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$1000 Budget PC
I've decided to get a PC built via iBuyPower.com
So far I have this:
Processor
[= Quad Core =] AMD Phenom™ II X4 925 Quad-Core CPU
Processor Cooling
Liquid CPU Cooling System [AMD] - [Free Upgrade] Standard 120mm Fan
Memory
8 GB [2 GB X4] DDR3-1600 Memory Module - Corsair or Major Brand
Video Card
-NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 - 1GB - Single Card
Motherboard
-Gigabyte GA-770T-USB3 -- AMD 770
Motherboard USB / SATA Interface
-Motherboard default USB / SATA Interface
Power Supply
-1000 Watt -- Extreme Gaming Series
Primary Hard Drive
-1 TB HARD DRIVE -- 32M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s - Dual 1TB Drives (2TB Capacity) - RAID 0 High Performance
Optical Drive
-24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black
Sound Card
-3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard
Network Card
-Killer Xeno Pro Gaming Network Card
Operating System
-Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + Office Starter 2010 (Includes basic versions of Word and Excel) 64-Bit
Total Price comes to: $967 (plus shipping which im excluding for overall price/budget)
I left out the monitor because I already have one. I was orginally planning to just not get a gfx card (with an 800-900 budget), but theres no option to not get a gfx card. I just wanted to get everyone's opinion. The site says I need a min. of 650 watts, so should I get 800 (to account for a monitor)? I also plan to upgrade to a better gfx card down the road and figure this would be good enough until then. I don't need to play things like Mafia 2 on max, but I'd like to play some stuff at decent levels. Primarily, I just want something that will physically last more than 4 or 5 years. I wont lose any sleep over it getting outdated as time goes on. Also, I'm still not too keen at building a PC from scratch myself. So with that in mind, I'd just like to know what anyone thinks of the build.
Comments
saw you had no replies, but cannot help. All electrickery to me.
Chins
"I was orginally planning to just not get a gfx card (with an 800-900 budget), but theres no option to not get a gfx card."
You have to have graphics of some sort or else there is nothing to connect a monitor to and the computer will be useless.
If you already have a video card and were planning on adding it to the computer when it came, then perhaps you should consider building your own computer. Pick parts, order them off a site like New Egg, and assemble them into a computer yourself. If you can add a video card, then you could build your own computer if you had the parts.
If you don't know which parts to get, then that's why you're here, isn't it?
You say you're not to keen on building your own, but it's not as hard as you might think. The motherboard and case will come with extremely detailed instructions.
One problem with getting a computer prebuilt is that there will be a lot of cut corners. If they don't tell you exactly what parts they're using, then it usually means they're using the cheapest parts that technically meet their specs. In some cases, it means they're using cheap junk. iBuyPower actually isn't as bad about this as, say, Dell or Hewlett-Packard. But "not as bad as some other places" isn't the same thing as "good".
Let's look at your build:
"8 GB [2 GB X4] DDR3-1600 Memory Module - Corsair or Major Brand"
What's the stock voltage on that memory? What are the latency timings? That matters.
There's a pretty good chance that it's 1.65 V, in which case, the sensible thing to do once it arrives is to clock it at 1333 MHz (which is as high as the memory controller supports anyway) and 1.5 V. That is, to undo the factory overclock that they're probably charging you extra for.
Even if you do want 8 GB of memory, you'd rather have it as two 4 GB modules than four 2 GB modules. Getting two 4 GB modules is cheaper to buy (if you buy it yourself; not necessarily if you get it from iBuyPower). It means less stress on the memory controller. It reduces power consumption. And it leaves room for future upgrades, in case you later discover that you need more than 8 GB.
"NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 - 1GB - Single Card"
Which video card is that, again? There are at least five different cards that go by GeForce GTX 460 of some sort. Now, that's not the 768 MB version or the laptop version, and it probably isn't the SE version. But it might be the OEM version, which is not the same thing as a "real" GTX 460 that you'd buy at retail.
And which SKU is it? Some cheap junk cooler from Pailt? Or is it actually a nice card?
"Gigabyte GA-770T-USB3"
That will work. But a 770 chipset is ancient. 970 is the analogous modern option, and two generations newer. A 970 chipset would also offer support for future processors, in case you want to upgrade later without having to replace the whole system.
"1000 Watt -- Extreme Gaming Series"
What power supply is that? Actually, I can kind of tell you what it is: garbage. If they won't tell you the exact brand name and model, that's because it's garbage. Actually, even if they will tell you, it might still be garbage, as with the Thermaltake TR2 power supplies that they shouldn't offer. The cheapest power supply that they offer that is any good is the Corsair TX650 V2, and that's a $99 upgrade over their base price. That's $99 to upgrade from some other power supply, not even $99 to get the base power supply by itself.
As with many of the components, you could get exactly the same thing cheaper for elsewhere if you build it yourself:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020
And you could also get something plenty good enough for cheaper yet if you had a wider variety of options available:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371047
"1 TB HARD DRIVE -- 32M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s"
What hard drive is that? Oh, right, they don't tell you. But I can tell you that it isn't the WD Caviar Black that you'd pick if you were building a computer yourself, because they don't even offer that.
"RAID 0 High Performance"
RAID 0 doesn't help at all with random read performance, which is the reason hard drives are slow. So that isn't going to be high performance. RAID 0 does mean high likelihood of failure, though. If either hard drive dies, all your data is completely gone. There's also the potential for the hard drives to get out of sync and break the RAID array even if each particular drive is fine.
"24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive"
And what optical drive is that? Again, they don't tell you. Actually, for optical drives, it doesn't matter. But I'm just pointing out that they tell you less about what you get than you might think they are.
"Killer Xeno Pro Gaming Network Card"
I was going to say, on your budget, don't get that. But then I saw that the site is giving them away for free. I guess they've been trying to get rid of them for the last year and some odd (at least since the successor part launched) and failing, so now they're giving them away for free. In that case, go ahead, and if you have problems, then you can use the ethernet port that comes on the motherboard.
what quzzy said, but what he forgot to mention is where to get your prebuilt machine made:) he has a hard time grasping the idea that sometimes people rather have a machine built for them:D
here is the site that quizzy favored in the past when people are ONLY looking for prebuilt machines
http://www.avadirect.com/
i'm sure he'd be happy to help you pick out parts from there if you'd rather have the machine built by someone else. he favors avadirect because they actually have good parts to pick from, not just the standard "mystery meat" version of parts that ibuypower puts into their machine:D
I'm not sure about the 460 it sounds like a pretty solid card but if i were you i would svae a little more and get the GTX 570 you'll be playing everything on ultra !!
EVGA FTW-3 MOBO X58
EVGA GTX 580
G.SKILL RIPJAW 12GB
INTEL I7 950
CORSAIR H70 CPU COOLER
CORSAIR 1200W 80+GOLD
WOW.... you paid $1000 for that.... lol that sucks
I could of built you that same pc for 600-700 haha. maybe even less.
Why didnt you just look on newegg or td and buy all the parts yourself?
SO MUCH CHEAPER, SO MUCH FUN TO DO, AND YOU CAN PICK EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT.
***Just read that you didnt actually buy it yet? Ill help you build one thats way better if your got $1000 budget. That PC right there wont be able to run all games on ultra, i can easily tell you what to buy to make a 60+ FPS PC for all games on ULTRA.
Worked this up at AVA Direct, was the best I could come up with there. And yeah you can build better, for less. They probably won't be able to get much ,if any, O.C. with 1333mhz ram, for a few bucks more get 1600mhz.
GAMING PC Phenom™ II AM3 CrossFireX™ Custom Gaming System $993.03 UPDATE $993.03
AMD Phenom™ II X4 955 Quad-Core 3.2GHz, AM3, HT 4000MHz, 4x 512KB L2 + 6MB L3 cache, 125W, 45nm, Black Edition, Retail
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 CPU Cooling Fan, Socket 1155/1156/1366/775/939/AM2/AM3, Retail
SERVICE FREE Mild Overclocking (Limited Time Offer), 10-20% Performance Increase
GIGABYTE GA-870A-USB3, AM3, AMD® 870, DDR3-1866 (O.C.) 16GB /4, PCIe x16 CF /2, SATA 6 Gb/s RAID 5 /6, USB 3.0 /2, HDA, GbLAN, ATX, Retail
KINGSTON 4GB (2 x 2GB) ValueRAM PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz CL9 1.5V SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC
XFX Radeon™ HD 6850 Black Edition 820MHz, 1GB GDDR5 4400MHz, PCIe x16 CrossFire, 2x DVI+HDMI+DP, Retail
WESTERN DIGITAL 500GB WD Caviar® Black™ (WD5002AALX), SATA 6 Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 32MB Cache
RAID No RAID, Independent HDD Drives
SONY AD-7261S Black 24x DVD±R/RW Dual-Layer Burner w/ Lightscribe, SATA, OEM
ANTEC Three Hundred Black Mid-Tower Case, ATX, No PSU
CUSTOM WIRING Standard Wiring with Round Cables
ANTEC EarthWatts EA 650 Green, 80 PLUS® Bronze, 650W, 24-pin ATX12V 2.3 EPS12V, Two 8/6-pin PCIe, Retail
MICROSOFT Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition w/ SP1, OEM
SERVICE OEM System Recovery (bootable CD/DVD only)
SERVICE System Binder
GAMING PC Silver Warranty Package (3 Year Limited Parts, 3 Year Labor Warranty)
SERVICE Standard Shipping (UPS, DHL, or Fedex)
SHIPPING CALCULATOR HELP
Shipping ZIP-code:
ESTIMATE SHIPPING ESTIMATE SHIPPING
GET A QUOTE HELP
E-mail address:
SEND QUOTE SEND A QUOTE
SUBTOTAL: $993.03
COUPON CODE:
DISCOUNT: $0.00
SHIPPING: $0.00
TAX: $0.00
TOTAL: $993.03
Why don't you spend the extra $30 to hit $999 so you can get the free shipping offer? Also a gaming network card isn't necessary. I say ditch that and upgrade the GPU further to get you to $999.
I'm not much of an AMD fan because they have never been reliable for me, especially after overclocking. I highly recommend cyberpowerpc.com to get your system built. They've been in business for a long time and have some good deals. As a reminder, always go with a quality power supply (Antec, Thermaltake, or CoolerMaster).
I used the Intel Desktop Mega Special 3 as a base.
*BASE_PRICE: [+775]
CAS: Thermaltake V3 Black Mid-Tower Case [-2]
CD: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive (BLACK COLOR)
CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-2500K 3.30 GHz 6M Intel Smart Cache LGA1155 (All Venom OC Certified)
CS_FAN: Maximum 120MM Case Cooling Fans for your selected case [+9]
FAN: Asetek 510LC Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan (Enhanced Cooling Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA) (Single Standard 120MM Fan)
FLASHMEDIA: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)
HDD: 1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (Single Hard Drive)
IUSB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
KEYBOARD: Xtreme Gear (Black Color) Multimedia/Internet USB Keyboard
MEMORY: 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Module [+64] (Corsair XMS Gaming Memory with Heatsink Spreader)
MOTHERBOARD: * [CrossFireX] GigaByte GA-Z68A-D3-B3 Intel Z68 Chipset DDR3 ATX Mainboard w/ Intel Smart Response Technology & 7.1 Dolby Home Theater Audio, GbLAN, USB3.0, 2x SATA-III RAID, 2 Gen2 PCIe, 3 PCIe X1 & 2 PCI (All Venom OC Certified)
MOUSE: XtremeGear Optical USB 3 Buttons Gaming Mouse
MULTIVIEW: Non-SLI/Non-CrossFireX Mode Supports Multiple Monitors
NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
OS: Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium [+104] (64-bit Edition)
POWERSUPPLY: * 650 Watts - Thermaltake TR2 RX Modular 80 Plus PSU - PN: TRX-650M [+57]
SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 1GB 16X PCIe Video Card [+54] (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
_PRICE: (+1061)
Mail in rebate for Power supply -$30 and promo code(myspace) -$30
Free UPS ground shipping.
Total price: $1001
It's a tad over your price but it's what I'd recommend to friends.
Thanks for all the help everyone. This whole thing is still new new to me. I'm checking out this ava direct right now and just recently found out about cyber power pc. They both seem way better than ibuypower. I'll more than likely be back with more questions.
I might be willing to build one from scratch if i knew what i needed. I tried to take a part my dead PC thats about 2 or 3 years old and was killed by a storm that went through my cable modem. But I couldn't get everything. A lot of stuff seems welded together and i can't get to the screws that i do see. So thats added to my hesitation of building one from scratch.
EDIT
Also, I'm more than willing to recieve any builds via avadirect. I'm not set on amd or intel as I have no idea/opinion on which is better (but i've heard that intel is better with multi tasking, while amd is better for single running programs and im not a multi tasker, but who knows). But I am set nVidia and set on having one monitor. I was thinking about just buying a PC without getting gfx and just using my 9800 gt (dont laugh) until the games I actually want to play come out then I can focus on getting something like a GTX 560 2GB, but I guess i'd have to get a better power supply and have a big case to prepared for it and I'll probably need to increase my budget for that.
I think I'll increase my budget to 1,200 and just eat ramen for two weeks lol.
Cyber Power PC is pretty similar to iBuyPower. What a lot of computer companies do is to say, you have a few choices for which processor you want, and a few choices for which video card, and so forth. And if what you want happens to be among those few choices, then it works fine. Different companies have different choices available. But sometimes they don't let you pick, but just stick you with a cheap junk power supply or case or whatever. Sometimes they give you several choices, all of which are stupid.
AVA Direct's business model is different, in that they give you an enormous number of choices. What I think they probably do is to buy parts off of Amazon or New Egg or Tiger Direct or some such. So they might say, New Egg has this particular part available, and we don't think anyone will want to buy it, but oh well, let's add it to the list just in case. And then they don't actually order the parts until after a customer places an order. The prices they charge are whatever they have to pay plus some markup. That gives you versatility not far shy of building your own, but at the cost that you do have to pay their markup, as well as paying to get it shipped from their company to your house.
There are a lot of parts inside a computer that are soldered together, but even if you build your own, you don't have to do any soldering. The motherboard will come with a bunch of things already soldered on. So will the power supply and the video card. For the power supply and likely the video card, the stuff that is soldered on will be buried somewhere that you can't get it unless you're pretty aggressive at taking things apart. Actually instalilng a video card only involves removing two expansion slot covers (each held in by one screw), physically setting the video card into the PCI Express slot on the motherboard, and then putting the expansion slot cover screws back in places, this time to hold the video card in place. There's no soldering involved, whether there or anywhere else in assembling parts.
As for what you can get if you build your own, try this, for example, with all prices including shipping and after rebates:
Motherboard/power supply combo deal: $210
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.703406
The motherboard and power supply are both pretty good.
Processor/heatsink combo deal: $232
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.697411
The processor is vastly faster than what you had in your build above. And everything is built around it such that you could overclock it quite a bit if so inclined.
Case: $50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129066
Lots of airflow, adequate space, and a dust filter on the air intake vents. And it's cheap, too.
Memory: $50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226095
8 GB, two modules, 1.5 V, typical latency timings, so plenty of capacity for cheap, with nothing wrong.
Optical drive: $19
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151233
Most optical drives are the effectively the same, so get a cheap one.
Hard drive: $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136795
Basically the enthusiast standard hard drive for people who can't afford a good SSD. If you need something bigger, then get something bigger, but most people don't, or at least shouldn't.
Operating system: $95
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986
Video card: $200 for an Nvidia option, $210 for an AMD option
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133384
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150523
Pick one.
Total price: $916 or $926, depending on which video card you pick. That's after some rebates, so you'd spend about the full $1000 up front, and then get some money back later. But compared to what you had picked above, it's a much faster processor, a much faster video card, and generally higher quality components all around that should keep the system in proper working order.
Cool, Thanks a bunch! I'll definatly consider order these from new egg. I'll probably watch some videos of people putting together a PC and convence myself that Im capable of doing it.
The case and motherboard will come with very detailed directions. All you'll have to do is to follow the instructions. If you've ever added memory or a hard drive or a new video card or anything like that, then you've done exactly the sort of operations that you'll have to do to build a computer.
Furthermore, all of the slots and ports and sockets and so forth are shaped differently. You mostly can't put something in the wrong spot, as it won't physically fit. If you were to ignore the directions and say, let's just put everything where it fits, you'd probably still get it to work, though it might not work optimally for a variety of reasons.
If you've ever plugged things into the back of a case, then you've seen the sort of thing that I'm talking about. There's only one place to put an Ethernet cable, and it's the right one. There are only one or two places to put a monitor cable of a given type, and either one (if there are two) is correct. There are several places to put a USB cable, and they all work. You can't put a USB cable into an ethernet port or vice versa, as they're shaped differently so it won't physically fit.
If you're the sort of computer illiterate who wouldn't just buy a prebuilt computer, but would also then pay someone $100 to come to your house and plug in the monitor, keyboard, mouse, and so forth, then maybe you shouldn't build your own. But it doesn't sound like that's you.
Yeah. I guess theres a first time for everything. I've replaced gfx cards and a sound card a few times. And I replaced an HDD. And nah, I'd never pay someone to come do something for me. I can usually figure stuff out. I guess I just had this misconception that building a PC from scratch was rocket science and would be like a scene from the cartoon Dexter's Laboratory
You are missing the one biggest reason why you would choose something like cyberpower instead of buying all of the components from newegg and putting them together yourself.
That reason is what happens when the thing dies in 45 days?
If you bought the computer from a builder like cyberpower or ibuypower then you box the thing up and send it back to them -- they fix it and in an annoying amount of time you get the system back.
If you bought the pieces individually then you have to figure out which part actually went and which parts actually work and then deal with each manufacturer individually. Yes that could still happen if your video card dies 15 months from when you bought the box, but most problems with computers happen in the first six months or after the first 3 years.
That's actually the fun part of DIY stuff.
For 1000$ I could build a high end system... PM your email and i'll link you my build.
http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/C0MA
Actually building some of the components is like that. If not caught until the completed wafers are seen to not work, a slight air leak in a building where they fab CPU and GPU dies could cost a company hundreds of millions of dollars. But assembling the completed components isn't hard. It sounds like you've already done 1/3 of the work to build a computer, so you could definitely do it.
-----
"That reason is what happens when the thing dies in 45 days?"
Do you want good warranty service when it dies? Or do you want it to not die in the first place? If you choose your own components, you can pick things that are less likely to die than what most OEMs would use.
Furthermore, warranty service only goes so far. If a $50 part dies, do you want to ship the computer somewhere and wait three weeks without a computer? Or do you spend the $50 to replace the part yourself and have the computer up and working again in a few days?
-----
"For 1000$ I could build a high end system... PM your email and i'll link you my build."
Why not just post your proposed build here? I like to see what other people would pick out, too.
oohhh man the Ramen diet we all been there its worth it for a amazing PC!
EVGA FTW-3 MOBO X58
EVGA GTX 580
G.SKILL RIPJAW 12GB
INTEL I7 950
CORSAIR H70 CPU COOLER
CORSAIR 1200W 80+GOLD