New Rig...part trois

[Jarhead0331]

I run about 6 rigs in my house at any given time.

Workshop - Win10, GeForce 980, old generation i7 processor - mostly used for 3D printing
Game room - Win10, GeForce 1070, mid-range i7 processor - mostly used by my oldest daughter for school and play
Office - Win11Pro, GeForce 4090, 13th generation i9 - Solely for flight simming in VR
       - Win11Home, GeForce 3080ti, 12th generation i9 - Mostly for non-flight high-end gaming, VR and Pancake
       - Win10, Radeon RX 6900XT Graphics, Ryzen 9 5900X processor - This was a COVID rig. Good, but rarely used
       - Win10, Geforce 1080, 5th generation i7 - mostly for older or low-end gaming and applications

In any event, the Geforce 1080 rig has really been a workhorse. It is really long in the tooth though, and has to be at least 8 or 9 years old. I use it for some work, but primarily for low-end gaming and to run older games and applications. I've been thinking about replacing it for a long time now, but it has so many years of data on it, that I've just put it off. Lately, its started to slow down and I know its getting to the end of life. With so many holiday deals, I couldn't resist.

I went with a...prebuild...a Micro Center PowerSpec G475. On sale for only $2,700! Its an i9-14900kf, with a GeForce RTX 4080, 64GB G.Skill 5600 ram, 2 TB SSD. I added a second 2TB WD Black 850x SSD. I couldn't come close to this price on a custom build anywhere.

The PowerSpec rigs are rated very positively and I figured since the brick and mortar store is close, any issues can more or less be easily addressed. I'm still setting it up and downloading software, but I'm very impressed so far. The rig is very well-build, very clean inside and has good quality components. Just opening the box and looking at the items included in the package, you know the guys who built it know what they're doing.

So, I'll finally be retiring the 1080. She was a great rig.

in any event, for anyone looking to pick up a pre-built system and if you're on a budget, I so far recommend looking at these without reservation.

[W8taminute]

I've always liked Micro Center but the only one in my state, that is if it still exists, is about an hour drive away for me. 

Nevertheless I assume I can just order stuff online from them.  My iBuypower which is also about 7 or 8 years old now is still chugging along but I'll probably need to replace it this year if possible. 

[Con]

Tagging onto this topic
My Alienware PC is slowly giving up the ghost - I have been talking for years for replacing it but the time is really now
I have built my own and bought Alienware prebuilt for the last decade or more.  So I am not debating the pros and cons of a prebuilt - that decision is made for various reasons.  Now the question is which company.  I was planning on going with a Maingear North prebuilt but I stumbled upon a lot of negative reviews of Maingear especially with respect to their on time shipping and support.
Does anyone here have any feedback or insights on Maingear?
Other choices are Corsair One i500
and back to Alienware Aurora R16

Rough budget is $3500-$4000 plus or minus a couple of hundred dollars between these three mostly depending on what type of memory storage options I am going with or forced to take in the case of Corsair.

Con

[Con]

In the past 24hrs I have gotten sucked down the internet rabbit hole of all in one coolers versus custom open loop water cooler systems
Now I am almost convincing myself that I can bend and pipe a custom cooler
Anyone else done anything like this?
Con

[Jarhead0331]

I've seen some REALLY good deals on prebuilds lately. With your budget, you can get a smokin' rig.

[Con]

Yeah I parted it out with various configurators (microcity is the best)
The fully specced out professional rigs with all the optimization and clean cable management are only costing $300 more than a DIY
Until you come to the water cooled custom loops- then the price difference becomes $1500 or greater

[Con]

Well I pulled the trigger and got the rig - she arrives tomorrow
Went with Maingear as an integrator I preferred there no proprietary approach and the reviews on their cable managements and rig optimization were the best.  Plus pricing out the parts I saw a pretty minimal markup.

Specs
Intel Core i9-14900K
Chassis =Fractal Design North XL - Black w/ Tempered Glass
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER
Motherboard =MSI MPG Z790 Carbon WiFi
32GB T-FORCE DELTA RGB DDR5
1200W FSP Power Supply
Storage =4TB WD_Black SN850

For Peripherals I got the new Alienware Monitor AW3225QF Quantum Dot gaming monitor and an Alienware keyboard plus an additional 12TB external storage

Its been 7 years since my last desktop and I wanted something I could upgrade and futureproof for a similar amount of time.

I do a lot of video editing as a hobby as well as use it for working remote on some pretty intensive financial models (I cant stand working with laptops even docked when I am at home).

I know its a lot of cash but I need a good solid system I can use for many years - my last one lasted 7 years before it was too beaten down to keep working so I am justifying this as a long term expense.  But if I am honest the first thing I am going to do is to game the crap out of Cyberpunk 2077 on this rig to see how it stacks against the PS5 console version.

With various discounts etc total cost was $5,200

Con
PS Time for TF Admiral to slip from drydock!

[Jarhead0331]

Woah! That's a lot of bread. Nice overall specs. What did the 4TB SN850 run you? 2TB usually maxes out my price threshold when I'm building a new rig, but I always end up needing more space. I assume the Alienware monitor must be over a grand too and was a big factor in your overall price.

In any event congrats and post some pics when you have her up and running!

[Con]

It was an additional $350 over the 512 GB that is default installed (essentially worthless)
I just saw that you could pick another one up on Amazon prime sale for <$350 - they typically run at ~$700
Con

[Jarhead0331]

It was an additional $350 over the 512 GB that is default installed (essentially worthless)
I just saw that you could pick another one up on Amazon prime sale for <$350 - they typically run at ~$700
Con

Prime day is next week too!

[Gusington]

Nice, Con. Do you need a butler, perhaps? I am available.

[Con]

Nice, Con. Do you need a butler, perhaps? I am available.

I need a butler for my ponies
A pony butler

[Gusington]

Excellent. I am not a large person and only charge 175.00/hour. A true bargain 

[W8taminute]

Ah but remember, whenever something goes wrong they always blame the butler.

[Gusington]

I get blamed while also not being the butler