@SciGuy, like @uradamus stated my biggest concern I have with that Newegg system would be the PSU as that's where vendors tend to try and save a couple of bucks. RAM and motherboards are usually of lesser quality (cheap capacitors, weird PCI-e lane connections) as well - especially when compared to the ROG Maximus you selected - but overall everything should work just fine.
As far as the maximum of 8 GB of RAM you mention in your post, I'm 99.9% positive the mentioned RAM is the installed RAM only, and not the boards maximum capacity. Even Mini-ITX boards with the AMD B350 chipset offer at least 2 DIM slots, and since each slot is supposed to support a 16 GB Dimm according to international standards, I'm sure they've either opted with two 4 GB modules, or a single 8 GB one and left a couple of slots empty. Nothing wrong with double checking though, but I'm sure that's the case.
Now to compare hand-picking or buying a pre-build system: Since vendors don't list the exact components installed in these kinds of systems it's impossible to make a 1:1 comparison, but If I were to use my own Excel sheet combined with the work you did on it yourself, I'd end up with a similar price when selecting the cheapest parts:
Another major advantage in building your custom system is that you'll know exactly what parts have been used and that those parts are from respected manufacturers. Now by no means will the Battlebox fry on you on your first render (and even if it does the should be something called "warranty") but like uradamus said, it does happen when users overload their pre-configured systems since these are designed for your average Joe.
Again, this is usually due to the fact that they skimp out on important parts like the PSU and/or motherboard which makes perfect sense to me. Imagine all the costs that go into selling such a system (buying/installing components, paying staff, taxes and housing, offering warranty etc.), all for about $ 100 worth of profit (assuming 8 GB of ram costs ~ $ 80)...
My final point as far as comparing these systems goes, would be future expansion of the system. Since you don't know the exact components used inside the Battlebox, it might be a lot harder if not impossible to upgrade or add components in the future. As mentioned earlier I already had to do some guessing on the RAM configuration, but imagine wanting to add some additional fans to keep your system cooler or make it run quieter. Is there any room on the motherboard for additional fans or would you have to install a fan splitter? What about adding a capture card for capturing your Xbox/PS4 gameplay? are there sufficient PCI-e slots and if so, at what speed do they run?
If all that's holding you back from going full custom is the fact that you'd have to reinstall Windows, keep in mind that not only hardware, but software as well has come a long way since the late 90s/early 00s. With USB 3.0/3.1, insanely fast SSD's or NVME drives as well as increased internet speeds, reinstalling your PC and software shouldn't be a 5 day job anymore. I recently did exactly that on my laptop, and I was back up and running within half a day.
Now to round things up since I'm rambling on and on again, while the Battlebox should run perfectly fine I'd rather buy that case of beer and have some fun building my system since that would be the only way I would be 100% able to tell that things are exactly the way I like them to be. Not only would this guarantee me quality components have been used but I'll be 100% sure both the case as well as the motherboard contain all the I/O ports and slots I could possibly need, both now as well as in the future. Going full custom might lead to a little less beefy system spec-wise (the Ryzen 7 will definitely run circles around the selected i5), but you'll have (relative) certainty that the system runs smooth now and in the future.
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One (somewhat unrelated) point I'd like to make concerning @uradamus statement as far as GPU overdraw goes, a decent 500/550 Watt PSU should be more than enough for running mid/high range GPU's, since these PSU's can actually deliver the advertised Watts at a constant rate. While it's true that GPU's can overdraw a little compared to their max specified power draws, it shouldn't be an issue if you've chosen an adequate and quality type PSU.
Another example, take a look at the
This obviously only works out if you're using a decent PSU, as well as regular components. If you're going balls to the wall with dual GPU's, a triple loop CPU/GPU custom water-cooling setup, 12 case fans and all sorts of meters or splitters you'll obviously need more power, but that's not your average Joe.
A second point I'd like to address - since you're pulling 80 plus certification into the mix - is that I'm guessing you - like many others - are under the impression that the 80 plus certification tells you anything about power delivery to the system, which it does not. The 80 plus rating is only designed to measure energy efficiency at 20, 50 and 100% load, meaning what % of AC wall power is converted to DC power your PC needs.
A lower 80 plus certification doesn't mean the unit won't be able to deliver it's advertised wattage to the system, it will however pull more power from the wall in order to deliver the required amount to your PC.
To clarify, a 500 Watt PSU (assuming it's decent) will deliver 500 Watts of power to your system. However, if it's less efficient it might need to pull (extremely exaggerated) 600 W from the wall in order to deliver said 500 Watts to your system. The additional 100 Watts of power drawn will be lost converting AC to DC power. However, since the first law of thermodynamics states that energy cannot be "lost", this energy has to be converted into something else. In this case, heat, hence the PSU is less efficient and this is the primary reason why PSU's need a fan to dissipate this heat.
If a PSU was 100% efficient, all incoming power would be converted to outgoing power, leaving no room for energy to be converted ("lost") into heat (again, first law of thermodynamics), thus eliminating the need for a fan.
Final note: The above obviously isn't mend to be any kind of bashing but rather be a piece of info. There are way too many people who kind of know what they're doing, but by unintentionally sharing only half the truth (due to their lack of knowledge) pushes people they're trying to help into buying stuff they'll never need.
As far as the maximum of 8 GB of RAM you mention in your post, I'm 99.9% positive the mentioned RAM is the installed RAM only, and not the boards maximum capacity. Even Mini-ITX boards with the AMD B350 chipset offer at least 2 DIM slots, and since each slot is supposed to support a 16 GB Dimm according to international standards, I'm sure they've either opted with two 4 GB modules, or a single 8 GB one and left a couple of slots empty. Nothing wrong with double checking though, but I'm sure that's the case.
Now to compare hand-picking or buying a pre-build system: Since vendors don't list the exact components installed in these kinds of systems it's impossible to make a 1:1 comparison, but If I were to use my own Excel sheet combined with the work you did on it yourself, I'd end up with a similar price when selecting the cheapest parts:
- CPU : AMD Ryzen 7 1700 : $ 229.29
- GPU : Asus ROG Strix GTX1060 O6G Gaming: $ 322.99
- PSU : Corsair VS550 : $ 39.99
- Motherboard : MSI B350 PC Mate : $ 82.83
- RAM (~ $ 160.00);
- 120 GB SSD (~ $ 40);
- 1 TB HDD (~ $ 60);
- Case (~ $ 50);
- Peripherals (~ $ 40);
- Windows 10 licence (~ $ 30)
Another major advantage in building your custom system is that you'll know exactly what parts have been used and that those parts are from respected manufacturers. Now by no means will the Battlebox fry on you on your first render (and even if it does the should be something called "warranty") but like uradamus said, it does happen when users overload their pre-configured systems since these are designed for your average Joe.
Again, this is usually due to the fact that they skimp out on important parts like the PSU and/or motherboard which makes perfect sense to me. Imagine all the costs that go into selling such a system (buying/installing components, paying staff, taxes and housing, offering warranty etc.), all for about $ 100 worth of profit (assuming 8 GB of ram costs ~ $ 80)...
My final point as far as comparing these systems goes, would be future expansion of the system. Since you don't know the exact components used inside the Battlebox, it might be a lot harder if not impossible to upgrade or add components in the future. As mentioned earlier I already had to do some guessing on the RAM configuration, but imagine wanting to add some additional fans to keep your system cooler or make it run quieter. Is there any room on the motherboard for additional fans or would you have to install a fan splitter? What about adding a capture card for capturing your Xbox/PS4 gameplay? are there sufficient PCI-e slots and if so, at what speed do they run?
If all that's holding you back from going full custom is the fact that you'd have to reinstall Windows, keep in mind that not only hardware, but software as well has come a long way since the late 90s/early 00s. With USB 3.0/3.1, insanely fast SSD's or NVME drives as well as increased internet speeds, reinstalling your PC and software shouldn't be a 5 day job anymore. I recently did exactly that on my laptop, and I was back up and running within half a day.
Now to round things up since I'm rambling on and on again, while the Battlebox should run perfectly fine I'd rather buy that case of beer and have some fun building my system since that would be the only way I would be 100% able to tell that things are exactly the way I like them to be. Not only would this guarantee me quality components have been used but I'll be 100% sure both the case as well as the motherboard contain all the I/O ports and slots I could possibly need, both now as well as in the future. Going full custom might lead to a little less beefy system spec-wise (the Ryzen 7 will definitely run circles around the selected i5), but you'll have (relative) certainty that the system runs smooth now and in the future.
-----
One (somewhat unrelated) point I'd like to make concerning @uradamus statement as far as GPU overdraw goes, a decent 500/550 Watt PSU should be more than enough for running mid/high range GPU's, since these PSU's can actually deliver the advertised Watts at a constant rate. While it's true that GPU's can overdraw a little compared to their max specified power draws, it shouldn't be an issue if you've chosen an adequate and quality type PSU.
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did a test back in 2015 where they measured the power draw of a reference GTX 1060, and under full load and maximum stress testing it pulled 122 W, where NVIDIA
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it's maximum power draw is 120 W. This means that during stress testing it had 1,7% overdraw, which is negligible and might even be the result of environmental changes during tests. Moreover, NVIDIA actually tells you to buy at least a 400 W PSU. While this 400 W to me feels like it's way off (I'd say something in the 300 W region would be more than enough), they do this because they know subpar PSU's are being sold, and not all 300W PSU's actually deliver this wattage at a constant rate.Another example, take a look at the
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page. NVIDIA says it's maximum power draw is 250W. Why on earth would one need more than double that amount of power under normal circumstances? If you pare this reference 1080 TI with a core i7-8700k (160W max. under load) you'd still have 90 Watts to spare for the rest of your system, which is nearly 20% if you're using a 500 W PSU. So unless you're going core i9 (230 W) or Intel Extreme (2066 socket), or to lesser extend Ryzen Threadripper (180 W) I don't see any reason why 500 - 550W shouldn't be enough.This obviously only works out if you're using a decent PSU, as well as regular components. If you're going balls to the wall with dual GPU's, a triple loop CPU/GPU custom water-cooling setup, 12 case fans and all sorts of meters or splitters you'll obviously need more power, but that's not your average Joe.
A second point I'd like to address - since you're pulling 80 plus certification into the mix - is that I'm guessing you - like many others - are under the impression that the 80 plus certification tells you anything about power delivery to the system, which it does not. The 80 plus rating is only designed to measure energy efficiency at 20, 50 and 100% load, meaning what % of AC wall power is converted to DC power your PC needs.
A lower 80 plus certification doesn't mean the unit won't be able to deliver it's advertised wattage to the system, it will however pull more power from the wall in order to deliver the required amount to your PC.
To clarify, a 500 Watt PSU (assuming it's decent) will deliver 500 Watts of power to your system. However, if it's less efficient it might need to pull (extremely exaggerated) 600 W from the wall in order to deliver said 500 Watts to your system. The additional 100 Watts of power drawn will be lost converting AC to DC power. However, since the first law of thermodynamics states that energy cannot be "lost", this energy has to be converted into something else. In this case, heat, hence the PSU is less efficient and this is the primary reason why PSU's need a fan to dissipate this heat.
If a PSU was 100% efficient, all incoming power would be converted to outgoing power, leaving no room for energy to be converted ("lost") into heat (again, first law of thermodynamics), thus eliminating the need for a fan.
Final note: The above obviously isn't mend to be any kind of bashing but rather be a piece of info. There are way too many people who kind of know what they're doing, but by unintentionally sharing only half the truth (due to their lack of knowledge) pushes people they're trying to help into buying stuff they'll never need.
