Was Paying $1,660 for This PC Without RAM a Bad Deal?
Asked by
MellowCedar47
I paid $1,660 for a PC built with a Gigabyte RX 9070 XT OC, AMD Ryzen 5 9600X, Phanteks AMP GH 850W Gold power supply, 1TB Kingston NV3 PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD, ASUS TUF Gaming B850-PLUS motherboard, Lian Li Vector V100 case with four preinstalled 120mm fans, and a Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE ARGB cooler. However, it does not include any RAM. Based on the current prices of these components and the fact that it was assembled, did I overpay?
Answers
Some builders remove the memory from systems and sell it separately, so a PC being listed without RAM isn’t automatically suspicious. Still, compare the total cost after adding the RAM you need against similar prebuilt systems that already include memory.
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The price is fairly normal for those exact components, although the motherboard and some other parts could have been cheaper. You might have saved a little by choosing a less expensive board or shopping around, but you probably didn’t massively overpay.
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It doesn’t look like an outright scam. Current component prices put the parts roughly around $1,500 before considering assembly, so $1,660 is within the range you might expect for a completed build. The missing RAM is the main thing to account for, though you’ll still need to buy a compatible DDR5 kit.
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There’s disagreement because prices change quickly, but a $1,000 estimate is unrealistic for this hardware at current prices. A similar prebuilt that includes RAM could potentially offer better value, so the deal may not be optimal, but it doesn’t look like an obvious scam.
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MellowCedar47: That makes sense. I’ll price out a suitable DDR5 kit and compare the complete total with current prebuilts before deciding whether to keep it.