|
So my current computer is getting ancient and I'm looking to finally upgrade now that I have a bit of cash. The budget is about $1k.
I was originally planning on ordering the individual parts and building the thing myself but a friend of mine recommended http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/. He said they make pretty good comps and while they may charge about $200 or so more than building it yourself, it comes with a really nice warranty. Does anyone have experience with this site or have an opinion on them?
Also, I've been out of computer hardware stuff for quite awhile so any tips on what to look for, what are the good brands, etc. would be appreciated. Thanks.
|
Well, i don tknow anything about that website, but i can say that building your own computer is a must nowadays. Most people can figure it out (really not hard) and theres atleast a 10% savings.
|
I'd recommend just building a computer yourself. At first the warranty may sound nice, but in the end you'll realize that:
A) Building a computer is really easy.
B)Boutique builders are overpriced, its like trying to buy parts at bestbuy.
C)Most of the parts come with a a warranty anyway.
If you could be more specific about a few things me, or another person here could easily recommend a few builds within your budget.
Is this primarily going to be for gaming?
If so, plan on overclocking?
Do you already have access to an operating system? A case? A Monitor?
Is having a sound card important to you?
etc.
In general there aren't that many terrible brands, and you can't go THAT wrong if you do your research, but my personal bias tells me to stay away from MSI and go with brands like GIGABYTE, ASUS, EVGA, XFX, Coolermaster cases, Western Digital hard drives, Corsair, and OCZ. As for AMD or Intel I would recommend one of the AMD Phenom II's in this price range, although an Intel chip could easily work just as well.
Another tip would be to make sure your power supply is good, as many first time builders skimp on that part particularly.
|
so you want us to give you a list of parts? if so
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
3) Where do you live?
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
6) Will you be overclocking?
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
|
Here's a quick build I threw together that should do great in any game and overclock nicely. Pair it with nice resolution monitor (1920x1200 I recommend), and you're good to go. (This build assumes you can "acquire" an operating system and already have a monitor, mouse/keyboard, speakers, etc.)
Motherboard and CPU come in a combo, use the code EMCLSMR23 to get around $25 off that hard drive. (That usb cable comes free). With shipping it should come out to a little under 1k. Of course, if you happen to live in California you're going to get bit by taxes though. (Damn this state)
|
My dad used cyberpowerpc, he recommended it to me, and my dad is pretty tech savvy..... so I guess it's safe/recommended
|
On May 15 2009 12:32 Etherone wrote:
so you want us to give you a list of parts? if so
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
3) Where do you live?
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
6) Will you be overclocking?
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
After looking over my original post I feel sort of stupid not answering some of the obvious questions, I should know better. I'm stuck at my sister's place trying to sleep on a tiny couch and failing to find a comfortable position so here I am browsing TL, let's see if I can clarify things a bit:
1) Gaming is probably the most intensive thing I'll use the comp for. Doing some programming, photoshop, etc on the side but that is sort of irrelevant I guess if I'm building a gaming comp.
2) Budget is about $1k not including tax and shipping.
3) I live in NY, USA.
4) Sorry, I've really got very little to go on as to what I'll need to make a decent gaming rig these days. I would prefer the case to simple, nothing terribly fancy. Easy to open and quiet would be pluses. Easy to carry would also be preferable but not really a must either.
5) My old setup is too ancient to really salvage anything but the optical drive and hard drives most likely. I'll try to write up a full list of what my old rig has just incase when I get home. I could probably reuse my old case but I don't want to. I'd really like to get a 1TB hard drive too so I could replace the large collection 100-200gb hard drives I currently use.
6) I'd prefer not to overclock as I've been told it reduces the comp's life span.
7) I currently have a 19 inch LCD which I plan to reuse for the time being. It doesn't have DVI though so I use a converter. The monitor is 1280x1024 resolution.
8) I'm in no terrible rush to build this, just want to be ready when Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 eventually come out. If I could build it in time for the SC2 beta that would be nice but I would be willing to wait if you guys recommend it.
9) Not too sure. Don't need firewire though and I don't think I'll be using SLI or Crossfire either. As long as it has USB2 I'm happy though lol. My current mb doesn't have usb2, to give you a rough idea of it's age.
10) I have a legit Windows XP key.
@xmShake: I've never had a sound card before, always just used onboard. What's the advantage of having a sound card?
I'm tired as hell, spent all day driving and now can't sleep so I feel like crap. I'll look over this thread again and try to respond with a bit more clarity when I can. Thanks a ton for the help guys!
|
DONT BUY FROM CYBERPOWERPC...
I was thinking about it too when I was shopping around for a new computer...they're actually a bit cheaper than building one yourself, but they have terrible customer service and will even ship improperly assembled computers, or improperly formatted hard drives.
Look up their reviews at resellerratings.com...there are a lot of unsatisfied customers.
|
Count me in as one of their unsatisfied customers. I bought a comp from them 4 years ago and it came with a defective power supply :/ Returned it immediately, confused as to how they missed that rather large flaw with the comp.
|
On May 16 2009 21:18 PH wrote:
DONT BUY FROM CYBERPOWERPC...
I was thinking about it too when I was shopping around for a new computer...they're actually a bit cheaper than building one yourself, but they have terrible customer service and will even ship improperly assembled computers, or improperly formatted hard drives.
Look up their reviews at resellerratings.com...there are a lot of unsatisfied customers.
lol
|
I'm serious...they really are on certain systems. Until you get to systems that are more than $1500 in cost, it's generally cheaper to buy from a reseller...they get wholesale deals and whatnot. Of course, poaching opportune deals on newegg will always help a lot.
|
On May 16 2009 21:18 PH wrote:
DONT BUY FROM CYBERPOWERPC...
I was thinking about it too when I was shopping around for a new computer...they're actually a bit cheaper than building one yourself, but they have terrible customer service and will even ship improperly assembled computers, or improperly formatted hard drives.
Look up their reviews at resellerratings.com...there are a lot of unsatisfied customers.
There are a few horror stories on that site but it looks like most are positive:
http://www.resellerratings.com/store/CyberPower
I'm leaning towards building it myself irregardless right now, but that site is good to have. Thanks.
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT![[image loading]](http://i40.tinypic.com/oa9m47.jpg)
