The decision to buy a PC or build it yourself should rest heavily on your confidence level. If you have never built your own PC, it may be difficult for you to jump right in and construct a machine on the first try. If you have not had a ton of experience building from scratch, you might want to start with something smaller. Once you have experience building something smaller, then you can put together the “Dream PC.”

Building a Dream PC can take on a couple of different meanings. Doing a spec sheet is essential, whether you build it yourself or buy from a custom PC shop. Building the machine yourself can be fun and a great learning experience. However, if this is your first time putting together a dream system (or any system), be cautious. The worst thing is to spend $2,500 on parts, only for them to be sitting in the boxes from sheer frustration.

Custom configurations

Inevitably there is a lack of choice and variety when configuring a machine from a company like Dell, HP, etc. Just know that there are other custom shops online where you can configure a system completely from the ground up. Nowadays the cost difference between doing it yourself and buying from a retailer are negligible. You do want to get the most for your money, and there are lots of places where you can.

If you are inexperienced at building computers, I would not completely rule out the notion of building a PC in the respect that you choose all of your components, but let an online shop build it for you. With companies like Dell and HP you get the comfort of decent tech support and a warranty, although you are sacrificing choice in your components. If you go with a custom PC retailer, such as cyberpowerpc.com or similar, you are getting a much wider variety of choice in the components you can have in the PC, but the support options won’t be as robust.

There are many choices to make, and sometimes you need to sacrifice one thing for another. Depending on what your computing needs and priorities are, those sacrifices vary for each individual.

I hand-picked virtually every component in my dream PC, but I did not physically build it myself (save for a few things I added). I went with a custom PC retailer, which offered me much variety and the comfort of a warranty. If you have specific needs as many of us do, it can be hard to address them at mainstream store retailers. It depends on exactly what your needs are. If you are a novice at building yourself, complete custom configuration with an online retailer can be the next best thing.

Hone your skills on old clunkers

If you are truly dedicated to building a computer with your own two hands, but have little or no experience, practicing on older machines is an excellent way to gain experience. There are so many antiquated PCs around these days, perhaps in your home or somewhere that are just collecting dust. Take them apart and put them back together again. Don’t worry about screwing up because it’s just an old clunker. Once you have mastered tinkering with the old and dated, you can move up to the new and shiny.