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Build for a friend or Buy?

S

Smartazz

Diamond Member
Hi guys, a friend of mine asked me to build him a gaming PC for around a grand and heres what I came up with:
Sony Optiarc DVD Burner
Antec Three Hundred
Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB Hard Drive
Acer X223Wbd Black 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor(1680 by 1050)
HIS ATI Radeon HD 4890 Turbo+
Corsair CMPSU-450VW 450W Power Supply
Cheap Logitech Deluxe 250 Keyboard
Logitech G5
4GB of PC6400 GSkilll DD2 RAM
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
AMD Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6GHz
Biostar TA790GXE 128M Motherboard(Bundled with the processor)



He's not a huge graphics enthustiast and he usually plays RTS and MMORPGs such as Company of Heroes and WOW. What are your thoughts on this build? I think it looks pretty solid for roughly $1000 after rebates off of Newegg.

Edit: Maybe he would be better off buying an HP and throwing a video card in it. I found a similarly spec'd HP for $600 plus possibly a $150-$200 video card(either the HD5770 or HD4890). What are your thoughts on this route instead?
 
Originally posted by: bamacre
Just remember, if you build it, you're going to be his tech support. 😀
Click to expand...

Fully aware of that. We both have an understanding that if it's hardware related in the next three years, I'll fix it. If it's a software problem, it's not my responsibility.
 
Maybe he would be better off buying an HP and throwing a video card in it. I found a similarly spec'd HP for $600 plus possibly a $150-$200 video card(either the HD5770 or HD4890). What are your thoughts on this route instead?
 
Originally posted by: Smartazz
Maybe he would be better off buying an HP and throwing a video card in it. I found a similarly spec'd HP for $600 plus possibly a $150-$200 video card(either the HD5770 or HD4890). What are your thoughts on this route instead?
Click to expand...

Most OEM systems have a PSU that is just powerful enough to run the spec. Many OEM boxes cannot handle really long cards (hard drive cage in the way, etc). Verify those two factors are not an issue, and this would be the way to go.
 
Originally posted by: Slugbait
Originally posted by: Smartazz
Maybe he would be better off buying an HP and throwing a video card in it. I found a similarly spec'd HP for $600 plus possibly a $150-$200 video card(either the HD5770 or HD4890). What are your thoughts on this route instead?
Click to expand...

Most OEM systems have a PSU that is just powerful enough to run the spec. Many OEM boxes cannot handle really long cards (hard drive cage in the way, etc). Verify those two factors are not an issue, and this would be the way to go.
Click to expand...

Exactly my thoughts. I actually found a pretty nice Acer with a Core 2 Quad Q9400 in it with a GT230, which I've heard is a rebranded 9600GT. The power supply is apparently a 435 watt(though I don't know if it's a good power supply).

Here's the link:
Acer Desktop
 
I can't see the picture too well, but can someone verify if that's an FSP power supply because it looks like it might be an FSP 80plus Bronze power supply. If I'm not mistaken, they make great power supplies.
 
For those games a 5770/4890 card isn't really necessary. You could step down to a 4850ish card to save a bit and buy a full 1080p monitor instead. Also, WoW tends to run a bit better on nvidia in my experience. Dunno about CoH
 
Originally posted by: Smartazz
Originally posted by: bamacre
Just remember, if you build it, you're going to be his tech support. 😀
Click to expand...

Fully aware of that. We both have an understanding that if it's hardware related in the next three years, I'll fix it. If it's a software problem, it's not my responsibility.
Click to expand...

Prediction: There will be numerous hardware failure and zero software failures within the next 3 years.
 
Originally posted by: Smartazz
Hi guys, a friend of mine asked me to build him a gaming PC for around a grand and heres what I came up with:
Sony Optiarc DVD Burner
Antec Three Hundred
Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB Hard Drive
Acer X223Wbd Black 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor(1680 by 1050)
HIS ATI Radeon HD 4890 Turbo+
Corsair CMPSU-450VW 450W Power Supply
Cheap Logitech Deluxe 250 Keyboard
Logitech G5
4GB of PC6400 GSkilll DD2 RAM
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
AMD Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6GHz
Biostar TA790GXE 128M Motherboard(Bundled with the processor)



He's not a huge graphics enthustiast and he usually plays RTS and MMORPGs such as Company of Heroes and WOW. What are your thoughts on this build? I think it looks pretty solid for roughly $1000 after rebates off of Newegg.

Edit: Maybe he would be better off buying an HP and throwing a video card in it. I found a similarly spec'd HP for $600 plus possibly a $150-$200 video card(either the HD5770 or HD4890). What are your thoughts on this route instead?
Click to expand...

I'd suggest spending just a bit more on the monitor and getting a 24" instead.

 
It wouldn't bother me much, but whatever, they seem to mostly be people who don't even know how to reinstall an OS on an OEM machine so I don't think I would take their advice on hardware quality. In hindsight I would probably pick a different monitor though for $250 there are a lot of decent options.

I think it's also worth pointing out if you don't want to build it for him you can get a decent Dell with a 4850 and C2D or C2Q with a 23" monitor in the $950-$1100 depending on your CPU choice.

If you do decide to build it for him your config is nice, I would consider forgoing quad core and getting a fast dual core if he doesn't have the budget room for a 940 quad. Something like the 550 BE can unlock potentially and if you read the benchmarks trashes the 620 in current games. Anyway good luck, it's always fun building systems for friends. Spending money that isn't yours is always a good time haha.
 
You should help him build it. Have him order the parts, then guide him through the assembly process. That way he learns how to build a computer. Then if anything goes wrong later he can't blame you for it.
 
Originally posted by: Greg04
Originally posted by: Smartazz
Originally posted by: bamacre
Just remember, if you build it, you're going to be his tech support. 😀
Click to expand...

Fully aware of that. We both have an understanding that if it's hardware related in the next three years, I'll fix it. If it's a software problem, it's not my responsibility.
Click to expand...

Prediction: There will be numerous hardware failure and zero software failures within the next 3 years.
Click to expand...

Prediction: Your friend will call you every time there is a software failure thinking it is caused by hardware. You will then spend countless hours troubleshooting the problem.
 
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