With GPU prices peaking, now is a good time to buy a prebuilt gaming PC - PC Gamer
It's not a good time to build your own PC. Normally we recommend buying individual components and building your own PC instead of purchasing through a system builder, buying a prebuilt, or (shudder) buying a console. But due to a number of factors, buying a prebuilt system isn't such a bad idea right now.
To start with, it's a terrible time to buy a graphics card. Cryptocurrency mining has driven GPU prices through the roof—some nearly double their MSRP. To make matters worse, RAM prices are up as well, mostly due to smartphone demand, though some relief on that front might be coming soon.
However, there's one place where GPU prices haven't been hit quite as hard: system builders. Since system builders aren't plagued by out-of-stock overpriced video cards, the cost of a prebuilt system hasn't ballooned the same as buying the components individually. I built the near exact equivalent of our build guide in CyberPowerPC's system configurator and came out with a price of $1637.
The normally modest price premium of a prebuilt system doesn't look so bad compared to those inflated GPU costs. $1,637 is still a bit higher than our original build price, but better than $1,800, and it comes with the bonuses of buying through a system builder like a warranty and tech support, plus, y'know, having someone else build the whole thing and guarantee it properly turns on.
But if you're looking to pull the trigger on a new gaming PC right now, opting for a prebuilt system might actually be pretty smart.