While starting your journey as a gamer, you will encounter lots of arrays of gaming laptop options available. Considering to choose the best one for you as per your personalized requirements is the base for showcasing your gaming skills. Sometimes, you might encounter a question: “What PC should I buy for gaming: Prebuilds or Custom build?” In this article, we will help you get an answer to it by exploring the pros and cons of both pre built and custom-built devices.
Debate: Prebuilds vs. Custom Build
The debate of choosing one between pre-built and custom-built laptops has been in discussion for years. Although each has its own merits and demerits, to decide on what should I buy for gaming, one needs to be attentive to this in-debate topic. Before delving into the advantages and disadvantages of both pre-built and custom-built laptops, keep a proper list of specific needs, budget, and technical expertise beforehand.
What PC Should I Buy for Gaming: Pros and Cons of Prebuilt PCs
Pros:
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Convenience
Pre-built PCs come ready to be used in the box itself, hence making it a convenient process for you. You don’t need to worry if you lack assembly or technical knowledge, pre-built ones will come fitted with everything in its perfect place.
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Warranty and Support
Most of the pre-built PCs come with warranties and customer support. So if you face any troubleshooting issues, you can directly contact customer support.
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Time-saving
While getting the answer to what PC should I buy for gaming as a ‘pre-built PC’, you will save your precious time. No research is required, just make a list of the required specifications and buy a pre-built one.
Cons:
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Limited Customization
You might face the issue of limited customization with pre-built PCs. You will no longer be able to upgrade in some cases in the future.
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Cost
As you are buying a pre-built PC, you will have to pay a premium price for it decided by the manufacturers as they are offering convenience and brand name to you. Sometimes, this might lead you to be in a position where you might end up paying extra.
What PC Should I Buy for Gaming: Pros and Cons of Custom-built PCs
Pros:
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Full Customization
No issues related to customization. You get the whole freedom to build your PC the way you want to. You can easily cut any extra add-ons and add anything as per your requirements.
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Value for Money
When you select components individually to build a PC, it is often worth it. Ultimately, you can get a gaming PC with better performance at the same price as a pre-built one.
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Upgradability
Custom-built PCs can be easily upgraded in the future. So you don’t need to worry about future-proofing your device, it has been done when you answered the question: what PC should I buy for gaming as a custom-built one?
Cons:
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Time-consuming
When customizing a PC, you need to spend your crucial time in research and getting the components at optimal prices. For some, the need for time, effort, and technical knowledge in this case might be tricky and hectic.
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No Single Point of Warranty
Here as you are opting for the components individually, it’s very obvious that they will come with their individual warranties and customer support. Eventually, it can complicate the support and repair process for you.
Performance Comparison
To give you a clearer picture of “what PC should I buy for gaming”, let’s do a performance comparison with a hypothetical situation.
Scenario: Gaming at 1080p resolution with high settings.
Component | Prebuilt PC | Custom-built PC |
CPU | Intel Core i7-10700 | AMD Ryzen 7 3700X |
GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 |
RAM | 16GB DDR4 | 16GB DDR4 |
Storage | 1TB SSD | 1TB SSD + 2TB HDD |
Price | High | Low |
From the above analysis, you can understand that generally in terms of performance, both pre-built and custom-built ones will offer similar performance. However, with a custom-built one, you can opt for additional storage at a slightly lower price.
Personalization and Aesthetics
With prebuilt PCs, yes of course you will experience convenience but they might not add a touch of personalization and aesthetics to your gaming PC. While custom-built PCs, reflect you actually as a person. They allow for complete customization, hence allowing you to add your personalization touch-ups and aesthetics like RGB lights to ultimately enhance your gaming experience.
Software and Bloatware
Most of the time, pre-built PCs come with pre-installed software, often called bloatware. This is none other than an additional program added to the PC you might not need that might take up the space, potentially slowing down the overall performance of the PC. On the other hand, custom-built PCs offer no such bloatware. They come with a cleaner software environment allowing you to add the software you require, ultimately providing hands-on managing the space of your gaming PC properly.
Availability and Diversity of Options
In terms of diverse options, pre-built PCs are ahead in the race against custom-built systems. You can find a varied range of pre-built ones easily both online and offline. While it’s not the case with custom-built PCs.
Brand Reputation and Reliability
When deciding what PC should I buy for gaming, going with a reputable brand is considered safe. That’s why if you purchase a pre-built PC from a well-known brand, it will offer you reliability. You can rely on the brand for any complications. On the contrary, even if you purchase individual products from reputed brands, they won’t offer you a similar level of reliability as pre-built systems.
Environmental Impact
Pre-built PCs come with so much packaging involved that they’re not energy-efficient at all. Whereas with custom-built PCs, you can choose every component on your own to minimize waste and save energy, ultimately leaving an impact on nature’s sustainability.
Cost Analysis
When choosing what PC should I buy for gaming between pre-built and custom-built, cost is a crucial factor. With pre-built PCs, you can experience convenience but custom-built ones can offer you value for money.
Resale Value
While considering the resale values of the two options available while deciding on what PC should I buy for gaming, you need to consider that pre-built PCs often lose value over time as new models arrive. On the other hand, custom-built PCs can retain their value better than pre-built systems as they are equipped with high-quality components and unique configurations. Even if new models or versions have arrived, you can still sell the components individually.
Overall Analysis
Aspect | Prebuilt PCs | Custom-built PCs |
Convenience | ✓ | |
Warranty | ✓ | |
Customization | ✓ | |
Cost | ✓ | |
Upgradability | ✓ | |
Performance | ✓ | |
Setup | ✓ | |
Resale | ✓ | |
Availability | ✓ | |
Environmental | ✓ |
What PC should I buy for Gaming: Conclusion
So did you get the answer to one of the very commonly asked questions “What PC should I buy for gaming?” In the end, it all sums up what you are looking for. If you don’t have time to spend on research and technical stuff head on to Gizmogo and buy pre-builts as they are a good option for you while if you prefer every single part of your PC to be decided by you, custom-builts are waiting for you.