Any good pre-built systems out there?

[Gooch]

So I, like many of you here, have been building my own systems for years.

But once in a while I get emails from parents that have kids that will be graduating soon for instance, and they want to know what kind of system to buy them. (I do computer graphics for video games.)

Years ago, I would have pointed them towards Dell, but it seems like they've gone downhill. But what else is out there? I don't want to point them towards Best Buy and some generic crapola system. Are there any companies that still make decent systems?

 

[PP Mguire]

Simple answer, no.

Long answer:
If you're looking at getting your best bang for buck, a self made PC is always the best. Period. You can do online combo deals to make things cheaper, make sure you get the best parts for your money, get the brands YOU want, and you can make sure quality is where it's meant to be like in the PSU while skimping in other areas like the case (for example).
This is especially the case when looking to build gaming rigs because most all pre-built companies want to give you the best CPU for your money while leaving the GPU a turd. Completely backwards.

When it comes to simple cheap machines for basic internet, Youtube, media playback, or whatever a simple HP or Dell from Walmart for like 300 is still your best bet. The cost of an OS doing it yourself takes 1/3 your budget.

 

[Gooch]

I agree completely that doing it yourself is always the best way to go, and I'm going to advise to anyone who asks that it's going to help quite a bit to learn how to build systems on your own.

Not only can you build whatever you want, but when problems crop up, you're not at the mercy of "tech support" which often takes forever and can be painful.

That being said, "tell your kid how to build their own systems" may or may not be helpful, and I'd like to be able to at least suggest a prebuilt as an alternative if they're adverse to getting down into the guts themselves.

This doesn't look too bad:
XPS 8700 Performance Desktop | Dell

unless someone can come up with something better. I guess I've never been that fond of HP, so I suppose Dell will have to do.

 

[PP Mguire]

See, that's essentially my point proven. 1000 bucks for an i7 and a GT 635 for video. If somebody is purchasing that PC I'm to assume it's for gaming, which that particular machine will flat on its face doing.

Another option would be companies like Cyberpower or ibuypower, but here again they all have the same issue when making a gaming oriented PC. Cyberpower's home page that I just glanced at for a second has a 4820k setup with a 760, which is a good graphics card but the money being saved on an i5 4670k you could get a 770/780.

If they really can't be bothered to build themselves I guess you could always tell them to make a post here (or you can) and we can "customize" a build on one of those sites to the best of our ability. Still though, they are at the mercy of the company on what PSU is tossed in the rig.

 

[Gooch]

Actually, this isn't for a gaming rig per se, her son wants to get into doing graphics for games, most likely concept art. So he'll need a decent drawing tablet and this system should be fine for that. I have a GTX 650 Ti, and it's plenty for what I need.

She mentioned she would be spending up to 4k, I'm assuming she said that because she was looking at Macs, (she said her son used a Mac laptop) but I can't really recommend a Mac since he's talking about getting into working for game companies.

 

[PP Mguire]

I was speaking more on general terms, but since you specified more yea that machine would be fine. Only thing I would change is for the money give the kid an SSD. No machine in that price bracket these days should not have an SSD.

 

[-RockMan-]

No machine in that price bracket these days should not have an SSD.

Becarefull for what you ask for or wish to have in any machine. :|
Not everything plays nicely with ssd drives on retail machines such as dell when upgrading or downgrading.
You might want to carefully read this artical and read up on dells current xps series.
Re: Dell XPS 8700 for a photoshopper?: PC Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review

Also gooch if your still interested in this dell, start of with the dell xps 8700 basic.
4th generation Core i7-4770 Quad-core
Windows 8
16GB RAM dual channel DDR3 1600MHZ 4 dims memory
2TB SATA III HDD, 32GB SSD
1GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650Ti GDDR5 graphics
Blu-ray combo drive

If you customized something like this and tweaked it out to your liking.
You could make the system more configurable on dell and do the rest in your home.

To be honest if you know a machine like that will have problems.
Be your own technical support if you know enough to fix it or need more help.
Tech-forums and toms hardware forum should keep you on the right track.

 

[PP Mguire]

The system linked by the OP simply has a 1TB HDD. The purchaser could buy a 120GB Samsung EVO, remove the bloatware off the 1TB that Dell has "kindly" provided, then use the Samsung software to clone for simplicity. If the purchaser needs to format he can do the Dell recovery with the original 1TB then repeat the aforementioned process to contain a fresh install without the need for a new Windows copy or license.

 

[-RockMan-]

The system linked by the OP simply has a 1TB HDD. The purchaser could buy a 120GB Samsung EVO, remove the bloatware off the 1TB that Dell has "kindly" provided, then use the Samsung software to clone for simplicity. If the purchaser needs to format he can do the Dell recovery with the original 1TB then repeat the aforementioned process to contain a fresh install without the need for a new Windows copy or license.

Seriously... ? half of what you mentioned makes me want to come across the table and slap you. :|
Lets wait for him to reply later on, I still suggest he try that xps basic build and build it up from there with parts he wants in it by dell.
If he has a question about the part or trying to match against newegg we'll do that.
If he or his mother still wants the computer under 1,000 we'll do that.
Anyone with basic knowledge of computers can cut out the ****ware right away upon starting up the machine.
Not counting they are lazy to do it and have a hetic life to not do all of this.

Later.

 

[carnageX]

Seriously... ? half of what you mentioned makes me want to come across the table and slap you. :|

All sounded valid to me...