Building A Gaming PC Without Knowledge/Experience Or Just Buy Prebuilt?

Greetings everyone! My first "real" gaming PC was a prebuilt desktop that I ordered from Digital Storm (Digital Storm: Custom Gaming Computers & Gaming PCs). Given prebuilt PC's bad reputation, I have to say I was very pleased with the performance of this rig. I've owned it for about five years now (my model is no longer listed obviously), and a lot of things are starting to become dated. After looking up the prices of certain pieces of equipment, I figured instead of updating the components of my current desktop I want to move onto another one.

Now I am not very knowledgable when it comes to computer specific design/parts. So building a PC and understanding what I'm purchasing is WAY out of my field of knowledge. Quite frankly I don't even know if I would have the appropriate time it takes to build my own PC from scratch given my fairly busy schedule IRL at the moment.

I browsed some prebuilt desktops and I'm not very sure what looks good for my budget ($1000-1200). I'd be using this PC to play PvP games like League of Legends, Overwatch, etc. on max settings. I recently had received a monitor as a gift that has a 144 Hz refresh rate however, my current rig cannot hit that. So being able to hit 144hz is kind of important to me.

Anyway, I feel like I've gone on a tangent. Basically, I am not very knowledgable on how building a PC works (I don't even know what parts are considered decent and prices for these parts, etc). Is it better for me to go down the prebuilt route because of this? Either way, I would greatly appreciate it if someone can point me in the right direction given my budget and what I'm looking to accomplish. Hope to hear from some of you about this! Thanks in advance.

 

Building a PC only takes an hour or two tbh, only longer if you're doing things like watercooling if its not the pre built watercoolers.

It looks like you're looking for parts and you have a big budget, so i can recommend somewhere along the lines of i5-6400 & gtx 1050/1060 which should notch you to like $500, and will be able to play those PVP games on high/ultra for sure.

You really do save a ton of money building a pc, and it really isn't hard at all, you can youtube "How to build a gaming PC" and just learn which parts go where (though all motherboards are somewhat different). Or you could just buy the parts listed in the video and get spoon-fed on what to do and where to put those parts. But at least you're saving literally hundreads by paying for a prebuilt.

 

Thank you for the response! Maybe building my own PC will be worth a shot. Do you have any suggestions on any decent/REASONABLE websites that kind of lay out a spreadsheet or something of everything I need to begin customizing my own PC with prices and whatnot?

 

PCPartPicker

 

Building a PC is not very hard it just takes alot of time and patience. You have to work pretty accurate but your pc is cheaper and most of the time better.

 

No reason to pay for the premium of having it pre-built. Doing it yourself may seem daunting but go back to basics and just follow the instructions and watch a video or two on how to build a PC on youtube. If you take your time for the first one you will be fine

 

Hey, it's always cheaper to do it yourself and there are many helpful guides on youtube. Some of the videos by people such as Austin Evans will even link all the parts they used in the build. It can be extremely frustrating at times messing with some of the more tedious parts. Two items I recommend getting are a magnetic bowl to hold any small screws and a
Anti-Static Wristband. Will help protect the mobo from any static electricity. Any questions feel free to pm me.

 

I've done a couple of builds for myself and helped a few friends with theirs. I was mostly self-taught when it when it comes to PC parts and builds.

Here are some helpful sites I have used.
Computer Parts, Laptops, Electronics, and More - Newegg.com
They have some good prices and sales from time to time. Their NewEgg card can help spread the cost of a build over like 12 or 6 months depending on what you want to do.

Here is a video I used the first time I did a build.


Also, Tom' Hardware has a lot of good information on it as well as helpful people. Can find a lot of questions you might have on their forums asked by other people.
Tom’s Hardware: For The Hardcore PC Enthusiast

YouTube and Google will go a long way. If you want to know this part Vs. that part Google the part with benchmark and it will help you know just how much better it might. Nice to know if the extra money is worth the higher FPS