Honestly, the old advice is kinda dead. For years, if you asked anyone with a mechanical keyboard and a Discord account whether you should build or buy, the answer was instant: "Build it, obviously. Prebuilts are for suckers who like overpaying for ketchup-and-mustard cables."
But it's January 2026, and the math has changed in a way that’s making a lot of us long-time builders look a bit silly.
The short answer? It’s not always cheaper to build anymore. In fact, for the first time in a decade, you might actually save a couple hundred bucks by grabbing a pre-assembled box from a big retailer. I know, it feels like heresy. But between the massive "RAMageddon" memory shortage and the way AI companies are sucking up every GPU on the planet, the DIY market is in a weird, expensive spot.
The RAM Crisis and Why Prebuilts Are Winning Right Now
The biggest reason is it cheaper to build a gaming pc has become a complicated question is something analysts are calling "RAMageddon."
Basically, the massive AI data centers being built by companies like Meta and Google are using the exact same memory chips that go into your PC. Because those companies have bottomless pockets, they’re outbidding everyone. This has sent the price of DDR5 and even VRAM for graphics cards into the stratosphere.
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Here’s the thing: companies like Dell, HP, and Skytech buy their parts in bulk, often on contracts signed a year in advance. They have warehouses full of memory and SSDs they bought before the prices spiked. When you go to Newegg or Amazon to buy a single 32GB kit of RAM, you’re paying the "crisis price."
The Price Gap in Real Numbers
Let’s look at a mid-range build. Right now, a prebuilt system with an RTX 5070 and a Ryzen 7 9800X3D might run you about $1,700 at a big-box store. If you try to part that out yourself on a site like PCPartPicker, you’ll likely find that just the RAM, GPU, and SSD alone get you halfway to that total. By the time you add a high-quality power supply, a case that doesn't look like a toaster, and a Windows license—which is $100+ retail but "free" in a prebuilt—you’re often looking at $1,900 or more.
You're essentially paying a "convenience discount" to the big manufacturers because they’re shielding you from the current component price hikes. It’s a bizarro-world scenario where the labor of building it yourself actually costs you more in parts than paying someone else to build it.
When Building Still Makes Sense (The Nuance)
It’s not all doom and gloom for the DIY crowd, though. You’ve still got reasons to pick up the screwdriver, even if the receipt is a little painful to look at.
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Most prebuilts, especially from the massive "OEM" brands like Alienware or HP, use proprietary parts. They might give you a great GPU, but they’ll pair it with a single stick of slow RAM or a motherboard that looks like it was pulled out of an office computer from 2012.
The Hidden Costs of "Cheap" Prebuilts
- The "Blowing Up" Factor: Cheap prebuilts often use "Tier E" power supplies. These are the ones that don't just fail; they take your motherboard and GPU with them when they go.
- Thermal Throttling: If your case has zero airflow because it’s a solid glass box with one tiny fan, your expensive RTX 50-series card is going to slow itself down to keep from melting. You're paying for 100% of the performance but only getting 80%.
- The Bloatware Struggle: You'll spend your first three hours uninstalling "free" antivirus trials and proprietary "gaming hubs" that just hog your CPU cycles.
If you build it yourself, you know exactly what’s inside. You’re paying for a Gold-rated power supply, a mesh case that actually breathes, and a motherboard that won't limit your CPU's boost clock. You're paying more for quality, not just for the parts.
The Used Market: The Only True Budget Move
If you’re looking at your bank account and realizing that $1,500 is out of the question, the "is it cheaper to build a gaming pc" answer shifts again. Building is only "cheaper" right now if you are willing to scavenge.
The used market is flooded with last-gen gear. An RTX 4070 or a Radeon 6800 XT still absolute crushes 1440p gaming. You can pick these up on eBay or Facebook Marketplace for a fraction of what a new RTX 5060 would cost, and they’ll often perform better.
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Pairing a used AM4 motherboard with a Ryzen 5 5600X is the "secret sauce" of 2026. You’re using DDR4 RAM, which hasn't been hit nearly as hard by the AI supply crunch as the new DDR5 kits. You can easily put together a killer 1080p/1440p machine for under $700 this way. You’ll never find a prebuilt that matches that value because no major company is selling "new" machines with five-year-old parts.
Making the Final Call
So, do you buy the parts or buy the box?
If you want the absolute latest tech—like the NVIDIA 50-series cards or the newest Intel Ultra chips—search for a reputable "SI" (System Integrator). These are companies like Maingear, Skytech, or CyberPower. They use standard parts, so you can still upgrade later, but they usually have better pricing on the individual components than you can get as a solo buyer right now.
However, if you enjoy the process—the cable management, the BIOS tweaking, the feeling of that first successful boot—building is still the superior experience. Just go into it knowing that you are paying a premium for the hobby itself, not necessarily saving money.
Your Next Steps
- Check the Spread: Open a tab with a prebuilt you like and a tab with PCPartPicker. Match the specs as closely as possible. If the DIY price is within $50 of the prebuilt, build it. The better parts quality is worth the $50.
- Look for "Barebones" Deals: Some retailers are starting to sell PCs without RAM or storage to get around the shortage. If you can find a used kit of RAM, this is the best of both worlds.
- Don't Forget the Warranty: A prebuilt has one warranty for the whole machine. A custom build has seven different warranties for seven different parts. Decide which headache you’d rather deal with if something stops working.
The market will eventually stabilize, but for now, the "DIY is always cheaper" rule is officially on hiatus. Shop with your eyes open and don't be afraid to let a professional build it if the math simply doesn't add up.