Pre-built purchase

[tbaur28]

Ok so I know everyone says "don't buy pre-builts" so spare me the posts that tell me that. I don't want to build one myself because I've had trouble in the past with frying components and it was all just too much of a hassle. So this year I've been looking at cyberpowerpc.com for my machine. I want to stay in the 850-950 price range. I did a quick build last night and here's what I came up with:

Apevia X-SniperG Mid-Tower 420W Case

600 Watt Xion SuperNova Power Supply - Quad SLI Ready

Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4GHz 1066FSB 8MB L2 Cache 64-bit

Thermaltake MaxOrb Enthusiast CPU Cooling Fan

(3-Way SLI Support) Asus P5N-T Deluxe nForce 780i SLI Mainboard FSB1333 DDR2 3 x PCIe x16 SATA RAID w/ USB2.0,IEEE1394,&7.1Audio

4GB (2x2GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair brand)

NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB 16X PCI Express

500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD

LG 20X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (2 of these)

I will be using this for some gaming, lots of music and videos, and "backing up" DVDs (which is why I put 2 drives in). This build did not have an OS installed and cost $957. I did not include any accessories like a keyboard, mouse, speakers, or monitor because I already have that stuff.

 

[BobfaceBilly]

Shame you don't want to build one dude, with that budget you could probably get a new i7 build...

As far as what you listed it'll work, I'm not sure what your other options you may have for components, but as far as what you do, that system should work fine.
If your not going to SLI there is no reason to get a 780i, because the main thing going for that motherboard is the possibility of three way SLI.

And the cooling fan is not the best bargain for the price on it.

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

I was looking at Dell, depending what your going to do, I was looking at their cheapest home desktop, just for comparison with your system, and for about 700ish, you can get the q6600 and 4 gb of ram, with Windows Vista OS. Even if you had to upgrade the PSU, on something like that, you should have enough to upgrade the PSU and maybe grab a 4850 if your willing to spend 900 and skip the sli board.

 

[rodney_ws]

Don't come crying to us when...

A) Its no-name PSU fail
B) The company that was supposed to support it goes under
C) It won't OC like most of our rigs will

And yes, at times it would seem like Dell would be a better value... for Dell you can exclude "B" from the list of warnings.

 

[BobfaceBilly]

And for Dell in B's place you add "generic motherboad of doom"

 

[tbaur28]

I figured everyone would still tell me not to buy a prebuilt system but I did not expect to see Dell suggested. If anyone would like to take the time on newegg to show me what to buy for a build it would be greatly appreciated. Again, I want to stay within $850-$950 range. From what I've seen, everyone has different opinions on what to buy so how do I know what the "best of the best" is as far as components go?


Thanks.

 

[erock2112]

I'd just like to say that I've heard some really awful things about CyberPower. Google the name and you'll find nothing but bad stories about DOA components, people who ended up with HDD's inside the case but unsecured and not connected. Evidently quality control is almost nonexistant, and support seems to be pretty bad.

What's especially interesting is that you can get components on the CyberPower website and end up with a pc that's cheaper than buying all the components on newegg and doing it yourself. I know these companies get them for cheaper, but I imagine there are some lurking reasons as to why CyberPower is so cheap.

Speaking of Dell, I think they have a basic i7 model for $999.

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

On the Dell, if you go that route, I'd probably consider the 3 year warranty. Where I work, as part of the tech dept, I deal with Dell somewhat, and when you have the better warranty coverages, of course you pay more, but we've had instances of computers dying, motherboards failing, etc. Called Dell, and they had a tech there with new parts like next day.

 

[BobfaceBilly]

Here is a build you might want to take a look at... It'll give you the the next generation goodness of the i7's.

The final price is $1059, if you count rebates $1004. Which is, of course, a little higher than the system from cyber, but this one would complete destroy that one in performance and quality.

Optical Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151171

Case: (I have this case, and it is very well designed)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042

It sounded like you wanted alot of HDD space, so I went 1TB drive from seagate:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148274

Graphics card 4850, equal to the 9800 GTX, the reason I picked this is because the board I picked supports crossfire:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131125

PSU very high quality PCP & C:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703005

4gb g.skill RAM:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231190

x58 Motherboard:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130216

CPU 920 i7, this is a "new generation" CPU and it easily overclocks past 3.0ghz, even on stock cooling:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202

This would definitely be a better bang for the buck for you, if you choose to build again.

 

[tbaur28]

Thank you for taking the time to find those components for me. Much appreciated. As far as the optical drive goes, one big thing i want is to have 2 optical drives so I can back up from one drive to the other, so I will definitely be throwing in another drive if I decide to build. Also, I'm unsure if I will ever use SLI or the crossfire options. I would like to get the price down a little on that build simply because I'm not going to be paying for it and I'm trying to spare my parents wallet.

Thanks.
-tbaur28

 

[BobfaceBilly]

Alrighty,

I'll try to slim the price down a bit... But first a few questions.

1. What games to you plan on playing on this system, and at what resolution?

2. Do you think you could get away with 500gb of storage? Or will you definitely need alot of space.

3. Do you plan on overclocking at all?

 

[tbaur28]

I would prefer 500gb of storage because 1tb is just overkill for me. I have an external harddrive to back up important files and with 2 burners theres no need to save my movie files to the HDD. I'm not too sure about which games I want to play. Probably Crisis and the resolution isn't a big issue. As long as it looks nice and runs well...I'm not too picky. I just want a system that's going to stay up-to-date long enough to allow me to play the games that are released (doesn't have to run at top speed with max framerates). And I never plan on overclocking.

Thanks.
-tbaur28

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

To the op, you don't need 2 optical drives. Look at a freeware program called imgburn. Lets you make images of your disc, then reburn it onto another disc. But most cd burning programs seem to support 1:1 copying with only 1 drive, via making a disc image I assume.

 

[BobfaceBilly]

In that case I would suggest a build like this:

2 of the optical drives:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151171

Case:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811129042

GPU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814131125

PSU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817703005

CPU & Motherboard combo saves and extra $20:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.147895

Hard drive:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148288

RAM:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231209

The total on that is $901, and it has $55 worth of MIR so $846 after that.

And with that combo deal your getting a nice motherboard for pretty cheap, and it allows Crossfire, so if you want more gaming power later on down the road you can add another 4850.

You could probably shave another $30~$50 dollars off that price, but then you start getting a little less quality.
That build is very high quality, much higher than the cyberpower, and cheaper on top of that.

If you do decide to build, and have any questions during the building process don't hesitate to post here.
I normally check all my old posts once a day, and I would gladly answer any questions.

 

[BobfaceBilly]

That Hard drive as a special promo on newegg right now for $10 off: EMCBCBCAG