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Pre-Assembled gaming rig?
I am sure I'm reposting something that's been asked a billion times, but every search string I try comes back as "none found."
OKay... here goes:
I have been doing research on building/buying a new gaming rig for a while now and just can't seem to find anywhere that really gives me the feeling that I'm getting a good deal. I'm a little nervous about building my own PC just because of compatibility issues and my general inexperience. I have a roommate who works as a network tech who said he'd help me build it, but that's when things got interesting.
A few months ago I decided I was going to do this and talked to my tech roommate. He pointed me to the usual newegg type sites and started picking out components. Then I did a search for "gaming pc" and ran into cyberpowerpc. I showed him the site and we tried to build a pc for less with the same components but could not... so cyberpower it is... right?
Well... last night I decided I'd try something out on their site and it just didn't add up. I took their cheapest rig and went nuts customizing the hell out of it. It came out to some crazy price. Then I took their ABSOLUTE top end rig and tried to scale it down to the bottom rig... but the price never went under $1,200.
That makes me nervous because I don't know what I'm being charged for. If I can't start out from the top and bottom and cris cross the two systems/prices then how do they make sense? I'm not sure I'm being 100% clear on this one... so if I think of a better way to word it later I will.
Anyways, the latter part of my research has been with other major manufacturers like Dell, Alienware, Gateway, and some resellers like bestbuy.
tl;dr edition:
I want a gaming PC. Want to know I got a good deal. Don't want to build it myself unless I have to. Please give me links to places I should check out.
Thanks in advance,
Baromen Ironsack
Comments
You will always be paying much more for a pre-built gaming rig. Your basically paying for their know how on putting the pieces together and slapping their name on it.
If you cant build one yourself...you'll just have to do some searching around for the best bang for your buck. If your roomie can help you build one...you really should do that. Building a great PC isnt very hard at all....It seems very daunting thinking bout it, but really isnt that complicated. And now with the newest motherboards being both Nvidia and ATI compatible, you really cant go wrong.
If you have someone to help you pick out the items...they would know the little things like how much power you need from your PSU and all that kind of stuff. If you can do it together, you'll never go back to buying pre-built rigs again. In my opinion, pre-builts are for people who don't wanna do research, or just don't care or know about the price differences in doing it yourself.
I only bought one pre-built PC years ago when I was first getting into computers....since then, all I did was research online and read PC mags and now I've built plenty on my own with little to NO problems at all. Read reviews on NewEgg.com about parts...a lot of people will give their specs, and would'nt you know it...you'll find a lot of people have the same build because those items work great paired together.
Take my advice and try to do it yourself...you'll save a lot of cash that can be used for even better components, and you'll gain the knowledge to keep doing it in the future!! Pick up a few Maximum PC mags or check them out online...read the forums and see their reviews on items. Lots of great info there as well.
That's what I expected. I know there is a savings/satisfaction to building it yourself.
If it does come down to me building it myself, I'm sure it will work out. I'd just like to see a few pre-built sites other than dell/alienware and cyberpowerpc to see what they have to offer.
I may be wrong, but I did some research and couldn't find the components cheaper individually than I could from cyberpower. I may be doing my math wrong, but then again... they do buy in bulk as opposed to just one unit.
CyberpowerPC does have some cheaper prebuilts than Dell and Alienware....but, if you disect the pc, and look at the individual prices of everything from say, Newegg...you'll see the bottom line still adds up to be a bit more than doing it yourself. I dont know of any place that will sell you a rig where you'll just be paying for the price of the components. If such a thing existed, these other places would be out of business, and the other builders would be making no money lol. If your really nervous about doing it yourself, and dont want to spend a ton of cash for say, an Alienware, Cyberpower could be a good choice. I've read good things about them in the past and see their adds all over in magazines so you know they would be reliable.
And as far as buying a "Gaming" rig from these places...expect to pay top dollar for the newest components in their systems. =(
build your own. theres nothing like the satisfaction of knowing you built it yourself. also along the way the knowledge you gain will come in handy. if you need help picking out components post here with your budget and im sure people will help.
I'm trying to keep it under $1,000. I was hoping to build/buy something that will last a while, but I'm not really prepared to pay for the bleeding edge.
So far I've priced out a system as follows. Any advice on what should be improved or what could be taken back a knotch without sacraficing too much, please, let me know:
Intel Core i7-920 2.66 GHz 8M L3 Cache LGA1366
Asus P6T Deluxe Intel X58 Chipset SLI/CrossFireX Mainboard SAS Triple-Channel DDR3/1600 SATA RAID w/ eSATA,Dual GbLAN,USB2.0,IEEE1394a,&7.1Audio
3GB (3x1GB) PC1333 DDR3 PC3 10666 Triple Channel Memory
NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT 512MB 16X PCI Express
500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD
LG 20X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER
FINAL PRICE: $879
I can't figure out how far up to go on video cards to save my life. When I started trying to price things out the 200 series of nvidia cards weren't even out yet and now they seem to fall in the middle of the pack. I also don't know how crazy to go with RAM. Obviously, more is better, but I plan on running Windows 7 (have access to legit copy) and don't know how it works when you start getting into big RAM numbers. I was thinking about going with more RAM per chip to maximize potential, but RAM doesn't seem that expensive to begin with.
This is known as the i7 configurator at cyberpowerpc and I was going to use this as a reference to buy the parts individually if I can find them cheaper. what do you think?
good build but switch the 9600 for a 4870. that build wont bottleneck it.
when you say 4870, which one do you mean? Could you give me a link to the card?
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx
I would say the time is bad.Windows 11 will come out in a number of months,and then a whole new slew of hadware.Almost every single game is made to operate much better on XP,so you can see why an upgrade now is a waste of money.Unless you are able to find a rig that is right up to date in BIOS for everything related to Vista.Then i would only equip it it with XP hardware.This again is why you should not even bother,by time you will actually need modern hardware,there will be a lot more compatible stuff coming out,again with newer bios on the mobo/graphic card.DUO/QUAD chips lmao,games utilize one of them,i doubt will be several years before games utilize multi cores and these monstrous GPU that don't seem to do their jobs.
Get a top o the line XP machine that would be fairly cheap at this stage,and save your real upgrade until at least 6 months after windows 11 comes out,probably more like a year later.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
OKay... thanks for the link. Oftentimes there are so many different XXXX cards that it helps to know exactly which one we're talking about.
That will bump the price on cyberpowerpc to $1,089. I look forward to attempting to put this together cheaper on my own, but that's pretty darn close to what I was looking to spend.
Anything I should keep in mind when it comes to cooling, power supply, etc?
I just built a PC for home with the core components being:
Intel core 2 duo 8400 3ghz, 4 gigs dual channel ram, nvidia 9800gt, Asrocks motherboard and Thermaltake case for $850 including taxes.
I think you will find it fun to build your own. with a room mate that can help its definitely worth a go
Good luck
REMINDER
Building a PC does give great satisfaction to yourself when you boot it up for the first time and find out everything is running better than par. When building a PC there are a certain things to keep in mind when putting it together.
1.) Ensure that the place you are putting the build together is free of a lot of dust and that the work place is in a clean environment. Make sure you have sufficient lighting, things could get a little hard to see.
2.) Make sure you have the right equipment. Phillips screw driver, perhaps some skinny needle nosed pliers. Make sure you have all the hardware ready to be inserted into the case in order, in a neat fashion ( this cancels some confusion that might take place )
3.) Above all, make sure that you are grounded. Before touching the computer components with your bare hands, make sure that your hands are clean and touching something metal should do the trick, but if you can get your hands on some anti-static gloves to work with it would really come in handy.
And of course, remain calm. Its a fun project. never get bent out of shape if something doesn't work the way you want it to. Take a deep breath, step back, and re-calculate your thoughts. Working with a clear mind will always ensure a better build.
ENJOY!!
______________________________
What if Paul Revere was like the boy who cried wolf....?
Originally posted by Hazmal
What does he say when people ask what he did? "My mommy was irking me yo - I wanted to keep pwning nubs on my xbox, so I roughed her up with a hardshell. That is just how I roll."
I can build you one... you can just pay for parts, shipping costs, and tip me if you want
I think I found one guy on ebay that lets you select every component.. and the whole rig cost about what the parts do retail I think... so he's obviously buying at wholesale.
just make sure you know what to buy!!! I'll be glad to help you!!! I know whats worth it and whats not....I just built a really badass machine for $980, and a second one thats not terribly far behind for $600.
PM me if you want more advice, or me to build you one.
Grymm
MMO addict in recovery!
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Aion,AoC,TR,WAR,EVE,BP,RIFT,WoW and others... no more!