After building my second PC, I think this is the way to go.
Mix-and-match your own components. Careful thinking through the best pieces to optimise performance or cost. The pleasure in knowing your own blood, sweat and tears stain the inside of the case.
Oh, scratch that last one. There were no tears.
Go read about George Ou’s geekiest projects.
The alternative to assembling it all is to buy it pre-assembled through certain reputable suppliers.
Advantage: Less blood loss.
Disadvantage: All done through one supplier, so you may pay a slight premium on some specific items.
One I know will do this for free (what they save on shipping individual items pays for the labour costs), and assembly takes ~3-4 days. If you buy an OS, they’ll preinstall it for you incl. drivers, etc. They also tie-back & tidy up all the cables too.
This XKCD comic is probably somewhat appropriate too: http://www.xkcd.com/349/
🙂
LOL on xkcd. Welcome to my week.
Lots of fun, tho’