Good morning (over here) everyone
So I bought a laptop for school that was also supposed to play Sims 3 well but what I failed to realize was that laptops weren't made for gaming and updating the drivers and stuff is a pain due to customized Toshiba who doesn't update often enough for my laptop.

Anywho, my question is this: Is it much cheaper to build my own desktop with the help of one of my PC friends rather than buy a PC that has the specifications? Sims 3 is the only game I want it to be able to play on high graphics with no lag and have room for further expansions released for it. I would assume this would mean 8GB, a good processor and either Nvidia or ATI graphics?

Sorry for all the questions

Dreamer, if you put together a PC you won't have all the vendor specific software that's loaded onto their machines. On the hand, any tech support will be from the individual hardware vendors instead of the company you purchase a PC from. If you have a friend build you one they will become your tech support instead.

I would suggest you and your friend get together and make a wish list of what you want in a PC. Then have your friend check with different vendors to get prices for the system you are wishing for. Then take that list and go to the major PC companies and compare their prices to the wish list you prepared.

Just my 2 cents;
I used to always build my own because it was cheaper but lately I added up all the components to build verses a factory built like Cyberpower and they were almost the same.I dont know if componenets for the consumer have gone up or what but I didnt see an advantage to building my own this time.

If all you want to do is play Sims games, 8 GB of RAM is massive overkill.

A good place to play around with building a computer is eCollegePC . Although they will build one for you, it's also a good place to experiment with different components and combinations. I've had them build 3 computers for friends and the difference in the cost of them building one and me building one with the same components was negligible. eCollegePC provides a 3 year warranty. I'm not sure about CyberPower. Or maybe you could check locally about having one built for you.

One of the main advantages to building your own or have someplace build it for you is the LACK of all the vendor specific software, or as it is more commonly known - bloatware.

However, if you want to learn a lot about how a computer is put together, then building one yourself is a great experience. Just be sure if you have a friend help, at least one of you is familiar with the hardware and inner workings of a computer.

I second what Draclvr has said.

About the only time you'll have any substantial savings when building a new rig is when the components are sold with sizable rebates. It can be done, but generally folks like eCollegePC offer them in near equivalent price ranges.

If you purchase bulk OEM products you can add an additional savings – but you’ve really got watch the sales, and have a local dealer that offers them.

I just priced out a build for my son for an 8 GB Core i7 – he’s looking at just around $1000.00 (USD). We can trim that down by shopping around, but that's the basic range I came up with for a top end build.

Same here - I put together an LGA 1155 Core i5 with 8 GB of RAM and a GTX 560 Ti video card for someone who was asking about a higher end build and it came up to $1044 at eCollegePC.