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Computer died at the perfect time(Computer buying advice).
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So, the Dell XPS 420 I bought three years ago at a Best Buy for 1k for no goddamn reason finally died a week back. Despite the stupidity of my decision, it was a goddamn beast that I was happy with. It was definatley somthing in the motherboard, since I did a nuke it from orbit hard drive wipe and it still was blue screening.
And it wasn't even it's fault. My sister decided the best way to cut power to a smoke detector was to turn off breakers randomly. Don't get me started as to why she wanted to disable a smoke detector.
Anyways, I was thinking about upgrading anyways, I have a $1700 dollar budget, I love newegg, and I came up with this.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229174
and this a payday later.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125319
The comp itself is an absolute beast, and I have enough tech knowledge to at least keep it from exploding randomly(Although I do get skittish about power supplies and the installing thereof).
And the Graphics card, while of course burning with the fury of a thousand suns, will be at least cooled a bit with it's liquid cooling system.
Now my question is, is this the best bang for my buck I can get? Or is this a stay the fuck away from purchase. I figure this should at least last me another 3 years, probably a bit longer barring idiot sisters.
Alternatives are completly welcome!
And it wasn't even it's fault. My sister decided the best way to cut power to a smoke detector was to turn off breakers randomly. Don't get me started as to why she wanted to disable a smoke detector.
Anyways, I was thinking about upgrading anyways, I have a $1700 dollar budget, I love newegg, and I came up with this.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229174
and this a payday later.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125319
The comp itself is an absolute beast, and I have enough tech knowledge to at least keep it from exploding randomly(Although I do get skittish about power supplies and the installing thereof).
And the Graphics card, while of course burning with the fury of a thousand suns, will be at least cooled a bit with it's liquid cooling system.
Now my question is, is this the best bang for my buck I can get? Or is this a stay the fuck away from purchase. I figure this should at least last me another 3 years, probably a bit longer barring idiot sisters.
Alternatives are completly welcome!
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why not just buy one from scratch?
Ok, throw your money away then. Total, overpriced, overkill. You're spending money on premium hardware that nothing will even take advantage of at this point. And you're paying a ridiculous amount for it.
That said, what is that monster going to do that a $1k i7+radeon 5850 machine won't? Spend the leftovers on buying everything on Steam or something. Also, those of us that are poor people hate and envy you.
The only reason I'm buying prebuilt is the fact that I really REALLY hate dealing with power supply wiring and the like. Again, I know enough to change everything around in the thing if necessary, but for some reason I hate the initial placement part. I get nervous as all hell. And soldering. FUCK SOLDERING.
But you do make a good point about the 1k i7 Radeon machines. I've been combing through them heavily, and debating them, as a matter of fact. I mean hell it's 500 dollars I'm not spending. I mostly just want to be able to run bleeding edge stuff well when the tech does catch up.
Again, the terrible purchase I made fit the bill fine. I slapped an 8800GTS in there and it was running everything at max until JUST now.
I kind of want to experiment with building one myself. I just don't quite trust myself yet. The tech thread though has been a great help.
Also, my money is hard earned blood money. It definatley didn't come easy, lol.
What are you talking about soldering? There's no soldering involved at all. Building computers is the easiest thing in the world. Go back to the tech thread, have them help you pick out parts, and do it yourself.
But I'm still going to splurge, because I can, and you can't stop me dad!
the most you'll need is likely a screwdriver
it takes an hour
This. Where did you get the idea you'd have to "wire" your power supply? They come with the plugs on the wires already, and a total build shouldn't take more than an hour or two for someone that's not totally sure what they're doing. Just make sure you do a little reading on motherboard/cpu installation before you do so.
The first PC I built used top of the line parts and I used it for four years. My mom still uses it, since I gave it to her when I built my home theatre pc almost two years ago. The HTPC I still see myself using for modern games for another year at least. I could probably get another two to three years out of it by upgrading the video card later this year.
The time amounts I used were just examples that were pulled out the air. The cheaper computer would not last as long as the expensive computer but it would last than more than 50% of the time making it more efficient economically to buy two of them over time.
Not everyone wants to or should build computers. This is like telling people that all they need to assemble a car is to plug hoses, put on belts, and wrench bolts. Computer building may seem easy to most here at PA, but I'd bet most people here would balk at having to assemble a car.
to OP: I'd drop a bit below a Fermi, those are first generation and going to be kind of a waste of money right at the moment, because you will be replacing it shortly. Guaranteed.
And there ain't a damn thing wrong about prebuilt computers.
Putting a computer together is a step above putting the right shape in the right holes. If something doesn't fit, it probably doesn't go that way.
My brother could assemble a car in his sleep, and I could do the same with a computer. At no time would I attempt to start building a car, nor he a computer.
Just because some holes match up doesn't replace troubleshooting, repair, and other misc bullshit you need to know if a computer build goes south. But then again I'm tired of when people ask for advice on pre-built computers and all they get is "BUILD IT YOURSELF" instead of actual advice on parts to buy.
Not everyone wants to fuck with building a computer. Nothing beats being able to just call up the company when the computer breaks down and tell them to fix their shit, instead of you just having all the fun of going and buying replacements, waiting for the slow RMA process, etc. It's why when people ask me to fix their computer, I always ask if they have a warranty first, and tell them to use said warranty before having someone else attempt to do anything with it.
But there are problems associated with it that can be difficult. If you get a DOA you then have to troubleshoot to find out what the problem was. Last computer I built there was lots of problems. First the CPU was a dud, got it replaced. Second, the motherboard had a crack type thing in it from production and wouldn't boot so it had to go back too.
There are lots of little things that you need to know such as making sure to ground yourself before touching the components and being careful when installing and inserting things into the motherboard so you don't bend it etc.
But seriously, 2TB is enough for anyone at this point.
Enjoy your awesome computer system and your new go to guy for everything PC related.
(note: this is actually professional advice)
If they are selling a pre-built computer at $1000, the same thing could be built usually for $500. Big name retail stores overcharge for most things and overcharge like crazy for something simple like assembly.
If I pussy out how do you guys feel about ibuypower.com ?
It would maybe cost $150 to fix it, but if you want to spend $1900 on a new one go ahead.
WTF, $1400 and that thing doesn't even have 6 gb/s SATA or USB 3.0?
Why would he get a new computer for free?
It was a piece of shit Dell XPS 420 that I bought for god knows why. Popped the thing open and it was probably the worst case ever invented in the history of mankind. It was several levels of OVERKILL cramped. I barely fit a 8800 GTS in there. And I mean barely.
It was basically "If this motherboard goes out, I'm fucked, because there's no way anything else can fit in here" kind of thing.
Ok, a new case too. If you're planning on building your own, it's yet another part that could be easily re-used.
Yes, because insurance fraud is always a great idea.
Of course the Nerd Herd won't care, but it's still a douchey thing to do.
Solid state drives for starters.
Believe me, you really really don't want to go through that. They will find excuses not to pay for it. It will be a very slow process. You will have to do troubleshooting over the phone with an incompetent idiot. You will have to talk to someone in India who is being paid to sell you something instead of fixing your computer. This is assuming everything goes well.
Meanwhile if you buy a part straight from the manufacturer through Newegg etc., you can usually RMA it no questions asked, one week turnaround.
Also, to someone who said there's nothing wrong with prebuilt computers- this is untrue. You usually end up buying at least some parts you don't need, you don't have any control over how the parts are assembled, and you often end up with junk software that takes time and effort to remove.
Sorry for the double post.
The advice you already got was great, but if you aren't comfortable building yourself, ibuypower is a fine alternative. I recently priced a machine there with a buddy (AMD phenom 2, Radeon 5770, standard hdd/ram etc) and the price difference was roughly 70 bucks between their machine and building it ourself, with ibuypower probably having slightly better warranty. With a copy of Windows thrown in, the price probably would have been identical.
Have you ever had a computer that didn't have a few errors over the course of three years? Don't fry it yourself, but if you have three repairs over the course of THREE YEARS they allow you to replace it with a new computer of equivalent specs. Generally, after that long of a time, there will be none, at which point they pick the closest to it, or a store credit. Depending on the store, they may allow you to pay the difference to upgrade to a better machine at that time as well.
That's not to say you're for sure going to need that many repairs, but if you have no problems, the cost of the black tie is refunded in gift cards, and you still got a decent machine with very little mark-up, and it saves you the trouble of building it yourself.
I definitely wouldn't recommend messing up the machine yourself, because as said above that is douchey, and if they can tell you did it, I'm pretty sure that's illegal. My original remark did sound like it was endorsing that though, so, apologies.
Additional reason for buying rather than building: Best Buy (and possibly other places like Walmart too) gives you free phone tech support for 6 months over the phone. Granted, I've never used it, but it's a paid service after 6 months so I can't imagine it'd be that terrible.