That is up to you however nowadays people are buying prebuilts because of component shortages. Sure you can find a premium card on Ebay or Newegg but the costs will probably exceed that of your order.

Try an cut the people at Dell some slack. Not only are we faced with component shortages but labor shortages as well. Customers are still in the thinking that everything still runs normally. In other other words you might put yourself in their shoes and try to understand that they don’t have all the answers when your parts will arrive. They can only guess.

These are the times that try men's souls...right now when you order something, you really have no idea when it may be delivered and neither does the sales team.  You will run into the same product delays when you try to order individual parts, so I don't see an advantage time wise.

I built my last three computers from scratch...I bought my last one from Alienware since due to medical problems my hands are too shaky for inserting a CPU.  I highly recommend Alienware if you can order what you want in the beginning...do not expect to upgrade later.

Having said that I was able to upgrade the power supply and RAM in my R9 without major problems, so some upgrades can be accomplished, I just don't think it's worth the effort.  Working in a full size tower case is always easier then in one of these stylish but tiny Alienware cases.

So, don't expect a home made computer to be up and running any sooner than one ordered from Alienware...they may even get their parts supplies first.

Well first off you called the wrong department, customer support can't help you with order changes only the sales department can. That's why they gave you the runaround 

I'm on the verge of canceling my order if they delay my order again. Parts shortages aside,  I can order an R13 right now with a delivery date Dell can't possibly achieve, which is deceptive and misleads customers. If I have to wait until after the holidays for a new rig due to Dell's shady sales process, I won't be giving my hard earned $$$ to Dell. 

My story: https://www.dell.com/community/Customer-Care/R10-Production-Delay/td-p/8066710/jump-to/first-unread-message?ref=lith_popular

If you go to another vendor you should talk to them about what they actually have in stock. Now that it is after Black Friday the selection is less, but the vendors I spoke to either had something like what I wanted, or were confident they would have it in a month (I'm sure Dell's sales reps sounded confident too, so take it for it's worth).

As several people have mentioned here it is a world wide supply chain problem, but Dell's Just-In-Time supply model is hurting it uniquely, and it is really being felt in the customer service and customer expectation areas.

You also won't likely find a better deal than what Dell is offering, but that is sort of meaningless when Dell can't fulfill an order. When I was trying to rebuild something comparable to the R10 I wanted, it did cost more. 

Rev22_5, The longer this persists and the more I look into it, I suspect Dell has to be careful with how they present the problem they're experiencing with their manufacturers. This is just a guess, but based on my experience with contracting, when a contractor fails to meet an agreed upon delivery date there are certain things you can do to punish the contractor (usually money things) but a contractor will fight it, so you have to ensure they have no excuse. 

In this case Dell gives the contractor three weeks to deliver a computer, if they fail to meet that date Dell doesn't have to pay the full price, or Dell takes money off the contract, or something. However if Dell is telling their customers "expect your system in 90 days" the contractor can come back and say, "oh we thought we had 90 days because that's what you told the customer." Then it just devolves to a fight between lawyers and executives. What the contract says generally prevails (at least in America, sometimes international law, or certain nations have different laws and legal concepts though). 

To state it another way, from the customer perspective it looks like Dell can't figure out how to accurately forecast orders. From a lawyer or contracting perspective it looks like Dell is waiting for the manufacturer to fail to deliver on time so Dell can put the manufacturer on "notice". Right or wrong the customer experience is just collateral. 

I fully admit I could have this all wrong, but I'm starting to suspect Dell is falling victim of both the pandemic supply problems but also their own third party contractors, and sub-suppliers. As a customer most of us probably aren't too interested in this, but it's at least a logical explanation on why Dell is failing so badly at basic customer service right now. 

Also given that people who ordered on Black Friday are saying they won't receive systems until next year, it sounds like Dell and its manufacturers have reached an agreement to deliver systems in 45 days instead of 3 weeks. 

I canceled my R12 order because I was tired of waiting, and decide to upgrade some components so now I am waiting on a R13.

I don't mind the delay, but I think Dell should be upfront about shipping times.  I see lots of people on online forums saying they have waiting 1-2 months past the estimated delivery date.    Dell needs a disclaimer when you order saying they are back logged and it may take awhile to build the pc, or an option to chat with a agent to see if they have the parts for your build. 

Update: I canceled my order and built my own computer,

I just cancelled my order as well due to the same reason.