Yeah, during the GPU shortage of '20/'21, I ended up buying a prebuilt so I could at least get the GPU at RETAIL price. It was at a time when flipping GPUs on ebay was all the rage and you’d be paying 25%-100% more than it was worth to a scalper.
The system integrators get a better price on parts than we do, and now many of them are selling them for less or precisely the retail price of all the components. You really have to shop around though, some “premium boutiques” like Maingear can be 50-100% more expensive than the competition… They’re selling the same product so I don’t really see the value they bring at that price, but I’m sure as hell not paying $2,000 for their tech support.
Yeah, during the GPU shortage of '20/'21, I ended up buying a prebuilt so I could at least get the GPU at RETAIL price. It was at a time when flipping GPUs on ebay was all the rage and you’d be paying 25%-100% more than it was worth to a scalper.
The system integrators get a better price on parts than we do, and now many of them are selling them for less or precisely the retail price of all the components. You really have to shop around though, some “premium boutiques” like Maingear can be 50-100% more expensive than the competition… They’re selling the same product so I don’t really see the value they bring at that price, but I’m sure as hell not paying $2,000 for their tech support.