My Acer Predator (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883103274) died yesterday morning. :'(
So I am looking for a new desktop computer to replace it. The first one I looked at was the new Acer Predator and I was surprised to see that it was inferior to my old one in some ways. As a result, I thought I would try something new.
I didn't see any ready-made PCs that had all the features I wanted. As I lack the technical know-how to build a PC myself, I thought I'd ask here to find out what kind of luck members here have had with iBuyPower.
So what say you? Is iBuyPower a good place to shop? Are their desktop computers worth buying? Would you buy from them again?
My last rig was from iBuyPower and was rock solid. Their customer service was non-existent but I never needed them. My new rig (bought one year ago) is an Asus. Also very happy with it, runs like a beast. Check out an Asus if you have time. I bought mine through Amazon.
I'm not sure what your timeframe is or your budget, but have you checked out the black Friday adds. Might be able to get something good at a good price.
^Good idea.
I had very mixed results from IBuyPower and would not buy another. Seems like three or four of us bought an IBP at the same time a few years ago. I dumped $2.5 k into mine and was expecting it to be a monster. After an initial period where it seemed nothing was working right and customer service was useless, it seemed to settle in and I was feeling like I had made a good deal but it was always noisy (which my wife hates) and ran hot. Mine lasted 3-4 years until the graphics card literally caught fire without warning. One moment I'm playing 7 Days to Die, the next minute I smell something hot and there is smoke pouring out of my computer. I'm in the market again, or at least I am once Christmas is past, but IBP won't be considered.
Thanks for the replies everyone. O0 I had a pretty sweet machine planned at iBuyPower but after seeing what was posted, I think I will shop around a little more.
Dell and HP have gaming brands now. Never looked at them, so they may not be that good.
Best Buy is running specials on the gaming desktops. If nothing else, looking at the reviews may give you some clues as to who to stay away from
I forgot...my IBuyPower machine was very noisy too, the whole 4 years I had it. I got used to it, but when I get my ASUS machine I realized how loud the older machine really was.
I have been keeping my eye out on maingear. They are meant to be pretty fast and quiet here is a link to one. That being said I havent actually played one.
https://www.maingear.com/custom/desktops/vybe/
I know you havent claimed technical ability to make a PC but I would suggest you price it out. I went to newegg and priced out pretty much all the same components for a PC such as a Maingear one and I find I get them for about 300 to 500 cheaper (depending on the build).
You might have a nephew or family member who would be willing t help you build it.
Con
If you want a pre-built system, I'd also consider digital storm http://www.digitalstorm.com. I personally laid down money 5 years ago on a Talon from Falcon Northwest and it still performs very, very well. They have outstanding customer service and have provided me with much assistance even though my rig is not longer under their warranty, they still offer to help resolve manufacture warranties if I ever needed it. It all depends on how much money you are will to output.
I had an ibuypower and it worked very well and as far as I know it's still being used by the person I gave it too.
I forgot about Digital Storm. They have a good rep.
Thanks, guys. O0
I'm still looking. One of the things I'd like my next PC to have is a Blu Ray drive (I watch movies on my PC's monitor instead of the TV) and it's very rare to see one of those on a PC. So I may have to skip that because I didn't like the computers I have seen them installed on thus far.
^I installed a Blu Ray on my iBuyPower myself. My newer ASUS came with one already installed.
^That's probably what I will end up doing. In the meantime I can use the external Blu-Ray drive I have.
IIRC last year I bought a blu ray drive for about 50.00.
If I remember correctly from when I bought my Blue Ray drive, the drive itself wasn't all that expensive. It was the cost of the driver(?) that had to be obtained in order to make the drive work that that ticked me off. :tickedoff:
I remember that too. Where did you get yours from?
I'm not sure but I probably bought it from Newegg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=105-000G-00002R&cm_re=COOLEAD_BLU-RAY_DRIVE-_-105-000G-00002R-_-Product).
Quote from: Greybriar on November 10, 2016, 07:03:29 PM
My Acer Predator (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883103274) died yesterday morning. :'(
So I am looking for a new desktop computer to replace it. The first one I looked at was the new Acer Predator and I was surprised to see that it was inferior to my old one in some ways. As a result, I thought I would try something new.
I didn't see any ready-made PCs that had all the features I wanted. As I lack the technical know-how to build a PC myself, I thought I'd ask here to find out what kind of luck members here have had with iBuyPower.
So what say you? Is iBuyPower a good place to shop? Are their desktop computers worth buying? Would you buy from them again?
My experience with them is dated...but very positive. I would buy from them again.
Thanks for the reply, ArizonaTank. O0
I bought a new IBP desktop from Best Buy over the summer this year. I really like it. It's fairly quiet but occasionally the fan becomes noisy when I'm playing an FPS but never when I'm playing TBS games.
So after a few months of ownership I'm still happy with my purchase.
At the time I was shopping I compared both the ASUS and the IBP desktops. For the money and for what you were getting I choose IBP. If I have the extra cash next time I'd like to try ASUS because my ASUS laptop is absolutely still strong after 3 years of ownership.
Our system is a Digital Storm, 7 years old now. I've never had a problem and will definitely be giving them our business again when we get a new one in the near future. It will be soon, I hope, because we've finally reached the point where I have to carefully check specs when considering the purchase of newer, high end games!
SSD and silent running games, here we come!
Thanks for sharing, W8taminute and Ubercat. O0
But it's making it harder to decide on what to buy. :-\
It seems that Digital Storm really changed their price structure. You used to have several options between $800-1500. Now? No so much. Maybe its because I haven't been in the market for a computer for a long time, but damn their prices seem overly high now.
^You can also go 6-7 years without needing a full upgrade instead of 4-5.
As I mentioned in another thread: "In a last ditch effort to save money (about $4,000!), I took my broken down Windows 7 machine to the shop. I learned the pump had failed on the liquid cooling system. After that is fixed and the repairman checks the system over, I will know whether I should keep it or just buy a new system."
One of the financial considerations in purchasing a top dollar PC is that the components drop in price rather quickly, but the companies that build custom made gaming rigs make them from the best (and most expensive) parts. For example, I had intended to use a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB but the technician at Falcon Northwest recommended a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB that costs over $300 more. That was true to a greater or lesser degree for many of the other components. I wonder whether it's really worth that much more to go with the current top of the line when in a few months the prices will drop considerably.
Anyway, after the comments in this thread, I have come to the conclusion that iBuyPower doesn't come close to making the quality products that Falcon Northwest does. But their machines don't cost nearly so much either.
Unless you want to run max everything on a 4k monitor you don't really need the 1080. I came to that conclusion after building my own system. But don't take my work, read some reviews (http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/gtx-1080-vs-1070). ;)
Those results are pretty much what I expected. Thanks for the link, Mike. O0
Another vendor I've dealt with quite often is Microcenter. They have stores in houston but will ship. prices on a par with newegg. I replaced all computers at work with their in house brand and not one has had an issue now ----well 5 years running.
Their gaming computers are well built and everything from motherboard to GPU is top notch. I bought my mom an all-in one a few years back. since these are like laptops I splurged for the warranty -was like an extra $68. Well a year an a half later it went belly up---they sent her a shipping box overnight for a no cost return---determined to replace the whole thing and over-nighted it to her. excellent warranty.
http://www.microcenter.com/product/473574/G427_Desktop_Computer
check out the specs on this-and note this is not a windows home version but windows pro-- things like that puts them above most. no pre installed app crap either which you get from HP or dell.
Also realize that upgrading the vid card is probably the easiest modification to a PC you can do.
I drooled over the 1080 when I was building mine but the asking price just isn't worth it. In 3 years or so I can upgrade the vid card for the fraction of the cost of a new system and still run close to top of the line.
I mean the 760 I had in my old box could still run everything, just not turned up to 11.
From what I've seen with Nvidia if you get at least the xx60 card or higher your good. Anything lower is just not worth it.
Just to second some of the info in this thread- for history, as I realize Gray has likely bought his new computer now. I had two IBP's; both had the hard drives fail within 2 years and both were noisy. Customer service, when I contacted them, was non-existent.
I voted with my wallet and went with Asus for the replacement. So far I've been pretty happy with it.
I will not buy IBP again.
I have the exact same Asus as Toonces and it also replaced an iBuyPower that was 5 years old. There was no customer service for iBuyPower but besides being very noisy it was well built, no issues.