New Computer : want to keep it for a long time

[Kardiamond]

Hi there!

Here is my situation : I like to buy a powerful computer so it last a really long time. My current computer date from 5 years ago and can still run new computer games. Sure, most of them are on mid or low graph, but for 5 years I think its not bad.

But lately, I have been playing SWTOR and while I can play without that much lag, I don't even have the minimum processor requirement. I think its time for a new one.

Si I want a new computer, if possible that will last as long as the first one.

Here what I found :

(by the way I'm kinda newb in that kind of thing, and will use my computer for gaming manly. I got a budget of around 2000$).

OS
Windows 7 home 64bits

Case
Thermaltak Elemental G gaming case

Fan
Arc Silent high performance fan

Processor
Intel i7 3930k

Memory
4x4 gb ddr3 Gskill ram

Videocard
Nvidia Geoforce GTX 560 TI

Motherboard
3 way sli gigabyte GA x79 ud3

power supply
700 watt

stockage
adata SSD 120GB
HD 1tb 32m cache

With some random thing like a blue ray, mouse and keyboard.

All this comes around 2.1k with taxes and shipping. I customized it from Ibuypower.

Do you guys think itd a good setup? I good deal? I'm not sure about the video card and the mother board.

Tahnks!

 

[Sean W.]

youre putting money in all the wrong places...

you should build the computer your self, it will cost less, perform better and you can put money EXACTLY where it needs to be.

for 2k i can put together a build list for you that will SMASH THE KAY-RAP out of that computer...

you have one of the industries highest end processor and a relatively low end graphics card... gaming uses a lot more graphics card then processor... so you want to inject as much money into the graphics card(s) as you can, and get a lowered ( but still powerfull ) processor. right now the i5 2500K processor is the one to get for gaming, and a 7950 or 7970 are the graphics cards to get.

if you dont want to build your own computer, use the specs i told you above as far as the processor and the graphics card, and youll have a much better build.

but if you want to build it your self let me know and ill put together a build that will be perfect

good luck and welcome to the forums!

 

[Kardiamond]

Wow thanks for the feedback! Really helpful.

It's a good thing I asked before buying. I see what you are saying about the processor, I don't know why I wanted such an expensive processor.

The spec you are giving me looks pretty good. Will take a look at that.

About building it myself, I'm not sure I'm good enought to do it. Might give it a try.

I could use your help to start

I think 2.1k for a computer might have been a bit much.

My budget is around 1500$. I would use it for gaming, like SWTOR. What do you think about having a little SSD (60-120 gig) for windows and main software, and a 1 TB hardrive for the rest? I read it would help a lot for loading.

Thanks a lot again, I needed someone like you!

 

[Kardiamond]

Forgot to say,

What do you think about the i7 2700k? Is it worth it for 100$ more?

 

[Sean W.]

having a SSD as whats called a boot drive is an awesome thing... i think a 120gig SSD is perfect, that will hold your OS and a few games. start up time of the computer and when games load will be drastically shorter...

im going to be getting probably a 260gig SSD for my computer soon and use just that, everything else i always have on my external hard drive. but anyway, that doesnt have anything to do with your computer

As far as being " good enough " to build a computer, if you can put a square peg in a square hole and a round peg in a round hole and put a cd in a cd drive and click next a few times, you are qualified to build a computer. it really isnt difficult at all.

there are pros and cons to each, building it or buying it.

some of the pros of just buying one is you get a OS for free pretty much, if you add up the harware costs of a computer a company builds, there isnt much room for a OS and for them to make a profit on the computer, they defiantly pay a lot less than we as a consumer pay for the operating system. Also, if anything goes wrong with the computer you call the company and say " double you teee ehhh mate ", and they say " oh, we'll fix it, dont trip chocolate chip ". if you build the computer, and something goes wrong, first of all youll be saying more than " wth ", and the worst part is you wont be getting an answer. Finally, theres the convince factor of just buying a computer, click buy, wait a few days, get a computer plug it in and viola, youre done.

the pros of building a computer is like i said before you can put money in the right components and get the best " BANG FOR YOUR BUCK ". More for less, thats the name of the game. Also, in my oppinion, computers you build are more upgradable down the road than pre-built systems, a lot of times the manufactorer will lock down the bios and you cant really tweak with anything, which opens the door to the next pro, being able to overclock the snot out of the computer, adding to the bang for your buck factor. building it your self also comes with a kind of pride once its done, you an look at what youve build with your bare hands and say " i built that ". kinda cool... and the coolest thing is you can make it as wild and crazy as you want, you can make it with a bunch of LED lights and cold cathodes and led fans and make a disco floor in your computer, or you can make it just scream performance, water cool the CPU and graphics cards and just make those things scream and overclock them like crazy, or you can build a absolutely quiet computer that people will look down at and wonder if its on.

as far as a 2700k, for gaming its not worth it, the only difference between the i5 2500k and the i7 26/700k processors is that the i7s have hyper threading, which basicaly, in one sentence makes each core of the processor have a ghost core along with it, so basically a quad core processor with hyperthreading can utilize 8 cores. but very few games even use 3 cores ( including the most graphic intensive games like BF3 and metro 2033 ). so quad core processors with hyperthreading dont do anything for us gamers, they are made for people who do a lot of video encoding and editing that can utilize the 4 hyper threaded cores.

there are all kinds of tutorials and how to videos on youtube on building a computer. spend some time on these forums, ask questions, watch videos and read reviews, find out what will work best for what you are going to be doing with this computer, take a month to do all that, then build it. i promise you, speaking from experience, you will be glad you did.




sorry for the long read, got carried away

 

[Roark]

Also, if anything goes wrong with the computer you call the company and say " double you teee ehhh mate ", and they say " oh, we'll fix it, dont trip chocolate chip ".
If you build the computer, and something goes wrong, first of all youll be saying more than " wth ", and the worst part is you wont be getting an answer.

In most cases you can call the company and say "wth mate" and they'll fix it for you, but the quality depends on the company.
One of my friends bought an iBuypower, when it arrived the side panel was bent and touching the motherboard, which shorted it out and fried it. He called them and said "wth" and they said "don't trip chocolate chip", he then had to pay shipping to get it to them (yikes) and when it came back they had attached the CPU fan backward (somehow) and he nearly cooked the CPU.
If you build a computer and something goes wrong you have places like this to say "wth" and a plethora of people who'll say "chocolate chip on the trip, don't flip-dip" and give you instructions on how to remedy said problem.

Also, my favorite how-to is the Newegg video, but its ~44min long:
Newegg TV: How To Build a Computer - Part 2 - The Build - YouTube
A quick animated step-by-step guide is:
Build a PC - Introduction to Building your PC - PCitYourself.com

 

[Kardiamond]

Wow thanks a lot, I don't worry about the long text, I love reading about this.

Thanks for the information about the i7, anyway people are telling me the same thing, to go for the i5 with sandy bridge.

Still not sure if I want to go for building my computer, im currently watching some newegg how to build your comp video.

Will try to find a computer to build and show you the spec. Just to be sure I got everything compatible.

In most cases you can call the company and say "wth mate" and they'll fix it for you, but the quality depends on the company.
One of my friends bought an iBuypower, when it arrived the side panel was bent and touching the motherboard, which shorted it out and fried it. He called them and said "wth" and they said "don't trip chocolate chip", he then had to pay shipping to get it to them (yikes) and when it came back they had attached the CPU fan backward (somehow) and he nearly cooked the CPU.
If you build a computer and something goes wrong you have places like this to say "wth" and a plethora of people who'll say "chocolate chip on the trip, don't flip-dip" and give you instructions on how to remedy said problem.

Also, my favorite how-to is the Newegg video, but its ~44min long:
Newegg TV: How To Build a Computer - Part 2 - The Build - YouTube
A quick animated step-by-step guide is:
Build a PC - Introduction to Building your PC - PCitYourself.com

ahah the first video is exatly what I'm watching right now!

Right now here what I found for a prebuild computer :

oh man we cant copy paste on this forum? Do you guys have a way to copy paste thing?

Well its getting late I will write it tomorow!

Cya!

 

[Roark]

You should be able to use either the Insert Image or Link buttons above the reply box.

My theory is:
<$600 get a pre-built since its not going to be high performance anyway so you get a little more oomph for your $.
>$800 and you'll start getting short-changed by the prebuilt companies, or not get it optimized to do what you want.


*Edit - Quick and dirty build to compare a pre-built to:

CPU: $220 Intel i5 2500K
MB: $180 Asus P8Z68-V/Gen3
RAM: $55 8GB Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 1600/CAS8
ODD: $17 LG 24x DVD/CD Burner
SSD: $130 120GB Mushkin Enhanced Chronos
HDD: $110 1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM
GPU: $550 XFX HD 7970 3GB
PSU: $140 Corsair TX850-M

Total = $1,402
Granted it is missing a Case and OS (and keyboard/mouse if you need them), but I also didn't shop around at all for cheaper prices on other sites or combo deals.
Its just to give you an example of what kind of build you can do in the neighborhood of $1500 yourself for when you're looking at pre-built machines.

 

[ieatrazorz]

Just to illustrate what these guys are saying this is a system I built (i built my parents a system and changed up my stuff while at it giving them the vengeance ram and water cooler):

​

• 
  [*=left]2 x XFX Double D FX-797A-TDFC Radeon HD 7970 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
  [*=left]Totaled: 1159.99
  [*=left]
  [*=left]1 x Phanteks PH-TC14PE_RD 140mm UFB (Updraft Floating Balance) CPU Cooler
  [*=left]1 x G.SKILL 4GB Micro SDHC Flash Card w/ SD Adapter Model FF-TSDG4GA-C4
  [*=left]1 x G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 32GB (8 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory Model F3-17000CL9Q2-32GBZH
  [*=left]Totaled: 474.09 (SD card was free)

​

• 
  [*=left]1 x Western Digital Caviar Black WD1502FAEX 1.5TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
  [*=left]1 x ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM
  [*=left]1 x Intel 510 Series (Elm Crest) SSDSC2MH120A2K5 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
  [*=left]1 x CORSAIR Professional Series HX1050 1050W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Power Supply
  [*=left]1 x CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9
  [*=left]1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM
  [*=left]Totaled: 859.95
  [*=left]
  [*=left]Coolermaster RC-942 Haf x
  [*=left]Asus Rampage IV Extreme
  [*=left]Totaled: 649.98

​This totaled around 3593 with shipping after I bought my monitor, keyboard and mouse. On ibuypower a similar system tallied at 4051, with the same shipping I chose on newegg. You also get a warranty. So a little bit of peace and mind. They would've charge 49 for overclocking, and more for a "pro" wiring job. I also don't know if they give you all the extra wires, manuals, or leave the bios open for you. I also don't know if they would give you the mouse from the logictech combo considering I added the razor mouse in there.

The system I built my parents (my mom is a gamer to an extent...):

• 
  [*=left]1 x ASUS ENGTX550 TI DC/DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
  [*=left]1 x CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX850M 850W ATX12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular High Performance Power Supply
  [*=left]1 x AMD FX-6100 Zambezi 3.3GHz Socket AM3+ 95W Six-Core Desktop Processor FD6100WMGUSBX
  [*=left]1 x ASUS M5A97 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS (not happy with this motherboard)
  [*=left]1 x ASUS DVD-Writer Black SATA Model DRW-24B3LT/BLK/G/AS
  [*=left]1 x NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black Steel / Plastic Enthusiast ATX Full Tower Computer Case
  [*=left]1 x Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
  [*=left]Totaled: 870

​After the ram, mouse/keyboard, and monitor it came 1320. 1518 on ibuypower.

All in all I didn't go crazy searching for sales, and probably could have saved more. But that's my experience with it thus far and I'm a novice =P The other guys on here definitely know better then I do, but it is a great feeling using a computer you built yourself.


Edit: This is what I was able to do on Alienware, attempting to build the same system I did for myself:

PROCESSOR	Intel® Core™ i7-3930K (Six Core, 12MB Cache,Overclocked up to 3.9Ghz )	edit
OPERATING SYSTEM	Genuine Windows® 7 Professional, 64Bit, English	edit
MEMORY	16GB Quad Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz	edit
VIDEO CARD	Dual 1GB GDDR5 AMD Radeonâ„¢ HD 6870 - AMD CrossFireXâ„¢ Enabled	edit
HARD DRIVE	500GB SS Hybrid MAIN + 1TB 7200RPM Storage	edit
MONITOR	No Monitor	edit
ADVANCED DISPLAYS	Dell UltraSharp U2711 27-inch Monitor	edit
LIMITED WARRANTY	3Yr Ltd. Warranty- Advance Exchange	edit
SOUND CARD	Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio	edit
OPTICAL DRIVE	Single Drive: 24X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write This came to: 3,885... compared to ibuypower, you don't get the office package, a shorter warranty, and it's a dell... It's also a older video card, a single card and still cost more then my system that has crossfire 7970s.

 

[Kardiamond]

Well seems like my google chrome didn't to work with this forum interface. Will use EI.

1 x Case ( NZXT Tempest 410 Gaming Case - Black )
0 x Case Lighting ( None )
0 x iBUYPOWER Labs - Noise Reduction ( None )
0 x iBUYPOWER Labs - Internal Expansion ( None )
1 x Processor ( Intel® Core™ i5-2550K Processor (4x 3.40GHz/6MB L3 Cache) )
0 x iBUYPOWER PowerDrive ( None )
1 x Processor Cooling ( Liquid CPU Cooling System [SOCKET-1155] - ARC Silent High Performance Fan Upgrade )
1 x Memory ( 8 GB [4 GB X2] DDR3-1600 Memory Module - G.Skill Ripjaws X )
1 x Video Card ( AMD Radeon HD 7970 - 3GB - Single Card )
1 x Video Card Brand ( Major Brand Powered by AMD or NVIDIA )
1 x Motherboard ( ASUS P8Z68-V LX -- Lucid Virtu Technology )
0 x Intel Smart Response Technology ( None )
1 x Power Supply ( 850 Watt - XFX Core Edition PRO )
1 x Primary Hard Drive ( 60 GB ADATA S511 SSD - Single Drive - FREE Upgrade to 120GB ADATA S510 )
1 x Data Hard Drive ( 1 TB HARD DRIVE -- 32M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive )
1 x Optical Drive ( 24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black )
0 x 2nd Optical Drive ( None )
0 x Flash Media Reader / Writer ( None )
0 x Meter Display ( None )
0 x USB Expansion ( None )
1 x Sound Card ( 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard )
1 x Network Card ( Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100) )
1 x Operating System ( Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + Office Starter 2010 (Includes basic versions of Word and Excel) - 64-Bit )
1 x Keyboard ( iBUYPOWER USB Keyboard )
1 x Mouse ( iBUYPOWER Internet Mouse )
0 x Monitor ( None )
0 x 2nd Monitor ( None )
1 x Speaker System ( iBUYPOWER 2.1 Channel Stereo Super Bass Subwoofer Speaker System )
0 x Video Camera ( None )
1 x Advanced Build Options ( iBUYPOWER Specialized Advanced Packaging System - Protect your investment during transportation! )
0 x Case Engraving Service ( None )
1 x Warranty ( 3 Year Standard Warranty Service )
1 x Rush Service ( Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) - No Rush Service, Estimate Ship Out in 5~10 Business Days )


Here what I have for 1686 USD$ estimated on IBUYPOWER with shipping.

Now, here what I get on NewEgg.

Newegg.com - Once You Know, You Newegg

for 1548 USD$ without shipping. Last time I cheked it cost me around 100$ shipping from them. so
total of 1648.


What is the difference between the 2 build? Why is the one from Ibuypower nearly the same cost for more? Is there some piece that are weaker then the newegg one?

And if anyone knows about IBUYPOWER, what is the difference between the desktop title.

Like If I take the 2012 Paladin Dr. I, and if I take the Gamer Paladin D817, the first one will cost me about 100-150$ dollars less for the same stuff inside. I don't understand?