Yeah admittedly building still largely has the best price to performance ratio. This is why I have never been able to bring myself to buy a gaming laptop even though I really want one. Too many compromises for too high of a price.

Depending on what the next Steam Machine is like, and how it's priced, I still might build my own again. I would only get the former if they price it really competitively. But if it's too much, I might hold off on buying a new system all together until something breaks with all these price raises.