What do you think about this computer?

[tokala]

With an all-new system and >=4GB RAM, i would suggest to go with the 64bit version. There shouldn't be any driver issues anymore, unless you want to use some ancient scanner or something like that.
Although 64 bit applications are not yet common, some games, or at least some hardware hogs (like Civ5, E:TW, Supreme Commander) either are large address aware or can be flagged as such and will than be able to gobble up 3 GB instead of 2GB before crashing due to insufficient memory
There is a way to make this work on 32 bit systems too, but it might have negative side effects.

 

[GoodGame]

While I probably could build it myself, I'd rather not. I am less concerned about saving money than having it built correctly and delivered to me ready to go. It is not a money issue for me.

I suppose there is something to the "ready to go", in that if you DIY through the mail, you usually must start the build in under a week for the critical components to see if they are DOA on arrival. Usually you only have like a week to return a bad CPU.

 

[Cutlass]

There are a lot of fairly inexpensive case options. A quick look around shows this one that isn't too expensive and looks fairly good.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Yeah, nice case.

 

[civ_king]

Very helpful I will take all of your comments into account. I am willing to pay someone to build it, i just want to make sure i don't buy crappy parts.

So This would appear to be better:

i5 760
ASRock P55 EXTREME4 MB
2 2GB DDR3 1333 RAM sticks
GTX460 (768MB) or ATI Raedon 5770 (1GB) video card
Seasonic or Corsair PSU
500 GB 7200 RPM SATA HD
24x DVDRW CDRW Drive

Windows 7 32 or 64 bit?
How about the case?

definitely 64-bit

There are a lot of fairly inexpensive case options. A quick look around shows this one that isn't too expensive and looks fairly good.

What about

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.514513

 

[Cutlass]

I'd probably prefer to choose the case and power supply separately And the case is more expensive. The PS is probably also bigger than what is needed.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Any opinions about Cyberpower? Are there any other good builders out there?

 

[civ_king]

Maingear, they do it expensive, but they do it right

 

[Fëanor]

What about

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.514513

Beware that Antec switched from Seasonic to Delta for the manufacture of their EarthWatts line and while some models (eg the EA750) are still pretty good they are no longer Seasonic good.

@Birdjaguar: The ASRock P55 EXTREME4 is the "1st motherboard to support Front USB 3.0" support so if you get that motherboard and want to use that be sure you get a case with USB3 front pannel connectors.

As for pre-build systems, for $1250 you can get a pretty powerfull Intel Core i7-950 based pc with a GTX460 (1GB) or GTX465 (1GB) and 6GB triple channel ram @ CyberPower PC, i've no idea about the quality of their pc's and some of those components but you could make a customized i5-760 pc with all high quality components and still stay well below $1250.

I've looked at Maingear, they seem to be even more expensive than your local shop!

 

[tokala]

The i7-9xx CPUs provide little to no performance advantage over the i5-7xx for the average home user, but do require much more expensive mainboards. The triple channel interface is worse than useless, unless you run applications that need an extremely high memory bandwidth.
The same for 460-1GB and 465, little to no performance advantage compared to the 460-768. Unless you run games at 2560x1600 with >= 4xAA, and in that case you would want a GTX480 anyway
Regarding the cyberpower quality/support, their systems cost about the same as if you would assemble them yourself, do the math.

 

[illram]

Any opinions about Cyberpower? Are there any other good builders out there?

I think ibuypower is a competitor that does the same thing.

When I was making the decision to build my own or go with them, I only decided to do my own because I found both cyberpower and ibuypower cases to be ugly. (And I loved the minimalist, sleek black Lian-Li case that I ended up buying.) For cost it's really the same. I looked into them and heard mostly good things.

Edit: I see cases are a matter of discussion so I highly recommend Lian-li. When I was building my own I was told to avoid barebones or psu/case combos as they generally use shoddier equipment.

Lian Li is a little more expensive than the competition but highly regarded and they look beautiful. Such as this one or this one. (Based on looks I like the first one more personally. I like minimalist, sleek cases, as opposed to the crazy "gaming" monstrosities alot of companies seem to be putting out. )

 

[Zelig]

Those Lian Li cases are really nice aesthetically, but after reading a few reviews, I recently had a chance to put together a build using this case, and fell in love. I suspect we'll soon start seeing some competitors with the same 90-degree rotated layout.

 

[Fëanor]

The i7-9xx CPUs provide little to no performance advantage over the i5-7xx for the average home user, but do require much more expensive mainboards. The triple channel interface is worse than useless, unless you run applications that need an extremely high memory bandwidth.
The same for 460-1GB and 465, little to no performance advantage compared to the 460-768. Unless you run games at 2560x1600 with >= 4xAA, and in that case you would want a GTX480 anyway
Regarding the cyberpower quality/support, their systems cost about the same as if you would assemble them yourself, do the math.

While thats certainly true for most of yesterday and today's games and some applications, i assume that Birdjaguar's PC will have to last for 4-5 years and run tomorrow's applications as good as possible in which case the better processor and larger memory would be more useful.

To quote Ryan Smith's GTX460 review at AnandTech

To purchase a $200 card with only 768MB of RAM today is shortsighted; it’s less RAM than last year’s $200 GTX 275 and Radeon 4890 cards had, and it’s going to come up short in tomorrow’s games. The difference is 256MB, but we’re willing to bet between that 256MB of RAM and the additional L2 cache and ROPs that the 1GB advantage will only grow from here. We would rather spend another $30 now for better performance in many of today’s games, knowing that we also will have a better shot at playing tomorrow’s games.

Of course a customized i5-760 pc with high quality parts is still the best long term plan imho.

 

[tokala]

Well. it depends on how you plan your computer upgrades.
I see no point in chosing components that will in most cases provide a performance advantage of <=15% but will be ~30% more expensive. They will become "too slow" about the same point in the future.
Ram and video card are extremely easy to upgrade, really no point there in "investing in the future".
It might make a bit more sense to get a more expensive CPU/mainboard combo, as you will not be able to get a CPU upgrade in a few years anymore. But than the pace of CPU performance improvement has really slowed down the last few years, and for most consumers the point of "good enough" is finally reached

What might make more of a difference for the price premium of a "better" instead of a "good" system will be a SSD. You should be able to get a ~80GB Sandforce or Intel SSD instead, and you will feel the difference in everyday usage, not (maybe) some point in the future.

At the date of the Anandtech review the 768 and 1024 MB versions prices were pretty close together, the 768 has become significantly cheaper in the meantime.

So far in the history of 3D accelerators, insufficient memory was in exactly one case limiting the useful livespan of video cards, the nVidia G80 chips and its derivatives (8800, 9800, 250). And that was only the case, because those are extremely wasteful in their memory usage. I.e. a GTS 640MB would run out of memory earlier than a comparable ATI card with 512MB, and GTS 320MB models would get into real trouble with some games.
That problem has been fixed with the 4xx series of cards.

 

[Fëanor]

Well. it depends on how you plan your computer upgrades.
I see no point in chosing components that will in most cases provide a performance advantage of <=15% but will be ~30% more expensive. They will become "too slow" about the same point in the future.
Ram and video card are extremely easy to upgrade, really no point there in "investing in the future".
It might make a bit more sense to get a more expensive CPU/mainboard combo, as you will not be able to get a CPU upgrade in a few years anymore. But than the pace of CPU performance improvement has really slowed down the last few years, and for most consumers the point of "good enough" is finally reached

What might make more of a difference for the price premium of a "better" instead of a "good" system will be a SSD. You should be able to get a ~80GB Sandforce or Intel SSD instead, and you will feel the difference in everyday usage, not (maybe) some point in the future.

At the date of the Anandtech review the 768 and 1024 MB versions prices were pretty close together, the 768 has become significantly cheaper in the meantime.

So far in the history of 3D accelerators, insufficient memory was in exactly one case limiting the useful livespan of video cards, the nVidia G80 chips and its derivatives (8800, 9800, 250). And that was only the case, because those are extremely wasteful in their memory usage. I.e. a GTS 640MB would run out of memory earlier than a comparable ATI card with 512MB, and GTS 320MB models would get into real trouble with some games.
That problem has been fixed with the 4xx series of cards.

While you certainly make a good point its based on the wrong assumption that everyone is able to upgrade their PC's.
I am under the impression that Birdjaguar simply wants to buy a pre-build machine, use it for 4-5 years and then get a new one.
In his case 'investing in the future' by buying higher performance parts is a better long term solution, even though those parts might be slightly more expensive than the ultimate price-performance ratio parts right now, he will not only enjoy higher performance right away, his system will also meet the minimum requirements for many years.

 

[Birdjaguar]

While you certainly make a good point its based on the wrong assumption that everyone is able to upgrade their PC's.
I am under the impression that Birdjaguar simply wants to buy a pre-build machine, use it for 4-5 years and then get a new one.
In his case 'investing in the future' by buying higher performance parts is a better long term solution, even though those parts might be slightly more expensive than the ultimate price-performance ratio parts right now, he will not only enjoy higher performance right away, his system will also meet the minimum requirements for many years.

yes that is pretty much the way I buy computers (and cars). I use them until it has been long enough to warrant a new one or there have been sufficient upgrades in OS or video cards or whatever to get me excited. I'll probably order this weekend.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Any thoughts on this motherboard?

Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3

 

[Birdjaguar]

This looks like it unless I need to change the MB.

Case ( Antec Nine Hundred Two Gaming Case - Black )
Processor ( Intel® Core&#8482; i5 760 Processor (4x 2.80GHz/8MB L3 Cache) )
Processor Cooling ( Liquid CPU Cooling System [SOCKET-1156] - [Free Upgrade] Standard 120mm Fan )
Memory ( 4 GB [2 GB X2] DDR3-1333 Memory Module - Corsair or Major Brand )
Video Card ( ATI Radeon HD 5770 - 1GB - Single Card )
Motherboard ( Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 )
Motherboard USB / SATA Interface ( Motherboard default USB / SATA Interface )
Power Supply ( 600 Watt -- Standard )
Primary Hard Drive ( 500 GB HARD DRIVE -- 16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s - Single Drive )
Optical Drive ( 24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Blue )
2nd Optical Drive ( 24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Green )
Flash Media Reader/Writer ( 12-In-1 Internal Flash Media Card Reader/Writer - Black )
Sound Card ( 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard )
Network Card ( Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100) )
Operating System ( Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + Office Starter 2010 (Includes basic versions of Word and Excel) - 64-Bit )
Warranty ( Standard Warranty Service - Standard 3-Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support )

 

[tokala]

You might run into trouble if you try to use most of the PCIe slots and/or USB3 and SATA6GB, as there are not enough PCIe lanes for all potential devices. But you are probably not planning to use Crossfire or fill the case full of PCIe cards, so this should not be a problem

 

[tokala]

I have no experience regarding watercooling, but from heresay i assume it's more suited for geeks/enthusiasts, not for someone who wants to put together a system and then won't touch it for the next 5 years
Something that's only $10 more than the stock cooler sounds suspicious

And similiarly I would not trust a no-name PSU to work for 5 years in a fairly powerful system without giving you trouble. They charge pretty outrageous sums for quality PSUs, but I would seriously recommend to invest $70 more for the Corsair 650W.