Just related to the Pre-Build / Self-Build discussion.

I can't spak about the USA, but here in Germany you have a much higher value with a Self-Build System than a Pre-Build.

For my fathers Birthday a year ago, my Mom, my Brother and I have put together to buy him a new computer. We had about 700 € to spent (including a new monitor), so I decided to build one on my own (did this quite often already and know which components do not fit well with others).

In the end, I got a System up running for what you might have spent at least 1000€ in germany with a pre-built system, but I only spent 590€ in total (so, we had enough to buy some nice software as my father loves to work with pictures).

Every time I asked anyone, online or off, about buying a new computer I was universally told to build my own. Which, to me, is kind of the equivalent of asking what kind of car I should buy and being told it's way cheaper and easier to build my own. Great advice if you can do it, but kind of rubbish advice if you can't.

Point being: there are advantages to building your own, but if you're not a tech savvy person then the time commitment to researching, ordering and building a machine is going to be long and arduous. Is it worth many hours of work to skim a hundred bucks off your purchase? Up to you, really.

Just out of curiosity, was the 590€ with or without a legit copy of Windows? Because the1000€ PC will always factor in the price of a copy of Windows and a load of useless software.

I know a lot of people use pirate Windows (not that I disapprove), so this will always add 80-100€ to the price if you go the legit route. Unless you use some flavor of Linux, of course, which is always worth consideration if the PC isn't being used for gaming.

Including... Builder Edition of Windows 7 Home Professional for 50€

I built my first own PC when I was 16, should not be a big problem for anyone who is slightly interested in how a PC works, to build one up. And is someone really is that bad in putting together some components (it is easy and quite well explained in the manuals of the mainboard), usually someone knows someone to help out. To build up a PC from 0 to 100% should not take longer than 1 hour (after 2 or 3 Computer, it should not take longer than 30 minutes)

Pretty much this.

Possibly the most technical thing is actually getting the parts together in the first place. You need to make sure you have the right processor and memory for your mainboard (the latter is hard to get wrong, although I suppose the former can be easy to make a mistake with), you need to make sure that your mainboard can support your choice of graphics card (some more powerful ones require two PCI-E slots, and some mainboards only have one), and you need to make sure that you get an appropriate power supply unit that's not going to flake out under strain. Getting the cheapest 400-500W power supply you can to supply a meaty Radeon HD7970 is a false economy. You'd be lucky if the thing stayed on for more than five minutes when playing.

Other than that, it's pretty much a no-brainer. A case of X marks the slot. You can't even insert a processor or memory sticks the wrong way around into a socket.

(I should mention a mistake I made from my youth - don't forget to screw in the little spacer studs under the mainboard into the side of the case!)

I would build a Core-i7, GeForce 680 (overcloked) based PC with a 30" monitor, definitely....

In that case you order the pieces and bribe a friend to put it together for some pizza and possibly beer. Which is a pretty reasonable proposition considering how little the work is.

It's not at all like putting together a car where you could die in a horrible, fiery crash if you don't do it right.

Personally, I'd go with a barebones from Tigerdirect and then supplement that with whatever I needed. It should be a lot cheaper and a much better value for the money.

Can you do basic research?
Can you do one of those block tables where you have shaped blocks and shaped holes and have to match them up?
Can you follow basic directions?

If you've answered 'yes' to these questions: you can build your own PC!

The hardest two parts of building a PC are ensuring all your components will work together (which is where the research comes in, looking at the stats of your motherboard and comparing to the components), and the risk of static discharge, which for very inexpensive you can purchase a grounding strap which goes on your wrist and grounds you to keep you from zapping your computer.

Beyond that, it's simple stuff.. Taking it slow and meticulous, checking everything to make sure you're doing it right, and maybe momentarily being confused by inadiquate directions on your motherboard.. you're looking at at most 5 hours to build your first PC (including researching components), and the odds if it taking that long are pretty slim.

And if you have friends who know a thing or two about building a PC, well.. most of us are more than willing to offer advice on how to do it. :)

---

Huh.. this puts me in mind of a service to offer..
"build" a person's computer in their shopping cart for them, insuring that all components are compatible,and up to the desired specs.
Charge like $20 for it.. ;)

That's about what Dell makes on the commodity PCs. It's probably not a good deal for a low end system, but for a mid range or high end system it's a good deal.

Both methods have advantages and disadvantages. I'd say a good bit of it depends on how comfortable one is in finding solutions to problems that can, and will, crop up.

One thought came to mind: if you've never really dinked with hardware before but would like to play around a bit before putting your inexperienced hands inside $2,000 worth of PC goodies, find an old PC that nobody wants... and go nuts with a screwdriver. Even better if it still works because you can take the whole thing apart, put it back together, and see if it will fire up once you're done. Nothing better than hands-on learning to build confidence in this sort of thing.

Echoing the general sentiment here - definitely build your own. It looks daunting at first so get a friend who knows what he's doing to supervise you and you'll be fine. I built one for a friend a few months ago - he got a high-end gaming PC for just over 200 pounds (though there was another reason for that, heh). My friend bribed me with beer and burritos.

You also tend to get a lot more bang for your buck because your PC is optimised. Most prefab PCs have little optimisation as they are bottlenecked by one or two components.
The quote: "The chain is only as strong as its weakest link" applies to PCs extremely well.

Also if you're willing to take your time doing so, you can find some real bargains on sale / ebay, etc. It's possible to build a top-end gaming PC for very little, though obviously this approach is fairly time-consuming and arduous.

Tom's Hardware has a great forum to ask build questions on. I'm about to do my first build and the guys on there have been really helpful.

Does anyone here know if TigerDirect.com is a good place to buy parts?

I can counter your anecdote with 1000s of dollars worth of hassle free purchases since 2006 or so.

TigerDirect and NewEgg are both fine. Shipping delicate electronics is always risky, though, so be prepared to deal with some returns. If you're lucky you won't have to, but better to have all the receipts and things when you do.

And frankly, when I had $2000 to buy a new computer, I got a prebuilt from Dell for 30% off and a really awesome monitor. Because maybe the computer will fail in 2 years, but computers will be so much more awesome in 2 years that I'll be wanting a new one anyway. And you don't actually save money when you build a computer in the US anymore. Buying prebuilt is almost always cheaper.

Unless you actually are interested in PCs themselves, I'd say get a prebuilt computer. Try Velocity Micro, Origin, or take a look at the performance PC reviews at CNet.com to find a rig that looks good.