Yeah, that article is full of shit.
Doing so in the past certainly saved money. Today, not only can a factory-built PC of similar performance be bought for less, but it will also come with a year’s warranty, a licensed copy of the latest version of Microsoft’s Windows operating system, all the necessary software drivers for the components installed, plus a mouse and a keyboard—and sometimes even a display.
1. Then he's an idiot.
2. All parts you buy come with one year manufacturer's warranty- or more. My XFX graphics cards came with a 2 year, for example.
3. You can buy a licensed copy of ANY version of windows, not just the latest one, and it doesn't come preloaded with shit.
4. This is fucking 2013, drivers are not a problem anymore unless you're trying to run some niche linux distro on a fucking gas powered lawnmower, and even then some of the major distros have drivers specifically for that.
5. Those mice, keyboards, and monitors are invariably shit that they're trying to dump off to get rid of stock. This is not a plus.
Also, looking at the computer you gave:
CPU: AMD Six-Core FX-6120- About 112$, decent CPU
Motherboard: AMD 970 Chipset, about $70, really bad motherboard (two PCI slots, no crossfire/sli suport, only USB 2.0, four ram slots but dual channel...)
RAM: 2x4GB and 1x2GB. about 80$ Extra 2GB is basically pointless and is only there to proclaim that I HAS MOAR RAM THAN OTHER OFFERINGS.
Hard Drive: 1tb 7200rpm, about 50$.
Generic Optical Drive: about 15$
GFX: Radeon 7450, $80.
Keyboard and Mouse: Probable generic crap they have sitting around and are trying to dump, since they don't even bother specifying. Your choice if that's actually acceptable.
OS: W8 OEM, 90$
Monitor: Nope.
total cost if you bought outright: $497, plus the cost of a PSU, so this is slightly cheaper than building. Buuut...
Well, they made a lot of questionable decisions there. The motherboard is a piece of shit. The RAM is literally just there to attract attention. That's a shitty GFX card, though it would be enough to run LoL but nothing needing actual graphics. The KB/Mouse will be cheapo shit. I hate W8 (Again, personal choice), no monitor, and that PSU is, again, the cheapest shit they can dump to get down stock that will still mostly supply enough power to anything. Seriously, they don't even make mention of it have a PSU at all, and while I'm 99% sure there is actually one in there, that's not a good sign.
I would suggest:
CPU: i3, 110$
Motherboard: ASRock H77M, about $60.
RAM: 2x4GB, about 60$
Hard Drive: 1tb 7200rpm, about 50$.
Generic Optical Drive: about 15$
GFX: Radeon 7770, 60$
Keyboard and Mouse: This is so intensely personal I'm not even going to suggest something here. Would be a dick move to.
OS: grab an OEM W7 or W8. 50-70$, half that if you're in college.
Monitor: you can grab a good 1080p 23" for about 100$.
PSU: Corsair Builder 600W 80 PLUS, 60$.
Case: Antec 302, 40$.
Total here is 505$, plus the monitor and a KB/mouse.
CPU is vastly more powerful, the motherboard isn't a PoS, you get the same performance from the ram, same hard drive, same optical, your GFX card absolutely shits all over the old one, a choice in OS, and an 80+ PSU. Monitor still isn't included, since I figured that was something you didn't mind adding to the price, and again, I have no idea on your tastes in KB/mouse.
So essentially, for a KB/mouse purchase + 6$, you get a vastly better system. Sounds like a better deal to me, and I didn't even use any sales or deals aside from the GFX card sale- which is the entire point of building it yourself, because you can cobble together a shitload of sales/combos. I mean, hell, I threw this together in like half an hour with almost research. You can definitely do better than this for the same exact money.
Another thing to keep in mind is that if you build your own computer, you can upgrade it really easy to be near- top oft he line for years, for very little per year. You can't do that with a prebuilt, because there's no upgrade headroom at all.
Also, keep in mind black friday/cyber monday is coming up in a month or two. You might just want to spend the next bit familiarizing yourself with the value, performance, and use of various PC parts.