Computer Build Resource Thread - Page 1379

On February 14 2013 15:04 upperbound wrote:

Well, assuming it costs 1100, you can build it for a lot less, and make small upgrades that make a big difference (for example, they give you a locked 3570 and still use an aftermarket cooler; this is pretty pointless when the price difference between the locked and unlocked 3570 and 3570k is $15 right now in case you want/need to overclock (and overclocking makes a considerable difference when playing/streaming sc2). Or, you could just axe $45 off my build cost and go with the 3570 with the stock cooler and get the same performance as with the wasted money on an aftermarket. I'm going to just show you really average newegg prices (basically none of these components are great deals right now) compared to how much it would cost to buy it prebuilt.

HAF 912 -- $60
i5-3570k -- $230
Hyper 212 EVO -- $30 AR
Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H -- $125
Kingston HyperX 2x2GB -- $30 (It's shameful that they picked RAM rated at 1.65v for a CPU that recommends no higher than 1.5v, when other 2x2 kits cost like $3 more)
GTX 650 -- $100 AR
Corsair Builder CX500 -- $50 AR
Samsung 840 120GB -- $110
Some optical drive -- $15

Are you a student? If you are, you can probably get Windows 7 Pro or Ultimate for $20 through your school ($35 if you want a disc instead of just a download), as well as Microsoft Office. If you're not, then you're looking at

Windows 7 Home Premium -- $100
Microsoft Office Home and Student -- $120

Even taking max values for the software, total is about $950, and every one of the above ships for free whereas the PC probably won't. Additionally, if you have avenues to get the above software discounted, it saves you almost $200 -- so, you'd be paying $750 to build it yourself -- and building yourself is really easy (perhaps with the exception of installing the heatsink, which is pretty annoying). You also may already have licenses for the above. If you live near a Fry's or Micro Center, even better -- you save about $80 post-tax on CPU+mobo.

Also keep in mind that shopping around for some better deals could save you another $50-100, and/or score you better components for the same price. Newegg seems to have the Samsung SSD at $90 every other week now; you can probably find a similar quality mobo for around $100 in the next 2-3 weeks, the HAF 912 was $40 AR until yesterday, and you can almost certainly get a better power supply for $30-$40 AR with the frequency of sales there. Again, it's not awful, but the question is whether or not saving even $150 at the absolute most conservative estimate is worth 2.5 hours of your time doing a first-time build and learning a lot about your system. Better yet, you can put that $75 in savings toward a 7850 2GB or gtx 660, both of which are showing up in good deals for $175-195 AR and will still be capable cards 2-3 years from now, whereas I can't necessarily say the same about the 650.

I don't know much about this site's support; if it's comparable to, say, Dell, then maybe it's worth a little more than I'm giving it credit for. But, because I doubt they take much responsibility for ex-post customer service, it doesn't seem worth it to me.