I am thinking of buying a new desktop.
Would it be better if I built one myself or bought a prebuilt one?

Always assembled.

Personal opinion; build it.

Build it yourself

Build it yourself.
Always.

Buidl

Build it

It's more fun to build it yourself

Build it, it's cheaper and better suits the needs you'll have. Just buy all of your parts at once so you can claim DoA if a part arrives dead, and so you don't want warranty time.

Make use of /r/buildapcsales, I've saved hundreds with them.

If you're intimidated by the process, you should learn it anyway. It's a helpful thing to know how to do, and all it really is is plugging things into the holes they fit into.

@-Minty- like playing legos

Generally you can save some cash building it.
But if you don't know wtf you are doing buy it.

I like how nobody stopped to ask if was talking about furniture 😅

@KartSriv sure 😋 (though I tend to favour darker furniture) . And yet everyone here seems convinced that building one yourself is the best option 😏

@zotigapo @iAmNaN @Matthewb @Root @milkyway @devTea @infernalempress @KartSriv @C0D4
I want to build it but I worry if there'll be any compatibility issues and risk damaging any parts accidentally.

@samee Compatibility issues are basically eliminated if you use something like pcpartpicker.

Accidentally damaging parts, I will say that if you're careful you should be fine, but I understand the worry.

@samee Low chance of damage if you're careful.

@infernalempress Going through them right now. Gotta research a bit before diving. :)

@samee ground yourself to the chassis, then you should eliminate the biggest risk, short of dropping a component from a height into a hard floor. Personally, I always work in bare feet, on the floor, and grounded. I've only ever popped one Mobo, and that was my very first build over twenty years ago. Oh yeah, and you don't need to be drinking anything while you are working. Or eating. And don't sneeze into the open computer. I think that's it.