Or any other appendages you may be looking to offload. And, while you're at it, I'd be very grateful if you kind people could see your way clear to helping out a confused newbie. 

I find myself in need of a new computer following the untimely demise of my old Toshiba Sattelite laptop, but this time around figured I might go desktop since I want to use it mainly for gaming. Not Crysis so-realistic-the-water-could-soak-you gaming, just a machine decent and powerful enough to run most new games at medium settings (Fallout New Vegas, for example. My old laptop couldn't get close to the minimum specs for that game and I'd quite like to give it a try)

So, here's my predicament: in your expert opinions, should I go pre-built or build my own? I know that for most of you the instant reaction will be 'build your own, it's cheaper' but please bear in mind I'm a total newbie at this with no skills or experience in this area. I've never so much as upgraded RAM before and I've got no-one techie I could bribe with beer to build it for me or help out as I build it. With that in mind, would it still be better for me to build from scratch or should I pay extra and get a pre-built that I could study and see how the pieces fit together? And regardless, I'd appreciate recommendations for builds, parts etc. As I said I'm completely new at this so wouldn't know a good motherboard if it punched me in the face. 


Tl;dr : I need a new comp. Should a clueless newbie go prebuilt or build their own? 

I would take a long time looking at YouTube videos and PC building guides like this one. TBH building a PC is no harder than wiring a plug really, just a lot more of it is involved. Some people will always prefer store bought systems for the simplicity but really you are paying for their time to make it and then a store warranty and of course the mark up.

I can't promise you will have a more powerful machine but you wont be skimping on parts like these companies do. To keep their profit margins they tend to save money on the Power Supply and the Graphics card and they are the most important parts for gaming. A good entry level card would be the Radeon 5770 but a lot of companies bundle the 5670 (or worse) to save a few bucks. They also stick to sub 500 watt PSU's which is fine to get the system running how they build it but it's going to be an obstacle when upgrading.

As someone who buys pre-built (and Macs no less - yes kill the infidel I know) I would actually say it depends on how much time your willing to spend to learn.

If you are willing to spend the time and effort to learn how to do things properly, looking at technical sites, doing what you are know with asking for advice on fora, reading a lot, then your first attempt to build a computer will likely be ... well not professional grade, but you'll probably feel a sense of accomplishment. Your second attempt will probably be better, and so on. Eventually it will be second nature and you'll be able to build your own computers with a sense of expertise which should come fairly rapidly as Delixe said it's not THAT bad, but it does take time nonetheless.

I'm just going off the fact that like anything, skills in building computers time to develop and train (more or less than other skills but that's not really the point). More than money, if you are willing to learn and you want to learn because you'll enjoy it, then go forth. Seriously, if something is fun (and I'm nerdy so I can see building computers as fun) then the effort and time to learn will feel well spent. If it's really just a matter of cost, but nothing else, probably buy pre-built, not because it's cheaper (it's not), but because it won't waste your time doing something you don't enjoy doing or taking the effort to learn.

EDIT: This is not to say that you should only learn things you enjoy learning about for everything and ignore everything else because it must not be important if you enjoy it, but uh yeah ... this was meant to apply to hobbies. I guess I view building a computer like knitting or crocheting which are actually quite useful hobbies (making your own clothes, building computers) but you don't have time to do them all.

If you're going PC have a local mum and pop shop customize a Frankenstien rig for you.

And make sure to get a hard copy of the OS.

My advice is: Have a look around the deals and take a look at who's offering what

If you can get a Pre-built PC for a good price, buy that, make sure it has good CPU and RAM and simply upgrade the GFXcard right now if you need to or later

If you dont see anything like that...then spend some time and built it yourself, the process of building a pc has been very simplified over the years so it shouldnt be that hard at all

There still isn't a game on the PC which looks better Tech-wise than Crysis and that came out in freaking 2007 so costs should be low generally as you don't need the latest super puper duper 3000 euro overpriced alienwares that have no purpose

Wow, thanks guys, I really didn't expect any replies so quickly.

Mainly I want to build this thing just to say I've done it. Also the modular nature of the desktop means that if a part dies it should be easy to replace (something I, as a former laptop user, find VERY appealing) Costwise cheaper is an advantage obviously but a shop-bought machine comes with the warranty, and a big worry for me is that if something goes wrong with a built machine I'll be left high and dry (no idea how likely that is to happen, though)

Carnival76, I've been thinking about one of the machines on this site http://www.pctechcomputers.com/systems/system_sheet.pdf

The Ideal Start System with the improved RAM and graphics card (not the Blu-Ray drive though, since right now I have no use for it and if it turns out I need one further down the line hopefully I'll have the expertise to add it myself) is what I've got my beady little eye on, just the base system since I already have a monitor, keyboard, mouse etc. Do you guys think it's a worthwhile deal? And is it worth plugging for the i3 over the Athlon?

You still have warranty for the individual parts. Depending on options available, it's probably shorter than what you can get for a complete computer though.

I would build your own, but buy the parts from CCL online. They have bundled deals where you can buy motherboard, processor and memory bundled together for a good price (and that's the hard part over!)

http://www.cclonline.com/product-categories.asp?category_id=491

Then you need to buy a case, a decent watt PSU, a decent video card (I'm sure fellow GOGers can help you here, as I'm not up on the latest...I still find my 9800GT does the trick), a hard drive, a DVD recordable drive and your operating system. If you download the version of the OS on your current PC (e.g. XP Home) from the interwebs, you may be able to use that and the serial number on your PC - otherwise, you'll have to buy new OEM.

If you were in germany, I would advise to use alternate.de
They have a great system builder, where you click your desired PC together and the system is that good, that it only shows components available to select that fit together.

Really easy to use, for a price topup, you can order that PC already build together. Or how I do it, I click it together, printing out the component list, go to my PC component store, show them the list and get better parts for about 100 € less :)

Lucibel, thanks so much. I'm seriously considering one of those all-in-one hobbies now. But can anyone confirm that they are compatible with that Radeon 5770 please? Also what kind of PSU would I need?

OS-wise I'm going for Windows 7 Home Premium, I think. Unfortunately the OEM version on the previous laptop is useless since the sticker on the bottom has rubbed away with age and the laptop itself is out of commission. (I'm currently running a stand-in lappy with a whopping 1GB RAM and integrated graphics card with Ubuntu, which is a nice OS in itself but from what I've seen game comptaibility sucks)

Ubivis, you lucky German, that's a fantastic site ;) I wonder if there's anything like that for the UK

In that case I'd say go for it ... I'm sure the GOGers on here will be happy to continue to help. This is a good community. :)

Well, ccl is quite interesting too. you can for instance request a custom built system.... that will solve any concern you may have about compatibility

http://www.cclonline.com/product-configure.asp?item=CCL-EL-HIGH&os=SFT0121

Build your own, you only have to do this once to get the painful learning out of the way. You'll get a better comp for the same money.

Otherwise you can get whatever Dell from their outlet, these are often way below the cost of parts, and slap in a video card and bigger hard drive. If you stick to business lines you'll end up with a decent machine.

THIS. Find a UK source that offers kits (TigerDirect over here offers a number of preselected component sets with cases that you can add better cards, etc. to) or go with an OptiPlex from the Dell outlet site. Do not buy a low-end Inspiron. I've got an OptiPlex that's run solid for almost five years now. I've about upgraded it to its max now, but it's behaved beautifully and was about half the price I'd have paid otherwise.