Instead of creating, I purchased a prebuilt gaming PC. This is why you should have too

I've been holding off on building my next gaming PC for a while, just like many other PC gamers. The cost of building a top-of-the-line gaming PC has risen dramatically over the past couple of years, and despite some improvements in the second part of this year.

The time has come for an overhaul.very sturdy

Don't be hesitant to purchase a prebuilt

So, I gave up on my plan to construct my next gaming PC around Black Friday week and purchased a prebuilt gaming rig from Best Buy. Before you start typing that hateful tweet, I should explain that there is a penalty associated with this heresy. I can now claim with certainty that this prebuilt system turned out to be among the best in terms of technology.

An upgrade was required.

I've constructed a few PCs over the course of my life, so I can attest to the satisfaction of finishing your own build, including the pleasure of saving extra money for your next graphic card and the scent of fresh parts. I refer to a child's college money. It wasn't until recently when buying your own parts and spending a few hours putting them together to build your ideal machine made more sense (especially if you had the motivation and/or technical know-how).

There is no doubt that the previous two years have seen a revolution in the PC DIY market. Despite the fact that things are getting better, costs and supplies are still unpredictable, especially for GPUs or virtually any semiconductor. The weeks running up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday are brought up by all of this.

I still use my Asus ROG laptop (Intel i7-7700HQ, GeForce GTX 1070, 32GB RAM) without any issues for my YouTube channel's heavy lifting. However, it is beginning to seem sluggish at almost five years old, especially with Premiere Pro renderings, storage transfer speeds, and the absence of faster connectors.

Naturally, obtaining the parts was my first option, even if it meant purchasing them separately from well-known parts retailers. The budgetary goal would be less than $900. The construction would be mid-range in terms of hardware, with lots of room for growth, good frame rates for 1080p and 2K gaming, and enough power for video editing and rendering. I kept an eye out for comparable prebuilt holiday offers from companies like iBuyPower and HP (nothing fancy like an Origin or Alienware system).

In the end, I was unable to undercut many of the prebuilts with the total price of individual pieces including tax, no matter how hard I tried. I was looking at a $200 to $275 difference overall, easily going over my spending limit. The savings and significantly quicker time to get up and running made ready-built machines appear more and more appealing. I ultimately decided to bite the bullet on a fantastic CyberPowerPC bargain from Best Buy. I mean, I guess I could always return it.

Buying a prebuilt machine carries the connotation that customers have no control over the kind of parts that will go into it. Sure, the CPU, GPU, and flimsy listings of RAM, storage, and other components are listed, but the brand or iteration of these components depends on the factory and the batch of parts they had when your PC was being built.

Some customers may not necessarily wish to gamble in that way. Me? Sometimes I like to live on the edge, and I was interested to see if my setup would be great or not.

Surprisingly well-built

The CyberPowerPC PC I bought appeared to be a midrange gaming rig; the ad featured the venerable AMD Ryzen 5 5600X with 16GB RAM, an RTX 3060, a 600W power supply, as well as 1TB NVMe and 500GB storage. The tempered glass tower case was stylish and at least didn't have excessive RGB lights.

When I originally got the machine, I checked for transportation damage, which there wasn't any of, and for loose or disconnected connectors (none). I took off the back panel to check the cable management, and I was pleased by how well-organized everything was in back. To prevent the GPU and surrounding components from rattling around, CyberPowerPC even featured an expanding foam pack.

I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't necessarily get inexpensive, lowest-bidder sort of components either, based on my visual inspection and BIOS check. The Thermaltake 80+ Gold 600W PSU is connected to an Asus Prime B550+ motherboard. It is an Asus Phoenix Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 V2 graphics card (essentially a half-sized regular 3060 with the same power).

Corsair-branded storage was combined with the venerable but still very reliable XPG DDR4 3200 Hz RAM as memory. The Cooling Master fans are quiet, reaching a respectable 67 decibels (measured in the case) at full speed despite the lack of any specific AIO cooling.

Don’t be afraid of buying a prebuilt

Since turning this PC on two weeks ago, I have continued to be impressed. I haven't had any problems with the machine or any reason to return it due to buyer's regret. Now that video editing is much smoother, I can enjoy 1440p AAA games without worrying about performance or temperature. I can't believe that $850 purchased me this level of quality and attention to detail from a firm I never gave a second thought to previously when I look through the glass panel into the machine's internals.

Overall, it wasn't too horrible for a first time. I wouldn't think twice purchasing a computer from CyberPowerPC again if this is generally how they construct their machines. The moral of the story is that, while DIY-ing is still recommended, prebuilt rigs are currently more affordable and accessible if you have to stay to a budget.