It seems experiences vary wildly, and I'd assume that's based on differing criteria. For a general purpose / MS Office / browsing desktop, going pre-built may

It seems experiences vary wildly, and I'd assume that's based on differing criteria. For a general purpose / MS Office / browsing desktop, going pre-built may be viable. For any more specific / demanding usage, building a computer yourself will allow you to get the performance you need for the price you want. I'm decade or more past the point of enjoying building a new PC, but a pre-built machine never seemed to make financial or use-case sense for me. YMMV :)