Storebought PC vs home build PC (gaming)

Okay, so heres the deal. I can either buy this system from best buy (HP) for 1299$ or make my own for the same price. Here are the specs for the Hp computer. Please give me suggestions on what to do!! would I be able to make my own PC with better hardware for the same price (if so please list) or should I go with the HP system!? I want to be able to run the latest and upcoming games and also be able to upgrade in the future. Thanks.

Processor Type AMD Phenom X4 9850 Quad-Core
Processor Speed 2.50GHz
RAM 6GB DDR2 SDRAM (Exp To 8GB)
Hard Drive Speed/Capacity 750GB 7200RPM SATA
Optical Drives SuperMulti DVD Burner w/ LightScribe
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT
Pre-loaded Operating System Windows Vista Home Premium SP1


Dedicated Video Memory Yes
Shared Video Memory 2GB
TV Tuner NTSC/ATSC/FM
Video Memory 512MB



Computing Features
Available AGP Slots Not Applicable
Available Hard Drive Bays 2 Internal 5.25" (One Available)
Available Memory Slots 4 Total (Occupied)
Available Optical Bays 2 External 5.25" (One Available)
Available PCI Slots 3 PCI x1 Slots (One Available)
Available PCI-E Slots 1 PCI Express x16 Slot (Occupied)
Power Supply Not Listed
Processor Cache 2MB L2+2MB Shared L3
Removable Storage Personal Media Drive Bay
System Bus 2GHz

You could certainly build that for less. It all depends on what you want.

I assembled my current PC with almost similar stats to yours for a few hundred less, AND i have 2 Graphics cards in Crossfire.

If you have the technical know how, I suggest building your own. Tom's is a wealth of information if you want to learn too.

^there you go.intel is 100% better then AMD's quad core.

Yes, sensible downgrades would be to go with 4GB of RAM, not 8, saving $89. Go with a Western Digital 640GB Hard drive instead of the 750GB one, saving $55
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136218
I'd personally drop the card reader, but they're a feature on all HPs. Get a USB plug in one if you need it. - $35
There are usually combo deals with Newegg that can save money, but they're pretty fleeting, only lasting a day or 2 in some cases. Always check out combo deals just before ordering. An example would be a slight upgraded motherboard (still an Asus crossfire, but with an additional PCIex16 socket at x4) for $10 less. A combo deal that would substitute the Q9550 with a core2 duo E8400 and save $30 off the E8400 and you $185 (if you want a quad, then ignore)
That's a total drop of $375 if you go with the E8400, putting you at about $850 before rebates and shipping and taxes (if any)

GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-DS4 $119.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128075

AMD 9850 BE $174
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103249

RAM - mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 1.8v $79.99, 59.99 after $20 mail in rebate.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820146692

Going for 8GB of that RAM would be $159.98 or $119.98 after rebates. So with Rebates and the rest of the parts dirtmountain suggested, minus the card reader, your looking at $913.97 with the 8GB of RAM. Not only is that a lower price but the extra RAM and, more importantly, the extra power of the Radeon 4850 will give you a much better gaming system than that store PC. You should also consider that the board I recommended supports Crossfire so you can drop in another 4850 latter for even more performance.

I'd probably spend about $150-200 on the CPU, not $325 like dirtmountain suggests. You could even spend about $110 on a p45 mobo and upgrade the GPU to a 4870. I'd also adjust the PSU that dirtmountain suggests and get a better one. This could all be within the $1200 amount.

CPU/Mobo combo: $275!!! p45 mob and good solid Core 2 Duo CPU!
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail
ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
8-Phase Power Optimize Stable Overclocking CrossFireX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] =10&page=1

PSU: $93 - $20 MIR = $73!!! One of the best PSU's that you can get for the $. 5 yr. warranty too!
Corsair TX 650W ATX12V Power Supply - CMPSU-650TX
http://www.buy.com/prod/corsair-tx [...] 78324.html

Case: $69 - $10 MIR = $59!! Solid case for the $
COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UB Black /Blue Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811119047

GPU - $280 - $20 MIR = $260!!! Hard to beat performance for the $ than this one!
SAPPHIRE 100247L Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102769

Memory:$85 - $20 MIR= $65!!! One of the better RAM companies to buy from!
CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145184

HD: $85 shipped! One of the faster and more efficient HD's out there.
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136218

OS: $99 shipped! If your going to use more than 4 gb's of DDR2 than a 64bit OS is needed to take advantage of the extra memory.
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit English for System Builders 1pk DSP OEI DVD - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6832116488

DVD Burner: $30 shipped! This is a retail version, so you'll get the needed software to burn/read DVD's!
LITE-ON Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827106265

Total: $1023 - $70 MIR's= $953!!! Now you can upgrade other parts if you like, but this would be a very good unit to have. If you want a quad core CPU, you'll need to add about $20-200 more for an Intel CPU. If you want an AMD quad core system it'll cost about the same as this build here. So you can decide what you want, but this build would be much better for gaming than the one Dirtmountain suggests. His build is good too, but I believe a solid and fast 2 core CPU is generally all that you need for a good gaming system. A quad core CPU is nice, but not all games take advantage of the extra 3 cores, so you can decide what you want to do.

^^^^DOH!!!^^^^ So much for good deals from HP???

Arent these forums wonderful!!

Note, that the vga card in all the suggestions here are a step above the HP package, and that is the most important component for good gaming.

I still would encourage building one yourself.

Gaming needs power. You can always get more power for less money if you build it yourself, always.

You want max game for the $$? You have to build it yourself.m

Lots of great ideas, i have no arguement with any of them. One of the good things about building it yourself are the number of options you can choose and the fact that you get to know your system better. You can tune it to get the performance you want with the tasks you're going to do, all at a lower price. Don't discount not getting a bunch of bloatware with a prebuilt one, i really hate that stuff.

Thank you for all your help and time everyone, I really appreciate it. I think I will go with lunyones build. Only problem is newegg doesn't ship to Canada!

NCIX is a good site, from what I've read from other Canadians. Good luck and if you have more questions, you know where to go!