Out of curiosity, why the optical drive? Have you actually used this DVD-RW drive on the system you had built?

(My current desktop, which I built myself, doesn't have one, and I haven't missed it.)

Because I have lots of boxed games, music CDs, DVDs. These days, I don't use the original medium that much anymore, but I still rip audio CDs to FLAC regularly.

I'm always going to have/want a drive for my discs.

Xidax is amazing

Just get a USB drive, I've had one for years and I plug it in in the rare case where I actually need an optical drive. In most cases, it winds up collecting dust along with my USB floppy drive.

Especially since you rip things to disk already, there's not much point in wasting the electricity by having it always plugged in.

I don't use it as much as I used to - but I wouldn't call it a "rare case". So for now I can live with its 2W idle power usage.


I still miss boxed game releases! (with at least a manual/documentation inside)

DIY, but if you value your time (or rather the lack of it...) and go for higher-end systems, here is another vote for:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/

It may not be the cheapest, but superb service so far - they are PC enthusiasts themselves and machines built to order are soak tested.
Plus considering the prices of higher end components, you should definitely go for a service where they know what they are doing - if anything goes wrong you can easily lose a lot of money on your DIY.

iBuyPower & CyberPower are popular & economical. I've heard horror stories about each though: fans in the case - just sitting & not actually hooked in to anything, shards of plastic with no known origin, things like that. My own CyberPower didn't start when I first got it because they forgot half the components in the computer, so I had to go back to Best Buy & exchange it for another one.

On the other hand, given it actually works now, it runs pretty great (though I don't play many new games, certainly not on Ultra settings). My cousin (who bought iBuyPower) saved a bunch & wasn't a heavy gamer, but loved it & said it served him well for many years.

Given how this stuff goes down, I purposely opted for a physical location so I could go back & return it in case something was wrong. In other words, I think the company itself doesn't matter as much as resolving the issue if it comes up - any big company or brand is bound to have loyalists & haters for any number of reasons. If you have an issue like mine, you don't want to be shipping everything back & forth several times.