Considering buying a pre-built system instead of building one myself

[Dave3000]

My current system I built myself but I'm considering buying a pre-built system within the next 2 months. I have to replace the CPU, motherboard, RAM, and I want a new case. If I do get a pre-built system I will install my GTX 1080 Ti and SSD in it and sell the graphics card, and SSD that comes with it. The reason I'm considering going pre-built this time is because I want things guaranteed to fit properly such as the graphics card lining up with the screw holes in the case once installed on the motherboard as in the past I bought a case that did not have the screw hole lined up with the graphics card bracket's screw holes. I also don't want to mess up in the liquid CPU cooler installation. I also want things to work the first time, not talking about defective hardware but hardware compatibility issues. I also don't want stress. Driving 1 hour in traffic back to Micro Center to return a defective component or an incompatible component would be stressful for me. I was thinking about buying an iBuypower system. Should I reconsider?

 

[BoomerD]

My current system I built myself but I'm considering buying a pre-built system within the next 2 months. I have to replace the CPU, motherboard, RAM, and I want a new case. If I do get a pre-built system I will install my GTX 1080 Ti and SSD in it and sell the graphics card, and SSD that comes with it. The reason I'm considering going pre-built this time is because I want things guaranteed to fit properly such as the graphics card lining up with the screw holes in the case once installed on the motherboard as in the past I bought a case that did not have the screw hole lined up with the graphics card bracket's screw holes. I also don't want to mess up in the liquid CPU cooler installation. I also want things to work the first time, not talking about defective hardware but hardware compatibility issues. I also don't want stress. Driving 1 hour in traffic back to Micro Center to return a defective component or an incompatible component would be stressful for me. I was thinking about buying an iBuypower system. Should I reconsider?

I built my own PC's for more than 20 years...and worked on/upgraded most of the ones I had before I started building. This time around, I bought a prebuilt IBuyPower PC from Costco. Does it have EVERYTHING I want in a PC? Nope, but damned close. I DID add an HP EX950 NVMe drive to the existing 240GB SSD and 2 TB HDD, plus I bought (but STILL haven't installed) a Seasonic PSU. Mine came with the Intel i7-9700K processor, 16 GB RAM, and an ASUS 2070 video card...all with an ASRock Phantom Gaming 4 motherboard.
Overall, I'm quite happy with it.

 

[nedney]

I built my own PC's for more than 20 years...and worked on/upgraded most of the ones I had before I started building. This time around, I bought a prebuilt IBuyPower PC from Costco. Does it have EVERYTHING I want in a PC? Nope, but damned close. I DID add an HP EX950 NVMe drive to the existing 240GB SSD and 2 TB HDD, plus I bought (but STILL haven't installed) a Seasonic PSU. Mine came with the Intel i7-9700K processor, 16 GB RAM, and an ASUS 2070 video card...all with an ASRock Phantom Gaming 4 motherboard.
Overall, I'm quite happy with it.

How much did that run you?

 

[SamirD]

If you want solid reliability, you really can't go wrong with a Dell/HP business class system or workstation and then just add your gpu and ssd. Even if you have to upgrade the power supply, these are still workhorses and cheap as anything as they're made in droves.

You can run into some proprietary hardware, but for the most part it's all industry standard stuff now.

 

[Pavel Zahourek]

My current system I built myself but I'm considering buying a pre-built system within the next 2 months. I have to replace the CPU, motherboard, RAM, and I want a new case. If I do get a pre-built system I will install my GTX 1080 Ti and SSD in it and sell the graphics card, and SSD that comes with it. The reason I'm considering going pre-built this time is because I want things guaranteed to fit properly such as the graphics card lining up with the screw holes in the case once installed on the motherboard as in the past I bought a case that did not have the screw hole lined up with the graphics card bracket's screw holes. I also don't want to mess up in the liquid CPU cooler installation. I also want things to work the first time, not talking about defective hardware but hardware compatibility issues. I also don't want stress. Driving 1 hour in traffic back to Micro Center to return a defective component or an incompatible component would be stressful for me. I was thinking about buying an iBuypower system. Should I reconsider?

I would say that the pre-built system is built by a human who makes mistakes and sometimes the screws might not be easy to line up. The route I always went with building a computer was that I chose the parts and the store built it for me. I have been doing this for almost 15 years and was always happy with the result.

 

[Pavel Zahourek]

If you want solid reliability, you really can't go wrong with a Dell/HP business class system or workstation and then just add your gpu and ssd. Even if you have to upgrade the power supply, these are still workhorses and cheap as anything as they're made in droves.

You can run into some proprietary hardware, but for the most part it's all industry standard stuff now.

The possibility to upgrade might be limited to the time after your warrenty expires. Warrenty stickers are sadly still a thing. When you have a system built off your choose of parts you get the warrenty for each part and in my case no sticker at the back preventing you from opening the case.

 

[SamirD]

The possibility to upgrade might be limited to the time after your warrenty expires. Warrenty stickers are sadly still a thing. When you have a system built off your choose of parts you get the warrenty for each part and in my case no sticker at the back preventing you from opening the case.

I wouldn't buy one of these Dell/HP systems new, but used as they're dirt cheap when coming off-lease. Like these older Dells:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/T330-Dell-...sh=item48cf0107f9:g:rKUAAOSwpbJdM1dm&LH_BIN=1
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-OptiP...sh=item23c1f0cf4f:g:KhEAAOSwa~1dN1GN&LH_BIN=1
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-OptiP...sh=item215e694ab9:g:XSQAAOSwSHBdHMdV&LH_BIN=1

Or this HP:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Z420-Wo...sh=item215f592788:g:R6QAAOSw09ZdMoAw&LH_BIN=1

Some cheap ram, an SSD and GPU and they're solid.

Most of the Dell/HP pre-builts don't have any issues with users opening the case and working on them.