Is it dumb to buy a prebuilt PC to get a 3080?

[PopsMaellard]

The last time I refreshed my PC was back in 2013, and I have a notably old setup. i7 2600K, 970, 16gb of RAM and a very old motherboard. Really the only thing that I could salvage is the PSU.

It served me well enough at 1080p that I put off upgrading as long as I possibly could, but leading up to the release of the 3XXX series cards it felt like it was finally time to pull the trigger. Of course, I wasn't able to get a new card despite dozens of hours wasted trying.

Would it be dumb to just buy a prebuilt setup through somewhere like Cyberpower? I've been building PC's since I was 13 and have never even considered buying a prebuilt, but it seems like you can get a 3080 setup through a prebuilt site within 1-2 months max. As an adult working 60 hour weeks, I've kind of reached a point where as much as I've always been against the idea, just throwing some money at the internet and getting the card I want with the rest of the hardware in a month sounds really appealing. Is this a reasonable option that wouldn't leave me with a nightmare PC riddled with build problems and a bloated OS install?

 

[Dio]

if the rest of the pc is up to par, and not incredibly more expensive, nah, fair strategy. if it came with pre installed stuff, W10 has a refresh formatting, so you can delete all that easily.

 

[Necrovex]

If you pay attention to slick deals you'll probably find a pretty solid pre built PC that would be comparable in price that you'd build yourself.

 

[EJS]

I honestly thought about doing the same, lol, so I will watch this thread!

 

[Linus815]

its fine. the bloat is a non issue, they don't really pre-install too much shit now, and what they do can easily be removed anyway.

 

[Speevy]

As long as the rig is reliable, a gaming PC always pays for itself again and again.

 

[SuperBanana]

In Autralia, I've noticed all pre-built PC's with 3080's are crazy expensive. They've put in all the super high end shit so it costs like $6000. It's fine to buy pre-built but be careful they aren't overcharging!

 

[OGlol]

I literally just pulled the trigger on doing this a few hours ago

 

[Jawmuncher]

Pre-built is a lot better than it used to be. Not much in the way of bloat ware these days and pricing can be pretty decent. Just take any pricing that ends up more if you would've built yourself as the convenience fee

 

[Shadoken]

Depends on the pre built system. There were some really good deals around Black Friday where the parts were good and the cost was actually close to buying everythning yourself. Some places let you customize so you can choose to not have Windows installed and reuse your old license.

 

[Rizific]

go for it. you have the knowledge to know whats what so you'll be able to fix/replace anything that you dont like. my only advice is to stay away from the big name companies like hp/dell. buy a prebuilt from a boutique builder (cyberpower, origin, etc. etc) since they use retail off-the-shelf parts instead of some proprietary bullshit hardware thats likely found in the dell/hp prebuilts.

 

[EJS]

I literally just pulled the trigger on doing this a few hours ago

Click to shrink...

Which one did you get?

 

[Bradford]

It might be the best way to acquire one right now if you do not have a PC already/don't have piecemeal components.

I genuinely have been considering buying a prebuilt 3090 build just because it's the only goddamn way to get a 3090 and I need to upgrade my entire damn PC anyway. It's still cheaper than paying scalpers.

 

[Imran]

One thing is I'd make sure you know your card is going to fit. The last pre-built I bought was packed extremely tightly, making expansion a headache at best and impossible for other pieces.

 

[EJS]

It might be the best way to acquire one right now if you do not have a PC already/don't have piecemeal components.

I genuinely have been considering buying a prebuilt 3090 build just because it's the only goddamn way to get a 3090 and I need to upgrade my entire damn PC anyway. It's still cheaper than paying scalpers.

Click to shrink...

I haven't even seen prebuilt 3090's, not just the card, lol

 

[LProtagonist]

Depends on if the markup for the prebuilt system isn't more than you'd pay for a comperable system and buying a 3080 for scalper prices. If the parts are quality and you want to pay for the upcharge of a prebuilt instead of waiting, it's totally fine. There are good companies out there making good prebuilts and not skimping on things. There's nothing saying a PC is better just because you built it yourself, though some people have that mentality that buying a prebuilt is 'selling out' or something along those lines. It's dumb.

 

[Sarcastico]

If the components are decent and are being sold at a reasonable price then go for it. If the system integrator is sneaking in junk just because it's bundled with an in-demand GPU, then nah.

 

[PS9]

If you must play Cyberpunk at 4K right now, the 3080 is essential. So if you fit those conditions, yeah?

 

[Border]

Few people here will ever endorse buying prebuilt. I don't think you will get reasonable advice.

I think it is worth it so long as you get a good warranty. Make sure it includes in-home service, because having to mail-in a desktop for service is pointless.

 

[Soundtrack2chaos]

Don't those pre-built PCs tend to come with a CPU and RAM setup that isn't necessarily the absolute best for the type of GPU they're giving you? I feel like every time I've seen a pre-built PC online it was more expensive than one I could make myself and it always had a non-K processor and 3200mhz ram

 

[Sanka]

What kinda price range are we talking about here? $1k-2k?

 

[TraderPoe]

I did it and it worked out great.

 

[EJS]

What kinda price range are we talking about here? $1k-2k?

Click to shrink...

For a 3080? Definitely north of $2K

 

[Slayven]

I went prebuilt(Cyberpower through Bestbuy) this year and has no regrets

 

[VariantX]

lol, I wouldn't blame you, a 3080 alone probably would cost you more than a PC would without one. You might be coming out ahead with the way prices are.

 

[CorpseLight]

The biggest issue I have seen with pre-builts is that they sometimes tend to skimp on PSU wattage, because the PSU is not -generally- listed under the specifications like CPU, GPU, RAM, etc. If you can take the time and do the investigation to make sure your PSU will be up too par for a high end GPU, then go for it.

 

[LavaBadger]

I've considered it myself, but everything seemed like it has a crazy premium attached, or a bunch of subpar parts along with an expensive GPU.

Are there examples that aren't that?

 

[EJS]

I've considered it myself, but everything seemed like it has a crazy premium attached, or a bunch of subpar parts along with an expensive GPU.

Are there examples that aren't that?

Click to shrink...

I'd be interested in seeing some great prebuilts here.

 

[EJS]

Not to hijack, but can people maybe provide great examples of a worthwhile prebuilt with a 3000rtx card?

 

[Deleted member 1839]

I'd say sure but you really should research what different parts in the built just because of potential issues down the line, especially if you plan to upgrade any of the parts in the future.

I had gotten a prebuilt from Cyberpower without prior research to what I was getting and it seemed decent but it had a garbage power supply(which really isn't a problem since you can swap it out) and a garbage case. The problem with the case was that you had to stick to AIO built or you were screwed not to mention that the spacing and ventilation of the case sucked, no real in-take air flow from the front just space openings in the side.

 

[Sanka]

For a 3080? Definitely north of $2K

Click to shrink...

I guess it depends on the other parts but the 3080 "only" costs $700 on the nvidia home page. What else would drive the costs that high? The cpu and ssd?

 

[Skyebaron]

Youre due for an upgrade. Dosent seem dumb. Of course, to know if its dumb or not, we would have to see the specs and cost.

 

[Deleted member 79451]

Not dumb, desperate. But you do need a whole new PC.

 

[Sarcastico]

I'd say sure but you really should research what different parts in the built just because of potential issues down the line, especially if you plan to upgrade any of the parts in the future.

I had gotten a prebuilt from Cyberpower without prior research to what I was getting and it seemed decent but it had a garbage power supply(which really isn't a probably since you can swap it out) and a garbage case. The problem with the case was that you had to stick to AIO built or you were screwed not to mention that the spacing and ventilation of the case sucked, no real in take air flow from the front just space openings in the side.

Click to shrink...

This is my number one complaint against pre-builts. The components can be top of the line but if there's no airflow you'll just end up throttling your GPU/CPU.

 

[LavaBadger]

I guess it depends on the other parts but the 3080 "only" costs $700 on the nvidia home page. What else would drive the costs that high? The cpu and ssd?

Click to shrink...

Profit. You're not even going to get all premium parts for $2000 on a prebuilt.

 

[Korghano]

If you're an adult who works 60 hours a week, there's something to be said for convenience. You probably deserve it if it'll bring you joy, and don't let anyone make you feel guilty.

 

[OGlol]

Which one did you get?

Click to shrink...

Picked up an i9-10900k + 3080 combo from cyberpower

 

[copelandmaster]

If the prebuilt uses an OEM only blower version, things could get rough. Timmy Joe PC Tech had a multi video saga trying to get some use out of a blower 2080 Ti.



Make sure its an AIB or FE card before buying.

 

[Replicant]

It's not dumb. At times the entire pre-built machine equals the total cost of just the card by itself or damn close to it

 

[ephexia]

Do what you gotta do. If you have the means, go for it.

 

[zulux21]

For a 3080? Definitely north of $2K

Click to shrink...

Mutliple PCs over the last month with a 3080 in them have gotten down to around 1.5k (specifically the most common one is variations of the HP OMEN 30L Desktop.)

there were a few that popped around 1.8, 1.9k earlier today, you just have to watch a place like slickdeals for it as a lot of them are getting bought up quick as people will buy the prebuilt just for the card, stick their old card in the prebuilt and then resell the prebuilt locally.

As for the OP. I built my last PC, but really there isn't in general anything wrong with prebuilts. The most likely things for them to do is cheap out on the motherboard and power supply, but the motherboard thing is rarely an issue unless you are planning on upgrading things down the line, and the power supply should be fine unless you plan on upgrading as well. Though in most PCs the power supply shouldn't be that hard to change (the motherboard on the other hand...) so if you were worried about it you could get yourself a better power supply.

Beyond that if your heart is set on the 30xx series then yeah just do it. I doubt you have much of a chance of getting a 3080 before next spring unless you spend the next month obsessively hounding sites and watching slickdeals and what not for the restocks that are up for like 30 seconds. Though new egg has at least been announcing their restocks on their twitter... though I don't know anyone that has had any luck with that.

 

[Kildrek]

Yes, a prebuilt is a reasonable thing as long as the price meets relatively even with the components and isn't overpriced.

If you slap a 3080 into a system with a 2600, you'll be bottlenecked so bad at 1080 and 1440. An i9 with a 3080 will get you the same performance as an i10 at 1440p and 4k. Make sure you get a decent enough monitor because 1080p with a 3080 is a major waste.

How Much CPU Does the GeForce RTX 3080 Need?

Breaking the bottleneck

www.tomshardware.com

 

[Jaypah]

I did it last month and I feel great about it. My wife knew I needed a whole new build and she knew I had been looking at pre-builts (because of the 3080/3090 situation) so she sent me a link and asked if I wanted the PC. It had a 3080, i7 10700k and an NVMe SSD. Coming from a 290x, i7 4820k and a slow ass mechanical drive I thought about it for a bit and decided to pull the trigger. Helps that she also got a decent discount.

Also bonus points for literally taking it out of the box, plugging it in, downloading a few games and being up and running in less than an hour. After my last 2 PCs it was kind of mind blowing lol.

 

[TheMadTitan]

Do it. I was thinking about doing the same to grab a 3080 and a 5800x and just selling the rest and my current GPU to recoup some of the costs.

If the prebuilt uses an OEM only blower version, things could get rough. Timmy Joe PC Tech had a multi video saga trying to get some use out of a blower 2080 Ti.



Make sure its an AIB or FE card before buying.

Click to shrink...

I don't think AMD or Nvidia have blower cards this time around.

 

[Bradford]

I haven't even seen prebuilt 3090's, not just the card, lol

Click to shrink...

Newegg has some!

 

[PopsMaellard]

Yes, a prebuilt is a reasonable thing as long as the price meets relatively even with the components and isn't overpriced.

If you slap a 3080 into a system with a 2600, you'll be bottlenecked so bad at 1080 and 1440. An i9 with a 3080 will get you the same performance as an i10 at 1440p and 4k. Make sure you get a decent enough monitor because 1080p with a 3080 is a major waste.

How Much CPU Does the GeForce RTX 3080 Need?

Breaking the bottleneck

www.tomshardware.com

Click to shrink...

The only reason I haven't upgraded anything else was because truly, they were all performing acceptably for me at lower resolutions for a really long time, and late into last gen I had kind of just shifted over to my PS4 Pro for a lot of titles. The plan early in the year was to find a 3080 and then once that was locked in, upgrade my motherboard and CPU. I never found the card so I never bothered buying other parts.

Separately from that, I fully plan on having the new rig permanently hooked up to an OLED for couch gaming.

 

[FlashFlooder]

I guess it depends on the other parts but the 3080 "only" costs $700 on the nvidia home page. What else would drive the costs that high? The cpu and ssd?

Click to shrink...

the fact that people are buying them just for the 3080, lol.

 

[brawndolicious]

If it's well-configured with parts that are all decent quality and make sense together (no weird bottlenecks), I'd consider paying maybe a couple hundred extra for a professional to put together the system. Personally, I like building a system myself but you do what you have to do in these trying times.

 

[Duxxy3]

For you current situation, not at all. If you had a more modern Ryzen system I'd say no, but an old intel system? Go ahead for the full upgrade.

 

[dtcm83]

The only reason I haven't upgraded anything else was because truly, they were all performing acceptably for me at lower resolutions for a really long time, and late into last gen I had kind of just shifted over to my PS4 Pro for a lot of titles. The plan early in the year was to find a 3080 and then once that was locked in, upgrade my motherboard and CPU. I never found the card so I never bothered buying other parts.

Separately from that, I fully plan on having the new rig permanently hooked up to an OLED for couch gaming.

Click to shrink...

Literally the same situation I was/am in. For what it's worth, I am definitely considering a prebuilt given how difficult (and costly in the case of an rtx gpu or ryzen 5000 cpu) it is to buy separate components nowadays and the quality and choice you can get from some of the prebuilt companies.