There was once a time when building a computer at home was an almost-impossible dream. The components could be difficult to get a hold of, and most people weren’t quite as clued up as they are today about PC hardware. This changed as we moved into the latter half of the late 2000s. A trend began among PC enthusiasts to put their own towers together. It’s a trend that has grown in popularity across the world in recent years. It’s now extremely common to find that your average gamer built his machine from the comfort of his own home.
Why Prebuilt Mid-Range Gaming PCs Beat Building Your Own
Despite the sharp rise in BYO, prebuilt PCs are far from dead. With the rising costs of specific individual PC components, we’re seeing more gamers turn to prebuilt mid-range gaming machines to meet their needs.
In fact, if you’re thinking of upgrading to a new rig in the future, it might be worth buying a prebuilt one over building it yourself.
Enter The Era of Plug-And-Play
We’re entering a modern era of true plug-and-play (PNP). This concept focuses on having all of our technology compatible and ready to go without any setting up or tweaking. We can see it in certain standards that we use to transfer data, such as USB-C. But it’s a concept that’s filtering its way through various aspects of the IT and gaming world.
Having a prebuilt machine lives up to the PNP standards wonderfully.
Instead of spending countless hours doing research on the perfect machine and waiting weeks for parts delivery. Then having to put it all together and hoping it works the moment you start it up. You can instead have a fully completed, powerful gaming machine delivered to your door the very next day.
The team behind the build takes the time to test all the components and make sure the right software is loaded and ready to run. Plus, they’ll ensure there are no problems with the PC before delivery. It makes more sense than ever before to take advantage of this kind of convenience. Especially during a time when we’re putting in more hours at work to make ends meet. We don’t always have the spare hours available to spend building a computer. And yes, let’s admit it, we all like instant gratification too. Which is exactly what a prebuilt PC delivers.
Prebuilt Can Often Be Cheaper
It’s a commonly believed fallacy that building a computer at home, piece by piece, offers a significant reduction in the overall costs involved.
There are a few reasons for this, but one of the most glaring is the skyrocketing price of decent graphics cards. With the release of Nvidia’s latest 3000 series, gamers around the globe have been in a mad scramble to buy as many as possible, both for gaming and mining reasons. This has made it close to impossible to find your ideal graphics card. And when you do find it, it’s usually at a price that makes your eyes water.
The truth is that most companies that sell prebuilt rigs usually buy their stock wholesale, especially if it’s a larger company that has a far-reaching reputation. This means that the components they bring in—including graphics cards—tend to be a lot cheaper for them to buy. In turn, this makes them cheaper for the end-user to purchase too. You’re buying a machine that’s more than likely put together using wholesale stock that the company brought in directly from the manufacturers. So, you can expect to pay lower prices overall.
It’s easy enough to check this out. Spend some time finding the components that you want, calculate the price it’ll cost to build your machine, and then compare that cost to the one that you found for a prebuilt with similar spec. Almost every time you’ll find that the prebuilt is not just cheaper, but often significantly so. You may not always be able to find one that has the exact hardware that you had in mind, but it’s usually fairly easy to find a mid-range PC that’s as close as possible.
However, this is always not the case. There are boutique shops that charge more compared to others. One example is OriginPC. They’re pre-built systems are usually more expensive compared to other similarly spec’d system, or if you built the PC by yourself.
Avoid Those Warranty Nightmares
Every PC enthusiast and gamer who has built their own machine will be well aware of the hoops they need to jump through to get a warranty approved on a specific component if it fails. You’ll need the original packaging, proof of purchase will need to be sent in, and often enough a manufacturer will simply not let the warranty through, forcing you to either keep fighting it, or give up and buy a brand-new component. There are endless forum posts and threads of desperate people trying everything they can to get a part replaced, even if it’s under warranty, and it’s something that most will want to try and avoid if at all possible.
This is arguably one of the most appealing aspects of buying a prebuilt desktop computer from a reputable company. The warranty will almost always be through them, and it will cover the entire rig. If something goes wrong and it wasn’t your fault, you won’t need to take the computer apart to find the specific issue. Once you’ve found the problem, you’ll have to contact the manufacturer that built the component that’s giving problems.
Instead, you’ll be able to call up the company that built your PC, explain the problem, and they’ll be the ones to deal with any warranty problems. Often enough, they will simply replace the part with no questions asked, and many will offer software and hardware support as part of the package. With so much going on right now, having to fight over warranties is the last thing that anyone wants to do.
Prebuilt Gaming Computers Are A Smart Choice
Whether it’s financial or time-related reasons, buying a prebuilt PC makes a lot of sense in our fast-paced world. They’re ready to play as they arrive, and have all the necessary software already loaded. Next time you’re thinking of buying a new gaming machine, consider getting a prebuilt PC to save yourself time, effort, and money.
