Retail (Best Buy) VS Custom

crazy359

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Nov 8, 2009
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I recently saw CRAZY sales at bestbuy for boxing week. Some triple and quad cores around 500-600 dollars with 8gb ram and like 9600gt or so. I mean their regular price is around 1000. Even seeing these prices I still did not want to buy from stores like fututre shop and best buy. Custom is much better, better looking and always have better video cards.

Do you agree that even on CRAZY sales custom is better then Hp and dell and crap like that?
 

tortnotes

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Jul 31, 2009
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For a gaming machine, 9600GT paired with a decent processor and RAM is... meeeh...

Custom is better if you really care about the parts in your machine. If you're looking for a cheap htpc that you don't require much from, go with what's on sale.
 

Raidur

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Nov 27, 2008
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You can build a Athlon II Quad Core / 9600GT / 8GB RAM / 320GB HD / Quality PSU for under $650 on newegg for everything (shipped). Minus the OS I guess though.

Going for something custom is much better, I remember my aunt buying a PC from best buy that came with the weakest mobo and PSU ever. Had to replace both at different times, a month, and 6 months after her 1 year 'warranty' was up.

You can pick out parts that make more sense too. Such as... wasting $80 on 8GB when 4GB works just as good. Also a quad core CPU is also a waste of money when paired with a 9600GT. You could get even a 5870 to run fine with a dual core.

So yeah I agree. :)

PS: My 4870 was even feeling the hurt (at max settings) from a few games when I had 1680x1050, I feel that THG comment about the 9600GT is a bit dated, like the 9600GT.
 

lilotimz

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Aug 31, 2009
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Asus, please!

Oh yes, an Asus

if you can find an Asus CG5290 CG5270 etc, theyre about $1200 with an i7, rampage 2 gene (or p6tv2) with either a HD4870/GTX260
its a good deal, and everything if possile is asus (including the PSU, sometimes its delta)

for sure if you go retail its not crappy OEM stuff.

But i would go with custom anyways, just cheaper.