I see where you're coming from but, with the extent of gaming that I do, a manually-built system would cost me more in time and effort than it would ever save me in raw equipment pricing.
I figure a system would last me 3-4 years. By then, I'd be shopping around for a brand new Next Big Thing rather than trying to dust out my current shit pile and trying to upgrade it.
I see where you're coming from but, with the extent of gaming that I do, a manually-built system would cost me more in time and effort than it would ever save me in raw equipment pricing.
I figure a system would last me 3-4 years. By then, I'd be shopping around for a brand new Next Big Thing rather than trying to dust out my current shit pile and trying to upgrade it.