Looking to buy a new computer?

[J-Dub_]

Hi everyone.
Today I have been making some computers on PCPartPicker. I have made 3 tier's of computers.
Tier 1: Budget Gaming Tower (NO OS, KEYBOARD, SCREEN, MOUSE, TOWER ONLY)
Intel Core i3-2100, Asus GeForce GTX 560, Antec One - System Build - PCPartPicker
This computer will run most games at good FPS on medium and high. With the very cheap price of $666.87, this is a very affordable light weight gaming machine.

Tier 2: Advanced Gaming Tower (NO OS, KEYBOARD, SCREEN, MOUSE, TOWER ONLY)
Intel Core i5-3570K, Asus Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition, Antec Eleven Hundred - System Build - PCPartPicker
This computer will run just about every game on Ultra with no worries. It has great cooling and power and a awesome OCZ Agility 3 120 GB SSD which will load games faster and make your experience much more enjoyable. It also includes a 2 TB seagate barracuda hard drive - Great for heaps of games and other stuff ^.^! This machine is a tad bit more expensive, but delivers much better results than the Tier 1 computer build - defiantly worth the extra money!

Tier 3: Extreme Gaming Tower (NO OS, KEYBOARD, SCREEN, MOUSE, TOWER ONLY)
Intel Core i7-3770K, Asus GeForce GTX 660 Ti, Cooler Master HAF X Blue - System Build - PCPartPicker
This computer will play any game in the world on the highest resolution and best graphics options. This computer has a core i7 3770k 3.5GHz Quad-core Processor which will allow you to basically do whatever you want. This computer also has 2 2TB seagate barracuda hard drives, with plently of space to fill and a very fast OCZ Agility 3 256GB SSD which will defiantly provide enough speed for whatever you are doing. Also a whopping 32GB's of ram which will make everything once again really really fast! This computer has the Asus Geforce 660 ti which is actually one of the most powerful - affordable video cards around (Unalike this one: Expensive card link)
This computer costs $2161.88, but will last you for years no matter what you do!

Thanks for reading guys, if I helped you please hit that thank button below this and post some feedback on what I can fix or i you want more builds from me.

Bye,

 

[PP Mguire]

Decent builds but a few problems.

First things first, Antec cases are nice, but I feel for what you get (I have owned 6 since 2003) they are a bit on the pricey side. Plus, not every one will want a super mid or full tower to go with their CADing powerhouse or gaming machine.

Secondly, you included OCZ. Myself, I have no problem with OCZ as with most but a lot of people want "reliability" in which I recommend Samsung 830 or Corsair SSDs instead. Not too much of a concern, but for a general "wide" audience it's best to recommend more quality over raw cheapness.

Next up, is PSU. Your recommendation of PSUs are off, by a lot. A simple look at their estimated wattage can tell you this as you recommended a very expensive 1200w PSU for a system that wont exceed 500w. On the system that will hog the most power (first) you have a 550w which is almost the bare recommended for the 560 cards (560ti is 550w, 560 is 450w). The maximum amount of PSU any of these systems will really need is 650w unless the user wants to add dual GPUs. Which in that case for the price you can simply add a better GPU which wont use as much power. This is especially true for the 600 series besides the 690. Brand also comes in to question. Antec makes some decent PSUs but I only recommend them if the persons budget can't cut a Corsair TX or HX. Reason being is OEM alone.

My next point is GPUs in general. For a 2200 dollar beast you gave it a little 660ti and the worst part is, for the money the middle class system is better performance per dollar. Which brings me to:

CPU: The Ivy Bridge processors are beastly but really nobody needs a 3770k honestly. These machines look like they are geared more towards gaming and if so, you should really take a look at my thread in regards to this.
http://www.techist.com/forums/f76/your-cpu-modern-games-guide-those-building-261626/
On Intel's midrange platform the i7 is always an i5 with 1 or 2 more MB of L3 and HT. Not worth the extra 100 bucks and for most all applications will grant the same performance.

My next point is RAM. For any Intel rig you should have 1600mhz RAM to get optimal performance. It doesn't make sense for the low budget setup to have 1600 but the midrange to have 1333. And unless the person in question purchasing said rig needs to do a serious amount of VM, CAD, 3D, rendering, or video encoding/editing they wont need 32GB either. If they do, they probably need more CPU horsepower leading to the X79 platform. The standard right now is 8GB for a pretty good reason. It's the best balance between price and performance plus usability. A typical PC user will not exceed 8-12GB usage, especially for gaming.

My next thing to pick at is motherboard choice and coolers. Unless the person intends on overclocking then there isn't a point for an excessively priced board or cooler. That being said, they don't need an expensive board unless they intend on doing a multi-GPU setup either. Most people can save a ton of money right there just from getting a basic board with all the features they need.

My last thing then I'll leave you alone
Sound card. Pointless. All modern boards have decent onboard making expensive sound cards pointless unless the person in question has studio bookshelf speakers hooked up to a class A A/V. The day of needing a sound card on sound quality alone is gone. To top that off, most higher end boards utilize some form of Creative XFi or Asus chip.

 

[J-Dub_]

Decent builds but a few problems.

First things first, Antec cases are nice, but I feel for what you get (I have owned 6 since 2003) they are a bit on the pricey side. Plus, not every one will want a super mid or full tower to go with their CADing powerhouse or gaming machine.

-snip-

My last thing then I'll leave you alone
Sound card. Pointless. All modern boards have decent onboard making expensive sound cards pointless unless the person in question has studio bookshelf speakers hooked up to a class A A/V. The day of needing a sound card on sound quality alone is gone. To top that off, most higher end boards utilize some form of Creative XFi or Asus chip.

All computers have been fixed.

 

[jasonalwaysready]

the builds have some problems, but in general, i would never just make a build and say this is what you should buy at some ambivalent level of buying. every budget is different, everyone's taste is different, so every build will be different. 2 nearly identical sets of ram, one is red and the other blue. color is now the deciding factor on this build. prices change daily. a few threads away someone didnt buy on the same day, and the next the price went up by 50 quid. the 'ideal' build for him just got changed.

and finally:

Thanks for reading guys, if I helped you please hit that thank button below this and post some feedback on what I can fix or i you want more builds from me.
Bye,

just my opinion, but if you have to ask for 'thanks' then...

this isnt reddit. there is no karma to ***** for.