Most cost effective approach. Build my own, or pre built?

[[GSV]Lemming]

Been a long time since I bothered to build my own PC but getting ready to upgrade my PC.

Im not entirely committed to whether it will be 4090 or a lower spec, but having read the odd article recently am wondering if its better cost wise to buy pre built, or build myself. I was wondering what your take on all this was?

I am expecting to use all new components and carry nothing across, although I do have an old Asus case on wheels I am tempted to liberate from the garage and use again just because of the epic space it has., I used to use it as a side table with a third widescreen monitor on in the past!

 

[mickyflinn]

Build yourself will save you labour and unrestricted component choice but hassle of build , installation and troubleshooting if any.

Pre built or custom built by Overclockers you get a 3 year return to base warranty but comes at a cost.

I think it's £150 + 4% of the total cost of parts of you choose the parts..

 

[[GSV]Lemming]

Thx Micky, I didn't realise I could custom choose the parts and have OCUK build it for me.

 

[mickyflinn]

Thx Micky, I didn't realise I could custom choose the parts and have OCUK build it for me.

Your welcome.

When you thinking of going for it ?

We can then put some builds together for you or critique your build for improvements.

Budget and usage ?

 

[Tetras]

Im not entirely committed to whether it will be 4090 or a lower spec, but having read the odd article recently am wondering if its better cost wise to buy pre built, or build myself. I was wondering what your take on all this was?

If you need everything, including the Windows license then you can sometimes get better value with a prebuilt, during the mining boom and the pandemic they often had more stock and more affordable stock too (of graphics cards), so if you want a 4090 it is something to keep in mind, since the retail prices are very high right now.

If the prebuilt PC does turn out cheaper, there's a few things to be aware of:
1. A common way to increase margins is to fit lesser parts where they're invisible in the spec, e.g. the memory, motherboard, power supply.
2. Large suppliers are familiar with shipping office PCs, but not so much with high-end gaming PCs, so if you look at reviews on Gamers Nexus, they tend to have poor cooling and can throttle even under mild load.
3. They often don't give you the boxes and receipts to claim warranty on individual parts, so high value items like the graphics card may have a significantly shorter warranty than it would if purchased at retail.

If you answer mickyflinn's questions we can do a spec or two and you can compare that to the prebuilt prices.

 

[[GSV]Lemming]

Thanks for your input Tetras, some of those points do rattle around in my head already! My last PC was a Dell G5 with graphics card removed during lockdown, I added my 3060Ti into it. Cooling is far from perfect but with an upgrade it has been fine the past few years. It was a budget upgrade to tide me over as component prices and availability went a bit mental a few years ago.

I am ready to order it now really in answer to your question re timescales.

I have some basic assumptions I will be working to, always happy to take flak if I am wrong tho

i9 runs cooler than i7, similar performance and i9 mobo will enable me to upgrade cpu later perhaps. Should I consider a Ryzen? Not biased towards either, just assuming intel/nvidia or all AMD is the way to go.
RTX 4090 likely, but may go budget RTX instead if I cant make the price/justification make sense in my head and wait for the next generation and see where prices go. AMD cards out, primarily because I am looking at a top PCVR solution rather than general gaming and I see negative reports still on AMD XTX cards.
Age brings less budget issues, so £3200 but at top end i have to feel like its worth it, still going round in circles mentally on that.
32GB memory likely enough, 64gb if its actually going to get any use.

I like quiet PCs so was thinking of a custom water cooled solution if i build it myself, I will post up details of the case I have that I am tempted to use
later if I can find it, had it a loooong time through multiple builds in the past, including my dual AMD setup back in the early days. I always wanted to build a water cooled solution, this is likely my last chance as another 5 plus years and I can see myself in a 'cant be ar*ed' mental state.

Usage. This is purely for gaming, desktop or VR. Games are Elite Dangerous, BG3 and later MSFS when pull I the trigger on the VR headset upgrade. Retirement beckons in a few years so will likely get around to all those I games I want to play and don't have time for. I use a 50" 4k tv currently, or my Quest 2 soon to be upgraded to a 3, or pimax crystal. Likely the Quest 3 for less compatibility issues. I know I will need a better monitor to make use of the new PC, but will circle back to that later as not really bothered immediately.

 

[Tetras]

i9 runs cooler than i7, similar performance and i9 mobo will enable me to upgrade cpu later perhaps.

Eh? i9 runs cooler than i7? i9 mobo? I'm really confused what you mean here? What's an i9 mobo?

Should I consider a Ryzen? Not biased towards either, just assuming intel/nvidia or all AMD is the way to go.

For gaming only: I'd get the 7800X3D. A 14700K is a great CPU for mixed loads/productivity, or if you really want to go Intel then it isn't far behind.

I like quiet PCs so was thinking of a custom water cooled solution if i build it myself, I will post up details of the case I have that I am tempted to use
later if I can find it, had it a loooong time through multiple builds in the past, including my dual AMD setup back in the early days. I always wanted to build a water cooled solution, this is likely my last chance as another 5 plus years and I can see myself in a 'cant be ar*ed' mental state.

An AIO for the CPU is a good halfway option, but I wouldn't buy an AIO graphics card, they're usually way overpriced.

An AIO is overkill for a gaming PC though, the 7800X3D and 14700K can both be cooled adequately with a peerless assassin or phantom spirit and they're only £30-£35 or so.

Getting a PC that runs near silent at idle is pretty easy nowadays, since everything has zero-rpm or low-rpm modes for your desktop and most high-end coolers are overbuilt. I'd actually say the real difficulty is avoiding the bloody coil whine! A bit of fan noise is nothing compared to WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWNNAAAWWWWWWW for hours on end.

RTX 4090 likely, but may go budget RTX instead if I cant make the price/justification make sense in my head and wait for the next generation and see where prices go. AMD cards out, primarily because I am looking at a top PCVR solution rather than general gaming and I see negative reports still on AMD XTX cards.

From a value perspective, with the huge price increases to the 4090, I'd say it hardly ever makes sense anymore. The 4080 Super is available for £1000 or less and it is a decently capable of 4K gaming, even with ray tracing enabled, except for games that are closer to tech demos than actual games, or were barely optimised.

32GB memory likely enough, 64gb if its actually going to get any use.

Personally, for a PC in the 3K range, I'd just get 48GB or 64GB now. DDR5 systems don't seem to like running 4 sticks, so it is just easier/simpler to do this and you'll need the extra memory sooner rather than later.

 

[Quartz]

I like quiet PCs so was thinking of a custom water cooled solution if i build it myself,

You will find that unless stressed, water cooling is noisier than air cooling, because you have noise from the pump as well as the fans.

Im not entirely committed to whether it will be 4090 or a lower spec,

For a long time the RTX 4090 made sense as the best value RTX 40-series card but these days the 4080 Super and RX 7900XTX have changed the game. You should also consider that the RTX 50 series hype seems to have started, pointing to a launch late this year. But if you want the very best then there's no alternative to the RTX 4090.

 

[[GSV]Lemming]

Eh? i9 runs cooler than i7? i9 mobo? I'm really confused what you mean here? What's an i9 mobo?

A motherboard supporting an Intel i9 cpu, so as to leave some headroom for an easy cpu upgrade later on. Having a quick search I may already be wrong about an i9 being cooler than i7, must have read it once and it stuck for some reason...

For gaming only: I'd get the 7800X3D. A 14700K is a great CPU for mixed loads/productivity, or if you really want to go Intel then it isn't far behind.

Totally open to AMD rtaher than intel

An AIO for the CPU is a good halfway option, but I wouldn't buy an AIO graphics card, they're usually way overpriced.

An AIO is overkill for a gaming PC though, the 7800X3D and 14700K can both be cooled adequately with a peerless assassin or phantom spirit and they're only £30-£35 or so.

Getting a PC that runs near silent at idle is pretty easy nowadays, since everything has zero-rpm or low-rpm modes for your desktop and most high-end coolers are overbuilt. I'd actually say the real difficulty is avoiding the bloody coil whine! A bit of fan noise is nothing compared to WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWNNAAAWWWWWWW for hours on end.


From a value perspective, with the huge price increases to the 4090, I'd say it hardly ever makes sense anymore. The 4080 Super is available for £1000 or less and it is a decently capable of 4K gaming, even with ray tracing enabled, except for games that are closer to tech demos than actual games, or were barely optimised.


Personally, for a PC in the 3K range, I'd just get 48GB or 64GB now. DDR5 systems don't seem to like running 4 sticks, so it is just easier/simpler to do this and you'll need the extra memory sooner rather than later.

Rather than AIO, I was thinking of the whole pump, rad etc setup

 

[Tetras]

A motherboard supporting an Intel i9 cpu, so as to leave some headroom for an easy cpu upgrade later on.

Afaik, Intel are switching sockets for their next architecture, so if you get a 14700/14900, there wouldn't be anything to upgrade to.