Computer Manufacturer question.

[BionicAir]

im on Tigerdirect,and alot of the pre-built pc's(i know, i know..im really stubborn) lol..i see alot of "Visionman" brand computers,and im just curious,is there any bad manufacturers i should be aware of before i start browsing? i see Visionman,Systemax,IBUYPOWER,Cybertron. bout it..all AMD based computers,which is my main focus..im just unaware of the good/bad manufacturers. any info will be appreciated

i know i should get a custom built computer,and not a pre-built,cuz they usually come with a piece of crap PSU..if anyone has any ideas on custom built sites,where i provide the spec's,and have it built,and shipped already put together,that would be awesome.

[TheMG]

NCIX.com provides such a service (assembled and shipped), from what I've heard they're pretty good at it, though I've only ever purchased individual parts from them.

I've heard of IBuyPower before, and don't think I've ever heard anything particularly bad about them. They do let you custom configure your computer so I guess that's another way to go.

Not sure about the other manufacturers though.

[Larry1212]

If you honestly want the best computer for your buck build it yourself. I did it, had no problems building it, runs great bar one faulty component(Heat Sink on my GPU) and it was very cheap considering what I got. Anything else in the same price range would have been a much lesser system pre-built and I would have ended up paying about €500 extra just to get it custom made to my specifications. Building a PC is like Lego... Know where each piece goes and you won't have a problem, just don't force anything into a socket when it clearly doesn't fit(Plus there are plenty of tutorials for building PCs on the net or even youtube).

Took me only two hours to build my PC(Most of the time spent was me figuring out how to fit my HDD and CDROM into their respective bays - there was no instructions with the case) and i'm happy I did it as I can upgrade whatever I want, whenever I want.

[BionicAir]

yea,thats the way i was going to do it..but i have such a low,but stable income,i figure i would custom build one online,pay bout 60-70% of the total cost in the first payment,and just deal with 1-2 months of interest..i would get it much faster,and easier,instead of juggling around everything..i'd pay a little extra,but honestly,that doesent bother me at all..it would bother me if i had to do like almost a year of payments,cuz that interest adds up..but a couple months i can most certainly deal with

and this NCIX.com has a really nice customization system,alot better than what i saw on Tigerdirect..though ive never heard of any of the manufacturers before..so i dont know how reliable a custom built pc would be from there

[BionicAir]

How does this Barebone kit look? http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5713127&csid=ITD&body=MAIN#detailspecs

ive been eyeballing it for sometime..can always expand it later on when needed..i see alot of other good barebone kits,but theres always something that throws me off..the motherboard usually,i mostly trust Asus,i dunno bout MSI/Gigabyte..and usually the PSU is a piece of crap

[Larry1212]

This ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229130&cm_re=i5_750-_-83-229-130-_-Product') looks rather decent bar the GPU. The i5-750 is a very nice processor and more than enough to run todays games maxed out with the support of a proper set-up. The 9500GT isn't the best but you could always upgrade at a later date. That rig also looks like it's pre-built so you won't have to worry about putting it together and risk messing it up(However, unlikely).

It's only $759. You could put the rest to a better GPU further down the line.

Although, what do you want out of your rig? Do you want to be able to play games on max settings or is $1000 as far as you'll go but you'd rather save the money and just be able to play games? If this is the case go with the barebones set-up you already linked, it should do well enough but don't expect the CPU or RAM to be able for todays more demanding games on high or max settings.

If you want to max games out i'd suggest going for a Phenom II x4 955 BE(The 965 isn't much of a step up on the 955, just OC'ed i've heard) which would be around $150(?). The ASUS M4A785-M Motherboard looks alright and should be future proof for future AMD based CPUs and you should look to DDR3 RAM(Which would require a different mobo).


Mobo ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131625R') - $96.99

Processor ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115215') - $199.99

RAM ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145251') - $114.99

PSU ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005') - $99.99

GPU ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121363&cm_re=5770-_-14-121-363-_-Product') - $169.99

All that adds up to $681.95. All you need to pick out now is the midtower, monitor, Hard Drive(I'm sure a lot of people can suggest some pretty cheap and effective gaming HDDs. I went with a Western Digital Caviar Black 750GB for only €75), mouse and keyboard and you're ready to go. The midtower should cost no more than $50 if you're budget buying and the hard drive should be around $75-$100(Or cheaper if you want to get about 300GB HD). Also, remember the OS will cost another $100. That machine will be a beast though, for any games released now and the near future and that "CuCore" GPU is supposed to be surprisingly cool under stress(some reporting temps of 50C). Mine's faulty(I keep throwing this around) but it was bound to happen to someone, pity it was me but it's definately worth getting and has some serious OC capabilities(And so does that i5-750!).