12 replies to this topic

[valt901]

I was looking at a new rig http://www.amazon.co...=dp_ob_title_ce and it has an HDD with intellipower, which runs at a lower speed 5400rpm as opposed to 7200. Is that an issue which should be changed or no problem. I can't build my own system so i am stuck buying and this looks ok for a couple of grand.

[Catamount]

There is nothing in any way shape or form that's "okay" about what that machine is giving you for $2000, plus prebuilts almost always have lousy power supplies (least-visible place to cut corners). Why can't you build your own, exactly?

[ninjitsu]

I went to newegg and added all those parts to my basket. It comes to roughly $1600, so you'd be paying that company almost $400 to put that machine together. Also, 32gigs of ram is super waste of money for just gaming. I'd also suggest going intel over amd.

[xWiredx]

First, to answer the original question: Yes, there is probably some detriment to running the game off a slower HDD. The texture popping doesn't go away even if it's installed on a SSD it seems like sometimes, but it's a night and day difference from the 7200RPM drive I had it on. Putting it on a 5400RPM drive would probably suck.

Second - that machine is so overpriced it's crazy, and it will not perform near half as well as a machine you spend $1000 on if you go with an Intel build. With that kind of budget, you could put something ridiculous together. In fact, to give you an idea, I just built a brand new system Haswell-E system that will crush this $2000 system in any task (quite literally any task, and crush is not an overstatement) and the total cost of new parts was ~$1300 (that covered cpu, mobo, ram, psu, and aoi water cooler).

[Lord Letto]

checking Newegg for Prebuilt intel Desktops under $2K, this is the best I could find: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16883229605
CyberpowerPC Reaper 250LQ
I7-5820K 3.3GHz 6 core (Hexacore)
16GB DDR4 RAM (4x4GB)
2TB SATA III (6GB/s) 7200RPM HDD + 128GB SSD
GTX 780 3GB
600W PSU
Corsair 300R Case
Cooler Master Gaming Keyboard and mouse
Windows 8.1 64 Bit
120mm Liquid Cooling

if you were to build one yourself for $2K:
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/yCPvsY
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker....sY/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor ($384.99 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Swiftech H220-X 55.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($154.99 @ NCIX US)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver Ceramique 2 Tri-Linear 2.7g Thermal Paste ($3.19 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Asus X99-DELUXE ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($398.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($109.00 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card ($599.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H23 ATX Mid Tower Case ($47.99 @ Mwave)
Power Supply: Thermaltake 850W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($129.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1999.10
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-14 15:14 EDT-0400

Edited by Lord Letto, 14 September 2014 - 11:15 AM.

[Bront]

I found something a bit cheaper on new Egg:

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16883229575
It's got an i5 rather than an i7, saves you $300, and otherwise it's nearly identical to the system listed above, and is definately better than the one you posted.

[Catamount]

Yeah Bront's machine is definitely better, but still not exactly good for the money since it's a prebuilt. The bottom line is pretty much build your computer. If for some extreme reason of circumstance you can't, as in you have some debilitating condition or something, pay someone to build one for you.

I'd personally settle for a quad core i7 at your budget, then focus on the GPU setup, maybe get a nice triple monitor thing going or save for a Rift if that's your sort of thing, get some decent sound hardware, basically there are far better ways to spend up $2000 than to hand it to a builder for crappy overpriced hardware.

Once you've seen the light and given us a budget, we'll get you going on a build

[Lord Letto]

3.5GHz Quad core w/ No Hyperthreading (4 Cores, 4 Threads) vs 3.3 GHz Hexacore w/Hyperthreading (6 Cores, 12 Threads)
http://www.cpu-world...7_i7-5820K.html

[Crohnic]

There is nothing wrong with a pre-built system if you wish to avoid building one from scratch. I also would be concerned about where corners are cut, typically with some of the no name items such as motherboard and power supply. There should be extremely little compromise when spending that amount of money.

Do you have a local mom and pop PC store? They may be able to build something more worthy of your money.

My preference would be to go with a full case system built around a Core I5 as that is the sweet spot for processors, the extra money spent on a Core I7 offers very little improvement in gaming performance other than some future proofing. AMD lags behind Intel when it comes to processors though it is not the end of the world if you get a system with one.

If you choose to go with Cyberpower or any other pre-assembled computer company, I would deal directly with them rather than go through a 3rd party retailer. Their website will allow you to cherry pick components and tweak the build with tons of options. They probably offer specials on certain options or upgrades.

Most importantly, make sure the parts installed are what serves you best. No point over spending for bling while shorting yourself on quality where it counts.

Building your own pc can seem daunting the first time around, but after that, it's a piece of cake. Having a friend around with some building experience goes a long way.

Which ever route you go with, good luck!

[Bront]

Catamount, on 14 September 2014 - 11:26 AM, said:

Yeah Bront's machine is definitely better, but still not exactly good for the money since it's a prebuilt. The bottom line is pretty much build your computer. If for some extreme reason of circumstance you can't, as in you have some debilitating condition or something, pay someone to build one for you.

I'd personally settle for a quad core i7 at your budget, then focus on the GPU setup, maybe get a nice triple monitor thing going or save for a Rift if that's your sort of thing, get some decent sound hardware, basically there are far better ways to spend up $2000 than to hand it to a builder for crappy overpriced hardware.

Once you've seen the light and given us a budget, we'll get you going on a build

Not everyone can build their own PC though (and I say this as someone who does build them). That said, if you can get a friend to build you one, do that and save some cash.

This PC is using a top PSU (Corsair CX600, strangely, the same PSU I bought to build my own system with eventually, and use in an old system till then that died), and while it doesn't name the motherboard, it doesn't look like it's a no frills system. The similar Asus system (a brand I trust) had a smaller PSU with similar specs. It seems here, all the cost is on the assembly and warranty.

Lord Letto, on 14 September 2014 - 11:28 AM, said:

3.5GHz Quad core w/ No Hyperthreading (4 Cores, 4 Threads) vs 3.3 GHz Hexacore w/Hyperthreading (6 Cores, 12 Threads)
http://www.cpu-world...7_i7-5820K.html

For MWO, core speed matters more than number of cores beyond 2. If $300 more isn't a big deal, I'd probably still lean towards the i7, but I don't think you're going to get $300 more performance out of the system.

[valt901]

Thank you all for your responses. To clarify, i'm a 50+ guy who knows very little about computers and i work a lot of hours per week. Not so many hours in a row as days in a row. I'm currently in a stretch of 18 days in a row with no days off so my time is limited and i make enough money that i'm ok buying a premade system that shows up at my door in a shiny cardboard box ready to run. At least it has some quality control as opposed to johnny the college student who i don't even know. And i'm providing some poor miscreant a paycheck. So i will explore having one built locally and look at other systems that are premade as well. If you know of any you think are worthy speak up as i have no preference for a brand.

[Catamount]

Bront and valt, to be clear, anyone can build a PC. If you can solve this puzzle:


then you can build a PC.

I had friends in high school who didn't even know what PCI Express was, and they built their own gaming PCs, because it's literally "put the thing into the thing that looks like it'll take the thing". These days there are even youtube videos to walk you through it, and imo, time to play should mean a little time to build.

If you absolutely are dead set on not building, the next best option is seeing if a mom/pop store will assemble it, and barring that, I would trust Johnny college student to build a computer over a major builder, any day, because the goal of the latter is specifically to churn out machines as fast as possible. Spending extra labor on each machine is way more expensive than shipping one in every couple dozen back to fix something, or so these guys must at least figure, because I've been inside dozens if not hundreds of desktop computers, and have never failed to find something to shake my head over.


If you're still intent on the "assembled in a box route", I would at least pick a custom builder. Go to something like AVAdirect or even Cyberpower's actual website, and hand-pick the parts. You'll pay out the nose for assembly like with everyone else, but at least the combination of components will be more sensible.

I took this machine

http://www.avadirect....asp?PRID=29955

And putting in an NZXT Phantom 410, a Corsair CX750M, Asus Z97-A, i7 4790 (safe to assume you won't overclock, yes?), an Asus Direct CU II 780, 16GB of Corsair Pro Red DDR3-1866 (CL9), a 1TB WD Black, and a 250GB Samsung 840Evo, total cost was $1795

Shipping looks like it's about $40.

Maybe there are better custom builder sites out there (though Avadirect does have unusually good component selection), but that's just an example. I wouldn't go any closer to buying prebuilt than that route.

Edited by Catamount, 14 September 2014 - 02:56 PM.

[ninjitsu]

valt901, on 14 September 2014 - 01:22 PM, said:

Thank you all for your responses. To clarify, i'm a 50+ guy who knows very little about computers and i work a lot of hours per week. Not so many hours in a row as days in a row. I'm currently in a stretch of 18 days in a row with no days off so my time is limited and i make enough money that i'm ok buying a premade system that shows up at my door in a shiny cardboard box ready to run. At least it has some quality control as opposed to johnny the college student who i don't even know. And i'm providing some poor miscreant a paycheck. So i will explore having one built locally and look at other systems that are premade as well. If you know of any you think are worthy speak up as i have no preference for a brand.

Hey, I totally understand not having the time to undertake a new project.

I found a couple systems that might interest you.
First one is a cyberpower http://www.neweggbus...m=9b-83-229-603 - Has a better video card
This one is a Dell - http://www.newegg.co...N82E16883156316

Edited by ninjitsu, 14 September 2014 - 04:55 PM.