I have done some building myself, it all depends on what you want to spend. Also if your located in a different state than D here you might want to look around for a local manufacture of lower receivers. Not to knock superior arms but if there is a local manufacturer you won't be paying for someones fuel charge, and that adds about $20 dollars to the asking price. While I built mostly from OLY arms, I live close to where they make em so I can get the parts cheap. Take a peak at AR-15.com and they have a good How-to and most of the board discussions are dedicated to the reliability of one brand over another and you will get the gist of which parts are good or not. Depending on how complicated you want to make things, No US manufacturer of AR parts really makes a bad product.