Which Company and 2015 Pre-Built Gaming PC To Buy...

DazedandConfused2

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Mar 5, 2015
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There's a March madness sale going on at http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/ right now so a $1500 pc last month is $1000 right now so I'd like to know for between $1000 and $1300 what the best deal is. I have a ps4 so going to use it for pc exclusives and some newer games like the new final fantasy mmo and elderscrolls online and games that you'd rather play on pc. At the same time Ibuypower.com and digitalstorm.com are having sales so I'd like to know what you guys and gals think I should buy.

Okay, about me if you're interested.
I was going to build a Gaming PC to save a crap ton of money doing it myself rather than have someone else put the pieces in the box for me.

I fix personal computers for people all the time, nothing special.

Essentially I'm just moving parts, taking parts out, upgrading parts, replacing parts, updating firmware and drivers, or installing drivers "because the printer just stopped working out of nowhere", or some other nonsense like removing viruses. You know everything the average consumer PC buyer is willing to pay for because the witches in the box make everything work.

This is relatively easy work for me and because I find it so easy I only charge 20 bucks here 30 bucks there maybe let me get the old computer so I can scavenge it for parts.

But when it comes to building my own there are so many choices and I mean it seems to me like millions on top of that everyone has their own idea what works, what doesn't work, how you should cool your CPU and GPU, etc.

And if you want to save 500 dollars here or there you're the devil so I looked for builds on youtube $1000 gaming build $750 gaming build to blow the ps4 away and every other kind of build you could think of.

But to be honest I don't have the tools to test or benchmark or even check the temperatures and every other bit of info that needs to be gone over.

I can put the pieces in the box but I have no idea how to optimize them correctly and I'm not just going to throw some pieces in a box to say I did it, so regretfully I've decided to buy a pre-built system even though it makes me feel like I'm taking a knife and gutting myself on my living room floor then sacrificing myself out of your guild for having stooped so low.

So to all of you who want to throw stones at me for not building my own PC, just know that I live under a pile of stones. and to those of you who read this far thank you!
 

Matt Dobe

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Jan 20, 2015
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You sound like you know enough to build a system. Don't get scared by things you read regarding temperatures and what not. Give me a budget and I'll build a PC that is twice as powerful as that 1000$ prebuild. If you already upgrade and tinker all you need to do is know that your parts are compatible and just plug and play. That's it. No painful benchmarking or anything to go through (only if you're super enthusiast and want to overclock everything!)

There are a lot of choices but theres only about 10 set ups that people mainly go for. You can't just stick any cpu in any motherboard etc. That's why pcpartpicker.com is a lifesafer. Anything you put together on there will ensure everything is compatible. Take the plunge, you'll realise how easy it is and how rewarding it is also. I was in the same boat, fixing people's PC and upgrading cards and RAM. One day I just ordered my parts and spent an hour piecing it together.

Very happy indeed!

Try this for $1000 it will play any game now and for a year or two at ultra settings with no issues you'd be lucky to get that on a 1k prebuilt as they usually charge around 300-400 dollars just for building the system so you end up with a sub-par gpu such as a GTX 960/ r9 280 (not bad still no where near the 970!)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($187.56 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($71.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($88.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($329.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: XFX TS 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($53.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($14.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($87.75 @ OutletPC)
Total: $995.10
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-05 06:14 EST-0500

 

iBUYPOWER - Jason

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Jul 1, 2014
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Hey Dazed!

Here's a PC I configured from our website for $1,136 with nearly the same specs except for the Samsung EVO 120GB SSD, which can be added for an additional $100. Shipping is currently free and with tax the PC should come out to roughly $1,250.

(http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Intel-Z97-i5-Gaming-Special/W/251825)

This is just an option if you would like to purchase a prebuild, otherwise, I think Matt's part list is great if you opt to build your own. There's no denying that building your own is more cost-effective.

Let me know if you have any questions!
 


I agree with Matt here, you think there's more to building a PC then there actually is. You don't need special tools to build a PC, just a screwdriver. All the temperature monitoring software is free as well, and doesn't require any special knowledge or training beyond the ability to understand Celsius.

And Matt's build doesn't require any optimizing, just put everything together, plug it in and install Windows and you won't have any difficulty.

Here's a few videos explaining how simple it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIF43-0mDk4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zAdwedmj1M
 

chenw

Honorable
I would always opt to build a custom build for PC's because prebuilts are usually either marked up due to the brand, cost downed to keep the price competitive or just plain spec'ed wrong.

Pre-builts have a huge tendency to go CPU heavy (I imagine it's easier to convince a layman a computer is 'faster' with a better CPU than it is with a better GPU), and also tend to be loaded with an assortment of junk programs that you will invariably end up wiping the system anyway. You already seem to have the skill set to know how to put a computer together, knowing how to spec your computer for gaming and learning what parts are reliable/important is just a couple of days worth of searching and researching.