Looking to buy new PC, how is this one?

[lazybum]

looking to buy a new PC this weekend from ibuypower, sure its prob cheaper to build your own but i know nothing about PCs and not sure i want to take on that job. with that being said tell me what you guys think of this one that i selected:

http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Gamer..._E810/w/133841

anything i should change? going to use the PC for pretty much just playing wow and borderlands. i dont do much with media or downloading. would like to keep it at about $1400.

my main question is the video card, current one is the: AMD Radeon HD 7870 - 2GB but for only $11 more i can upgrade to a 3gb card: AMD Radeon HD 7950 - 3GB. i dont know much about computers like i said but going from 2gb to 3gb card for only $11 seems kinda fishy to me.

any help you can offer me in picking the parts and still helping me stay around $1400 would be greatly welcomed. thank you!

[Skelly]

All of the parts look pretty good. The GPU upgrade looks legit and I would probably take it.

[lazybum]

suppose with the holiday sale going going from the 2gb to the 3 gb card really is $61 but with $50 instant savings. think this setup could run wow on the highest settings and still get really nice FPS and not lag?

[CheezusCrust]

Don't look at the VRAM when you're ordering a prebuilt, the switch from 7870 to 7950 is a good deal for $11.
However if you're only playing WoW & other Blizzard games, a 7850 will be more than enough.

Ibuypower is making you pick an overkill PSU but there's nothing we can do about that, tried to switch to a 550w.

"Upgrade" your PSU to: 750 Watt - Corsair CMPSU-750TXV2, you don't want a generic PSU. Never.

[Diesta]

Upgrade to the 7950 and you'll have a great machine for borderlands 2. You don't need any of the cooling other than default though.. your cpu can't overclock. If you get a 660 ti instead, you also get borderlands 2 free

[vesseblah]

my main question is the video card, current one is the: AMD Radeon HD 7870 - 2GB but for only $11 more i can upgrade to a 3gb card: AMD Radeon HD 7950 - 3GB. i dont know much about computers like i said but going from 2gb to 3gb card for only $11 seems kinda fishy to me.

Memory of graphics card is totally irrelevant past 2GB and just a marketing trick unless you're planning on gaming on three monitors at the same time. Notice that the cheaper card is no-name, while the more expensive one is actually some known brand. That's the price difference.

I'd suggest the following changes to http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Gamer..._E810/w/133841
Bottom line will be $10 less and you get better computer:

-Switch processor from i5-3570 to i5-3570K for +$20 - this will allow you to overclock later if you want to
-Switch processor cooling from Corsair H60 to Certified... for -$54
-Switch graphics card from Radeon 7870 to Radeon 7870, just one row up for no-name card to save $52
-Check on games from "free stuff" list
-Switch motherboard from Asus P8Z77-V LX one step up in the list for ASRock Z77 Extreme4 for +$41 ... this gives more upgrade options later
-Switch power supply from 800W standard to 650W Corsair TXV2

[JosephStylin]

Get a GeForce 660ti or higher and get a free copy of borderlands 2 if you haven't pre ordered it yet, just something to consider...

Edit: Diesta said this first and I r can't read apparently!

[lazybum]

all ready have it preordered, for the bonus items at gamestop

---------- Post added 2012-08-30 at 11:48 AM ----------

Memory of graphics card is totally irrelevant past 2GB and just a marketing trick unless you're planning on gaming on three monitors at the same time. Notice that the cheaper card is no-name, while the more expensive one is actually some known brand. That's the price difference.

I'd suggest the following changes to http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Gamer..._E810/w/133841
Bottom line will be $10 less and you get better computer:

-Switch processor from i5-3570 to i5-3570K for +$20 - this will allow you to overclock later if you want to
-Switch processor cooling from Corsair H60 to Certified... for -$54
-Switch graphics card from Radeon 7870 to Radeon 7870, just one row up for no-name card to save $52
-Check on games from "free stuff" list
-Switch motherboard from Asus P8Z77-V LX one step up in the list for ASRock Z77 Extreme4 for +$41 ... this gives more upgrade options later
-Switch power supply from 800W standard to 650W Corsair TXV2

dont game on multi monitors tho i do have 2 hooked up atm, one to play wow on and the other i have my web browser and vent usually on. after i get a new PC was porb just going to get a led 32" tv to use as a monitor instead

[CheezusCrust]

all ready have it preordered, for the bonus items at gamestop

---------- Post added 2012-08-30 at 11:48 AM ----------



dont game on multi monitors tho i do have 2 hooked up atm, one to play wow on and the other i have my web browser and vent usually on. after i get a new PC was porb just going to get a led 32" tv to use as a monitor instead

Nope, it doesn't affect your performance, it'd be the same as having chrome minimized while playing a fullscreen game.

Don't go for a 32" TV as monitor, they're horrible for gaming & it's got the same amount of pixels.

[vesseblah]

Don't go for a 32" TV as monitor, they're horrible for gaming & it's got the same amount of pixels.

Or less. Cheap-ass 32" screens are just HD Ready and have 1366x768 resolution, FullHD models that support 1920x1080 natively are clearly more expensive.

[lazybum]

Or less. Cheap-ass 32" screens are just HD Ready and have 1366x768 resolution, FullHD models that support 1920x1080 natively are clearly more expensive.

so if i get a model that supports 1920x1080 would it be the same quality as my 24" monitor or close to it?

think my monitor is only 1680x1050

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Insignia...&skuId=4758343

32" Insignia led tv w/ Maximum Resolution 1920 x 1080 for $300 this wouldnt work?
found a couple 32 led tvs on best buys site that were $300 or close to it that were 1920x1080 resloution

[CheezusCrust]

I'd get a good 23-24" instead of a half-decent 32". but yes, It would work.

It will probably be on the same quality as your 24" monitor, but 23-24" monitors at $300 will give you a very good monitor.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236201
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824260055

Got the PA238 myself & I'm honestly impressed by it. Other computer forum gurus got the Dell U series & I haven't heard any complaints.

[Exp]

so if i get a model that supports 1920x1080 would it be the same quality as my 24" monitor or close to it?

think my monitor is only 1680x1050

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Insignia...&skuId=4758343

32" Insignia led tv w/ Maximum Resolution 1920 x 1080 for $300 this wouldnt work?
found a couple 32 led tvs on best buys site that were $300 or close to it that were 1920x1080 resloution

With gaming, there will be no noticeable difference with the 32 inch tv as opposed to a 24 inch monitor so long as it is 1080p res. The same resolution on a larger screen will make text look slightly worse, but I can promise the extra screen real estate is worth it. I game on a large tv as a monitor, and there is no difference in my tv as opposed to the monitor with gaming, other than that I have a larger screen. In fact, if you get an led it should look better than a normal lcd monitor.



also, off topic, I would highly suggest upgrading to the Nvidia GTX 670, because the upgrade price is a steal, and it's miles ahead of all the AMD cards. It will also produce less noise, and for WoW nvidia cards seem to perform better. Check any notable sources for fps references and you will see.

[vesseblah]

also, off topic, I would highly suggest upgrading to the Nvidia GTX 670, because the upgrade price is a steal, and it's miles ahead of all the AMD cards. It will also produce less noise, and for WoW nvidia cards seem to perform better. Check any notable sources for fps references and you will see.

Damn... Didn't look down there... EVGA GTX660ti 3GB model costs actually $9 less than the R7870. Best graphics card option in the list.

[glo]

also, off topic, I would highly suggest upgrading to the Nvidia GTX 670, because the upgrade price is a steal, and it's miles ahead of all the AMD cards. It will also produce less noise, and for WoW nvidia cards seem to perform better. Check any notable sources for fps references and you will see.

The 7970 is on par with the 670, and more viable at higher resolutions due to its membus and VRAM (not to mention it overclocks much further) for the same price. The 7970 Ghz edition is considerably faster than the 670 for $40~ more.

In addition, the 7970 Ghz edition is faster in more games than the 680 is. Comes out around 66% vs 44% AMD over Nvidia when comparing those cards.

Anyway, point of the story is that Nvidia isn't anywhere remotely close to being miles ahead of anything. They've had an extremely poor generation this time around due to not releasing GK110 as the intended 680, instead using GK104 as their entire lineup. Not only has this created abysmal performance difference between all their cards, but it's also forced them to price way too firmly (poor yields - can't price a 660 ti at half the price of a 680 when it's only 15% behind, etc etc). AMD is just walking all over price to performance ratios because of it.

[COLWRAITH]

Personally I would not get the AMD ATI card. Reason being is that ATI has a minor performance loss in Intel machines mostly not noticable. Its best to run Nvidia in Intel box. ATI in AMD Box. As for your 800 watt PSU its hard to say if it has the capacity to run my suggested Nvidia card which is NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti - 2GB - FREE Upgrade to GTX 660 Ti 3GB EVGA Superclocked. This keeps you in budget. You have to read the specs of the card to make sure your power supply can handle the amperage requirements. Name brand or not its all about the rails and amps.

[vesseblah]

Personally I would not get the AMD ATI card. Reason being is that ATI has a minor performance loss in Intel machines mostly not noticable. Its best to run Nvidia in Intel box. ATI in AMD Box.

That's 100% bullshit and internet rumors. Long ago (10 years or so) Nvidia compatibility was poor on AMD motherboards because chipset manufacturers (VIA) wouldn't license the required technology from Nvidia. Once AMD started making the chipsets themselves the problems went away. And there never was any performance difference, only some weird compatiblity issues that were fixed pretty fast with BIOS patches.

As for your 800 watt PSU its hard to say if it has the capacity to run my suggested Nvidia card which is NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti - 2GB - FREE Upgrade to GTX 660 Ti 3GB EVGA Superclocked. This keeps you in budget. You have to read the specs of the card to make sure your power supply can handle the amperage requirements. Name brand or not its all about the rails and amps.

High quality 400W PSU is enough to run GTX660ti, or 500W if you want to overclock both the CPU and GPU to the max. iBuyPower just oversells stuff to people that they don't really need with the unrealistic PSU recommendations and crap quality no-name 800W devices.

[glo]

Personally I would not get the AMD ATI card. Reason being is that ATI has a minor performance loss in Intel machines mostly not noticable. Its best to run Nvidia in Intel box. ATI in AMD Box. As for your 800 watt PSU its hard to say if it has the capacity to run my suggested Nvidia card which is NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti - 2GB - FREE Upgrade to GTX 660 Ti 3GB EVGA Superclocked. This keeps you in budget. You have to read the specs of the card to make sure your power supply can handle the amperage requirements. Name brand or not its all about the rails and amps.

Nvidia cards do not run better than AMD cards with an Intel processor. There's absolutely no basis for that statement (in addition to no technical reasons).

[COLWRAITH]

To the folks that disagree with me fine. But I do challenge you to get two machines close to identically configured as possible. Same ram, same hard drive, same FSB, same class video cards, exception one is Intel processor and other is AMD processor. Tell me what you find with your bench marks. Swap again and post your results. ATI in AMD box will preform SLIGHTLY better.

[vesseblah]

Tell me what you find with your bench marks. Swap again and post your results. ATI in AMD box will preform SLIGHTLY better.

Since you're the one claiming tinfoilhat theories here, it's your job to prove it. Only actually existing benchmarks you can find outside Narnia looks like this:



All of those processors were tested with Radeon 7970 in Battlefield 3 which was totally GPU capped. As you can see, it's the Intel processors that perform slightly better, not AMD.