat output of your system by 115-130W and thats 10-30W more than a stock 65 nm extreme edition quad core CPU at 3ghz.

So essentially if you're more than doubling the heat output of your system without introducing any extra cooling when you take into account the fact that most people use more reasonable 65w Dual core CPUs or you could say that you just stuck a Falcon Xbox 360 inside your computer and asked it to cool itself and the Xbox 360 at the same time.

All that bloatware is easily the most annoying aspect of buying a pre-configured system from a major manufacturer. Some of it's useful, but the vast majority of it is the equivalent of advertising.

The idea is that all that unwanted software is supposed to subsidize the low hardware costs, effectively being paid advertisements by the software developers who have their wares on your new computer.

It could be wiped out with a drive reformat, or a drive replacement/upgrade in tandem with a commercial copy of Windows, but... There went a chunk of savings you might have had by going with a Dell/HP/whatever.

That's one of the nicer aspects of starting with a completely clean slate that only has what the builder/user installed on it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147074
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103215
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152019
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138106
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118012
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136075
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127368
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186010

For comparison, I quick searched for some cheap parts that adds up to just under $300 for a good, baseline PC. Add $50 to this PC and you can play Crysis on medium-high settings. The OP's PC has more HD, a little more processing speed and 1 more GB of RAM, but I'd argue those things aren't necessary.

I didn't just pick the absolute cheapest items either...I went through and picked stuff with good or decent reviews from well-trusted manufacturers. I'm not saying this PC is better, it's just about the best, lowest-priced completely custom PC I could find. You can build a better computer for not much more, but this is pretty much the baseline.

So, in other words, the deal Squilliam is presenting is a pretty damn good deal, assuming it has enough cooling already in the box(I tend to open up the sides of my PCs anyway, lol, I have compressed air handy for the dust problem and you'll never get a heating issue with no box surrounding your hardware, in a cool room).

I mean, considering that a pre-built PC is usually a screw job and much much worse than built PCs you can get around that price range, this one is actually quite an amazing deal.

Espcially since it comes with Vista and I assume has a warranty.

....hell, this is actually the deal of the century if those specs prove out right, lol.

I mean, you could be playing Crysis on medium settings on Squilliam's PC in like 3 days from now, if you ordered it. Like, pow, snap, bang. The "reviewer" said it won't run Crysis well on high settings, but that implies that it will run it on medium settings, so I assume it would.

You certainly could play other high end games like Bioshock, Gear 1, Assassin's Creed, Dragon's Age, and that kinda stuff, out of the box(besides attaching the videocard).

Basically, it could blow a 2000 dollar PC from 3 years ago, out of the water, and it's like 450 bucks prebuilt for ya, with a warranty.

Right, I didn't say his deal was bad. You probably will save money buying a prebuilt first if it's a bit on the lower end, but like I said, there are hassles like the "Dellware" that comes with most prebuilts...it's just something to consider.

And his PC is $480 at the end, mine is $350, so there is a difference...to add another GB of RAM, 160 GB of HD, and a bit better of a processor, the total would probably come to just over $400.

So actually I would argue that my list is the better deal I guess.

No thanks, no AMD cpu's for me, I have only bad memories of those. Helluva deal though!

Yeah, but does yours come with Vista?

Edit: That's 120 dollars on Amazon.com, good god!

I guess if you already had Vista, it wouldn't be extra cost, but I don't have Vista or XP discs, lol, if my cpu needs reformatting, I'm screwed.

I've have my BIOS screw up on me a few times, and found out that on my motherboard, there is this little plastic plug, and if I slide it one prong over and turn the power on, it resets them to default. That's saved me a million times.

Mummelmann said: No thanks, no AMD cpu's for me, I have only bad memories of those. Helluva deal though!

I have an AMD in mine. :( Have for years, that's why I'm not biased, I guess. Have AMD and ATI and they both have been dependable and good, even though they suck now. I have that card that launched with Half-Life 2, I think the ATI.