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Build of the Week: Dec 22, 2024

Happy Holidays to everyone! With Christmas is upon us, and this being the last weekly build to put out before that day of celebration, there could be a few people looking to do some last minute shopping today. So, we are going to take a slightly different approach to our build today. Where we usually do a build on a budget or for some specified purpose, then maybe find some comparable prebuilt systems, this time we are actually going to shop out a decent prebuilt system first. The idea is to analyze all the listed details, and then see if we can save money by building more or less the same thing.


These three systems from different retailers all seem to have similar components:

Their common components are:

  • Central Processor = Intel Core i7-14700F

    • 8 performance cores @ 5.3 GHz boosted speeds

    • 12 effieciency cores @ 4.2 GHz boosted speeds

      • Probably won't be maxing out these boosted speeds with the air cooler, but allows for future upgrades

    • 28 total threads

  • CPU Cooling = Air Cooled

  • Memory = 32 Gb of DDR5 RAM

  • Graphics Card = NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4060  8GB GDDR6

  • Storage Type = Solid State Drive

    • The MSI Aegis RS from Canada Computers differs in that it boasts 2 Tb of storage compared to the 1 Tb offered by the others

  • The ASUS ROG Strix G13 from Best Buy has a 750 W +Gold power supply listed

    • The ASUS ROG Strix G13 on Amazon probably has the same power supply

    • Canada Computers doesn't list the power supply in the MSI Aegis RS

  • Aside from the details listed above, and the external case that can be seen in the product pictures, we don't know much about the hardware used in these builds.


Build:

The strategy we will follow is simple: First, we will select the components we know are common to the systems. Then, we will see what kind of budget we have left for the components we don't know about. In that remaining budget, we will likely prioritize the Motherboard because it has to be a high quality to get the most out of our hardware and to allow future expansion with minimal effort (you can't replace the motherboard without a total rebuild).

Keep in mind that the prices listed for components are based on availability found at the time of writing the post. Prices may vary, and are based on Canadian Currency in a Canadian market. The admin of this website might earn a commission whenever links that lead to Amazon are used to make purchases, but these links do not affect the final price to the consumer. Furthermore, we will still always link to the lowest price we found. Remember to add taxes and shipping to these prices when budgeting, and consider cost-saving strategies like waiting for sale prices or finding used parts.


Now we have the known components selected to be competitive with the prebuilt systems, and next we are going to pick a motherboard. So far we have already spent about $1040. On the one hand, it would be nice to have extra features like built-in wifi and built in bluetooth that are listed in these builds. On the other hand, we have to be careful with our remaining budget. If we want to beat the $1400 price of the Best Buy build, then we are doing to have to spend less than $360 on the remaining components, and we can spend more than half of that on the motherboard alone if we don't pick carefully. We are going to compare two options here:

  1. ASRock B760M Pro RS WiFi White Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard is $197.99 @ PC-Canada

    1. Supports up to 192 Gb of RAM (same as CPU)

    2. Has Wi-Fi 6E built in.

    3. Might not need BIOS update before supporting CPU and RAM, but do the update immediately anyways to prevent potential problems

  2. MSI PRO H610M-G Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard is $148.50 @ vuugo

    1. Less expensive and holds our selected hardware

    2. Has less room for expansion

    3. Does not have built-in Wi-Fi

    4. Will probably need a BIOS update before supporting the CPU


That leaves us $160 to $200 to spend on the case and power supply (depending on which motherboard we select) to beat the best priced pre-built system. We want a power supply that is 750 W at +Gold efficiency rating to be competitive, and then whatever case including fans we can get while still under budget.


Conclusion:

The lowest cost of the prebuilt systems we looked at was $1399.99. Adding together the costs of our parts using the more expensive motherboard, we get $1399.94, which is basically the same. However, beware that shipping costs from some of the listed retailers is not accounted for. So, we didn't really beat our mark by much, but how does our custom build compare?


First, the ASUS ROC Strix 13 from Best Buy that is priced at $1399.99 is on sale for $600 off. That's right, the regular price is $1999.99, and you won't get it any cheaper. Meanwhile the MSI Aegis RS from Canada Computers for $1499.99 is $100 off. So really, our build compares to a desktop that is regularly $1600 or more while a lot of the parts we have chosen can sometimes be less expensive than they currently are while others are almost always available for similar prices to what they are now. The MSI VENTUS 2X BLACK OC GeForce RTX 4060 8 GB Video Card that we chose has been consistently around $400 for the past handful of months. Another example is the MSI Pro H610M-G Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard, which was another $13 less expensive than its current $197.99. So, although buying the parts right now vs buying the prebuilt system offered by Best Buy may not be any savings in cost, this might not always be the case if being patient buying parts and waiting for them to go on sale. Second, we opted for the 2 Tb Solid State Drive. That means that compared to the Best Buy option of the same cost, we get double the storage. Or, if you want to compare it to the Canada Computers option with the same storage capacity, we are saving $100.


Finally, the prebuilt systems come with some of what I would call "mystery parts". Although we know it is RTX 4060 that all the prebuilt systems come with, we don't know which (if any) are a version that can be overclocked. The one we selected, however, we know can be pushed to 2505 MHz. Likewise, we only know the RAM on all three prebuilt systems is 32 Gb of DDR5. Being DDR5, it's probably faster than anything gotten with a DDR4 system, but we don't know how fast. We know that the RAM we selected was speed rated at 6000 MHz. So, it's probably faster than what comes with the prebuilt systems, and will allow us to overclock the CPU if we upgrade the system's cooling at some point. Probably the biggest question mark in the prebuilt systems is the motherboard. We have very little idea of what they come with, other than built in Wi-Fi from the Canada Computers option or the Bluetooth compatibility with the Amazon one (but adding in a Bluetooth adaptor is not a $600 upgrade to make the Amazon price worthwhile, lol). Conversely, we can research the specs of our selected motherboard and see that we can max out the 192 Gb of RAM supported by the CPU if we should so choose.


So, did we beat our target goal? I would say "yes", even if just barely. Post-Conclusion: Future Upgrades

Yes, I'm adding more after the conclusion. For this, imagine yourself a year or two into the future. You have built the desktop outlined here, and you want to get more out of it by upgrading it. What upgrades should you consider? I'll list them quickly:

  1. A good water cooler

    1. Get your CPU cooled efficiently so that you can overclock that unit

  2. More case fans

    1. Make use of the spaces not used by the radiator of the water cooler

  3. More RAM

    1. Replace the 2x 16 Gb RAM sticks with a 4x 16 Gb set

    2. Doubles the RAM up to 32 Gb, and doubles the streams that can make use of your 20 Cores in the CPU.


 
 
 

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