Should I trust high Amazon star ratings on prebuilt PCs?

Treat them as one signal, not a verdict. A 4.4-4.7 average over hundreds of verified-purchase reviews is meaningful corroboration, but Amazon ratings don't tell you whether the PSU is overrated, the case airflow is adequate, or the motherboard supports a CPU upgrade. Cross-check against independent expert reviews and specialist subreddit threads for the specific SKU.