Posts Tagged ‘budget’
Is it still cheaper to build your own PC?
Build your own PC?
With so much competition in the PC marketplace it is generally less-expensive to buy a built PC than to build your own. Why? If you are looking to use a PC for basic business, or for home/student use, you simply can’t buy the pieces needed to build a PC for what you can buy a budget PC for these days. Of course if you are in the market for a gaming PC, or other high-end unit, you can actually save a little money on parts if you know what you are doing. However, once you factor in time, you will probably still be better off buying a built unit, that is, if you can find one that meats your specs.
On-the-other-hand building your own PC has value in itself. If you enjoy puzzles and tinkering the fun and excitement of building your own hotrod will be worth it. Another approach is to buy an expandable PC with the basic features you want and then to add components as you wish. This can save you money if, for example, the PC is expandable to 16 GB of RAM but you buy it with only 2 GB. Manufacturer RAM upgrades are usually much more expensive than it would be for you to buy and install your RAM after purchase. This may also be true of larger secondary hard drives.
In the final analysis you will usually do better just shopping around for the best deal. If you want to latest and greatest, you know what you are doing, and you enjoy the process, then building your own is the way to go.
This article is based on input from PC users here.