Build of the Week: Mar 30, 2025
- Tomiax
- Mar 30
- 7 min read
Should We Buy or Should We Build?
This is a question that should be answered over and over again for a couple of reasons. First, because the more we discuss it, the better certainty we can have in the answer. Second, because the answer may not always be the same. Which is better can vary depending on a lot of factors: What is the market for parts currently like? What is your desired application of the system? Do you want to put in the effort, and responsibility, of building the system? Although the process is not exactly difficult once you're familiar with it, it can be time-consuming and lead to less support for trouble-shooting potential errors to do the build yourself. However, the benefit is usually a reduced total cost and similar guarantees if you can identify problems since most manufacturers will back parts like system integrators will back their systems. So, in this week's post we'll be revisiting the question in terms of cost by comparing the cost of buying a mid-to-high tier to building an equivalent system. The other questions, like if you want to put in the effort or not, are more up to you! Keep in mind that the prices listed for components are based on availability found at the time of writing the post. Prices are in the hands of the mentioned retailers, 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. Affiliate links that are not to Amazon are from PC Partpicker, an awesome site that makes designing builds a lot easier. 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.
This is the system we are going to be comparing to today. Following the link above will take you to the Amazon page where you can read all the specs and details, but today we're mostly concerned with whether or not we can build a system with similar hardware at a better price. That said, it can't be ignored that this product has a fairly high customer rating (4.2/5) after 158 reviews, nor should it go without mention that the pictures do depict systems that look like someone took the time to manage the cables well. Will that ultimately justify the $2031.24 price tag? That will be up to you, but hopefully this post will help you answer that question!
What Hardware do we Need?
Consider below the product description of the Skytech Archangel Gaming PC from Amazon. Some of the hardware is listed very precisely (such as the CPU), and some are listed with a little more leeway (such as the GPU). So, we will match the precise units exactly and the less precise ones as closely as possible. Some other components are either not listed at all or are entirely proprietary (like the motherboard or the case). Those will be challenging to match closely, but we'll do our best for fairness' sake! About this item (Copied from Amazon)
INTEL Core i5 14400F 2.5GHz (4.7GHz Max Boost) CPU Processor 1TB NVME – Up to 30x Faster Than Traditional HDD
NVIDIA Geforce 4070 Super 12GB GDDR6X 32GB DDR4 RAM 3200 Gaming Memory with Heat Spreader Windows 11 Home 64-bit
802.11 AC No Bloatware Graphic output options include 1 x HDMI, and 1 x Display Port Guaranteed, Additional Ports may vary USB Ports Including 2.0, 3.0, and 3.2 Gen1 Ports HD Audio and Mic Free Gaming Keyboard and Mouse
4 x RGB RING Fans for Maximum Air Flow Skytech Archangel Gaming Case with Tempered Glass, White 1 Year Warranty on Parts and Labor Lifetime Free Technical Support Assembled in the USA
This powerful gaming PC is capable of running games: Call of Duty Warzone, Fortnite, Valorant, League of Legends, Apex Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and more at Ultra settings, detailed 4K Ultra HD resolution, and smooth 60+ FPS gameplay.
Parts List
Exactly the same processor
10 Cores, 16 threads
Boost clock up to 4.7 GHz
Does not have on-board graphics
Won't be able to run system until GPU is added
Priced today: $185.96 @ shoprbc
Amazon posting of the Skytech Archangel Gaming PC doesn't specify which cooler is used exactly:
Appears to be a mid-high end air cooler tower
Single LED display fan
The one we have selected is comparable:
High end cooler tower
Two LED display fans;
double the force to drive cooling airflow
double the glow-up
Priced today: $79.00 @ Amazon
Amazon posting of the Skytech Archangel Gaming PC doesn't specify which motherboard is used exactly:
Has to connect to hardware (CPU, DDR4-3200 RAM, M.2 Drive, etc.)
System advertises Wi-Fi
Does not need to support overclocking (CPU, DDR4-3200 RAM, M.2 Drive, etc.);
CPU does not overclock
Motherboard should still support RAM speed settings
Our motherboard meets these features:
Compatible with hardware;
but will require BIOS update before supporting CPU
can be updated prior to build using flash-back feature
Has built-in network connectivity;
2.5 Gb/s ethernet
Wi-Fi 6E
Supports RAM DDR4 profiles up to 5333 MT/s
Has robust heat sink design for components not directly cooled such as M.2 Drives
Priced today: $199.99 @ Amazon, newegg Canadian Owned , Canada Computers Canadian Owned , and memoryexpress Canadian Owned
Link provided goes to Amazon because of affiliation
These other retailers are also reputable
newegg, Canada Computers, and memoryexpress are Canadian Owned
Amazon posting of the Skytech Archangel Gaming PC doesn't specify the brand of memory used, but it does list the specs:
DDR4 3200 MT/s
Has a Heat sink
No LED displays depicted
Our selected RAM has the same properties, or more:
DDR4 3200 MT/s
Robust Heat sink
No LED displays
CAS Latency 16, 10ns First Word Latency
Highly rated set from a reputable brand
Priced today: $63.80 @ vuugo
Amazon posting of the Skytech Archangel Gaming PC doesn't specify the brand or speed of the Storage used, but it does give some information about it:
1 TB capacity
M.2 drive form factor
Doesn't specify read and write speeds, claims up to 30x faster than HDD (no duh)
We chose something that meets these, but are unsure if we are really matching read and write speeds:
1 TB capacity
M.2 4.0x4 form factor
3500 MB/s read speed, 2800 MB/s write speed
Priced today: $74.99 @ Canada Computers Canadian Owned
Unfortunately, the RTX 4070 SUPER options are all priced out to lunch:
This makes replicating the build more expensive than buying the prebuilt
Fortunately, the RTX 5070 is much better priced than any of the 4070 SUPER options
Newer, better core design
More CUDA cores (6144 > 5888)
Same VRAM capacity (12 GB)
Newer, better VRAM design (GDDR7 > GDDR6)
Priced at a point where this build will still be cheaper than the prebuilt
Priced today: $899.99 @ BestBuy
Amazon posting of the Skytech Archangel Gaming PC doesn't specify the brand of the Power Supply, but it does describe it as:
650 W
80+ Gold Certified Efficiency
Our selected Power Supply meets these specs and then some:
750 W
80+ Gold Certified
Fully Modular (easier cable management)
Highly rated unit from a reputable brand
Priced today: $129.99 @ Amazon, newegg Canadian Owned , Canada Computers Canadian Owned , and memoryexpress Canadian Owned
Link provided goes to Amazon because of affiliation
These other retailers are also reputable
newegg, Canada Computers, and memoryexpress are Canadian Owned
The Skytech Archangel Gaming PC has a proprietary case that isn't available anywhere else
Four RGB LED display case fans
We chose a budget case that should get the job we need done
Comes with the same number of LED display case fans
Not sure if LED fans are RGB or just one colour
Priced today: $68.50 @ vuugo
Price Comparison
So, buying the pre-assembled and ready to go Skytech Archangel Gaming PC from Amazon has a price tag of $2031.34, and adding up the prices of all the parts we selected comes to $1702.22. As you can tell from the fact I colour-coded it green, the parts list is less expensive than buying the prebuilt. In this case, the cost difference is over $300! There is one objective upgrade we made from the prebuilt system to our parts list, and that was getting a newer model of graphics card. The RTX 5070 is just a better GPU than a similar tier RTX 4070 SUPER from the generation before. The newer model has a bit more raw processing power, but the uplifts in performance will be on the side of optimizations: Better raytracing, AI tools, and frame generation technology are all incorporated into the newer model. This change wasn't really motivated by an intentional upgrade, but was rather motivated by the fact that any version of the RTX 4070 SUPER is close to $1400 in price right now, nearly $500 more than the RTX 5070 card we found. Going with the same spec of RTX 4070 SUPER would have made our custom design MORE expensive than the prebuilt, which absolutely defies our goal today. Then, this highlights one of the major advantages of custom designing and building your own PC: You get to choose what parts you want and where you want to spend (or save) money. In this case, we got one upgrade already, and STILL saved enough money to upgrade something else at the same time before we but up against the same price. For example, we could:
Spend about $100 more on the much better Intel Core i5-14600K 3.5 GHz 14-Core Processor
AND
Spend about $80 more on the much better G.Skill Trident Z RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-4400 CL19 Memory
WHILE
Still saving about $120 with an overall upgraded PC compared to the Skytech Archangel Gaming PC.
The downside to building this system is, as usual, the effort involved in assembling the parts and setting up the software on the system. The motherboard firmware will have to be flashed, Windows will need an installation (and a key on the side not included in our cost estimate if you want to get the full Windows experience).
Conclusion
As with most similar comparisons, we absolutely did succeed in designing a system with similar (or better) hardware for a better overall price point. Are the savings and potential upgrades worth you doing the work yourself? Well, that's something you have to decide for yourself! For now, however, this author will be signing off. So, thank you for reading and enjoy your week!
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