Should I get a Dell xps i7 or this ibuypower system

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Rottingman

Rottingman

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Hi. Planning on purchasing a new computer by the end of September. Can't build my own atm for personal reasons so i'm wondering what would be an overall better build better deal?

A Dell Xps 8700 i7 - plan on swapping out the video card for a gtx 970 which would put me at a grand total of about 1100 bucks.

A Cyber Power discounted Special Edition School Special- Back to school special 2

For this build I plan on swapping out the Amd Radeon R9 380 for the 390. Everything else would be left the same. Total build cost puts me at 1360.

So would the extra 260 bucks for the ibuypower machine be justifiable in this regard? I've never purchased an ibuypower and have had good luck with dell in the past. Not sure what kind of warranty I would get with the ibuypower.

Thanks in advance.


 
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James Mason

James Mason

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The cyberpower would be better, the Dell would likely have issues with the length of stronger graphics cards, also it probably doesn't have a strong enough PSU.

But you don't need an i7 unless you're doing things like editing/rendering videos all the time or heavy 3d graphics design.

You might want to figure out what you actually need from the computer and check out all the retailers.

It only takes a few hours to build your own, and would be around $200-300 cheaper for the same stuff. (usually people just funnel that into extra powerful parts)

The thing with prebuilts is they all use very low quality parts, so those warranties are important, because you stuff WILL break.

There are possibly even other prebuilts that you can buy and swap the GPU out of that aren't as poorly made as dells.
Or ones that aren't customizeable but are still "good" (on paper, likely has a low quality PSU, all Prebuilts will basically)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883230063
 
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Rottingman

Rottingman

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Thanks for response James. The reason I was going with the i7 is I might start dabbling a bit with music production software so I was thinking the faster processor would come in handy regarding that. Would you say the i7 in the Cyber Power is significantly better then the one in the dell? Yeah maybe with my next machine I'll consider building my own next time but for right now given my current circumstances I just want to get a decent system within the constrains of my budget if possible.

I saw someone on youtube squeeze the gtx 970 into the dell so it is possible! I'd def need to upgrade the power supply though if I did that. I think.

That cyberpower you sent me looks decent right out of the box but for roughly the same price i'd be able to get the dell with the i7. I know a lot people on here hate the dells but like I said before never had any problems and I'd at least have the warranty.

Thank being said if the i7 and amd radeon r9 390 in the ibuypower is a significant upgrade from what i'd be getting with the dell then the extra 260 bucks would be worth it.
 
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James Mason

James Mason

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Significant is hard to say, but easier to deal with because it doesn't have a bunch deals shitty proprietary hardware on it is debateable.

The r9 390 is about 7-10% stronger than a 970, and the CPU it comes with is quite a bit better as well. Since you're doing music production, the extra CPU power could help, but I suspect an actual sound card would be useful as well, because you'd want the highest quality sound you can get, and while motherboard audio is fine for playing games, for actually making music a sound card is a big advantage.
 
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Rottingman

Rottingman

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That's good to know the i7 6700 won't be a wasted upgrade once I start getting into the music stuff again. Good call on getting a decent sound card....that's on the backburner for now though and If I end up starting early then I can always get a decent pair of usb headphones. With my current work schedule I'm not really gonna have time for anything like that though till early 2016. Hell i'm lucky if I do anything musical at all these days.

So for the time being i'll basically be using this system as a multimedia/mindless drunken late night gaming computer primarily. Only problem is I think I'll have to upgrade the power supply if I go with the r9 390. Any cheap but decent upgrades you can recommend?

Was also considering throwing in the 256 gb ssd hd as well for 45 bucks. That way I can get better performance from an audio workstation down the road. Wonder if I went with that option windows 10 would come installed on that drive?Would def make my life easier!

The z97-I7 bundle Comes with the upgraded ssd and with that video card I wouldn't need a bigger power supply. However if music production may suffer with the i7 4790k and that gpu isn't as good I'm better off going all the way with the other package. Bummer
Also Since I mainly play rts games I imagine having the extra oomph from the 6700 won't hurt. Only non rts game I intend on playing is counterstrike and maybe some of the zombie open world games. Would like to max them out tho if I can, and def will want to max out acts of aggression when that hits in September.

Thanks again man

p.s. There's a lot of added freebies getting thrown in with these august school specials so that's nice! Dunno when there gonna end though. May have to pull the trigger on something soon.
 
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Larry Litmanen

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Don't know if you are in USA, but Slickdeals is showing an HP with a i7-4790, with a GTX 980 for like $800.

SICK

 
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James Mason

James Mason

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That is a pretty scary good deal actually: http://slickdeals.net/f/8045263-hp-desktop-laptop-sale-250-rebate-on-1050-orders-30-off-coupon-free-shipping-i7-4790-gtx980-for-875ar
 
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Larry Litmanen

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This has to be one of the best deals i ever saw on a PC. We are talking top of the line PC that can run anything for $900.
 
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Rottingman

Rottingman

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Wow that's a nice deal there for sure! Was able to activate the coupon code for 30% off but can't seem to find anything about the extra 250 bucks off. Will contact hp in the morning! Sucks as if I was able to score the 250 off i was about to put in my order tonight.

Any experience with hp in the past? Never used any of there systems before. Will there be a lot of bloatware?
 
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Larry Litmanen

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I had HP in the past, but long time ago, never had any issues.



 
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Rottingman

Rottingman

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Thanks Larry. Very Close to pulling the trigger on this. Figured out the rebate for 250 additional bucks off was through sickdeals not hp directly.

Upgraded the processor to the i7-4790K and also the wireless card as mentioned in the post. The upgraded wireless card should really come in handy as my xbox one doesn't get the best reception in my room so hopefully that more powerful card will give my connection some needed oomph. Current Total as built 1,179.49 and after the coupon code goes through will put me at about 929 and some change
 
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Rottingman

Rottingman

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Here's my build

15-in-1 Multi-slot Media Card Reader, 4 USB Ports (Front/Top), Audio [Front 2USB2.0, Top 2USB3.0]
HP ENVY Phoenix 810-430qe Desktop PC
Windows 8.1 64
No Additional Security Software
8GB DDR3-1600MHz [1 DIMM ]
Home and Home Office Insert
HP WLAN 802.11 ac 2x2 DB MCard BT WIDI
No Secondary HDD
SuperMulti DVD Burner
HP USB keyboard and optical mouse with volume control
2TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
4th Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790K processor quad-core [4.0GHz, 8MB Shared Cache]
4GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 [DVI-I, HDMI, DP, DP. DP]
Microsoft Office Trial
Integrated Sound, Envy Audio; Beats Audio
No TV Tuner Card
 
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