Gaming PC Builders

[towser]

Having been a few years out of the PC gaming scene and considering diving back in I was mooching through the Scan site given they are a company I've used before and was happy with their service.

There's also a whole bunch of alternative suppliers : chillblast, novatech, overclockers etc....that provide prebuilt PCs or PCs who's build you can spec.

I'm not overly interested in building my own, I've done it before when I had the time but now have young kids and limited time to set aside so the option of a someone else doing the build appeals.

So beyond Scan can anyone suggest any other reliable builders that provide well built systems (or also are Scan still to be relied upon?)

TIA...

[egnshane]

I have experience of Scan and overclockers for prebuilt systems. Traditionally they both have offered great service but in these COVID times I think they are both struggling and lead times seem significantly longer just for normal orders.

At the moment I have been ordering more from overclockers as they see, to be turning things around a bit quicker. I dont think you can go wrong with either of them

[Glade]

I had a scan put/mobo/cooler bundle in 2014 and it was fine.

Just used then to get bits for a new build, and they seem competitive.

I think scan are ok!

[hyphen]

The bigger companies will have refurb sections on their sites.

Alienware here:

https://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/InventorySearc...

[paul99]

Try Palicomp, had a good experience with them building my own PC and my sons at Xmas. Fair bit cheaper than Scan etc.. But I did build most of the machines myself. Don't be afraid of building your own machine, it's really straightforward nowadays and you can get them partially built if you don't want to be messing around with thermal paste, but most parts are just plug and play, a few cable ties and some patience you can make a nice tidy install.

[vladcjelli]

And if you haven’t got time to be building it, you certainly won’t have time to be playing on it!

[hotchy]

Iv gave up on pc gaming. First off my screen has been stolen so she can work from home and have 2 screens. Then my not too old pc that plays most things at very high fps can't play warzone yet my old xbox with half the power manages fine. I'm sticking to console.

[hyphen]

vladcjelli said:

And if you haven’t got time to be building it, you certainly won’t have time to be playing on it!

That may have sounded good in your head, but on paper it makes no sense

[Hosenbugler]

I can wholeheartedly recomend QuietPC. The machine they built for me, and the service I received was 100%. Their attention to detail is superb. Small things thay think of and address that helps make things so much easier.

Do not know how they are coping with the current covid disruptions, but whilst they are not the cheapest , it's firmly a double thumbs up from this happy customer.

Cheers,

P/S Yes, the machine is seen and not heard.

[vladcjelli]

hyphen said:

vladcjelli said:

And if you haven’t got time to be building it, you certainly won’t have time to be playing on it!

That may have sounded good in your head, but on paper it makes no sense

In what way?

When my youngest and I built one during lockdown v.1, we did a bit of research and ordering of bits, then spent, at best, a morning putting it together.

The OP says that due to young kids, he hasn’t got the time to waste building the PC. How much time do you think they will allow him to devote to gaming on it?

When you look at some of the hours played stats people post on here for the games they have, the build time is negligible.

So my summary stands, if you can’t afford the time it takes to build it due to your situation, when do you think you’ll be able to play on it?

Apologies if my brevity wasn’t to your taste.

[RizzoTheRat]

I'm with Dirk ^^

Actually building the PC take no time at all, and sites like PCPartPicker make speccing the maching and buying the bits really easily, or just copy one of the builds someone else has posted. I looked at buying prebuilt/customised but couldn't really find quite what I wanted, and home building turned out to be really easy.

Novatech is another company to add to your initial list.

However now's apparently not a great time to be buying, lots of supply and transportation issues ramping the costs and timescales up quite a bit.

[Drive Blind]

RizzoTheRat said:

However now's apparently not a great time to be buying, lots of supply and transportation issues ramping the costs and timescales up quite a bit.

Came on to post the same. Anyone currently looking to build/buy a PC is facing increased prices and shortages.

This is driving up the prices for used components on Ebay and Gumtree - especially around graphics cards.

[towser]

Thanks all - will dig around your recommendations and see what’s what. I think I mentioned I’ve built my own in the past - the old Core2Duo the kids are using for school work is my last effort but now I honestly can’t be bothered building a component list and then trawling around looking for the parts and being disappointed due to shortages. If it takes the likes of Scan a month or so to source and build a PC based on a spec I want then that’s fine as far as I’m concerned - they’re more likely to have sourcing success than me.

[lastexile69]

I agree with some of the responses earlier.

Right now - if your budget works for doing so - you might want to consider the option of a pre built or at the very least a matched mobo/cpu/gpu bundle to build off from one of the suppliers, simply because trying to get the latest spec CPU/GPU kit as individual bits to build with yourself is proving damn near impossible.

Scan, Overclockers and others do seem to have just a few (and only in stock very briefly) of these unicorn pieces, but only when ordered inside a bundle or prebuilt.

[towser]

Just closing this off.....I ordered from Scan, found their presales very responsive and provided good advice and info - bit more on the ball than a couple of alternatives I tried, slightly more competitvely proced too....but not really that much in it. They were indicating a 2 month wait for 3000 series card so ultimately I specced a 1660 Super and will switch for a 3000 series when they are more readily available at sane prices - still a 4 week lead time though!

[Digger]

I recently bought the same card.

A decent GPU for the price.

[Brainpox]

towser said:

I honestly can’t be bothered building a component list and then trawling around looking for the parts and being disappointed due to shortages.

I know you've already made up your mind, but for the benefit of others, you can use PCPartPicker and it will keep track of stock and prices for you. It supports most of the bigger retailers. Saves a lot of hassle.

[stabilio]

I found the only way to get anything near the machine I wanted in a short time was to build it myself and had to buy the parts from several different places due to stock shortages.

[Mr Whippy]

Building a PC is all part of the fun.
So simple these days too.

I’ve used Scan and QuietPC a lot in last 12 months and they’ve been spot on.

Even returned a NAS after 34 days as I thought it was pants and some features just not working or as expected, and Scan RMAd and refunded for me. Very good as often you feel like you’re fighting places to do that.


These shortages are amazing though. But it seems isolated to the latest bits which quite honesty you don’t need.

All mid range last gen stuff is ample for everything out there still... unless time is money or you’re just a loaded gamer who likes to spend £££

[981C]

I've not built a PC since 2011 and have been using my business XPS13 as my sole machine for a while now.

I've decided to go all out based on a limited refresh of my knowledge I'm converging on:

AMD Ryzen 3900XT
Asus ROG Strix X570-E
Corsair DOMINATOR PLATINUM RGB 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3600 (PC4-28800) C18 1.35V
Samsung 980 Pro NVME PCIe 4.0 1TB
GPU - 3070 if I can find one

I already have a Corsair Water cooler and EVGA 850 Platinum in my existing case.

Would love feedback/advice.