Is this a decent pre-built PC?

[In Ogres We Trust]

Is this a decent pre-built PC? A friend of the family (Runs the IT Department at the University) is recommending this for me:

Website: http://www.microcenter.com/product/4...uter#tab-specs

Specifications



General Information



Model Number

CM1831-US-2AA



Lifestyle

Home & Student



Color

Black



Operating System



Operating System

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)



Case & Motherboard



Form Factor

Tower



Case Orientation

Vertical



North Bridge Chipset

AMD 760G



Processor



CPU Brand

AMD



CPU Core

Six-Core



CPU Type

FX



CPU Speed

6120 (3.5GHz)



Turbo Boost Speed

Up to 4.1GHz



Level 2 Cache

6MB



Smart Cache

8MB



CPU Socket

Socket AM3+



CPUs Installed

1



CPUs Supported

1



CPU Main Features

Virtualization Technology
AMD 64 Technology
Enhanced Virus Protection
MMX
Advanced Bit Manipulation
SSE
SSE2
SSE3
SSE4a
Advanced Vector Extensions
SSE4
AES Instructions
Turbo Core 2.0 Technology



Memory



Total Memory

12GB



Memory Speed

DDR3-1600



Form Factor

240-pin DIMM



Hard Drive



HD Capacity

1TB



HD Interface

SATA



HD RPM

7,200 RPM



HD Configuration

1 x 1TB



Multimedia Drives



Optical Drives Included

1



Optical Drive

DVD-RW



Optical Drive Specs

24x DVD-RW Drive



Display



Display Type

Display Not Included



Video



GPU Type

AMD Radeon HD 7470



Video Memory

1GB



Display Interface

1 x HDMI
1 x VGA
1 x DVI



Audio



Audio System

High Definition Audio



Audio Channels

7.1



Communications



LAN

Gigabit LAN



LAN Data Rate Speed

10/100/1000Mbps



WLAN

Wireless LAN 802.11b/g/n



Wireless Technology

802.11b
802.11g
802.11n



Card Reader



Media Supported

CompactFlash II



Front Panel Ports



USB 2.0

4



Audio

1 x headphone
1 x microphone



Back Panel Ports



VGA 15-pin

1



DVI

1



HDMI

1



USB 2.0

4



USB 3.0

2



LAN RJ-45

1



Physical Specifications



Width

16.5"



Depth

16.1"



Height

6.8"



Weight

19.8 lbs.



What's in the Box



What's in the Box

CM1831-US-2AA Desktop Computer, Keyboard, Mouse



Manufacturer Warranty



Parts

1 year



Labor

1 year

[vindicatorx]

Love how they put tower for form rather than ATX. If all you are doing is surfing the web and typing out papers, then yeah it's fine for anything else smells a little weak the video card is really weak.

[Xs]

Very strangely built system, processor is very over the top for the graphics card and ram, for gaming you'd be able to chop that to a quad core without losing any performance and chopping the price, putting that money into the graphics card would be a considerable increase

[In Ogres We Trust]

Love how they put tower for form rather than ATX. If all you are doing is surfing the web and typing out papers, then yeah it's fine for anything else smells a little weak the video card is really weak.

Well, I'm only planning on surfing the internet, typing papers (Ph.D. Program), watching some movies on YouTube/DvD, and gaming (Diablo III, Starcraft II, and Warcraft). My budget is only $500-700 (Not including the monitor, mouse, keyboard, et cetera), and my family friend (He runs the IT Department at the University) is recommending this rig as the "best bang for the buck" at Microcenter. Also, I can always upgrade it as I go. What's wrong with the video card? I'm not PC savvy, but I trust his opinion on the majority of PC-Related Issues. This is more or less an attempt to get off of the laptop that I purchased in law school.

[Lemmiwink]

I'd like to see what he actually buys then since he thinks it's best "bang for bucks". Imo people who run IT departments etc. are extremely biased and borderline brainwashed when it comes to parts/builds. I know a guy who bought a 2000$ Matrox card to run 4 1080p screens, also a head of IT. My conclusion is often this: head of IT, not working so good. Talk to enthusiasts instead. They are amateurs but they usually knows their stuff.

Best bang for money right now if you want light gaming and can't afford to buy intel based systems?

Socket FM2
A10-5800K
8GB DDR3 RAM
Go small form factor on it and you can use a cube case with built in PSU. The CPU contains a 7660D Radeon gpu that lends 2GB of your RAM. You can overclock the gpu and the RAM allowing you to play in full 1080p at medium settings on most games. That gpu will run both Diablo and WOW at max settings though at around 40fps if you overclock the RAM and gpu.

I would normally tell people to stay away from AMD when it comes to gaming PC's but due to the price of this setup I can't not recommend the new trinity desktop CPU's. They do light gaming, videos and everything you want as good or better than their own 8 core. In most cases. You will have no problems fitting the parts together so don't worry about that. Get your IT guy to help you out if needed.