I’ve noticed that prebuilts have gotten a bit more affordable lately compared to a few years ago. Especially with OEM deals. But at the same time, building your own PC feels better and you get to pick and choose which parts you want.
For someone wanting a mid-range (maybe RTX 4070/Super or 5060 + Ryzen 7 7800X3D) build, you think it’s worth going the build it yourself route, or are prebuilts the smarter option in 2025?
Hi Welcome to the forums.
In my opinion it still makes sense to build your own system instead of a pre build.
Because you can basically select the parts you actually want.
Although i do have to say that pre builds from certain companies can be pretty good.
But there are also still many pre builds that are actually not that great,
or they do consists of decent parts but poorly assembled.
Next to all that in my opinion building yourself is still allot of fun.
And you also learn allot each time you do so.
So yeah in my opinion it´s still allot of fun and worth building yourself. 
It ist still worth it. Because prebuilts tend to skimp on parts like power supplies and motherboards. Upgradability is also hard for some of those OEM builds that have a custom connector on the motherboard and power supply.
Sometimes if you want a high end GPU the only way to get one at least where i am is prebuilt.
Worth it though? I’d say no, i’ve seen prices of $11-12K AUD (lets call it say 6-7k USD) for a prebuilt with 5090, and i’m not talking about a threadripper here…
Prebuilts skimp on everything. It’s virtually never worth it to buy a prebuilt.
+1 on what @MisteryAngel said. Prebuilts pretty much serve the use case where you just want a turnkey computer and don’t really care what’s in it or how well it works. If you do care then you put in your time and energy but save the 30-50+% markup on the parts while often getting better components as well as longer warranties. You might lose some support services but I find it’s faster and easier to do my own support than to wait on hold or whatever and then try to explain to somebody following a script that the script they’re using isn’t fixing the problem because it’s not doing anything relevant to the actual issue.
It’s not entirely clear this is a desktop question, though. In laptops even Framework DIY editions are still pretty close to prebuilt.
you might be looking at the OEM deals because building a PC seems daunting or difficult and you will break something; no, you won’t.
make a list in excel where you have the components and their prices spread out and you’ll see that it’s not that good of a deal.
I would say ‘Build-It-Yourself’… but we are in the minority.
At lot of people will pay the extra to avoid the hassle of building a PC.
I am seeing a lot of development In the ‘Mostly Pre-Built’ department.
Like Bare-bones Mini PCs, mini-ITX motherboards based on handheld APUs and decent SoC mini-ITX motherboards. Yesterday I saw a slim SFF 1U mini-ITX motherboard. Everything you need on a 170mm square, just no PCIe slot.
These mini PCs have fewer parts and the smaller size makes them seem easier, a less daunting task to build.
From what I can tell after looking at GN’s videos, and recalling a few old prebuilds I’ve witnessed - it starts with how it’s assembled, and goes a long stretch at ‘from what specifically’ it is built from.
Dell prebuilds - crossing out the mobo horrorshow, ships the gpu with no backplate. And a cooler solution of ‘yeah, it will work’(please define ‘work’).
A prebuilt is something, where instead of choosing specific concrete parts, you rely on someone else to give you something, that will work (again, please define ‘work’).
The prebuilds I’ve seen (and butchered) were ‘bundle deals’ - things, which nobody wanted to buy separately, so the seller combined them in one piece, slapped a sticker and started selling as a ready solution.
You can get away with it working. Maybe it will last for a few years. But not something, that I would go for myself(or recommend anybody).
I am not sure about the price perspective these days, so it basically comes down to your personal preference. If you would like to just pick up a computer that fits your needs, and are fine just using that system for a few years and then replacing it with a new one, pre-builds might be a good option. If you like to tinker and add things later, or do upgrades along the way, you might be better off building it yourself and picking the parts that suite that mentality.
If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself.
I have seen so many reviews and videos of absolutely awful things found inside pre-built machines. I’d honestly never buy one.
The only pre-builts I have ever owned have been laptops, and that’s only because I don’t have a choice when it comes to laptops. If I could build my own laptop, I would.
When it comes to anything really, the devil is in the details. I wouldn’t outsource the details to anyone.
There are few things in life more satisfying than assembling a computer from parts, turning it on, and not having it explode.
The research you need to do to avoid releasing the angry pixies makes you smarter, so it’s also an investment in your brain.
I would go so far as to say building a PC has never been easier, though perhaps less handy than 2010 or thereabouts, when huge tower or AIO coolers and quad-slot video cards didn’t yet exist.
It really boils down to the following for typical i.e. non-SFF, non-exotic desktop builds: Watch out for mains electricity, watch out for static buildup, don’t use excessive force, don’t drop anything, don’t skimp on the PSU, use thermal paste judiciously, and RTM.
And yes, it is worth every last moment of it.
Is it worth it? Yes, and no.
A prebuilt come in two flavors, boutique builds and factory builds. The difference is that the boutique will build your PC for you from standard market parts you and the shop are agreeing to. Provided the shop is actually competent, building a PC with these guys is recommended if you are unsure about PC building. The good ones will give you a good PC for your use case and only charge and extra $80-$150 or so.
A factory build is one of those yucky dime a dozen Gaming PCs you see at walmart. Dell, Lenovo, Asus et cetera, all these vendors got skin in the game.
So, with that in mind, lets take a look at the specs of, say, this Best Buy computer for $1499
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF | $281.00 |
| CPU Cooler | iBuypower AW4 | $99.99 |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte B860 EAGLE WIFI6E | $119.99 |
| Memory | TEAMGROUP T-Force Delta RGB 2x16 GB DDR5-5200 CL40 | $89.99 |
| Storage | TEAMGROUP T-FORCE G50 2TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 | $99.99 |
| Video Card | PNY OC GeForce RTX 5070 | $549.99 |
| Case | iBuypower Element 9 | $114.99 |
| Power Supply | Montech APX 750W 80+ | $54.90 |
| Total | $1410.84 |
And compare to what I would select, do keep in mind you have to put this together yourself:
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 9 9900X | $365.00 |
| CPU Cooler | Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE | $34.90 |
| Motherboard | ASRock B850 LiveMixer WiFi | $189.99 |
| Memory | TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan 2x16 GB DDR5-6000 CL30 | $93.99 |
| Storage | Western Digital WD_Black SN850X 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 | $269.99 |
| Video Card | PowerColor Reaper Radeon RX 9060 XT | $379.98 |
| Case | Fractal Design Focus 2 RGB | $89.99 |
| Power Supply | Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 (2024) 850 W 80+ Gold Fully Modular | $99.99 |
| Total | $1523.83 |
In general, more quality parts with a focus on more productivity than gaming, with a really nice SSD to boot. Could also swap with 64 GB of RAM. The 9060 XT lose a bit of power towards the $150 more expensive 5070, but is also a bit more future proof - with 16GB of VRAM on the 5070 it would be more interesting.
So yes, DIY is still worth it, but so are prebuilds, these days. Even factory prebuilds found at Best Buy. 
Prebuilts always add build costs. So they will always cost more than doing it yourself. If you want a cheap, basic PC, you can build it yourself for less than you can buy it as a prebuilt.
The one exception to this rule is when companies have a slow moving product and sell it below cost to get rid of stock. If you can find one of those, it’s likely a good deal, but don’t hold your breath waiting. Or do, and post pictures of your face.
Especially if you go with used, yes it’s viable over buying prebuilt.
Although usually prebuilts come with warranty and support.
I’m on team build your own PC.
But when it doesn’t go well boy is it a PITA! If you have another PC with the same socket it’s much better, but if, say, all you have in your house is your old laptop and a bunch of new PC parts that when put together don’t make a stable PC you may not be able to find the root cause, and thus don’t know what part to RMA.
In my last build the video card wouldn’t work until the motherboard vendor released a bios update that added more options - guess it wasn’t just me that hit it. In the meantime I had got a second PSU on sale and tried that, and sent the video back to the vendor who tested it and sent it back saying it was fine. In that regard having a PC that has integrated graphics can be quite handy, I was able to use the PC without the video card, and update the bios when the fix eventually came out.
Aside from being obviously broken, sometimes things are just unstable, that can take a long time to track down. But prebuilts aren’t any better, if it needs to run for a week before crashing it can be difficult to get someone else to fix it. Always be grateful for stable hardware!
In my experience it’s impossible. So if it happens the difference between doing your own build and a prebuilt using standard parts is pretty much just you didn’t pay the prebuilt markup. If it’s a large OEM prebuilt with proprietary stuff then usually you get to buy a new mobo, PSU, and case and start over.
FWIW my biggest problem in this direction lately’s been AM4 TUF. Asus is probably never going to get the load line entirely stable at stock. But the crash rate’s like once every three months.
Building it yourself:
The best part about it. you start with the first piece, then make your way to the next, and so on
I think it is the best way to go just to build it yourself.
Generally speaking I think I agree with the majority of posters on this thread. I’ve been building my own PCs and even sometimes servers for the last 20+ years and find it to suite my needs well.
I would suggest that you start with your specific needs / use cases as well as what kind of lifecycle you expect from the purchase. You mentioned specific GFX and CPU in the initial post that lead me to believe you are interested in AAA gaming at 1080p or even some 1440p.
Your north star will vary depending on what you intend to do with the computer (and for how long). If you frequently buy new FPS release games and want to enjoy them near their maximum fidelity your build will be hugely different than if you are more into retro/indie games and different still if you focus on office productivity, software development, engineering, content creation etc etc etc.
If you are closer to the “bleeding edge” you are probably best off doing your research and building your own rig.
If you don’t need the latest and greatest performance for an upcoming game release you can often find point sales on pre-builts featuring last gen’s (or sometimes 2 generations old) components for a stellar deal. I’ve seen several pre-builts from places like Micro Center that feature Ryzen 7k processors and 4k series nVidia / 7k series AMD GPUs for less than what you could build them for.
It’s true that most pre-built systems are using lower cost / lower feature motherboards and sometimes even slightly lower-spec GPUs (depending on the volume they do with their suppliers) but if you do light gaming that would run comfortably on a potato with web surfing and general compute that might be just fine.
Would be curious where you land on your decision (if you haven’t already made one)