Build or buy your high end AR-15 upper?

[Sid Post]

I have read several threads where instructors of various rifle classes have commented that home built uppers and some of the lesser factory uppers are the cause of most, if not all, failures in their classes. That got me to thinking about building my own upper or buying one already built.

Costs seem to be similar with a home build saving a little money after you factor in shipping if you don't value your time at all and don't count the cost of the tools.

Is it really worth it to build your own upper? If money is tight, I'm thinking a law away plan would be a better option then buying parts over time. With for example, a Larue Quad-S, you have a known quantity that doesn't need any debugging to get it to run right. A home build should run right from the beginning with good parts but, Murphy's law seems to always follow me around so I guess I value an upper someone else built right worth some increased cost.

So what does everyone else think? Is building your own high end upper worth it? By high end, I mean good barrel, railed forend, etc. but nothing exotic using known high quality components (Larue, DD, etc.).

[Robb Jensen]

It's worth it if you use known good parts assembled by somebody that knows what they are doing.

[tikkafan]

Most places seem to assemble uppers for close to the cost of parts.