Should I buy barebones or upgrade a Shuttle?

[GreenNeub]

Hey guys, I was thinking of buying a barebones kit from Newegg and building a new PC. However, I've never built one before and I'm not sure if I have the money to do it at this point. There are a few Shuttles on Newegg.ca that are under 300. From what I've heard, the Shuttles are fairly easy to handle for newbs. So if I don't have the cash right now, would it be better to just pick up a cheap Shuttle and steadily upgrade it as I get the cash for it? Or would this cause more problems in the end??

[not important]

Personally, I would save the money until you have enough to build one. You can get all the help you need on this forum. Do you need the whole thing or do you have some stuff you can use. i.e. OS-optical drive-hard drive etc.

[windsleeper]

The upgrade route is more expensive. You end up buying the same part twice (or more!).

As far as the barebones go, I think you can get better performance for the same $'s by building from scratch. They aren't bad deals - just not as good as getting the best value part for each component. When money is tight, you want the best buy for each part.

Save up until you have enough to build from scratch. Even $500 can get you a decent build.

[mattaggie]

You need to tell us what parts you have and what you want to do with the new computer