Question on new built system

[tory_37]

After MUCH searching for the right components I was told having a system built was the way to go to get the performance I was looking for. I do a lot simultaneously with Corel Draw, Quickbooks, Embroidery Software, and surfing the web with a lot of open windows w/i ea program. Below is what the tech spec'd out for me after I tweaked it by upping to an i7 950, 750W pwr suppy vs 580W, and Sapphire Graphics card. He argued I would never use/need such a system.....I stated I was tired of my old system bottle necking. After a week I went back in to pick up my new system and those specs are below what he originally quoted me. My question is I was charged $1600 (which he said was a Hell of a deal compared to boxed systems which aren't as good with same components) and he changed out some parts but did not adjust the price. If it matters, the system was set up as a mirrored raid so I could swap out HD easily if one fails. Is this new system lacking from the original quoted? Why would he have suddenly changed out 6 of the components?? Would you go back and ask for this system to be changed or refunded the difference?

Quoted for: Received:

CASE: CM Centurion 590 CM ADV CM 690 II BLK N/PS
PWR: Corsair 750W 750tx same
MB: Giga SKT 1156 DDR3 P55-USB3 same
CPU: INTEL QUAD CORE i7 - 950 3.06ghz INTEL CORE QUAD i7- 870 2.93G
RAM: KING DDR3 4GB/10600 (has 8GB total) CR DDR3 4GB/10600 (x2)
HD: SEA 1TB SATA 7200 32MB (x2 mirrored) WD 1TB/SATA 64MB WD10EARS (x2)
DVDRW: LITE-ON 24x DVDRW SATA RETAIL same
VIDEO CARD: SAPH DDR5 2GB RAD HD6950 PCIE DIAM DDR5 2GB RAD 6950 PCIE
OS: Win 7 same
CARD READER: SIIG 3.5IN 63 IN 1 card reader same

My concerns are that I believe the HD used is 5400 vs quoted 7200, I stated the video card should be a NVIDIA and he stated ATI RADEON was just as good but then quoted a Sapphire and put in a Diamond. I know right now the video card is the weakest link in my relic of a computer. Should this video card be of concern? And last but certainly not least was the i7 switch from 950 to 870. Can anyone with much more expertise in this area tell me why someone would switch out components and sell them for the same price AND how these changes will impact the computer?
Thanks for your advice, greatly appreciated.
Tory

 

[oc_mania]

Your video card isnt weak at all, you can overclock it to a 6970 and both of them are the newest and most powerful AMD gpus : here is a bench of your GPU vs a GTX 560ti [they are at the same price ~250$ ]
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/293?vs=330
And here is a bench of the cpus :
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/107?vs=100
What is your Western Digital HDD ? Green,Blue or Black ? You said its 5400 rpm so i guess its a Green and it would be slower than the Seagate. The case is a little better and i guess the ram is also better [Corsair > Kingston IMO]

 

[oc_mania]

Now i calculated the price of the stuff if you bought it from Newegg : ~1070$ without the OS [ it can be from 119 to 274$ depending on what it is]
On your question about changing or refunding : as i said above, the components he changed are sold at a simular price, so i guess you wont get a refund for changed hardware. I dont know where you are from but if he didnt spend alot of money for the shipping of the parts, he did charge you quite more.

 

[Leaps-from-Shadows]

It looks like the mainboard was a wrong choice from the start. The 950 would have required a triple-channel 1366 mainboard. That's probably why he switched you to the 870, because it only requires a dual-channel 1156 board. The 870 is actually $10 more on NewEgg, but the 1366 board would likely have cost more than the 1156 board.

I would definitely complain about the reduction in hard drive speed. When working with large files, you need better transfer speeds than that.

That video card isn't really a weak link.

 

[tory_37]

OC- I will look at the links you provided, thanks. I was referring to my old system video card being my weak link and wanting to make sure that was not case in the new system. I really don't understand why it wasn't built with the specs he charged me for and if now I should take the unit back to have those parts replaced or the price adjusted? Or maybe they ARE all the same quality and he just used what he had? Not sure if the HD is green blue or black, I went to Newegg and ran the sku and it came back as 5400 so prob green as you stated??
I know he had trouble with the case fitting everything in. I'm assuming from my research that the Video card prob gave him trouble so he went w the larger case. I haven't plugged it in yet because I don't want them telling me it's used too. I literally brought it in and sat it down and noticed from the dep receipt and the final receipt that he changed out components. I just want to make sure it is adequate to run my graphic programs and I got what I paid for.
Leaps- You confirmed what I figured out. But I know enough to be dangerous about this stuff. Just wanted to make sure I was on the right track. That's exactly what I read that the 1156 w 870 was cheaper than the 1366 w the 950. I assume he didn't know that when he quoted it and thought I wouldn't notice. I know I read the 1156 memory runs on 2 lanes where as the 1366 runs on 3.......when would that come into to play? What does that extra lane/channel really do/mean?
Thanks to you both, I'll give them a call and see what happened. Just wanted to make sure I was looking at all this in the right way.

 

[oc_mania]

1156 motherboards have dual channel ram, wich simply-explained means they have 4 ram slots and the 1366 motherboards have tripple channel ram and have 6 ram slots. You can read an article here : http://www.insidehw.com/Reviews/Memory/Intel-Core-i7-Dual-Channel-vs.-Triple-Channel-Memory-Mode.html Dual channel is actually a little faster. IMO you wont have problems with ram, because now you have 8gb wich is more than enough and you can add another 2 sticks at anytime. Your only downgrade is the HDD. If he agrees to change them try to get 7200rpm HDDs like the Caviar Blue or Black. It would be better if they are SATA 3 so you could make use of the SATA 3 ports on your motherboard and you will have 6gb/s transfer rates instead of the SATA 2`s 3gb/s.

 

[tory_37]

I placed a call and he is supposed to call me back. OC that is something I wasn't even aware of so thank you, I'll def mention it as that DOES matter. As he handed me the unit he stated it was overkill. I KNOW what I have now is inadequate. I don't mind overkill and everytime I've bought a computer they think it's more than I need. As programs are added eventually that "overkill" will work itself out. Appreciate the feedback

 

[oc_mania]

I expected your motherboard to have sata 3 because it has usb 3.0 but now i noticed that it doesnt :S http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3440#sp . So if you connect a sata 3 hdd it will work as a sata 2 [ it will have a 3gb/s transfer rate instead of 6gb/s] . Sorry i gave you wrong info bout`the motherboard :S Well, atleast you learned some info about HDDs If you want you can get one of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124041&cm_re=pcie_sata_controller-_-16-124-041-_-Product or any other pcie sata 3 controller.