The Benefits of Building Your Own PC: A Comprehensive Guide

When it comes to purchasing a new computer, many people are tempted by the convenience and speed of buying a pre-assembled system from a reputable retailer. However, this approach can come with several drawbacks, including limited customization options, inferior components, and a higher price tag. In contrast, building your own PC offers a wealth of benefits that make it an attractive option for PC enthusiasts and hobbyists.

One of the primary advantages of building your own PC is the ability to choose every component individually. This allows you to select parts that are tailored to your specific needs and budget, resulting in a system that is optimized for performance, power efficiency, and cooling. Additionally, when you build your own PC, you can save money by avoiding the markup that manufacturers apply to pre-assembled systems. A mid-range to high-end custom system from a reputable builder will likely feature better components than any tier one commodity system, with improved reliability and longer lifespan.

Another significant benefit of building your own PC is the increased level of customization it offers. When you buy a pre-assembled system, you are limited to the options that the manufacturer has chosen for you. However, when you build your own PC, you have complete control over every aspect of the design, allowing you to tailor your system to your specific needs and preferences. This includes everything from the processor and memory to the graphics card and storage.

Of course, building a PC can also be time-consuming, especially if you are new to the process. However, many people underestimate the amount of time that is required to troubleshoot a PC that has been assembled incorrectly or is not functioning as expected. Troubleshooting can be a frustrating experience, requiring hours of research and experimentation before the problem is finally resolved. In contrast, building your own PC allows you to test every component individually, ensuring that your system is fully functional and reliable from the outset.

One of the most significant benefits of building your own PC is the sense of community and camaraderie that it fosters. The PC enthusiast community is a vibrant and dedicated group of individuals who share a passion for computing and a desire to learn more about their machines. Over at Linus Tech Tips, we talk shop about PCs all day, sharing our knowledge and expertise with each other and learning from one another's experiences. This sense of community is an essential part of the building process, providing support and encouragement as you navigate the challenges and triumphs of creating your own system.

Finally, it's worth noting that some PC parts retailers offer assembly services for their customers. While this can be a convenient option, it comes with its own set of drawbacks. The retailer will typically mark up the cost of the system by several hundred dollars to cover the costs of labor and testing, resulting in a higher price tag than if you were to buy individual components and assemble them yourself. However, retailers like NCIX offer an attractive alternative, allowing customers to choose their parts individually while still providing the benefit of a professionally assembled system.

In conclusion, building your own PC offers a wealth of benefits that make it an attractive option for PC enthusiasts and hobbyists. From the ability to customize every component individually, to the increased level of control over the design process, building your own PC provides a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment that is hard to match. With the right tools and knowledge, anyone can build their own PC and enjoy the rewards of creating something truly unique and personalized.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enah yes the age-old question of whether to build your own pc or buy a pre-built we'll be answering it once and for all and here it is some of my regular viewers actually might not really like this but well anyway i really feel the answer is do whatever you want there's no absolute right way to buy a pc let's start by taking an objective look at some of the advantages to pre-built tier 1 pcs you know the ones that guys like hp or acer make number one is discounted windows licenses for big system builders mean that particularly at the low end pricing is just plain better than what you can achieve building it for yourself number two is that some people just want a warranty yes i know your cpu comes with a warranty and your memory comes with a warranty but lots of people don't want to deal with that you might as well tell them that their new car has individual warranties on the muffler and shocks and engine and remote entry system and if they want anything fixed they'll have to diagnose it pull that part out ship it to the individual manufacturer and then reinstall it once the new one arrives they'll be all like what are you high i'll just take my mac to the apple store and they'll fix it for me number three is closely related to number one support not everyone has a tech savvy niece or nephew to help them diagnose issues they just want it to plain work out of the box and if it doesn't they want to call someone to help them the next option is getting a rig from a custom or boutique system builder the advantages here are pretty simple number one is customizability many boutique builders offer extensive options for the different components that you can have them install and if you're willing to do a little bit of learning about the parts you can get something that's just right for you even if you don't want to deal with the hassle of actually assembling it number two ties in pretty closely to the last one and it's quality if you're buying a mid-range to high-end custom system from a reputable builder they are using better components than any tier one commodity system your pc will likely run cooler be quieter and last longer number three is time i know i know i've heard it over and over what what time it doesn't take that long to build a pc and you know what those people are are right actually but this is my response you know what does take a long time troubleshooting a pc this is especially true if you don't have a garage full of spare parts to use for diagnosing an issue lots of people don't have a bucket of graphics cards on hand and they just don't want to deal with that crap speaking of buckets of graphics cards the reason that many of us have such things is related to benefit number one of picking everything for yourself and building your own pc you can save a few bucks and you can have fun doing it it's great i've been a pc tinkerer and hobbyist for the better part of my life now i even made a career out of it and i do all kinds of stuff that i know isn't that practical because i just plain love it water cooling is a great example it just doesn't make much sense from a performance standpoint anymore but i take pride in knowing that my system is faster runs quieter and looks better than what anyone who isn't willing to put in the time and effort can buy benefit number two of diy is infinite customizability and upgradeability because you've been through the gauntlet of actually building it in the first place you never have to be afraid of the guts again and upgrading is easy just set aside some cash and some space in a closet for a graphics card bucket and then you're all good benefit number three is community the pc enthusiast community is a great one to be a part of over at linustechtips.com we talk shop about pcs all day and we love it being part of it is amazing there are risks associated with building it yourself and you'll have no one else to point to if you break something but at least you'll have other folks who have been there before to help you through it and for me personally the benefits outweigh the risks if you want to get over the fear of opening up your pc case and building a pc for the first time you can check out our build guides on linus tech tips it's my other youtube channel this last one is one that i'm not a hundred percent sure how to classify some pc parts retailers also happen to offer assembly service you might not get the same degree of tlc that you do from a boutique builder that's marking up the system by several hundred dollars just to put it together for you and test it and do all that stuff but you're also saving a ton of money my old employer ncix for example allows you to pick anything you want on their site pay the same price as someone buying individual parts would then pay only 50 bucks to assemble your system for you that includes any troubleshooting involved in getting it working right installing an os for you and a one year return to deeper warranty on the parts and labor on top of that you also still get the individual warranties on the components it really is a great service and it's a great way to get a truly custom grade pc without getting your hands dirty and without spending a bunch of money that last option actually sounded pretty awesome didn't it they should probably be paying me to make this video because i make them sound like the obvious choice here well they're not and it's not necessarily the obvious choice personally i'm a diy guy they're just my bros but there is someone else who did help me pay to make this video and that's hot spot shield without sponsors like hotspot shield fastest possible wouldn't be possible hotspot shield is the fast easy way to set up a vpn they have a free service that like most ad supported services has a lot of ads in it isn't my favorite but their elite service which you can get a free trial of has been used by yours truly quite a few times for various things a vpn if you don't already know makes you more difficult to identify and track online and allows you to circumvent pesky geographical restrictions on online services video streaming or google services are very common ones that hotspot shield can help you get access to if you don't already have it the best part is you can save 20 on hotspot shield by using offer code linus after you click on the link below thanks again hotspot shield for making this video possible anyways i hope you guys enjoyed this episode as fast as possible like the video if you liked it dislike it if you disliked it let me know in the comments which option you think is best when shopping for a pc and why and as always don't forget to subscribeah yes the age-old question of whether to build your own pc or buy a pre-built we'll be answering it once and for all and here it is some of my regular viewers actually might not really like this but well anyway i really feel the answer is do whatever you want there's no absolute right way to buy a pc let's start by taking an objective look at some of the advantages to pre-built tier 1 pcs you know the ones that guys like hp or acer make number one is discounted windows licenses for big system builders mean that particularly at the low end pricing is just plain better than what you can achieve building it for yourself number two is that some people just want a warranty yes i know your cpu comes with a warranty and your memory comes with a warranty but lots of people don't want to deal with that you might as well tell them that their new car has individual warranties on the muffler and shocks and engine and remote entry system and if they want anything fixed they'll have to diagnose it pull that part out ship it to the individual manufacturer and then reinstall it once the new one arrives they'll be all like what are you high i'll just take my mac to the apple store and they'll fix it for me number three is closely related to number one support not everyone has a tech savvy niece or nephew to help them diagnose issues they just want it to plain work out of the box and if it doesn't they want to call someone to help them the next option is getting a rig from a custom or boutique system builder the advantages here are pretty simple number one is customizability many boutique builders offer extensive options for the different components that you can have them install and if you're willing to do a little bit of learning about the parts you can get something that's just right for you even if you don't want to deal with the hassle of actually assembling it number two ties in pretty closely to the last one and it's quality if you're buying a mid-range to high-end custom system from a reputable builder they are using better components than any tier one commodity system your pc will likely run cooler be quieter and last longer number three is time i know i know i've heard it over and over what what time it doesn't take that long to build a pc and you know what those people are are right actually but this is my response you know what does take a long time troubleshooting a pc this is especially true if you don't have a garage full of spare parts to use for diagnosing an issue lots of people don't have a bucket of graphics cards on hand and they just don't want to deal with that crap speaking of buckets of graphics cards the reason that many of us have such things is related to benefit number one of picking everything for yourself and building your own pc you can save a few bucks and you can have fun doing it it's great i've been a pc tinkerer and hobbyist for the better part of my life now i even made a career out of it and i do all kinds of stuff that i know isn't that practical because i just plain love it water cooling is a great example it just doesn't make much sense from a performance standpoint anymore but i take pride in knowing that my system is faster runs quieter and looks better than what anyone who isn't willing to put in the time and effort can buy benefit number two of diy is infinite customizability and upgradeability because you've been through the gauntlet of actually building it in the first place you never have to be afraid of the guts again and upgrading is easy just set aside some cash and some space in a closet for a graphics card bucket and then you're all good benefit number three is community the pc enthusiast community is a great one to be a part of over at linustechtips.com we talk shop about pcs all day and we love it being part of it is amazing there are risks associated with building it yourself and you'll have no one else to point to if you break something but at least you'll have other folks who have been there before to help you through it and for me personally the benefits outweigh the risks if you want to get over the fear of opening up your pc case and building a pc for the first time you can check out our build guides on linus tech tips it's my other youtube channel this last one is one that i'm not a hundred percent sure how to classify some pc parts retailers also happen to offer assembly service you might not get the same degree of tlc that you do from a boutique builder that's marking up the system by several hundred dollars just to put it together for you and test it and do all that stuff but you're also saving a ton of money my old employer ncix for example allows you to pick anything you want on their site pay the same price as someone buying individual parts would then pay only 50 bucks to assemble your system for you that includes any troubleshooting involved in getting it working right installing an os for you and a one year return to deeper warranty on the parts and labor on top of that you also still get the individual warranties on the components it really is a great service and it's a great way to get a truly custom grade pc without getting your hands dirty and without spending a bunch of money that last option actually sounded pretty awesome didn't it they should probably be paying me to make this video because i make them sound like the obvious choice here well they're not and it's not necessarily the obvious choice personally i'm a diy guy they're just my bros but there is someone else who did help me pay to make this video and that's hot spot shield without sponsors like hotspot shield fastest possible wouldn't be possible hotspot shield is the fast easy way to set up a vpn they have a free service that like most ad supported services has a lot of ads in it isn't my favorite but their elite service which you can get a free trial of has been used by yours truly quite a few times for various things a vpn if you don't already know makes you more difficult to identify and track online and allows you to circumvent pesky geographical restrictions on online services video streaming or google services are very common ones that hotspot shield can help you get access to if you don't already have it the best part is you can save 20 on hotspot shield by using offer code linus after you click on the link below thanks again hotspot shield for making this video possible anyways i hope you guys enjoyed this episode as fast as possible like the video if you liked it dislike it if you disliked it let me know in the comments which option you think is best when shopping for a pc and why and as always don't forget to subscribe\n"