So I need a gaming PC...

[Shinryu]

And it looks like the Microsoft promotion is back where if you buy a PC that's $699+, you'll get a free Xbox 360 thrown in. And as a newly minted graduate student who's been looking at getting a gaming PC for a while now, it's a nice opportunity for a free 360 to keep or sell (I'm a PS3 guy mostly, but still, won't say no to free Xbox 360, can't get Halo on the PS3).

Promotion details: http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/...011/05/12/students-we-ve-got-you-covered.aspx

So to that extent, I need to buy it from a "qualifying retailer", which includes like Bestbuy, Frys, Newegg, Dell, Microsoft Store, and HP being the major ones I think. I would prefer Bestbuy in this scenario mainly because we (family) have the rewards zone thing going on, which means we get a cheap giftcard back too; however, I'm open to any place offering the best price for performance. Not really needing another laptop, which seems to be all Newegg is willing to offer with the promotion unfortunately.

What I'm ideally looking for is ~$1000 max, at least an i5 2500 (prefer Intel as I don't care for AMD's CPUs, read they're not as good), and whatever a top 20 or so graphics card would be (hell if I can tell the difference much, I just know their naming system is as fucked up as AMD's for CPUs and how Intel used to be). Doesn't really matter if it's a 3rd gen Intel CPU or not, as I really doubt anything that much better would really make any meaningful impact on game play.

So at Bestbuy, from when I was browsing around earlier, I was thinking something along the lines of these computers:

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http://www.bestbuy.com/site/iBuyPower+-+Gamer+Extreme+Desktop+-+8GB+Memory+-+1TB+Hard+Drive/4894246.p?skuId=4894246&id=1218573507685

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/iBuyPow...rive/5036319.p?id=1218601980294&skuId=5036319

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/iBuyPow...rive/5037017.p?id=1218601982876&skuId=5037017

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/iBuyPow...rive/5036151.p?id=1218601979697&skuId=5036151

Alternatively, I could build something on the HP website akin to this (I'm not really big on HP products besides printers, but again keeping options open):

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Price ~$900 (ok, I closed the page before copying it, but it was around this, maybe a bit less)
Operating system Windows 7 Home Premium [64-bit]
Processor 3rd Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770 quad-core processor [3.4GHz, 8MB Shared Cache]
Memory FREE UPGRADE to 8GB DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM [2 DIMMs] from 6GB
Hard drive 1TB 7200 rpm SATA hard drive
Secondary Hard Drive No secondary hard drive
Office software Microsoft(R) Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word & Excel w/ ads. No PowerPoint or Outlook
Security software FREE Norton Internet Security subscription 15-month
Graphics card 1GB DDR3 AMD Radeon HD 7670 [DVI, DP, HDMI, VGA via adapter] The other option would be a 2GB AMD Radeon HD 7770 for $120 more
Power Supply 460W Power supply
Primary optical drive SuperMulti DVD Burner
Networking Wireless-N LAN card (1x1)
Productivity ports 15-in-1 memory card reader, 2 USB 2.0 (front), 2 USB 3.0 (top)
TV & entertainment experience No TV Tuner
Sound Card Beats Audio (tm) -- integrated studio quality sound
Keyboard and Mouse Premium HP keyboard and optical mouse

So yeah, if I can get some advice from fellow smogoners, it'd be much appreciated. I haven't had a PC in a long long time, been a laptop user all throughout HS and college, but now that I've stopped moving and traveling so much, it'd be nice to get something more powerful and permanent.

 

[pookar]

bought one last september for around 1k-1.1k with a monitor, built from scratch

definitely recommend i5 2500k its a solid processor, havent had any issues with it, my mobo is a gigabyte z68.. vcard was a GTX 560ti but i had issues with it so i returned it for a Radeon 6950, no issues there . 4gb ripjaw ram

some things to note if you are building from scratch, make sure your power supply is big enough, mine is 550w which i believe is plenty. that prebuilt price seems a bit low for an i7 3770 and radeon 7600 but i really havent looked at prices since i actually built mine

Now maybe what you're really asking for.. i can run BF3, diablo 3, (league of legends), nba 2k12 etc. on max settings.. besides bf3 and diablo not too intensive but i pretty much have no issues running any current games. routinely have i played diablo with steam, league client and firefox running in the background as well, though not recommended

 

[Eraddd]

If you plan your build carefully, compared to most retail prices, you may be able to save more than the Xbox 360 gives. Meaning that, since the Xbox 360 (the model specified above) retails for 200 dollars-ish (in Canada at least), by buying parts and building it yourself, you may be able to save more than 200 dollars and buy the Xbox 360 with the remaining difference. You'd probably have to look into sales and into different retailers selling the parts (like Newegg, TigerDirect etc); a lot of these stores have bundling pricing, where they'll sell you a bundle of parts at a discount, so that's something to consider.

I'm too busy (read: lazy) to list parts that could potentially help you, so you could just check out Newegg and TigerDirect and whatever other sites to get a feel for the price, and also, try checking out the Reddit /r/buildapc subreddit; they'll critique your build and help you to boot.

 

[Shinryu]

Well the main thing is, I really don't want to build from scratch (guess I didn't mention it in the first post, my bad); sure everyone says it's easy and that you can look at youtube guides and whatever, but I hear from others (and I personally think as well) that it's not as cut and dry easy as it's made to be. So from that perspective, I'm not looking to build one from scratch, maybe eventually I'll give upgrading it a try whenever it needs to be down the road, but for now I just want something pre-built regardless if it costs a bit more or if I need a slight dip in performance.

I'm not necessarily looking at playing everything on maxed out settings either, but I would ideally like something in the medium-high range. I'm mostly a WoW player (which runs on toasters, but that's besides the point), but also have SWTOR (maybe get Diablo 3 eventually) and some other games like Bioshock and stuff lying around, as well as planning for the future games to come out.

 

[faint]

edit: i was a bit late in replying before seeing your previous post so this isn't really much help, but if you can find a similar build for a similar price it may still help

I would recommend not buying retail just for the sake of getting a free xbox. If you build a rig yourself you'll end up saving money and perhaps may have some left over for an xbox. If building a pc is something you can do then I would follow along with a build similar to this.

For the record I'm using pcpartpicker.com for these prices, however if you have a microcenter near you, you can save on almost all of these products. An example would be the 2500k costing 169.99 as apposed to 200. I'm also assuming you have a monitor and an OS. (You should not be buying W7)

Mobo: ASRock Z68 Extreme 3 (121.99)
CPU: i5-2500k (199.99)
Cooler: Hyper 212 Evo (29.99) (If you know how to OC you can get 4.0 GHZ on the CPU easily with this, otherwise you don't need it.
GPU: Zotac 560 Ti 448 (289.99) (Other options include the radeon 6850 (179~) or 7850 (250) I should note that you get a copy of B3 if you order the 560 from Newegg.
RAM: 8 GB DDR3-1600 G.Skill Ripjaw Series (or some equivalent) (46.99)
SSD: Crucial M4 60GB Model (optional as it's usually around 80.00)
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint or WD 1TB Cavier Black (109.99-119.99)
PSU: Antec 650W ATX12V (69.99)
Case: Cooler Master Storm Scout (79.99)
Optical Drive: Not really needed these days but a standard ASUS DRW drive is about 30 bucks. If you want a blue-ray drive it's obviously more.

Total price is 984.25 (after rebates and not including the optical drive. This is also including the 560 Ti 448, so if you choose otherwise you will save even more)

If you have to buy from bestbuy or so I don't really know where to start. I just wanted to give you a solid build for your budget which will perform better than the 3 links you gave in the OP with some spending room left over.

Good luck and I hope I was somewhat of a help.

 

[Misty]

CPU Guide: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html

GPU Guide: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

Beyond that... If you're insistent on not building from scratch, I'd honestly recommend going with a vendor like CyberpowerPC or IBuyPower. Anything you buy from a major vendor like HP (or at a store like Best Buy) will be hideously overpriced for the gaming value you get.

 

[Shinryu]

CPU Guide: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html

GPU Guide: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

Beyond that... If you're insistent on not building from scratch, I'd honestly recommend going with a vendor like CyberpowerPC or IBuyPower. Anything you buy from a major vendor like HP (or at a store like Best Buy) will be hideously overpriced for the gaming value you get.

Well that's why I was leaning towards Bestbuy, as the ones I linked are apparently the CyberpowerPC and IBuyPower ones that they sell through Bestbuy too, I think Fry's had some also but not as much variety.

Thanks for the guides, been trying to find something like that and how they all relate to one another :D

 

[Misty]

CyberpowerPC and IBuyPower will let you customize your PC to your own spec on their websites.

 

[faint]

Well that's why I was leaning towards Bestbuy, as the ones I linked are apparently the CyberpowerPC and IBuyPower ones that they sell through Bestbuy too, I think Fry's had some also but not as much variety.

Thanks for the guides, been trying to find something like that and how they all relate to one another :D

I think he was saying buy it FROM ibuypower or cyberpowerpc. You will notice that the exact same build from their site will be cheaper than the one you purchase from best buy. Yes you will lose out on the 360, but at the same time you will be able to customize every piece of hardware going into your rig. Essentially you are building your own PC but paying for someone else to build it for you.

This does come with the benefit of being able to research different parts and seeing which parts perform better than others, or a good price to performance ratio. If you are not building a PC yourself those two sites are ideal. I'm more familiar with cyberpowerpc but I'm sure ibuypower is just as good.

They do have stock builds that you may find is good enough for what you need, but the appeal is the ability to customize everything for your needs.

 

[Bass]

I built my first gaming rig from scratch a few years ago, and I have never looked back. Certainly, the Xbox 360 deal might sound appealing, but the advantages of a desktop computer are best utilized when you have built it yourself. As for the example configuration you listed, I would have a lot of issues with it considering its cost, most notably the i7 is absolute overkill (Even an i5 2500K is overkill too if you don't overclock) and the video card, is surprisingly weak (Though probably fine if you are only doing World of Warcraft and Diablo 3).

The thing about building your own machine from scratch is that will force you to spend a lot of time doing research on the individual parts. Nobody knows your needs better than yourself, and understanding how your computer actually works (ie what each part actually does) will lead to a build that you will be much more satisfied with in the long run. Additionally, this is an important skill to have when troubleshooting any problems you will have down the line, as you will not have advanced manufacturer support like you had before. I know you seem to be hesitant about building yourself because of such a possibility, but the personal experience you get is worth it.

On another note, the actual act of building really isn't that difficult. When I attempted it, the only real issue I had was with the cable management. The rest REALLY is a matter of snapping parts together. In fact, the research is challenging part, as I have outlined above.

I can drone on about this stuff for hours, but there is no need for that. The key points to take away from this is that you really try to understand what it is your buying. Asking for suggestions in threads like this is not a bad way to start, but in the end you will gain a lot more by making your by thoroughly researching the information yourself. For that, I suggest consulting dedicated hardware review sites, like Anandtech or HardOCP.

One last piece of advice I have, with respect to all the other posts in this thread, is to not underestimate your human interface devices. If you have read my posts in the laptop thread, I am referring to your monitor, your keyboard, and your mouse. These three things will be especially crappy if you buy a prebuilt system. If you can fit a decent IPS monitor and a mechanical keyboard into your budget somehow (as well as an SSD to a lesser extent), I highly suggest including them. Unless playing every game at maximum settings is your highest priority, you are probably not going to need as powerful of a CPU or Video Card as many people might suggest. These two components advance relatively quickly and will be swapped out often, so even if you had to skimp out on them now, it is reasonable to assume that in the future you will be able to afford better down the line. On the other hand, keyboards and LCD monitors have changed very little in terms of technology. Therefore they can last you through many builds, and the benefits of spending more on these two things will likely be more immediately noticeable to you than having the latest and greatest CPU.

 

[Ninahaza]

Well the main thing is, I really don't want to build from scratch (guess I didn't mention it in the first post, my bad); sure everyone says it's easy and that you can look at youtube guides and whatever, but I hear from others (and I personally think as well) that it's not as cut and dry easy as it's made to be. So from that perspective, I'm not looking to build one from scratch, maybe eventually I'll give upgrading it a try whenever it needs to be down the road, but for now I just want something pre-built regardless if it costs a bit more or if I need a slight dip in performance.

at the beginning of this year i was in your situation. I was recommended to build my PC from scratch (by almost EVERYONE), but i had no previous experience with building a PC and was a bit intimidated by the process. All the research i did only made things worse because what i got was that, if at the end of the building process, something went wrong, say i caused any piece of software/hardware to be damaged (which was easy to do if you didn't know what you were doing apparently), i would have lost all the money i just spent on part(s) and have to even spend more for replacements. long story short, i wanted to play it safe and just not build my own gaming PC, But then somewhere along the way, my balls got bigger. You cant let fear/intimidation stop you from doing things in life, right?

so after a lot of FUN deciding on what exactly i wanted to build, and parts i felt would do the job i wanted, i set out to building my very first ever PC BY MYSELF, and with nothing more than a few youtube videos.

At first i started, or rather, settled with a high end Gaming PC ( Intel Core i7-2600K, sweet motherboard and even sweeter video card) but the price was a bit high. I did a lot of builds on the website pcpartpicker that were rough drafts. In the end, after looking at my situation and what i needed the pc to do/exactly what kind of games i would really be playing on it in the near future, i decided to go with something not so high end/powerful for now. I would be playing mostly MMO's (WoW, SWTOR, Guild wars, you get the idea) Diablo 3, etc. Needles to say, i didnt need something too powerful right now anyways. I wanted something that would allow me to play the games i knew for-sure I would be buying, and allow me to play them smoothly with all Graphic settings maxed out, etc. I could also just upgrade in the future when i needed something better anyways.

The whole building process was suppose to take me 2 hours, but it ended up being around 4-5 hours lol. i took my time and made sure of my every move. In the end, everything worked on my first boot, and i have had no problems since then. So much for youtube videos + a little research not being enough for you to be able to build a PC by yourself

ok here are a few things i want to get across from this post
1: The whole process of building my first ever PC was a lot of fun. i got obsessed and it was all i thought about, and what i couldn't wait to do during my day. From picking the parts, building the pc virtually and then ordering parts, to actually putting the parts together, too much fun.

2: Not only did i save a lot of money by building instead of buying, i also got a better pc by building it myself, a pc that was just right for me

3:The experience. Now i know how to put a gaming PC together, and i'm sure this will come in handy when its time for me to upgrade/replace parts

4:Imagine all the money i will save now that i'm done with buying PC's. i used to work at Fry's Electronics, i never knew how much people were being ripped off by buying PC's instead of building. Imagine all the money i will be saving from now on, now that i am not part of that group of people (not to mention the amount of money i saved already by building my gaming rig)

 

[cookie]

that case needs more dragons and flames

 

[Ninahaza]

black and red theme for the win. the black and red looked so badass with my first desktop background

Just use your imagination to picture the awesomeness ~

EDIT: even my mouse can glow red
EDIT 2: oh yeah, shinyru, this is another perk to building the pc yourself, MAKING SURE ITS EXACTLY TO YOUR LIKING. bro, its just better to build

 

[faint]

long post sdajhdjah

what case is that? I can't tell by the pic.

 

[Misty]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6288524&CatId=1509 This, I think.

 

[Ninahaza]

Misty is such a fucking pro.

Hey misty.....



























































wanna..........













































































you know............





















































































Build a pc with me ;)
:*
<3
^_^

 

[Umbreon Dan]

4:Imagine all the money i will save now that i'm done with buying PC's. i used to work at Fry's Electronics, i never knew how much people were being ripped off by buying PC's instead of building. Imagine all the money i will be saving from now on, now that i am not part of that group of people (not to mention the amount of money i saved already by building my gaming rig)

this is easy to underestimate. you might not save that much money at first, but because you now have a computer that is truly yours and that you understand, you can replace individual parts when they fail instead of buying entire new machines. this will save you major cash in the long run.

 

[Misty]

You can replace individual parts in a prebuilt too :p Not that hard, I've done it a bunch of times.

 

[pookar]

yea but too often they tie up all the wires altogether and i mean its doable but kind of a hassle especially if you had no experience putting it together in the first place

 

[Every1XplodeNOW]

I will echo Misty and say buy it from cyperpower.


I've always wanted to try to build a computer, but I'm just afraid I would mess something and screw my wallet.

 

[Vein]

Heard that Alienware is best for gaming.

 

[Umbreon Dan]

You can replace individual parts in a prebuilt too :p Not that hard, I've done it a bunch of times.

it's something most people don't realize they can do until they've actually done it !_!

 

[Cooky]

Heard that Alienware is best for gaming.

tell that to your wallet

 

[Misty]

Heard that Alienware is best for gaming.

Alienware is... okay for the X51 and their laptops, but their main gaming desktops have the same problem as everyone else - overpriced for what you get, compared to a good custom PC or building your own.

 

[WaterBomb]

I had a similar experience to Ninahaza when I built my first PC a couple months ago, but the end result is well worth the pains of the learning process. I think the hardest part for a beginner (at least the part I struggled the most with) is attaching all the wiring to the motherboard itself. Because it's such a small, cramped space it really helps to have a second person with you to hold a flashlight into the area. Even with the instructions that come with motherboards it's tough for a true beginner to understand some of the terminology without help. Though it's long and tedious, what helped me the most during the process was whenever I didn't understand what something was or did, I would stop and go look it up and try to grasp it. Gradually my knowledge increased and everything fell into place. The beauty of it is you don't have a deadline or anything so if you get frustrated you can take a break, you can continually stop and look things up, and the computer isn't going to go anywhere.

On the subject of parts, I've seen many people saying certain items are "overkill" for what you need. Though I agree that something like an i7 is going to be overkill at this point in time, don't forget to think about the future too. You should know how quickly technology can develop and change, and when it comes to computers you never want to go for whatever is "adequate for the present". You really want to plan at least a couple of steps ahead so you're not forced to replace or upgrade your computer every year or two. You may spend a little more money initially when you build, but it's more efficient in the long run because your chosen parts will take longer to become outdated and obsolete.

Man, after building my own PC for the first time I was really happy. I can't wait til the day when we are able to build our own cell phones.