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Prebuilt Gaming PCs?

Started by steve58, December 07, 2019, 05:22:01 PM

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JasonPratt

Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 09, 2019, 02:35:53 PM
hey, after all, they say XPS "stands for exceptional build quality, unique materials and powerful features..."

.......I... I can't make that come out to "XPS" at all... it starts okay and then... is... is "powerful features" supposed to be in the middle?

Is this some heathen language acronym?


More seriously, I know SOMEONE bought Alienware, but I'm too lazy^H^H^H^Hbusy and in too much of a hurry to get back to work, to look it up.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

ArizonaTank

I used to build my own PCs... I was doing this way back in the early days from the 8088 until about 10 years ago. In all, I built about eight machines. But now I just find no joy in it, so for my last three gaming rigs I have gone the pre-built route.

My current machine is an MSI machine built to support VR. Two years old now, it has worked like a dream under some pretty heavy usage. I purchased brick and mortar from a Fry's Electronics in the SF Bay Area.

Previously I had great experience with two iBuyPower machines. One I bought through COSTCO and had it delivered. The other I bought at the Micro Center in Northern Virginia.

Overall, the pre-built experience has been great, I feel no need to go back to building them myself. The only advice I would offer is if you can buy brick and mortar at a PC specialist store (something like Micro Center or Fry's Electronics) choose that. You can easily get it tweaked with upgrades before you take it home, and returns are easy.   



Johannes "Honus" Wagner
"The Flying Dutchman"
Shortstop: Pittsburgh Pirates 1900-1917
Rated as the 2nd most valuable player of all time by Bill James.

OJsDad

Micro Center will often have an open box item. Great way to get a little more for same money.
'Here at NASA we all pee the same color.'  Al Harrison from the movie Hidden Figures.

Jarhead0331

Quote from: OJsDad on December 10, 2019, 02:56:22 PM
Micro Center will often have an open box item. Great way to get a little more for same money.

For that matter, Newegg has open box items too. The problem is, the warranty varies with these items, they sometimes have already been registered with a different user and might be missing components. I've agonized going back and forth over whether to take the chance, but in the end, I decided saving a few hundred just wasn't worth the possible hassle.
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


Con

#19
I have bought several Alienware machines and overall I find then excellent.  That being said you do pay extra for the name/design.

My history is that no matter what I am always about ~$2K in for the box then add in a coupe of hundred for additionals (bigger HD or SSDs etc).  Peripherals like monitors keyboars etc I recycle from one machine to the next and hand down to the wife for her PhD work when I want to upgrade.

I bought my last alienware about 2 years ago and bought a power upgrade for it since the stock power was causing some fan whine. Two years ago the bit-mining was causing graphic cards to go for insane prices so the delta between a pre-built system like Alienware vs a self build was not as extreme since Dell bulk purchasing power was able to get me the graphics card I wanted at a reasonable price compared to purchasing myself.

I have done some extensive analysis on self builds vs Prebuilds (I have built my own in the past and am comfortable with building and mucking around them).  On average I see about at max a 25% savings between the two with similar specs which is not bad, on my system that would have been around $550 .  However this would have been cut at least in half if not more for the graphics card as per the reason I stated above.  So for me it comes down to time savings, warranty and support.  For a couple of hundred dollars it was a no brainer for me to go pre build.  My time is very limited now and I dont have enough of it to work on building a PC when that aspect of it doesnt really interest me.  Luckily I am in a position where I can afford to do this. 
Con

steve58

I feel like I'm getting close to actually ordering a PC.  Still feel like Ibuypower is my best choice for ~$1100.  Here's what I can get for $$1147 (including a case).  Prices/freebies/etc seem to fluctuate day-to-day, so I'm not sure the Christmas season is the best time to buy a new rig, but I'm more than ready.  I tried to stick with name brands I recognized/researched as I hope this rig will last me many years and will be somewhat upgradeable.

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 3.8GHz Processor
120mm Addressable RGB Liquid Cooling System
16 GB [8 GB X2] DDR4-3000 Memory Module - ADATA XPG D10
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti w/6GB GDDR6
MSI MPG X570 GAMING PLUS Motherboard -- ARGB Header (2), Gb Lan, USB 3.2 (6 Rear, 4 Front)
650 Watt - Seasonic FOCUS SSR-650FM 80 PLUS Gold, Semi Modular Power Supply
480GB ADATA SU630 SSD -- Read: 520MB/s, Write: 450MB/s - Single Drive
[FREE] 2 TB SEAGATE HARD DRIVE 7200RPM - Today Only
Windows 10 Home - (64-bit)
iBUYPOWER Standard RGB Gaming Keyboard
iBUYPOWER Gaming Optical Mouse - Multi-Color LED Lighting
Government is not the solution to our problem—government is the problem.   Ronald Reagan
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.   Thomas Jefferson
During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.   George Orwell  The truth is quiet...It's the lies that are loud.   Jesus Revolution
If you ever find yourself in need of a safe space then you're probably going to have to stop calling yourself a social justice warrior. You cannot be a warrior and a pansy at the same time   Mike Adams (RIP Mike)

JasonPratt

I think for the money this is doable. Save up for a gfx update first I suppose?

A nicely sculpted gaming mouse can be a good inexpensive update, too. I love my Redragon, most cost-effective thing I've ever bought -- for around $20! They have much more expensive ones, but this had everything I would ever feasibly use, with comfortable operation being paramount. (One slight drawback is that the mousewheel has a rubber coating, which is good for some things but doesn't always provide the more precise movements, and the wheel itself has only like 10 notches. Not a dealbreaker for me, but I do notice sometimes, and being picky and precise I wanted to be fair about even a small drawback.)

I know in the past, Windows Pro was more necessary to run better hardware. My impression is that this is no longer true? -- and so you can get away with the slightly less expensive Home edition now? But since that used to be a thing, I wanted to check about double-checking on that (so to speak).
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

demjansk1942

I bought mine from Digital Storm ten years ago.  Few upgrades but still going strong and plays every game out there.  Main thing, power supply and a kick butt video card plus good anti virus and malware diligence.  Ssd drives are great.

steve58

Well I done it.  Trigger pulled. :)   The waiting begins. Delivery probably mid-January. :(   Cost ended up a little over $1200.

  • iBUYPOWER Trace MR Mirror Finished Tempered Glass ARGB Gaming Case
  • MSI MPG X570 GAMING PLUS Motherboard
  • AMD Ryzen 5 3600X Processor (6x 3.8GHz/32MB L3 Cache)
  • iBUYPOWER 120mm Addressable RGB Liquid Cooling System
  • 16 GB DDR4-3000 Memory Module - ADATA XPG D10
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti (6GB GDDR6)
  • 650 Watt - CORSAIR TX650M 80 PLUS Gold, Semi Modular
  • Primary Hard Drive - 500 GB WD Blue SSD + 1 TB 7200RPM Hard Drive
  • [FREE Today Only] 512 GB Intel 660P Series M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
  • 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard
  • Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100)
  • Windows 10 Home (64-bit)
  • iBUYPOWER Standard RGB Gaming Keyboard
  • iBUYPOWER Gaming Optical Mouse
Government is not the solution to our problem—government is the problem.   Ronald Reagan
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.   Thomas Jefferson
During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.   George Orwell  The truth is quiet...It's the lies that are loud.   Jesus Revolution
If you ever find yourself in need of a safe space then you're probably going to have to stop calling yourself a social justice warrior. You cannot be a warrior and a pansy at the same time   Mike Adams (RIP Mike)

DoctorQuest

Let's us know how you like it. I may save this info for my own future purchase. Sound like a pretty sweet rig to me.
"Everything you read on the internet is true." - Benjamin Franklin

"Zero-G and I feel fine....." - John Glenn

"I reject your reality and substitute my own." - Adam Savage, inventor of the alternative fact.

demjansk1942

You will have fun with it.  The main thing is that you get to use it and not to worry about saving a few dollars.  All the time spent on saving dollars would be time not using the machine.

Enjoy

steve58

I was expecting my new PC sometime after the New Year (even used a DEFER code to get $50 off that pushed shipping in 3-4 weeks), but it has shipped and will be here on Friday. :D  It did seem to move through their process stages rather quickly this week, including the burn in time :-\.  Hope that just means they had extra help for the busy Christmas ordering season.  Looking forward to getting it up and running this weekend.  First game I will be testing will be World of Warships with all settings maxed out :).
Government is not the solution to our problem—government is the problem.   Ronald Reagan
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.   Thomas Jefferson
During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.   George Orwell  The truth is quiet...It's the lies that are loud.   Jesus Revolution
If you ever find yourself in need of a safe space then you're probably going to have to stop calling yourself a social justice warrior. You cannot be a warrior and a pansy at the same time   Mike Adams (RIP Mike)

steve58

My new rig got here a day early.  Showed up around noon.  First takes are that it looks good (component-wise) except for maybe the keyboard and mouse. Time will tell for those.  Its also a little noisier than I expected, but should have realized since it has 4 big fans in the case.  Lots of things to learn and relearn now that I have Windows 10.  Need to get everything back to how I like things.  Currently downloading World of Warships.  Hope to give it a spin before the nights done...

p.s.  in my eagerness to get that puppy out of the box, I ended up dropping it (~42 pounds) about 6 inches onto my left big toe.  Fortunately only my toe got (slightly) damaged :crazy2:
Government is not the solution to our problem—government is the problem.   Ronald Reagan
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.   Thomas Jefferson
During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.   George Orwell  The truth is quiet...It's the lies that are loud.   Jesus Revolution
If you ever find yourself in need of a safe space then you're probably going to have to stop calling yourself a social justice warrior. You cannot be a warrior and a pansy at the same time   Mike Adams (RIP Mike)

Huw the Poo

I bought a fairly beefy rig myself this year and I was also surprised at how noisy it can get.  I guess that's just the norm these days with how powerful they are, unless you go for a water-cooled PC.

Enjoy!  Nothing beats the feeling of being able to just casually set everything to ULTRA every time you play a new game without worrying. O0

DoctorQuest

#29
It might be worth going through your BIOS settings to see if there is a variable fan setting to reduce the noise when you are not pushing the rig.

Just a thought.

Have fun. Nothing like playing with a brand new toy.....
"Everything you read on the internet is true." - Benjamin Franklin

"Zero-G and I feel fine....." - John Glenn

"I reject your reality and substitute my own." - Adam Savage, inventor of the alternative fact.