Prebuilt is actually cheaper now with the ram crisis. There are some very good deals if you get lucky. They sell out really fast though.

https://www.ign.com/articles/walmart-has-the-best-deal-on-a-geforce-rtx-5080-prebuilt-gaming-pc-ive-seen-in-months

In my experience you can't really do cheaper than a cheap pc although some loss leader parts maybe. Building a pc allows you to make something that is cheaper for the level of quality of the parts used.

I was in your position two years ago, I was super scared when building… and it was totally fine, fun, and interesting! Besides planning everything via PCPartPicker, I would recommend getting a big-ish case if you can fit it, which makes everything a bit easier for the beginner.

Building your own used to be a lot cheaper.

If you live near a Best Buy (or wherever you're seeing prebuilt computers for sale), take a picture of the shelf tag with the specs. Alternatively, since it runs Windows 11, go to Start (Windows flag) → System, scroll all the way down to About. It'll tell you what CPU it has and how much RAM. You might be able to find the GPU stuff here. A little help, Windows guys? Mac user here but I use a PC at work and I generally know my way around them. Take a picture of that.

Now go to PCPartPicker.com and try to build a system around that.

Building a PC isn't hard, but it's not easy either. I'd call it an intermediate skill. I would recommend against listening to anyone who says it's easy. It may be easy for them but they may be setting you up for expensive failure. And now computers are largely sold water cooled. That's cool and all, but I've built PCs across two decades, and I've never built with a water cooler. If I were gonna get a gaming PC again, I'd go prebuilt. Just save myself the hassle.

Look at what they cost. Save up the money or get your money ready. If you see a computer you want and the price looks fair, go for it.

Look for open box deals. You really don't want a computer that's been worked hard and hung up wet, as it were. Store computer displays rarely get worked, though. If anything, they get dirty. So you clean the thing. I wouldn't use an open box keyboard, though. I'd be looking for a deal on just the computer that was out for people to play with. Mostly they just shake the mouse and bang on the keyboard a bit. Hit the web browser. The wise gamer is going to nuke and pave anyway — that means, when you get it home, before you put it on your network, you're gonna wipe the drive and reinstall Windows (or better yet Linux) fresh so you don't have any badware on the machine.

From the advice I've seen on Gamer's Nexus, it's currently cheaper to buy pre-builts at the moment since their systems are priced from RAM they for 3-6 months ago.

As much as I hate to admit it as I don't like Linus, LTT has some good secret shopper episodes (and so does GN to a lesser extent). Just watch the conclusion episodes where they rate how each system integrator performed. Stay away from big brands like Dell, HP, etc.

You don't need to build your own, but I would at least recommend buying a pre-built that gives you the option to upgrade later on. Some pre-builts (cough cough Alienware) go out of their way to make sure their computers can't be upgraded.

I would recommend taking a look at Starforge. I've been pretty impressed by their prices.

If you want Linux, you'll definitely want AMD. Nvidia works, but AMD works better.

Also, don't feel bad about not getting the best and most expensive model. Low-mid end is really the sweet spot for price-to-performance. And games typically play pretty well, just not on max settings. And you can always upgrade later on

I was in your position, and was lucky enough to have a roommate at the time who actually knew about and built his own PC. His advice to me was to buy a pre-built one if you really don't know what you're doing or getting into, which I didn't. So far I've been using it happily almost every day for the last 6+ years, and I've only replaced the cooling unit in it. Though I do tend to play games that aren't super intensive, I think the only game(s) I have/played that are are Spider-Man 2 and Jedi Survivor

The most important thing to keep in mind is that you don't need to water cool or add a hundred oversized fans for a computer you're not going to overclock. So long as the graphics card has room to breathe, modern electronics are way more power efficient than older stuff and will stay plenty cool on air.

Also spend the extra money on a motherboard and power supply. Everything else is splitting hairs for fps or style. Especially ram, you don't need crazy high numbers unless you know how to tweak the motherboard clock speed without breaking shit.

Unfortunately, it is a bad timing to build a PC, as the AI industry is hogging hardware so much, prices are unreasonnable AF.

An easy way to come up with some starting places is to search for "rate my build" type communities for recent posts at around the budget you have, see how people respond with suggestions or critiques and go from there.

https://pcpartpicker.com/

Have a play around on PPP. They have build guides so pick one that is close to your budget and change around some parts so you learn what's available.

Also RandomGamingHD on YouTube is great for beginners and helping understand what's possible.

Pcpartpicker is your friend. You can even check other builds if you're not sure about part compatibility and barring the occasional extremely good deal, building your own is usually much cheaper. (I stand correctd, it may be different state-side)

Other than that, it all depends on how you game: if you want good fps in 1440p you'll want one of 12gb+ GPUs, otherwise for 1080p you can get away with a nvidia 5060 / amd 9060. RAM pricing is absolutely obscene as you well know, but you can do a DDR4 build if it's significantly cheaper than the current DDR5 in your area. Also if you do do a DDR4 build, you might go for a AMD AM4-socket cpu, since they're easier to find.

It had been cheaper to wait for component sales. But certain components are getting so expensive that my local Memory Express shop stopped putting the price tag on their RAM and graphics cards, so it's market price as if it's fancy whole lobster at a restaurant. So now it's not much different and a good deal on a pre-built might get you the best bang for buck at this moment. I think I've seen decent quality/price builds at Costco.

Canadian examples: https://www.costco.ca/.product.4201008598.html for 1700 CAD (1200 USD) as of today.

https://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX00138751 same price, slightly better CPU.

For what you want (arc raiders and gmod) these will work great. An 8 gb card will do great for all except maybe some games' "Ultra" settings with textures filling up all your vram. 16 gb of DRAM is about the standard for games, gmod is old so it doesn't need much at base, the modded servers it depends but it will probably handle okay unless you go super overboard with it. Luckily RAM is one of the easiest components to upgrade on most desktops, it's just being hoarded between AI companies and the greedy cartel of companies that make memory.

For a new CPU I'd recommend i5 12th generation or later, or AMD Ryzen 5 3600 or later, but newer is better, these are the oldest 'minimums' I could recommend picking up. I use cpubenchmark.net to know the relative score between chips.

PCs are adult legos. Put your components in PC part picker and make sure they are compatible. At this point, look for a used system on Craigslist or etc to take the ram and hdd from. The other components might be a little inflated but not as bad.

If you're not opposed to it coming with Linux, all data says that the Steam Machine is a good deal for its specs. It'll even have the added bonus of feeling familiar while still being a PC.

If you really wanna build one yourself, you can always check Newegg for parts. I think they're going to be having their bit Black Friday sale going on soon too.

Otherwise, shop around for pre-builts! You might be able to get some at a good price, especially if it's a model that's on clearance.

For building your own, step one is to decide on your budget, and step two is to go to Logical Increments, look up your pre-determined price range, and bam - you now have your complete list of parts. To spare yourself from wasting an unnecessary amount of time and energy, it's important that you complete step one before starting step two. Realise that what's available in other price ranges than your own is entirely irrelevant to you.

Logical Increments does a really good job of picking good, sensible parts for each price range that are great value, and which is guaranteed to be compatible. Unless you already know a lot about hardware on a technical level, it's like another full-time job trying to compare every available piece of hardware against all other available hardware, especially when much of the available information is untrustworthy or biased, is marketing fluff, is misinformation or superstition, is generally esoteric, and if you seek the advice of "enthusiast" communities, you're just going to get parroted answers from people that can't actually tell you the reasons for any of the answers they give you, because they don't know themselves.

You can of course replace any recommended component in your tier, if you want, but if that means doing a lot of research, then you should realise that it's probably more efficient to just spend that amount of time working a paying job, and then either upgrade the part in question to the next tier (but make sure it's compatible with the rest of your build!), or set it aside, and upgrade that part in a few years from now. Remember that being able to easily install and replace parts is one of the pros of PCs, and that you're doing it wrong if you're trying to find or build some kind of "forever pc" that will "last". There is no such thing, and you will just end up paying overmuch for less compute, by chasing that idea.

And if you don't like the capability of the parts in your budget tier, then that means you should set aside the amount of money it would have cost, and make a feasible plan for how much money you will set aside each month and add to the pool. Then you will know how many months until the next budget tier is in your range, at which point you should come back and evaluate if that tier is then sufficient for your needs, or if you should save up for the next tier instead.

Just know that value drops off fast the higher up you go, so saving for a higher tier is rarely worth it. High end computing has incredibly poor value, so don't look jealously to that. Mid range is where you're getting the most bang for your buck.

And of course, if it turns out that the budget you set for yourself actually gives you needlessly high end hardware, then go ahead and down-grade to a lower tier, and spend that extra money on ice cream, or a loved one, or a charity, or set it aside for future upgrades.

EDIT: If I was building a PC right now, I would be taking a serious look at the second-hand market, which would be a first for me. That's a possibility for you as well, though that will obviously require a lot of research on your part. It may be a decent compromise to get everything new, except for your GPU and/or RAM.

it sounds like you haven't done any research on parts/builds, which is fine, but doing your own research on every component is vital if you're trying to save money (which may not even be a thing anymore these days) but still end up with something worthwhile, because yes, everyone is going to give you wildly different advice

so here's mine-- just buy a prebuilt. might be more expensive than the sum of its parts, but you save on time doing the research on parts and prices, plus it might come with a warranty. look up the recommended specs on your games, find a PC in a box that exceeds those, and you're done

also OS is a thing to consider, but that's an entirely different convo

As whole electronic world suffer from RAM shortage and few super greedy fucks... aye, all the prices are stupidly high.

Buying market premade is often worst idea to - they put one nice part and 5 others are lowest tier possible, but then, drop ads that one part is super awesome (and not even always is)... making it whole barely handle unmoded minecraft (quite old game, with much simple graphics).

Buying all parts as You see them on stores now - its freaky expensive, yes... ImHo... don't, unless You don't care for wallet.

How to - again, we are in shitty times, but how it used to work before dramas - hunt the promos. You make a list of compatible parts (mostly CPU vs motherboard - they have to be same type, having same "socket type"). And seek promos daily on all stores around, if You see something fairly cheap - get it, then hunt other parts... It may take even few months to complete. Making it work together is no big deal, but for first time, could recommend getting a friend who did that before (there's plenty).

Sadge, the promo hunt tactic, even if should be waaaay cheaper... is risky now - after few months, we may end with few great parts bought for silly monies... but the last one or two parts may get fucky high prices by the time... market is fucky crazy now, the way is risky, still should be cheapest for strong pc.

Note for hunt, sometimes, it may be even worthy getting whole cheap pc from market mentioned earlier - and throw bad parts out, keeping only 1-2 good parts for friendly price, it happens too, many tech markets don't care the current prices, if some old stuff block warehouse, they may push them out for whatever, to just make warehouse space for newer things.

Yeah, market is sick... some called me mad, but few solid pro premades are on the market too... Personally, I'm standing with SteamMachine - went for it at moment of preorders, at moment, price of it was called high... today (half year later), price is still same, and everything else is stupidly higher. The power of SteamMachine is just a mid tier, nothing fancy. Some hunted could still be cheaper and-or stronger, at cost of daily checking lots of places for promos, if some have time for that, maybe maybe...

Note for SteamMachine being fairly cheap now, but being only mid tier... The rush for photorealistic graphics is gone. New mid tier pc from 2005-2015 would last 4-5 years before newest games wouldn't run on this mid pc of back then. Currently, it all slowed down a lot - current mid tier pc, like SM... I expect it to handle new games just fine in 6-8 years in mid settings, so still playable.

Woah, wall of text. Welcome to the herd of PCMR.