good buy??

[S4ndm4n]

Custom PC: Windows 7 Pro 64 bit, Intel Core i7 3.4 GHz Processor
(8 Cores), 8 GB DDR3 Memory, 4 3 Terabyte drives in a RAID 5
(10-11 Terabytes Usable Space), Liquid Cooling system for CPU,
128 GB Solid State Drive for Operating System. MS Office home
and Business (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote, Outlook)

This is a computer I'm looking to have built. I told them I'm looking for a lot of storage space and good processing speeds, to have them order parts and build it, I'm looking at spending $3,659 with labor included.

Decent buy or rip off?

 

[PP Mguire]

Terrible ripoff. You can build that yourself for about 1200.

3500 will build you a MONSTER gaming rig with custom water cooling, 3 GPUs and more to give you an idea.

 

[S4ndm4n]

I can't build it, I cracked a motherboard last time I tried to build one so I'd rather just have someone who knows what they are doing build it. They say this would be a great machine, I'm not going to be gaming on it but would be working with specialized software to edit and store videos, pictures, and reports for pipeline inspections. Should I change the specs of the machine or are you saying they are trying to get a crazy markup on what is already there? I'm in northern maine and options locally are pretty limited

 

[PP Mguire]

2 grand is crazy markup even IF you include the tiny bit of labor it takes to make such a simple machine.
Just so you know I'm not yanking your chain here.

Another thing to note, is they have that marked at 3.4GHz, which would be the 3770k which isn't even the latest platform. They want to overcharge you 2 grand for older hardware. Don't be suckered into that crap. With the amount of people here scared to build I swear I should make my own TF build-a-PC service

 

[S4ndm4n]

yikes! I'm really just trying to get a pretty nice machine without getting.. *insert G-rated phrase* I'm not sure what you mean by platform. It looks like the processor you listed is quad core and my quote said 8 cores, not sure what the deal is there. I'm not overly smart with computers which is why I love these forums. You guys are great and have been very helpful. I should also note that this is company money, not coming out of my personal bank account although I suppose that's probably irrelevant...

 

[carnageX]

yikes! I'm really just trying to get a pretty nice machine without getting.. *insert G-rated phrase* I'm not sure what you mean by platform. It looks like the processor you listed is quad core and my quote said 8 cores, not sure what the deal is there. I'm not overly smart with computers which is why I love these forums. You guys are great and have been very helpful. I should also note that this is company money, not coming out of my personal bank account although I suppose that's probably irrelevant...

i7's have 4 physical cores, with HyperThreading, which splits each physical core into 2 "virtual cores", giving you the "8 cores" they listed.

 

[PP Mguire]

Although it may be company money I'm sure they would be happy if they didn't get totally ****ed over. It censors so we can say that

Anyways, I'll explain.

Unless you can get a model number, I'm going to assume they are giving you the 3770 instead of the 4770. Both non K models are 3.4GHz, but considering they are taking advantage of ignorance here with marking up 2 grand I'm going to assume they would be giving you the 3770 instead too.

By platform, I mean the board, chipset, socket, ect. The Z87 chipset is much better than the Z77 and the HD4600 is far superior to the HD4000 in terms of onboard video performance.
And for 2 extra grand you could be getting the 4930k which is 6 cores and 12 threads. Just something to think about.

Edit: What Carnage said, the thread count is 8 but the mainstream i7's only have 4 physical cores. Still ridiculously fast though. The only thing faster would be the 4930k or an 8-12 core Xeon (yes that 16 to 24 threads on those bad boys).

 

[S4ndm4n]

OK I think I'm starting to follow you guys. Basically, I'm being quoted a good machine, fast with plenty of storage but for the money, it should be one more level up in speed. Add to that the fact that it's being marked up ridiculously and that's where we are?

 

[PP Mguire]

It's pretty basic really. You're being sold a fast machine that's only worth literally 1200 bucks for over 3500 with the potential for being sold older hardware.

 

[S4ndm4n]

Roger that, guess I'll have to think about what to do from here.. You get that TF Build-a-PC service up and running yet? lol. I'm temped to send the company a copy of that picture showing the parts that you posted earlier and see what they have to say.