Good Place to Buy A New Computer

[askevi]

So I probably haven't bought a new computer in close to a decade. I think the last one I got was from Amazon. Where do people go for computers these days? Is Best Buy still a thing? I know I could order direct from Dell or HP among others - is there one company that people really like for their service? I'm mildly price sensitive, but willing to pay a little more for a better product. My current desktop couldn't run Warlords, and my laptop helped me struggle through it. I'm afraid Legion won't work on either, hence the upgrade. I've aged with the game!

Thanks all!

[Artorius]

On this kind of forum most will tell you to buy the components and build it yourself. And I agree with it if the point is gaming.

Buying premades generally means bad quality components or overpriced product with weird hardware selection.

You can try using this site: https://pcpartpicker.com/

[Fascinate]

Cyberpower is pretty decent actually. I just did a quick build on there and for under 1k shipped i fit in a 6700k and gtx 960. Obviously could do better than that building but for someone that isnt interested it seems like a decent site.

Actually i just added the exact same parts on pcpartpicker and it came out to 929 bucks, only 34 bucks less than what you can buy it built for from cyberpower lol. Pretty dam impressive.

[askevi]

I'm not going to build my own computer. I've seen the Cyberpower stuff on Tiger Direct and it looks like I can get the specs for around $850 or so. Sounds like that's pretty competitive, I just wondered about reliability.

[Fascinate]

They name all of the parts on their site actually i was impressed. The only crap part they included in their z170 i7 config was the PSU, for 20 bucks you can upgrade to an xfx 550w bronze unit. They also offer 3 year warranty compared to standard 1 year from dell and the likes.

[-Gr-]

If you do buy an already built comp, I strongly suggest you take it apart and check for problems from the get go. Cyberpower and other websites have been known to skimp on the thermal paste and the wire jobs they do are pretty hectic from what I've seen. It's also good to know how to take it apart and clean it when needed, so you might as well get familiar with it.

[DeltrusDisc]

Try Micro Center. Way better than literally everyone else and none of them can compete with MC on pricing, trust me. They make free shipping from Amazon seem like something you can toss out the window, nothing like saving $70~ on a CPU, another $40 on your motherboard, and more on other pieces too! *_*

[Artorius]

Yeah, Microcenter will build it for you and you still have the freedom to choose parts individually.

[f0rb1d]

alternatively, if you don't feel you'll need to OC the cpu. You can monitor outlet sites. Purchase a refurb/overage/scratch&dent and get it for much cheaper. With the savings you can upgrade your psu/vcard/ram/hdd>ssd. example outlet[dot]lenovo[dot]com. Buying all parts and building yourself allows you to have the most control and is usually the most cost effective.

The system you built on cyberpowerpc, what parts = $850?

[askevi]

Thanks guys great suggestions. Working backwards: For $808, I can get a Cyberpower PC from Tiger Direct with an AMD FX-6300 3.5G CPU, 16GB DDR3, Nvidia GTX 950 2GB graphics, 2TB HDD, 24x DVD+RW and Win10. I feel like this is exactly what I need - what I don't know is if Cyberpower is reliable and if I could the same or similar specs cheaper.

I could save $300 by dropping to 8GB and changing graphics cards to an AMD Radeon R5 230 - I just don't know if that's too big of a drop off in graphics power for running Legion.

Thanks for the Micro Center suggestion - they have a retail store 15 minutes from me, so I will check it out this weekend.

[Fascinate]

Nuuuuuu for another~100 bucks you can get an i7 build from cyberpower. Select the z170 i7 configurator, make sure to downgrade the case (the one they included is way too expensive, i found a case from cyberpower that took 79 off the price). Then you can also get a free upgrade from a gtx 950>960 where you select your graphics card. Also not necessary but i picked "8 gigs of brand name memory" instead of the adata stuff they include, just cause the adata has ugly heatsinks lol.

[DeltrusDisc]

Rather see him get an i5 instead of i7 if he could and potentially a better 960 or 970...

[Fascinate]

The i5 build is almost the same cost as the i7 and you cant fit a 970 under 1k no matter what, i tried. Wish i could link the exact configuration i had put together but i cant figure out how.

Oh here we go.

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/saved/1HU8A3

They got rid of the base case so you cant save as much, but the free 960 upgrade is still there and they added 8 gigs of free ram for 16 total.

Not as cheap as yesterday but for 1021.00 shipped its not bad for someone who isnt interested in building. You would need an OS for the i7 machine but you can get keys for under 30 bucks.

[askevi]

Thanks Fascinate. Let me ask you guys two specific questions. One, are you saying the Intel systems are better than the AMD systems? So it's better to do the i5-3330 over the AMD FX-6300? Second, assuming I can get an AMD system with a R7 240 card for $500 or jump to an R7 360 card for $700, is that worth $200 extra dollars? Thanks.

[Artorius]

Thanks Fascinate. Let me ask you guys two specific questions. One, are you saying the Intel systems are better than the AMD systems? So it's better to do the i5-3330 over the AMD FX-6300? Second, assuming I can get an AMD system with a R7 240 card for $500 or jump to an R7 360 card for $700, is that worth $200 extra dollars? Thanks.

If you play MMOs stay with Intel CPUs for now. About cards, I'd recommend this path in this specific order:

GTX950/60 -> R9 380/X -> R9 390/X -> Fury/Nano -> OC'd 980Ti -> Fury/X/Nano CF

[askevi]

Thanks. So now I'm thinking a Dell Alienware X51 with an i5-4460 with an GTX 750 Ti for $600 from Micro Center. It does not come with Win 10, but I can deal with that later.

[Fascinate]

Thanks. So now I'm thinking a Dell Alienware X51 with an i5-4460 with an GTX 750 Ti for $600 from Micro Center. It does not come with Win 10, but I can deal with that later.

That seems like a good deal tbh. Got a link? I Tried searching but couldnt find it.

[Denpepe]

That seems like a good deal tbh. Got a link? I Tried searching but couldnt find it.

Sounds more like a bad idea, alienware tends to skimp on certain parts like the PSU and sometimes uses proprietary parts that you cant upgrade/replace if the break down not too mention they are usually overpriced for what you get.

I can understand wanting to buy as cheap as possible but there is a reason some of these are cheap, the mentioned one is old and outdated, better spend a bit more and be able to use the machine a couple years longer then waste money on something that's obsolete out of the box.

[Fascinate]

Sounds more like a bad idea, alienware tends to skimp on certain parts like the PSU and sometimes uses proprietary parts that you cant upgrade/replace if the break down not too mention they are usually overpriced for what you get.

I can understand wanting to buy as cheap as possible but there is a reason some of these are cheap, the mentioned one is old and outdated, better spend a bit more and be able to use the machine a couple years longer then waste money on something that's obsolete out of the box.

That's why i asked for the link want to check out PSU lol. If it has a 4460 and 750ti 600 bucks is a reasonable price. Just those two parts alone would cost ~300 building yourself, and they are only last gen parts (750 ti can play most games at 1080p medium-high settings).

[Lathais]

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/saved/1HUA31