Purchase PC Help

'ello! This is one of those help me buy a PC thread, sorry. >_<
My PC is over 5yrs old, and I can not upgrade it anymore, so I was thinking of getting a new PC. Something basic that I can upgrade over time maybe. Looking around 1500-2000. Not a computer geek, I just know basic info.

So was thinking of buying online. Anyone know a decent website that sells decent PCs? I was looking at that cyberpowerpc.com site and made this. What do you think?
(PS I like to do 3d animation work, maybe one day I will be a character animator.)

Total:$1790

CASE: NZXT Zero 2 Crafted Series Steel Full Tower 420W Case (Black Color Trim)

Neon Light Upgrade: NONE

Extra Case Fan Upgrade: Default case fans

POWER SUPPLY Upgrade: 750 Watts Power Supplies (Corsair CMPSU-750TX - Quad SLI Ready)

CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-920 2.66 GHz 8M L3 Cache LGA1366

COOLING FAN : Asetek Liquid CPU Cooling System (Extreme Cooling
Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA)

MOTHERBOARD: Asus P6T Deluxe V2 Intel X58 Chipset SLI/CrossFireX Mainboard SAS Triple-Channel DDR3/1600 SATA w/ eSATA, Dual GbLAN, USB2.0, IEEE1394a, & 7.1Audio

MEMORY: 6GB (2GBx3) DDR3/1600MHz Triple Channel Memory Module (Corsair Dominator)

FREEBIES: None

VIDEO CARD: ATI Radeon HD 4870 PCI-E 16X 1GB DDR5 Video Card (Major Brand Powered by ATI)

VIDEO CARD 2: None

VIDEO CARD 3: None

MULTIPLE VIDEO CARD SETTINGS: Non-SLI/Non-CrossFireX Mode

Supports Multiple Monitors
LCD Monitor: NONE
2nd Monitor: NONE

HARD DRIVE: Extreme Performance (RAID-0) with 2 Identical Hard Drives (300GB (150GBx2) Gaming Western Digital VelociRaptor 10, 000RPM SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache WD1500HLFS)

Data Hard Drive: NONE

HARD DRIVE COOLING FAN : None

USB PORTABLE DRIVE: NONE

Optical Drive: LG GGC-H20L BLU-RAY/HD-DVD Reader / DVD±R/±RW Writer (Black Color)

Optical Drive 2: LG 20X Double Layer DVD+-RW Super Allwrite + Lightscribe Technology (Black Color)

SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO

SPEAKERS: 600Watts PMPO Subwoofer Stereo Speakers

NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network

MODEM: NONE

KEYBOARD: Logitech Deluxe 250 USB Keyboard (Black Color)

MOUSE: XtremeGear Optical USB 3 Buttons Gaming Mouse

Extra Thermal Display : NONE

Wireless 802.11B/G Network Card: NONE

Flash Media Reader/Writer: None

VIDEO CAMERA: NONE

PRINTER: None

PRINTER CABLE: None

IEEE CARD: NONE

USB PORT: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports

FLOPPY: NONE

OS: Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Basic w/ Service Pack 1 (64-bit Edition)

FREEBIES: FREE! (Halo 2) Game

Media Center Remote Control & TV Tuner: None

SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT

RUSH SERVICE: NO; READY TO SHIP IN 5~10 BUSINESS DAYS

Is building your own an option? Because nowadays, that's the way to go, hands down. It's really not that hard...

IF you can manage, www.newegg.com and www.tigerdirect.com are the two best online parts sites out there. I prefer Newegg but I've heard good things about TD...

I was looking into BYOPC, I never built one before and I did look into it. It seems I can do it, but I didn't want to deal with it. Unless I can pay someone $100 to build one for me =P

If you have a friend or family member that can build it for you, I'd highly recommend it. Most pre-built PC sales are charging you a premium for doing, in essence, what you can do yourself or have a friend do for cheaper.

Bribe one of your computer nerd friends with beer or something ^^

Anyways, yeah...if you've never done it yourself, I would definitely have someone with you that knows what they're doing. They could even just guide you through it. Once you do it that first time, you get more confident. I can put a PC together in like 45 minutes flat now lol

The only downside to building your own PC is that you don't get a warranty like prebuilts have.

I am the smart one in the family lol, well that deals with technology.
I don't have nerdy freinds :/

/em tosses Xxnumbertwoxx a beer.

Oh...bummer. It's always good to have a pocket computer nerd. Judging by how often my phone rings, I know that's gotta be true LOL

If you can find someone you work with/go to school with, so much the better.

I don't mind the no warranties, I usually never use it and fix things myself.
All my PC problems I just look online for answers (hard to do sometimes when I get blue screen of death at start up lol)

But what do you think of the price for this set up?

yea building your own PC has it's perks. Dealing with Cyberpowerpc.com before. they build pretty decent PCs for the money+ you get a 1 year warrenty parts and labor.

But like Numbertwo up there said, you can build a PC cheaper and better if you do it yourself.

If i was in your shoe though and didn't know how to put on together, I would buy the prebuilt. learn how to put together one that has cheap parts that way you don't put 2K @ risk while learning how to put together a PC. Nothing sucks more than the little static shock to your new $400 mobo building your first PC...

Yeah, it ALWAYS pays to have a backup PC for web usage lol

Never know when you might need an emergency driver or something...

But really, building a PC is pretty straightforward nowadays, MUCH easier then when I first started getting into it in the PI era when everything was all proprietary and ***. You can check out specs and post here and we here can give you advice...it's really easy. Biggest thing is making sure everything works together but we can double check that for ya, too ^^

Seriously I'm looking at that machine and I'm not seeing a $1700 computer.

I put together my own computer last July with these specs:


Now it wasn't the top best system ever, but I'm still using it right now with Vista x64 on a 24" wide LCD monitor and it works beautifully. Unless you need the most top end you can afford at this time, I'd suggest getting parts that arnt the most expensive and building a budget-high performance machine and save a few bucks.

And yes, I highly recommend newegg =)

Well, I can tell you the peripherals are a little gimp. If you can take them off the top, and buy your own, I think you'll be happier. (mouse, keyboard, and speakers)

Otherwise, the only other thing that I would be concerned with is the water cooling. Personally, I don't trust water cooling setups. I know it's safe and all, but to me, water and electronics don't mix. I know a lot of people get sick benchmarks OC'ing ***with water cooling, but I'll take my lower clock and keep water outta my case thank you very much lol...

Other then that, looks good. The i7's are monster procs, from what I've read and seen, and 6gb of DDR3 memory means you'll have memory to spare. The Windows Vista Home Basic would concern me as well, I don't know specifically the functionality of Home Basic, but I've heard it's gimp compared to the "real" versions of windows. You may need to spend some dough on upgrading to a 64-bit Windows 7 at some point soon.

I can take off the mouse keybaord and stuff, its included. (I use a bluetooth key/mouse at home).
I was gonna get windows 7, so didn't want to get the better vista.

I always have a problem my electronics getting too hot in my room >_< So I always wanted the water cooling system to fix that. I burnt out one graphics card cuz of heat before >_<

and Thank you everyone for your input. I just wanted a pc that will last me years like my last one.

From alot of reading, I kinda wrote some stuff down on what I really want, like
i7 chip, Asus p6t delux mobo and that 10k rpm hard drive ><

what you think:

i7 920 2.66ghz -$290
Asus p6t delux mobo -$290
TX750w Corsair PSU -$120
6G RAM Corsair - $115
300GB 10krpm Hard drive -$230
Sapphire HD4850 512 DDR3 -$115
some Cooler Master midtower atx case
and some $20 dvd burner
OS vista 64bit w/e version -$200

Some of the parts on it are meh, but I think for the price it is a good deal. The only thing that I would request is if you stick with Vista upgrade to Extreme 64 bit. Home basic sucks balls.

Be back in an hour, going to lunch, at work lol

a Teller at a bank.

Yeah... Imo... I'd just wait til Windows 7 is released. Or.. Get no operating system and get the free Windows 7 until the official is released. Or... Just download a cracked version of Vista. lol I'm running the "Ultimate" edition on my laptop... Since I reformatted and didn't want the 'home' version that came with it.

K so everyone wants to me to build one. I will look at tigerdirect and newegg for parts.
This is what I am going for, any suggestions/changes/additions for this?
Any recommendations for a case/chassis?

i7 920 2.66ghz -$290
Asus p6t delux mobo -$290
TX750w Corsair PSU -$120
300GB 10krpm Hard drive -$230
6G RAM(1600) Corsair -$115
Sapphire HD4850 512 DDR3 -$115
some Cooler Master midtower atx case
and some $20 dvd burner
OS vista 64bit w/e version -$200

And again, thank you everyone for your input.

For case, it's mainly cosmetic, but make sure you get something that has room for plenty of fans, and can have a good airflow through (if you're doing air-cooled). Fans are cheap, I would highly recommend seeing what your case comes with (usually not the max), and get the extras to fill it out completely.

Cheapo off brand cases tend to be kinda crappy, so try to find something that's reputable and got good reviews. The reviews on newegg tend to be pretty good, not much trolling and such, so if a case has a lot of 5 star ratings, it's prolly a pretty good one.

Otherwise it looks good. You didn't mention brand on the hard drive but I highly recommend Western Digital, they are great drives for the most part. Seagate's are decent, too...but I stick between those two brands exclusively. I like Corsair memory as well, Asus is a great choice for mobo. Optical drives don't really matter, tbh.

I would agree with Tbest on waiting, though. Windows 7 is coming out at the end of the year, and if you can hold off I'd recommend it...better to start with Windows 7 then have to upgrade down the road.

Can't I just get basic vista then get the windows 7 beta online? >.>"

Why get any operating system at all if you're just going to get the free Windows 7?

Am I able to download it and make it a boot disk or something?

Edit
NVM i checked out the site, I guess you can.

Generally... I don't agree with many people on this forum. lol But... I just about always agree with #2 when it comes to PC-related items.

For the cases, like he said, it's mostly cosmetic. However... When I build a PC I tend to go with a huge full-tower case instead of the mid-tower size. These always have room for at least 2-3 HDD, 3+ 5" drives, a ton of fan locations and lots of room to maneuver inside.

i7 is a great processor from what I've heard (no experience with it yet) even though I tend to lean toward AMD, Intel definitely has the lead at this point. *Shakes his head and sighs at AMD.*

Asus is just about the only mobo manufacturer that I'd use. I've always had great experiences with their boards.

The 750w PS should be plenty for your needs as well. Don't remember what brand is in my current desktop atm though.

For the HDD, as #2 said, stick to WD or Seagate. I personally prefer Seagate, but I've had good luck with WD as well.

Sapphire has some pretty decent cards as well.

For the burner, are you just looking for a standard burner? Are you wanting dual-layer? Lightscribe?
I prefer Lite-On when it comes to the brand for anything 'burner' related and have had great experiences with their burners since the 40x CD burners they had.

Yep. You can. And as for the regular OS... lol.. Don't know how you feel about piracy... But, I haven't actually paid for an OS since... Well, I've never paid for an OS. XD Torrents ftw. =)

Oh, btw.. What site are you going through to order your PC?

IF I am gonna build it, was gonna get everything off newegg and tigerdirect.
For the burner, just a standard dvd burner.

Trying to look on newegg for the prices of my parts. Compared to the online site and the parts I to build my pc that are similar:

i7 920 2.66ghz -$290
Asus p6t delux mobo -$290
TX750w Corsair PSU -$120
2x150GB Velociraptor 10krpm Hard drive -$360
6G RAM(1600) Corsair -$115
Sapphire HD4850 512 DDR3 -$115
Cooler Master midtower atx case ~$150ish
some dvd burner -$30
blu-ray driver -$125
OS vista 64bit w/e version -$200
Total--------$1795

Cyberpower.com PC is $1790

any comments on this? ><"

lol... Nice. Cheaper to get it pre-made. And even if you have any small issues like a cable not being hooked up, you should easily be able to fix it yourself, especially if you're considering building one yourself. lol

Just configured the system on IBuyPower, a site that I went through a few years back.
Came out to $1600 for that initial setup. This one has one single WD-300GB Velociraptor instead of 2 150's though.

http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/configurator.aspx?mid=415

If that's actually the brand of stuff you're getting, then yeah, like tbest said, go with the prebuilt then. Just gotta watch some dealers out there, they'll tell you you're getting 6GB of Corsair memory, then when you get it it's actually got some no name brand inside.

I've never dealt with cyberpower (or any other "we'll build it for you" site), so not saying that's the case here, but just make sure you check the brand names of the ***inside the case to make sure you didn't get ripped off. ^^

Like I had posted in another thread awhile back. I had good dealings with IBuyPower when I used them previously. Only 'issue' I had was the HDD wasn't setup with the right size on the jumpers and the front usb ports weren't hooked up. But they gave me a small refund as well as a few other items to make amends for me fixing their error. =)

The website cyberpower was just random kinda.

I will look into your site tbest

my brother has bough 2 PCs though Cyberpowerpc.com and I really can't say anything bad about them. What you see is what you get. I promise you that you can't get one of the same performance for that price by some of your other websites.

Or, this setup configured to your specs comes out at $1660.

http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/configurator.aspx?mid=383

Frankly I don't trust "build it for you" places. Major corporate companies such as Dell/Gateway, etc. tend to give you their own brand of parts which are idiot proof meaning there's no hope of upgrading and forces you to use them as means of upgrade allowing them to charge you up the yin yang.

Either that or they have idiot proof contraptions inside the case which totally void your warranty if you even so much as open it up. If you know how or have a friend that knows how to build comps and knows the ropes of compatability it's better to go via custom parts.

That way you know exactly what you're getting and in case anything goes wrong within the time limit you can RMA and get a replacement or refund lickity split.

Or you can just get a mac, and when you feel like upgrading, just toss it out the window then shell out $1500+ for a new one :D