Thoughts on these builds..purchasing today.

[starrywisdom]

Just spent the last few hours with all the configurations on the website and came up with a handful of builds with mainly the same parts(slight differences on a few) would like some thoughts on what is more worth the money.

In specific, my fears are overpaying for something I may not need(IE: an i7 instead of an i5) or too much of something somewhere else where something else is a bottle neck. In essence I don't want to buy something 'awesome' if it's not really going to be used..lol. Want to get this in, in the next few hours so any help greatly appreciated.

1309.00

Spoiler

Configuration#: 1E8R38 (http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/saved/1E8R38)
Product Name: Gamer Xtreme 1000 SE (NO MONITOR)

Case: Thermaltake Chaser MK-1 Full Tower Gaming Case W/ Side Panel Window [+95]
CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-3570K 3.40 GHz 6MB Intel Smart Cache LGA1155 (All Venom OC Certified)
Cooling Fan: Corsair Hydro Series H60 High Performance Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan (Single Standard 120MM Fan)
Coolant for Cyberpower Xtreme Hydro Water Cooling Kits: Standard Coolant
Motherboard: * [CrossFireX/SLI] GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 Chipset DDR3 ATX Mainboard w/ IRST, Lucid Virtu MVP, Ultra Durable4, 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, Display Port, 3x Gen3 PCIe X16, 3x PCIe x1 & 1 PCI (All Venom OC Certified) [+55]
Freebies: GIGABYTE GC-WB300D Exclusive Bluetooth 4.0/WiFi PCIe Expansion Card
Intel Smart Response Technology for Z77: * 60 GB OCZ Agility 3 SATA III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 525MB/s Read & 475MB/s Write [+85] (Single Drive)
Memory: 16GB (4GBx4) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory [+83] (Corsair XMS with Heat Spreader)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 2GB 16X PCIe Video Card (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
Power Supply Upgrade: * 850 Watts - Corsair CMPSU-850TXV2 80 Plus Power Supply - Quad SLI Ready [+56]
Hard Drive: 2TB (2TBx1) SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (Single Drive)
Optical Drive: LG UH12LS28K 12X Blu-Ray Player & DVDRW Combo Drive (BLACK COLOR)
Optical Drive 2: None
Sound: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
Network: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
Flash Media Reader/Writer: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)
Internal USB Port: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit Edition)
Service: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
Rush Service: NO; READY TO SHIP IN 10~15 BUSINESS DAYS

1309.00 [75.00 shipping; i5 processor; Intel SRT - 2gigHDD]

1440.00

Spoiler

Configuration#: 1E8R1L (http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/saved/1E8R1L)
Product Name: Mega Special III (NO MONITOR)

Case: Thermaltake Chaser MK-1 Full Tower Gaming Case W/ Side Panel Window [+95]
CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-3570K 3.40 GHz 6MB Intel Smart Cache LGA1155 (All Venom OC Certified)
Performance Tuning Protection Plan by Intel: None
Venom Boost Fast And Efficient Factory Overclocking: No Overclocking
Cooling Fan: Corsair Hydro Series H60 High Performance Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan (Single Standard 120MM Fan)
Coolant for Cyberpower Xtreme Hydro Water Cooling Kits: Standard Coolant
Motherboard: * [CrossFireX/SLI] GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 Chipset DDR3 ATX Mainboard w/ IRST, Lucid Virtu MVP, Ultra Durable4, 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, Display Port, 3x Gen3 PCIe X16, 3x PCIe x1 & 1 PCI (All Venom OC Certified) [+55]
Freebies: GIGABYTE GC-WB300D Exclusive Bluetooth 4.0/WiFi PCIe Expansion Card
Intel Smart Response Technology for Z77: * 60 GB OCZ Agility 3 SATA III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 525MB/s Read & 475MB/s Write [+85] (Single Drive)
Memory: 16GB (4GBx4) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory [+83] (Corsair XMS with Heat Spreader)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 2GB 16X PCIe Video Card [+86] (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
Power Supply Upgrade: * 750 Watts - Corsair CMPSU-750TXV2 80 Plus Power Supply - Quad SLI Ready [+73]
Hard Drive: 2TB (2TBx1) SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (Single Drive)
Optical Drive: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive (BLACK COLOR)
Sound: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
Network: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
Flash Media Reader/Writer: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)
Internal USB Port: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium [+104] (64-bit Edition)
Service: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
Rush Service: NO; READY TO SHIP IN 10~15 BUSINESS DAYS

1440.00 [Free shipping i5 processor; Intel SRT - 2Gig HDD]

1414.00

Spoiler

Configuration#: 1E8R18 (http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/saved/1E8R18)
Product Name: CyberPower Z77 Configurator (NO MONITOR)

Case: Thermaltake Chaser MK-1 Full Tower Gaming Case W/ Side Panel Window [+95]
CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-3570K 3.40 GHz 6MB Intel Smart Cache LGA1155 (All Venom OC Certified)
Cooling Fan: Corsair Hydro Series H60 High Performance Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan (Single Standard 120MM Fan)
Coolant for Cyberpower Xtreme Hydro Water Cooling Kits: Standard Coolant
Motherboard: * [CrossFireX/SLI] GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 Chipset DDR3 ATX Mainboard w/ IRST, Lucid Virtu MVP, Ultra Durable4, 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, Display Port, 3x Gen3 PCIe X16, 3x PCIe x1 & 1 PCI (All Venom OC Certified) [+55]
Intel Smart Response Technology for Z77: * 60 GB OCZ Agility 3 SATA III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 525MB/s Read & 475MB/s Write [+85] (Single Drive)
Memory: 16GB (4GBx4) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory [+83] (Corsair XMS with Heat Spreader)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 2GB 16X PCIe Video Card [+166] (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
Freebies: None
Power Supply Upgrade: * 750 Watts - Corsair CMPSU-750TXV2 80 Plus Power Supply - Quad SLI Ready [+77]
Hard Drive: 2TB (2TBx1) SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (Single Drive)
Optical Drive: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive (BLACK COLOR)
Sound: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
Network: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
Flash Media Reader/Writer: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)
Internal USB Port: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium [+104] (64-bit Edition)
Service: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
Rush Service: NO; READY TO SHIP IN 10~15 BUSINESS DAYS



1414.00 [75.00 shipping] [i5 Intel SRT - 2Gig HDD ]

1562.00

Spoiler

Configuration URL: http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/saved/1E8QYM
Product Name: Gamer Xtreme FTW (NO MONITOR)

Case: Thermaltake Chaser MK-1 Full Tower Gaming Case W/ Side Panel Window [-69]
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-3820 Quad-Core 3.60 GHz 10MB Intel Smart Cache LGA2011 (All Venom OC Certified)
Cooling Fan: Corsair Hydro Series H60 High Performance Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan (Single Standard 120MM Fan)
Coolant for Cyberpower Xtreme Hydro Water Cooling Kits: Standard Coolant
Motherboard: * (3-Way SLI Support) GIGABYTE X79-UD3 Intel X79 Chipset Quad Channel DDR3 ATX Mainboard w/ UEFI DualBIOS, Dolby Home Theater 7.1 Audio, GbLAN, USB3.0, SATA-III RAID, 4 Gen3 PCIe X16, 2 PCIe X1 & 1 PCI [-10]
Freebies: GIGABYTE GC-WB300D Exclusive Bluetooth 4.0/WiFi PCIe Expansion Card
Memory: 16GB (4GBx4) DDR3/1600MHz Quad Channel Memory (Corsair XMS with Heat Spreader)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 2GB 16X PCIe Video Card (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
Power Supply Upgrade: * 750 Watts - Corsair CMPSU-750TXV2 80 Plus Power Supply - Quad SLI Ready [+63]
Hard Drive: 120GB Corsair Force GT Series SATA-III 6.0 Gb/s SSD – 555MB/s Read & 515MB/s Write [+60] (Single Drive)
Data Hard Drive: 2TB (2TBx1) SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [+99] (Single Drive)
Optical Drive: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive (BLACK COLOR)
Sound: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
Network: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
Flash Media Reader/Writer: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)
Internal USB Port: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit Edition)
Service: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
Rush Service: NO; READY TO SHIP IN 10~15 BUSINESS DAYS


1562.00 [75.00 Shipping] FTW [i7 120SSD, 2Gig HDD]

Any thoughts...I'm really stuck at this point, lol.

 

[l0v3rboi]

For the price, I will not buy any of those builds. Even at 1300, you should be able to get a gtx 670 and at least a 60Gb SSD. Note, however, that I am basing this on building it on your own. Should be a bit more expensive since you want someone else to build it.

Here are some tips to improve your build:
Lose the full tower. A decent mid tower will keep your system cool and case even an SLI build. I personally like the Corsair Carbide Series (anyone of them, take your pick). The Cooler Master Haf 912 or 922 or XM are also good.

Stick with 8 Gb of DDR3 1600 1.5V RAM. G-Skill is pretty good for RAM in terms of price and performance. Mushkin and Corsair are also pretty good.

You don't need i7 for a gaming computer. First off, are you planning to overclock it yourself?
If yes, i5 3570k will be your best option.
If no, i5 3550 or 3450 will be your best choices. You can also switch your motherboard to an h77 one. Something like the Asus p8h77 - V LE.

You don't need liquid cooling for your build. If you are OC'ing, get the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO. If not, then just leave it with a stock fan.

Most importantly for a gaming build, get the best GPU you can. In my opinion, the Radeon 7850 and the GTX 670 are the best 2 cards in terms of price and performance. I'm not sure how much they will charge you but the 7850 is around $250 and the gtx 670 is around $420.

Just keep playing with the configurations and see what you come up with. Should be around the same price but with better components.
Add at least a 60 Gb SSD as a boot drive. Add an HDD of your choice as a storage drive.

 

[angaddev]

^+1, it is kinda stupid that you have watercooling that you don't need and only get a 560 in a 1500 build.. Build yoour own!

 

[starrywisdom]

RE buying v building: The purchase is for a family member, not for me. The 3 year limited warranty on the entire rig/hardware plus lifetime tech support makes it well worth the extra 300 or so(when all components are priced out) to me. If the rig was for me, and I felt like keeping track of each piece of hardwares warranties/etc I would. In this case I'm not. I should have probably prefaced the OP with that I know building will be cheaper, but convenience/warranty wins in this case.(Until I replace my rig next year)

RE watercooling: It's currently free, and removing it doesn't decrease cost. Not worth it even if it's free? Assuming the person receiving the computer can deal with the slight upkeep with wcooling?

I've decided to drop the higher processor to dump more into the GPU, I figured an i7 would be overkill(but to go from an i5->i7 was only about 40USD) whereas to go from a GTX5702gb to a GTX670 was a 250+ increase.

As for dropping the full tower, what's the downside to having that tower(it's in every build I posted). It's fairly new and has gotten fantastic reviews. Personally, I don't care what it looks like - so long as it performs it's job , well.

Edit: went through and edited out all the garbage copy pasta in the builds to easily see the components and not useless info.

 

[l0v3rboi]

RE buying v building: The purchase is for a family member, not for me. The 3 year limited warranty on the entire rig/hardware plus lifetime tech support makes it well worth the extra 300 or so(when all components are priced out) to me. If the rig was for me, and I felt like keeping track of each piece of hardwares warranties/etc I would. In this case I'm not. I should have probably prefaced the OP with that I know building will be cheaper, but convenience/warranty wins in this case.(Until I replace my rig next year)

RE watercooling: It's currently free, and removing it doesn't decrease cost. Not worth it even if it's free? Assuming the person receiving the computer can deal with the slight upkeep with wcooling?

I've decided to drop the higher processor to dump more into the GPU, I figured an i7 would be overkill(but to go from an i5->i7 was only about 40USD) whereas to go from a GTX5702gb to a GTX670 was a 250+ increase.

As for dropping the full tower, what's the downside to having that tower(it's in every build I posted). It's fairly new and has gotten fantastic reviews. Personally, I don't care what it looks like - so long as it performs it's job , well.

Edit: went through and edited out all the garbage copy pasta in the builds to easily see the components and not useless info.

OIC.. Even if it is not for you, I would still feel uncomfortable knowing that someone I know is paying that much if I know I could have done better. But maybe that's just me. With the money he/she pays though, he/she would expect to be able to pay all the newest games at max settings. With that build, that's not happening.

If it is free, then water-cooling is fine.

The advantage for a full tower is good air flow. With any of those builds however, it can be achieved with a mid tower. It may be true that that particular case has great reviews. However, there is no point in getting a full tower when a cheaper, mid tower will perform equally well. Since you're not the one building it, you can just go with looks and great air flow (let them deal with cable management. lol). I think Nzxt Phantom 410 is one of the flashier and best-looking cases out there.

I still feel like you should at least give him/her a Sapphire Radeon 7850. It will perform much better than that gtx 560.

I'm assuming he/she does not have any plans to SLI/xFire (probably won't know how). You can try these MoBo's to try and cut costs: Gigabyte z77-d3h or Asrock z77 Pro 4. It is designed for single GPU builds.

Ofcourse if you only have a single GPU-build, you need less power. A 550W PSU would do the job just fine. XFX Core Edition 550W is what I would recommend. Even with SLI/xFire, you only need 750W of power. XFX Core Edition 750W or Corsair TX750.

Lastly, 8 Gb is all you need for gaming.

Hope this helps.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

The H60 is a poor performer compared with air coolers in the same price range

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=797&Itemid=62&limit=1&limitstart=4

Try for a Corsair 500R Case

"Major brand by nvidia" is unacceptable. You'll want to gab a non-reference model with beefier VRM for overclocking. For example:

Asus 560 Ti DCII Cu TOP, MSI Hawk or Lightning
Asus 670 DCII Cu TOP, EVGA 670 FTW

Same deal w/ the HD .... is that a 1TB per platter model or 500 GB ? IS it a "green" drive ? If it's a Seagate Barracuda XT, that would be wonderful...... Barracuda ST not so much

16GB not needed, cud get by with 8Gb but prolly not a big cost savings.

I would not use any SSD other than the Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 120 GB .....it's ridiculously priced given the extreme long life premium toshiba flash and tops the consumer SSD performnacx charts

 

[starrywisdom]

Thanks for the great responses guys; lot of good feedback and I appreciate it. That being said I did some retooling and came up with this.

Spoiler

*BASE_PRICE: [+935]
BLUETOOTH: None
CAS: Thermaltake Chaser MK-1 Full Tower Gaming Case W/ Side Panel Window [+95]
CD: Sony 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive [-32] (BLACK COLOR)
COOLANT: Standard Coolant
CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-3570K 3.40 GHz 6MB Intel Smart Cache LGA1155 (All Venom OC Certified)
CS_FAN: Default case fans
FAN: Corsair Hydro Series H60 High Performance Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan (Single Standard 120MM Fan)
FLASHMEDIA: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)
FREEBIE_MB: GIGABYTE GC-WB300D Exclusive Bluetooth 4.0/WiFi PCIe Expansion Card [+0]
HDD 2: 2TB (2TBx1) SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [+0] (Single Drive)
HDD: 120GB OCZ Agility 3 SATA3 SSD
IEEE_CARD: None
IUSB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
MEMORY: 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair XMS with Heat Spreader)
MOTHERBOARD: * [CrossFireX/SLI] GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 Chipset DDR3 ATX Mainboard w/ IRST, Lucid Virtu MVP, Ultra Durable4, 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, Display Port, 3x Gen3 PCIe X16, 3x PCIe x1 & 1 PCI (All Venom OC Certified) [+55]
NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
OS: Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit Edition)
POWERSUPPLY: * 850 Watts - Corsair CMPSU-850TXV2 80 Plus Power Supply - Quad SLI Ready [+56]
SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 2GB 16X PCIe 3.0 Video Card [+224] (EVGA Superclocked [+0])
_PRICE: (+1418)

The i7 is definetly overkill compared to the rest of the parts int he system so dropped it to an i5 that's OCable. GPU changed and still considering if it might be worthwhile to just drop to a GTX570, then just SLI them in the future if he needs it.

I know the price is still 300 or so more then it would be if it was hand built but I can't really avoid that. Or would I be saving a lot more then 300 from building at this point with the above build?

 

[l0v3rboi]

Thanks for the great responses guys; lot of good feedback and I appreciate it. That being said I did some retooling and came up with this.

Spoiler

*BASE_PRICE: [+935]
BLUETOOTH: None
CAS: Thermaltake Chaser MK-1 Full Tower Gaming Case W/ Side Panel Window [+95]
CD: Sony 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive [-32] (BLACK COLOR)
COOLANT: Standard Coolant
CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-3570K 3.40 GHz 6MB Intel Smart Cache LGA1155 (All Venom OC Certified)
CS_FAN: Default case fans
FAN: Corsair Hydro Series H60 High Performance Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan (Single Standard 120MM Fan)
FLASHMEDIA: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)
FREEBIE_MB: GIGABYTE GC-WB300D Exclusive Bluetooth 4.0/WiFi PCIe Expansion Card [+0]
HDD 2: 2TB (2TBx1) SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [+0] (Single Drive)
HDD: 120GB OCZ Agility 3 SATA3 SSD
IEEE_CARD: None
IUSB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
MEMORY: 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair XMS with Heat Spreader)
MOTHERBOARD: * [CrossFireX/SLI] GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 Chipset DDR3 ATX Mainboard w/ IRST, Lucid Virtu MVP, Ultra Durable4, 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, Display Port, 3x Gen3 PCIe X16, 3x PCIe x1 & 1 PCI (All Venom OC Certified) [+55]
NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
OS: Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit Edition)
POWERSUPPLY: * 850 Watts - Corsair CMPSU-850TXV2 80 Plus Power Supply - Quad SLI Ready [+56]
SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 2GB 16X PCIe 3.0 Video Card [+224] (EVGA Superclocked [+0])
_PRICE: (+1418)

The i7 is definetly overkill compared to the rest of the parts int he system so dropped it to an i5 that's OCable. GPU changed and still considering if it might be worthwhile to just drop to a GTX570, then just SLI them in the future if he needs it.

I know the price is still 300 or so more then it would be if it was hand built but I can't really avoid that. Or would I be saving a lot more then 300 from building at this point with the above build?

much better

 

[mojorisin23]

yes... i concur.

two small things: if you must stick with watercooling (i would go with the thermaltake FRIO air cooler), but if you must, get dual fans on it in push-pull config. also, for +9 you can get max case fans.

lastly, the internal card reader is crap. and it takes a full 5.25 bay away and they dont give you the bay cover. toss it and if you need one get a cheapo external one on amazon or newegg.

and i dont think its 300 more. go on pcpartpicker or newegg and build it there. i bet its about the same.

 

[rugs729]

I dont recommend the H60 because you may get one with the annoying grinding noise issue, even though its no maintenance required since its a closed loop system.