Looking into building a new PC

Waughoo

Waughoo

CAGiversary!
Well, last year my wife and I spent around $700 on a new laptop with our tax return. This year it's my turn to blow some refund cash on a new desktop. I've been looking around newegg and tigerdirect for parts, and came up with the following so far....

Motherboard/CPU $249.99
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5569225&csid=_22

Video Card $119.99
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5642515&CatId=3669

Case/PSU $79.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811144222

RAM $81.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134641



which gives me a total of $539.96. I was going to just use the optical drive and hard drive out of my old pc, as well as my monitor/keyboard/mouse/ect.


I was pretty happy with this setup until I came across cyberpowerpc.com
I decided to play around on thier site and was able to configure a PC with much better components from the look of it AND a OS and HD included! Here's the specs...



CAS:Thermaltake V3 Black Mid-Tower Case [-25]

CS_FAN:Default case fans

CPU:AMD PhenomTII X4 925 Quad-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology

FAN:Asetek LCLC 120 Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan (Extreme Cooling Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA)

FREEGAME_VC02:None

FLASHMEDIA:INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)

HDD:Single Hard Drive (500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [-35])

MULTIVIEW:Xtreme Performance in SLI/CrossFireX Gaming Mode Supports Single Monitor

MOTHERBOARD:MSI 770-G45 AM3 770 Chipset CrossFireX Support DDR3 Socket AM3 ATX Mainboard w/ 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, USB2.0, SATA-II, RAID, 2 Gen2 PCIe, 1 PCIe X1, & 3 PCI

MEMORY:4GB (2GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Module (Corsair or Major Brand)

NETWORK:Onboard Gigabit LAN Network

OS:Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium (64-bit Edition)

POWERSUPPLY:600 Watts Power Supplies (XtremeGear SLI/CrossFireX Ready Power Supply)

SERVICE:STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT

SOUND:HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO

USB:Built-in USB 2.0 Ports

VIDEO:ATI Radeon HD 5450 1GB DDR3 16X PCIe Video Card [DirectX 11 Support] [-74] (Major Brand Powered by ATI)

PRICE:(+629)




As you can see, it's only like $100 more and has much more included. Plus I wouldnt have to cannibalize my old pc. The problem is that cyberpowerpc, or pretty much any custom PC site I've found has poor reviews. Alot of their systems seem to arrive DOA, or have other problems. Plus the customer support seems questionable at best.

So you can see my problem... either build my own PC and get less bang for my buck AND be down my current PC, or get a pre-built that offers more but has very questionable reliability.

Any suggestions?
 
Yeah, it's mainly for gaming. I dont think it needs to be super powered though. If it'll keep a decent framerate at 1280x1024 for most games then I'll be happy. Although, I'm hoping whatever I get will run Diablo 3 at high settings when it comes out. Thats part of the reason that cyberpower one looks good... I can add a second vid card later if needed.

@Megazell, I'm looking around that site... so far it's looking pretty close to the same prices I found off newegg and tiger
 
The 5450 video card from the CyberPowerPC system is junk. Your original pick of the 5670 is miles better for gaming. But if you want it to somewhat future proof a bit, I'd go for the 5750 instead, if money allows it.

You can also try this Newegg combo for $550. It comes with Phenom II X4 945, Gigabyte mobo, 4GB of RAM, OCZ 700W PSU, WD 1TB Black HD, and a nice case to kick. All you have to do is spend $30 on an optical drive and maybe $100 on a video card (maybe your original pick of Radeon HD 5670) and you'll have a killer system.

It's going to be a tough decision if you've looked at custom-built computer sites. I say you should stick with your original picks of separate parts, and get a 500GB hard drive and optical drive for roughly $80 more to complete your new computer so you don't have to gut your old PC.
 
@SOSTrooper
I do like that Newegg combo you posted. Especially the Crossfire support and modular PSU. I may just go with that. It doesn't say anything about any cooling for the CPU though, so I'm guessing that'd be separate. Maybe I'll shop around for video cards and see what I find.
 
[quote name='Waughoo']@SOSTrooper
I do like that Newegg combo you posted. Especially the Crossfire support and modular PSU. I may just go with that. It doesn't say anything about any cooling for the CPU though, so I'm guessing that'd be separate. Maybe I'll shop around for video cards and see what I find.[/QUOTE]

when you buy retail CPUs they come with a fan/heatsink

you should be spending the most money on the video card since you're gaming. If you had the choice between a more powerful CPU versus a more powerful video card, always go for the video card.
 
That PSU bundled with the case is likely garbage. If you're going to spend the cash to get a decent CPU, mobo, GPU, etc..., don't cheap out on the PSU.
 
Well, I dont have my tax return yet, so I cant start buying much. I did, however, have to replace my old mouse/keyboard. I'm kinda bummed out about that because I have an old Logitec MX700 Wireless mouse/keyboard combo that I've used for years. It's seriously the best purchase I've ever made for my PC, but it's finally died on me :(

I'm hooked on the mouse shape and style, so I ordered a similar wired one, a Logitec MX 518. I know its not the best out there, but it's setup exactly the same as my old mouse and was like $40.


I also ordered a new keyboard, which just arrived today. I got a Microsoft Sidewinder X6, which I'm using right now. Its gonna take some time to get used to the button layout, but so far this thing is SEXXY :)
 
I, in general distrust the pre-builts... simply because you don't really know that parts that go in. I'd pay the little extra just to choose the exact memory/PSU/Hard Drive etc. that I wanted for my system.

Also... I'm not sure how cyberpowerpc is, but BLOATWARE!
 
[quote name='Waughoo']Well, now I've been thinking about this nice AMD starter from newegg...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.328465


but while I was looking around I came across this i5 kit...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.328587


I've always went with AMD due to it's cheaper price, but lately I've been hearing your better off going with an i5 over an AMD. I dont keep up on the newer processors anymore, so I dunno which is a better buy.[/QUOTE]

I think both kits have their pros and cons when compared to each others. The i5-750 kit is attractive because of its slightly more powerful CPU, newer motherboard, and DDR3. But then the 1.5TB hard drive is pretty junky due to its 5900RPM speed (it's for storage, not much of a OS drive) and cheaper quality power supply (Rosewill). On the other hand, the AMD kit has a slightly weaker CPU, older DDR2, older motherboard, but has a much better/faster WD 1TB Black hard drive, and a bit better quality OCZ PSU. It's going to be a difficult toss up here. My guts feeling tells me to go with the i5-750 kit, because hard drive is something you can easily replace with a faster one. The PSU will work, it's just as with all lower quality stuff, they don't last as long as the good PSU, generally speaking.
 
@SOSTrooper
Thanks! That gives me more to go on. I'm not terribly worried about the hard drive, since I was gonna use one I already have as the main, and just use the new ones for storage. If the PSU will work fine for a year or so, then I'll got with the i5 and just upgrade later.
 
Yeah the thing with the i5-750 kit is that you can easily replace the PSU and the hard drive down the road, And the H55 motherboard will be supporting any new Intel LGA1156 CPU that will be coming out down the pipe. So the i5-750 kit has a much better futureproofing than the AMD's older kit.
 
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