3 hours ago, mspencer said:

I don't live near a MicroCenter anymore, but if I could pay $200 to just have it done, that's totally worth it. Potentially less expensive than the pre-build, too.

Last build, I spent hours trying to figure out which screwpost was shorting the board. 

The guarantee was the difference for me.  Liquid coolers, CPU paste, dual slot GPU, determining optimum airflow......   The only mistake I made in components was picking the best airflow case vs size, which led to an RGB centric case. I had no clue about that and when I need to make adjustments I have to deal with the nest of all of those ^%$#&^%$ thin wires!

Edited March 5, 20242 yr by fppilot

I typically build my own, but a couple of years ago I checked out PowerSpec systems and found them to be very reasonably priced for quality hardware.  Essentially, they are built with the same components as I would use for my own builds, and at that time it was slightly less expensive to purchase the system from MicroCenter. The PowerSpec system has performed admirably for the past couple of years in MSFS.  I am very happy and will consider them for my next build/purchase.

Specs are pretty great on that AMD one, especially for a prebuilt.

The main thing I'd change is to put it in a larger case to give it better airflow. For the same reason I wouldn't mind seeing a little more effort at a wire tuck either but, hey, it's a prebuilt.

I'm lucky enough to have a Microcenter near me. I spend way too much time and money in there. 😉

 

12 minutes ago, eslader said:

The main thing I'd change is to put it in a larger case to give it better airflow. For the same reason I wouldn't mind seeing a little more effort at a wire tuck either but, hey, it's a prebuilt.

You are clearly on the right track with your observations!

I would never trust any big company after seeing all the horrible examples of pre builds at Gamers Nexus, if I were to buy a prebuilt computer I would look for a smaller specialty store with good reputations from Tom's Hardware and similar respected computer communities.

In general, modern pre-builds have come quite a long way, and if you do your due diligence, there shouldn't be any nasty surprises waiting for you after plugging it in for the first time. If you're not in it for the love of having built "your own baby" at the end, pre-builds are fine.

What is important to note, though, is that with pre-built PCs you will always sacrifice something:

If you want great components from top to bottom - not just a good CPU and GPU (those will most likely be great in a pre-built PC, these are the sexy components that the customers knows about) - but also a solid PSU, a fit-for-purpose motherboard, a well-ventilated case and properly mounted, well-spec'd cooling system...either don't expect all of those from a pre-built, or be prepared to spend a lot more than if you had built it yourself. 

I built my machine about 4 months ago and it was a great experience. I had never built anything electronic before, but there are plenty of videos online to show how everything fits together. I looked at a those over and over so that I knew exactly what to expect. True the downside is that if something is not working you’re on your own, but biggest problem for me was how to get the fans all synced up.  As someone earlier said, with anything prebuilt you’re not going to get exactly what you want. After looking at your specs the only advice I would say is bump up the wattage on your PSU. Better to have much more that too little. I have a 1200 watt PSU just to give me some room if I want to upgrade my GPU.