giants84

Distinguished
Jun 6, 2010
65
0
18,630
Hows it going, I posted before about a gaming system but i decided it's not worth spending so much at one of those small computer builders. Any advice on a bigger company that does not markup their systems to much. I got a 27 inch 3D monitor, I would like a system that can handle games without a problem. I just don't know where to buy a system, I cant build it myself and I rather have a piece of mind with a warranty and tech support. I don't have a budget but I don't want to get ripped off. Thank you appreciate it. Forgot to mention that my broken Down dell is getting replaced with a brand new Alienware R4 which is worth over 3k, I am going to try and sell it unopened though because I had enough of Dell.
 
A lot of people use www.cyberpowerpc.com, but I haven't heard overly good things about their customer service, I don't think they have super awesome prices, and I have looked at their website and I don't think it really helps people to either 1) know what they are doing, or 2) to pick parts that maximize the system's likelihood of working.

It really depends on what you mean by "don't want to get ripped off". Some might construe getting ripped off as paying anything more than $20 over parts cost. Most businesses have labor and overhead costs which generally come in quite a ways over that, though.

If you want others to build it for you, you should expect to kick in at least 10% for it.

BTW, I think www.ibuypower.com also does built to order PCs.

I can assist you with picking out parts and you can see what the cost would be from those websites if you want. If you get me your best quote on the setup I may be willing to put in a quote for doing it myself that would fall under that figure and put in all the elbow grease myself and do the tech support myself if it doesn't sound like a waste of my time. I would even install whatever games on it if you provided me with a legal copy so I could test to make sure they work before I shipped the computer to wherever you live.

Anyway, tell me how you wish to proceed and I will see what I can do to help you out.
 

giants84

Distinguished
Jun 6, 2010
65
0
18,630
Hows it going, appreciate the reply. Ye i have been looking at ibuypower.com, reason why i want to buy it from a big company is for the tech support/warranty. I know I will pay more but i just don't want to pay a lot more than it's worth. This is the system i built on ibuypower.com.

Costly but not as much as maingear or origin. It came out to $4500 I don't really want to spend that much but since i will be selling the alienware I get free from Dell for around 3k, might as well get a good system. Thanks again

Gamer Paladin F950
1 x Case ( CoolerMaster HAF 932 Advanced Full Tower Gaming Case - Silver/Gray 2-Tone )
0 x Case Lighting ( None )
1 x iBUYPOWER Labs - Noise Reduction ( Advanced - iBUYPOWER Harmony SRS Sound Reduction System )
1 x iBUYPOWER Labs - Internal Expansion ( [6-Port] NZXT Internal USB Expansion System + Bluetooth & Wireless N Modules )
1 x Processor ( Intel® Core™ i7 3820 Processor (4x 3.60GHz/10MB L3 Cache) )
1 x iBUYPOWER PowerDrive ( PowerDrive Level 2 - Up to 20% Overclocking )
1 x Processor Cooling ( Asetek 550LC Liquid CPU Cooling System (Intel) - ARC Dual Silent High Perfornamce Fan Upgrade (Push-Pull Airflow) )
1 x Memory ( 16 GB [2 GB X8] DDR3-1866 Memory Module - Corsair or Major Brand )
1 x Video Card ( NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 - 3GB - SLI Mode (Dual Cards) )
1 x Video Card Brand ( Major Brand Powered by AMD or NVIDIA )
1
1 x Free Stuff ( [Free] Thermaltake eSPORTS CHALLENGER Gaming Keyboard - Free with any desktop purchase over $1499 )
1 x Motherboard ( [3-Way SLI] ASUS Rampage IV Extreme )
1 x Power Supply ( 1350 Watt - Thermaltake Toughpower-1350M - Free Upgrade to 1500 Watt Toughpower-1500M ($40 Savings) )
1 x Primary Hard Drive ( 120 GB ADATA S510 SSD - Single Drive )
1 x Data Hard Drive ( 3 TB HARD DRIVE -- 64M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive )
1 x Optical Drive ( [12X Blu-Ray] LG BLU-RAY Reader, DVD±R/±RW Burner Combo Drive - Black )
1 x 2nd Optical Drive ( 24X Sony Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black )
0 x Flash Media Reader / Writer ( None )
1 x Meter Display ( NZXT Sentry LX Aluminum Fan Control, Clock, and Temperature Display )
0 x USB Expansion ( None )
1 x Sound Card ( Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro )
1 x Network Card ( Killer 2100 Gaming Network Card )
1 x Operating System ( Microsoft Windows 7 Professional + Office Starter 2010 (Includes basic versions of Word and Excel) - 64-bit )
1 x Speaker System ( Logitech Z313 2.1 Speakers System w/ convenient control pod )
1 x Advanced Build Options ( Professional wiring for all cables inside the system tower - Achieve exceptional airflow in your chassis )
1 x Advanced Build Options ( Professional wiring for all cables inside the system tower - Basic Pro Wiring )
1 x Advanced Build Options ( Tuniq TX-2 High Performance Thermal Compound - The best interface between your CPU and the heatsinks )
1 x Advanced Build Options ( iBUYPOWER Specialized Advanced Packaging System - Protect your investment during transportation! )
1 x Advanced Build Options ( Professional wiring for all cables inside the system tower - Advanced - Power Package (Individually Sleeved 24-pin ATX, 8-pin CPU, and SATA Drive Power Cabling) )
1 x Advanced Build Options ( Professional wiring for all cables inside the system tower - Advanced - Video Package (Individually Sleeved 8-pin and 6-pin PCI-E VGA Power Cabling) )
1 x Warranty ( 3 Year Standard Warranty Service )
1 x Rush Service ( Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) - No Rush Service, Estimate Ship Out in 5~10 Business Days )
 
You have all the websites that I know about.

You might as well just make the system on all of them and go with the lowest priced one if that is your intention.

- Edit - In case it isn't clear, I don't see how you intend to limit your risk of paying "too much" if there are no acceptable alternatives to using these websites. You could prevent paying too much by just not buying anything, but otherwise I don't see any other risk management tools according to your current plans.
 
It is an easy enough thing to look up each part on newegg. You can add in Amazon and Tigerdirect to double check you have a good price for something, but their pricing is usually such that nobody here really uses them.

However, I can say that you are paying $30 too much for 2x 8GB sticks. You should get 4x 4GBs of Crucial RAM instead.

You have 8 RAM slots and unless you are trying to make a 3000 user server or something there is little usefulness in having more than 8 GBs of RAM

Additionally, people have had a lot of bad experience with 8 GB single sticks in particular. Maybe this board will recognize it without problems, but even many boards that say they will still have problems recognizing sticks that are 8 gigs each.

Personally I would get 2x 4GB of CT2KIT51264BA1339 for $40 and try using the computer with that and just get another of the same thing if you manage to use over the 8 GBs, saving the rest when you likely don't ever consume that.

Windows generally doesn't want to allocate more than 2GB or max 3GB to a single program, so getting that sort of RAM usage without slowing the processor to a crawl usually requires many instances of a small program that doesn't use a lot of processing power, but does use a lot of RAM. Again, server stuff usually.

Games tend to use more processor than RAM, so if you tried to run 8+ games to fill up 16GB of RAM it would kill the processor before it killed the RAM.

Otherwise, it is hard to tell a fair price for a lot of the things you can't get outside of their website and its hard to even know what it really is to begin with. Something like the iBuyPower Harmony SRS that is just something that everybody else just does without and doesn't really care about.

It obviously has some value north of 0, but is it worth the $75 they generally charge for Harmony SRS? That is much harder to tell.
 
My prblem with the large builder sites is you don't know what you're getting....numerous parts are listed as "8GB RAM Major Brand"

If ya lived in NY / Long Island area, I'd gladly give you a hand....here's my base $2k build

Case - $ 105 - Corsair 500R Black http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139009
PSU - $ 95 - Corsair TX850 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139022
MoBo - $ 205 - ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131790
CPU - $ 230 - Intel Core i7-2500K http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
Cooler - $ 43 - Hyper 612 PWM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103103
TIM - $ 5 - Shin Etsu http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835150080
RAM - $ 50 - (2 x 4GB) Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600 (White) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233199
GFX - $ 230 - Asus GTX 560 900Mhz http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121425
GFX - $ 230 - Asus GTX 560 900Mhz Same
HD - $ 125 - Seagate Barracuda1TB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148840
SSD - $ 170 - Patriot Wildfire 120 GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220599
DVD Writer - $ 58 - Asus Model BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135247
Monitor $ 290 ASUS VG236HE Black 23" 120 Hz Monitor http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236104
Keyboard - $ 100 - Logitech G510 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823126100
Mouse - $ 62 - Logitech G500 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826104318
 
BTW, that is why the companies like cyberpowerpc and ibuypower charge you hundreds of dollars more than the parts cost, just in case they have to give you two of the most expensive things after one of them breaks.

They don't get their parts for free either, you know.