Whatever you decide to do. Please for the love of god do NOOOOTTTT BUY from IBUYPOWER. They are the worst business I've ever dealt with. Their rigs come all jacked up. Half the time they come not even working. The customer support is terrible and ran by 15 yr old kids who dont know their asshole from a hole in the ground, + their rude.
Their so bad, I reported them to the BBB and won my case. So yeah, please do yourself a favor and never buy from Ibuypower. That goes for everyone else out there.
Like the Above poster stated. I too believe in building the rig yourself for a couple of reasons. I do mean to bad mouth any computer companies. However the mainstream computer companies are required by their partners/sponsor suppliers to add certain "spam/junk programs" to the computer for advertisement. Believe it or not even if you remove them they still big you down just how they format their hard drives. You are limited to what they have in stock / who get supplied from (There for upping your final purchase price when not even intended). When you build your own rig, you can choose by both price and quality. Some people stick to certain manufacturers for their main components. I myself am a fan of XFX products so I like to peak around at their mid range priced Motherboards/Graphics Cards and such. And if your a new comer to the market, again as the above posters stated, just ask a tech savvy friend to show you what's hot/good/value-able. You'd be surprised at how much you can save over a 5 to 10 year period just by building your own machines. As it stands I recently built my own quad core machine for around 1600 or so USD which would have ran me easily about 2000-2500 USD from a PC manufacturer.
Do note however, the big downside to building your own rig is also that there is no warranty, other than the parts failing (As long as you don't overclock you shouldn't have to worry about that). But when certain programs or network problems arise you will be forced to be the "Do-it-yourself" type of person, which in the end is actually neat because after you while you become tech savvy yourself just by staying on the lookout on what's happening and fixing this and that. Also regarding vista and such, it's not as bad as people make it. And just to be frank, Microsoft is turning turning off the support line for XP, which means drivers and such for X64 based XP systems will be scarce. I use Vista Ultimate 64bit on my system and I love it as well as many others, the only hitch is that you do need to dig around on the internet for the correct drivers, it wasn't long though until I found the right drivers for my old sound blaster audigy 2 card. Don't be afraid to try it at least, it's well worth it, especially if you plan on playing DX10 Games which do require Vista.
Incorrect, they are only discontinuing the sale of XP, the system is still supported through 2010 ( by which time Vienna/Windows 7 will be out ).
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Building will always be cheaper than buying pre-built.
PLaying: EvE, Ryzom
Waiting For: Earthrise, Perpetuum
or Cyberpowerpc also...
Incorrect, they are only discontinuing the sale of XP, the system is still supported through 2010 ( by which time Vienna/Windows 7 will be out ).
As for the OP: building is the only way to go.