[NEED ADVICE] Please take a look at my new PC build

[manooly]

I just put together my first PC online. I'll use this system for gaming (Lord of the Rings Online, Dragon Age, Crysis, etc...) and general use. In the past I have always bought from places like Best Buy. I figured I'd try Ibuypower.com. Here is what I chose...

Case(NZXT Lexa-S Gaming Tower Case - Black w/ Blue Light)
iBUYPOWER Labs - Internal Expansion(Internal USB Expansion System)
Case Lighting(Cold Cathode Neon Light - Blue)
Processor(Intel® Core™ i7 920 Processor (4x 2.66GHz/8MB L3 Cache))
Processor Cooling([Free Upgrade] Liquid CPU Cooling System w/ 120mm Radiator [SOCKET-1366])
Memory(6 GB [2 GB X3] DDR3-1600 Triple Memory Module - Corsair or Major Brand)
Video Card(ATI Radeon HD 4890 - 1GB - Single Card)
Video Card Brand(=== High Performance === XFX Brand Video Card)
Motherboard(ASUS P6T SE -- Intel X58 Chipset CrossFire Supported w/7.1 Sound, Triple-Channel DDR3, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, Triple PCI-E MB)
Power Supply(700 Watt -- Power Supply - SLI Ready)
Primary Hard Drive(1 TB HARD DRIVE -- 16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s - Single Drive)
Optical Drive(22X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black)
Flash Media Reader/Writer(12-In-1 Internal Flash Media Card Reader/Writer - Black)
Meter Display(NZXT Sentry 2 LCD Touch Screen Fan Controller /w Temperatures Display - Black)
Sound Card(3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard)
Network Card(Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100))
Operating System(Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + [Free 60-Day !!!] Microsoft Office 2007(Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access ....) - 64-Bit)
Advanced Build Options(Professional wiring for all cables inside the system tower - Achieve exceptional airflow in your chassis)



Please give me any suggestions you might have. Is my power supply enough? Do I have enough RAM for my new I7 920 cpu? Could I have done better??? I'm kind of a novice on this so please fire away.

I look forward to hearing back from you all.

Thanks for your time!

- manooly

 

[manooly]

Now I'm wondering if I should've gone with the I5 750 instead of the I7 920. Is my PSU ok for my system? What do you think of the HD 4890 option?

Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!!!

 

[irule9000]

is this from ibuy power? they use crappy generic parts and the computer is not connected together right all the time. If you know how to fix it then i think it is a pretty good build

 

[manooly]

Yes it is from Ibuypower. I have heard nothing but good things about them. I was torn between Ibuypower and CyberpowerPC.com. I chose Ibuy based on my research. I hope I made the right choice. At least you do like the build I chose though. Anything you would change? Thanks!

I was looking to spend about $1,200.

 

[samdsox]

DON"T BUY FROM THEM. I was thinking about buying from them but then i heard tons of crappy reviews. Think carefully

 

[Arecibo]

You must not have looked around for very long if you only heard nothing but good things about them. It's not like they're Go-L with phantom products or anything, but anyone who's been around for a bit already has a certain impression of them (and CyberPower, which is owned by the same company as IBuyPower iirc).

That's not to say that you won't get a working computer out of them. Just don't expect it to look like a Mac Pro inside when you pop the case open (and there's more than a remote chance that you'll have to once you get it).

Cheers.

 

[manooly]

Kee-ripes!!! I did look around quite a bit. You are all scaring me. All of the parts I chose are brand named retail parts as if I would've bought them from Newegg. I do not know how to assemble a pc so I hope I'm happy with Ibuypower. Anyone have any good comments on the choices I've made? Oye!

 

[Arecibo]

Maybe they're better nowadays. I seriously considered them about six years back and was steered away by what I saw, but they may have changed a bit since then. They're not using OEM throwaway motherboards or anything, but I'm curious what PSU, water cooling, and to a (much) lesser degree, hard drive they're using.

What was the price for your config?

 

[Arecibo]

I just went back and did a quick build basically similar to what you did.. came out to about $1400? I wouldn't quite call that a deal. Do you have a certain budget? Is there anything other than those games that you want to do that would be above normal usage? Do you expect to make any decent upgrades in the future beyond RAM, or do you want to stick with one platform and replace the entire computer down the road?

You said you don't know much about this stuff, but it may be in your best interest to consider putting your own rig together. IBuyPower isn't really doing you any favours cost-wise to be perfectly honest, it isn't hard to get a good build going and assemble it, you'll reap the rewards of having much better warranties across the individual parts, and you'll be forced to learn a lot more about what you have, which will allow you to do things like overclock safely. If you live in the US in a city with a Micro Center, you can pick up an i7-920 for really cheap if you want to stay with socket 1366 and upgrade to an i9 down the road, or if you're planning on sticking with these parts for the computer's lifespan, get an i7-860, which is a better performer than the 920 and will be less expensive overall since 1156 motherboards are cheaper. This will leave a lot of money left to bump up the video card if you want, not that the 4890 isn't good, especially for what you're currently doing.

 

[manooly]

I'm paying $1280 shipped. I felt like that was a good price from looking around at individual parts.

 

[Arecibo]

Hrm.. the difference between building it yourself and buying from them would be less than about $100, but I would take a bit of a deeper look at what PSU they're using, especially if you're planning on actually going XFire in the future; same as with the H2O cooling. I'm sure review are out there. You definitely have enough RAM for gaming, but I'd take a hard look at upgrading it to the HD5850 and overclocking it to HD5870 speeds.. it will be leaps and bounds better than the HD4890. Otherwise, it looks fine. The i7-920/x58 build really is a no-brainer when gaming is going to be the primary purpose and you'll be looking at XFire in the future. The only 1TB HDDs I've seen with 16MB are crap though, but as you'll probably get an SSD in a year or so and use this one as a data drive down the road, not that big of a deal.. just wish they allowed much better options that are only $10-$20 more. For that price, you're not getting ripped off, so long as they built it right.

 

[manooly]

I'm thinking of upgrading to one of these PSU's...



...or...


[url=http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1264&ID=1830]

Any suggestions?

 

[manooly]

Or, how about this Corsair...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006&Tpk=corsair tx 750

 

[Silvune]

If you want modular then get the Thermaltake Evo Blue, if you want rock solid and don't mind having cables lying around inside the case, then get the Corsair.

 

[manooly]

I loved the modular aspect of the Thermaltake and the overall look of it. After reading a bunch of reviews on the Evo Blue I went with it. I know that Corsair is solid but there was just something about the Evo Blue I couldn't pass up.