Advice for a new Gaming PC

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robinsiebler

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I'm buying a new pc for the 1st time in 8 years. Needless to say, there are a lot more choices nowadays. I've looked at Cyberpowerpc, iBuyPC, and Alienware. Is there another good vendor I should be looking at?

I have about $1600 to spend on a gaming system. Here are the basics I am looking at:

Case - No clue! There are way too many choices. I don't care about flash, only functionality/noise. CyberpowerPC lists about 20 cases. Which is the best for price?
800W PS
Quad-Core)Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q9550 @ 2.83GHz 1333FSB 12MB L2 Cache 64-bit
Cooling - Again too many choices. Which is best for cooling and noise?
Thermaltake V1 Gaming CPU Cooling Fan
Thermaltake MaxOrb Enthusiast CPU Cooling Fan
Thermaltake Big Typhoon VX Gaming CPU Cooling Fan
Raidmax Maxcool Intel CPU Cooling Fan
CoolerMaster Hyper TX2 Gaming CPU Cooling Fan
Asetek Liquid CPU Cooling System
Ultra ChillTec Thermo Electric CPU Cooler
(3-Way SLI Support) EVGA nForce 780i SLI Mainboard FSB1333 DDR2 3 x PCIe x16 SATA RAID w/ USB2.0,IEEE1394,&7.1Audio - This is the default choice
4GB RAM
EVGA NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB 16X PCI Express x2

Have I made any bad choices above?

Any suggestions/feedback is welcome!
 
well, being an alienware customer (and not particularly happy about it) i would say that a $1600 budget wont get you much in the way of gaming pc. dont go alienware...just my suggestion. im actually working on getting rid of my AW pc and building my own from scratch. unfortunately that is the only input i have for this thread. good luck!
 
Have you considered building your own? You could save a bit if money instead of going w/ cyberpowerPC
 
To answer one of your questions, don't bother spending much on cooling. Really the only reason you need better cooling than stock is if you're going to overclock, and if you're not comfortable building your own PC then you probably won't be overclocking.
 
Or bored one day and overclock a X2 6400+ to 7.0ghz ;)

As far water cooling goes. Don't bother cause unless you know how to deal with water cooling and maintain it. Then its really out of the question. Decent Heat sinks WILL allow for about an extra 33% performance increase on Core2Duos and Core2Quads.

That being said, the only other worth while hardware in that alienware would be the Q9550 (300$~) and the 9800 GTX+ (200$~ give or take 10$). So your paying 1,600$ for a computer that would probably only cost you about 1,000$. You save 600$ you can spend on whatever.
 
If you are going to the OEM builder route, I would try Ibuypower.com. I just priced out the following spec computer:

Q9550
790i
1800 DDR3 OCZ Plat
GTX260
Hush Case (quiet unbothersome case)

for about $1600 ish.

There is also a heated topic about this one :

Newegg.com - iBUYPOWER GX-923L Core 2 Quad Q9550(2.83GHz) 8GB DDR2 500GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit - Desktop PCs . In my opinion, $1409 isn't a bad deal for this. You'll hear it for getting some of those components, but its warrantied and will run anything you throw at it now.
 
If you are going to the OEM builder route, I would try Ibuypower.com. I just priced out the following spec computer:

Q9550
790i
1800 DDR3 OCZ Plat
GTX260
Hush Case (quiet unbothersome case)

for about $1600 ish.

why would you waste money on ddr3/790i/q9550 if you aren't even going to get a gtx280...

don't buy into ddr3 right now as its really expensive for only marginal gains. also the 790i board is crap as most nvidia chipset boards are. the 9550 is a good choice, but unless you're overclocking you could get away with spending less.

i would recommend a biostart ip45 mobo, 4gb ddr2 (crucial/ocz are most commonly recommended) a 7200.11 hdd, e8400 or a 45nm quad if you want a quad, a corsair 550w psu, 4870, case of your choice, optical drive of your choice, and vista 64bit home premium. gonna cost you way less than 1600 and give you a better pc in my opinion.
 
If you are going to the OEM builder route, I would try Ibuypower.com. I just priced out the following spec computer:

Q9550
790i
1800 DDR3 OCZ Plat
GTX260
Hush Case (quiet unbothersome case)

for about $1600 ish.

There is also a heated topic about this one :

Newegg.com - iBUYPOWER GX-923L Core 2 Quad Q9550(2.83GHz) 8GB DDR2 500GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit - Desktop PCs . In my opinion, $1409 isn't a bad deal for this. You'll hear it for getting some of those components, but its warrantied and will run anything you throw at it now.

Just build your own it will be cheaper. Like a lot of people had said on the thread about it that shall not be named. When you buy something from a vendor it's going to have crappy parts. Personally I would never buy from Ibuypower or cyberpower inc, seeing as how when they started to take off about 4-5 years ago they were gluing GPUS' onto the motherboard. :( On top of that I bought an Alienware when I first started to get into PCs, worst decision ever. The so called Alienware memory they sent with the PC was more generic than Patriots Value line. Plus why would you buy it made when at newegg for 1600 you could get a beast.

All you need is:
E8500
260 or a 4870
4gb of ddr2 ram because you can
a P45 board
the rest is yours to choose really those components would let you play Crysis or Far Cry 2 flawlessly. Id link specifics but I'm doing HW :(.
 
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