Newegg is offering a new PC building service that’ll take all the components you bought from the retailer and assemble them into a finished desktop.
The service is part of the Newegg Custom PC Builder website, which lets you pick out the various components for your desired desktop and purchase them in a package. But previously, it was up to the consumer to assemble the parts together into a working PC.
“While many of Newegg’s tech-savvy customers prefer to build their PCs themselves, there’s a large unaddressed market of customers who would rather opt for professional assembly,” the retailer says.
Hence, Newegg is adding a new option to the website that’ll charge you $99 to assemble the PC parts into a desktop. The retailer will then ship the finished PC anywhere in the US.
But wait. Isn’t there a shortage for PC graphics cards? Indeed. Supplies for the latest GPUs remain thin at all major retailers, including Newegg, which has resorted to a controversial lottery system to dole them out. Nevertheless, you can still use Newegg’s PC assembly service to create a desktop rig—but graphics card options will be limited to whatever it has in stock.
That means you’ll probably have to settle for an older Nvidia GPU, such as the GTX 1050 Ti or 1660. Or pay an ungodly inflated price for a current-generation graphics card, which can retail for double the normal cost.
The other limitation is how the PC parts bought from Newegg must come from the company's warehouse in California. To find items that qualify, you can activate a newly added button on the website called "Need Assembly Service?"
To assemble the desktops, Newegg is tapping the company’s in-house PC building division ENIAC. Processing times for each assembled PC can take between seven to 10 business days. The ENIAC website also notes the division has enough capacity to produce over 1,000 units per day.
The beta for Newegg’s PC assembling service kicks off today. “This initial beta phase will generate valuable insight and suggestions that will be used to launch the second phase of Newegg’s BTO (build-to-order) service, which will come with more perks and options, like laser engraving, to bring further customization and personalization to customers’ builds,” it says.