Custom PC options? Who to go with?

[EliteRetard]

Normally I build all the PCs for freinds and family, but in this case theyre to far for me to do so...figured Id find a decent online company to build one for them and provide the tech support this time. Checking through the companies I remember I found some interesting options like this:

CASE CM|RC-830-KKN3-GP BK R (Item#ABS11119122) 1 $102
ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition NVIDIA® nForce™ 590 SLI™ at full x16 x16 mode AMD Socket AM2 (Item#ABS13131011) 1 Standard
MEM 2Gx2|PAT DII800 PDC24G6400ELK R (Item#ABS20220227) 1 $252
HD 750G|ST 7K 16M SATA2 ST3750640AS (Item#ABS22148134) 1 $8.01
VGA MSI RX3870-T2D512E OC HD3870 RT (Item#ABS14127315) 1 Standard
DVD BURN LITE-ON|DH-20A4P-04 20X % (Item#ABS27106228) 1 Standard
PSU ABS|BZ900 900W RTL (Item#ABS17814013) 1 Standard
ZALMAN CNPS9500 AT 2 Ball CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink (Item#ABS35118003) 1 Standard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core Processor (Item#ABS19103773) 1 Standard
Call of Juarez PC Game (Item#ABS32776001) 1 Standard
MS WIN VISTA HM PREM SP1 32BIT 1PK% (Item#ABS32116485) 1 Standard

Price with Option(s): $3061.01

Sweet! 3GHz AMD 64 X2 with 4GB RAM and a 3870 512MB. From ABS PC if you couldnt tell. Im probably asking way to much, but isnt there a way I cant get a machine like this for closer to 1000$? Are there alternative companies out there? Alienware and Falcon Northwest are equally expensive (though they do seem to offer /slightly/ faster parts).

Budget is 1000$ or less, and the thing is I dont really need a "gaming" rig...something like a 5770 or GTX460 would be fine. The CPU RAM and HDD are more important...Id love to find a hybrid drive somewhere, any computer n00b can actually use them and not have any whacky crap to deal with and youve still got enough storage for all your programs. AMD X6 or i7-920/930 are the only things Im looking at CPU wise. Kinda want 6-8GB RAM.

I am wondering if AMD is the better option, the X6 should still be plenty fast for just about everything and from what I understand the AM3 platform will still be in use next year and will have potential upgrade options (bulldozer?). They do plan to do video editing and stuff so Im thinking why not go X6 since it doesnt cost much more than the X4s.

Anyway...I basically know what Im looking for and what prices should look like, I just dont know any of the current custom PC builders. Two seem to be dead and two are still way overpriced.

 

[EliteRetard]

Interesting...I did more digging myself and did find some options. Dont know much about them all, some arent that great looking. Still wouldnt mind some input.

 

[Chapbass]

I'm confused...is that build from like 2 years ago? That thing isn't worth anything close to 3 grand...

 

[Emulex]

dunno i got essentio refurb (cowboom/ebay/etc) dual core i5-650 with 8gb ram igp. 1TB drive - $359 shipped. just beef up the power supply and add video card and ssd - done.

win7 ultimate with slic2.1 (no activation b/s) . shop around dude.

 

[IlllI]

Budget is 1000$ or less, and the thing is I dont really need a "gaming" rig...

NVIDIA® nForce™ 590 SLI

you certainly do not need this then


and you won't get any use out of 6 cores unless you have software that specifically can use them. so you might end up not using that many in every day life

 

[EliteRetard]

I'm confused...is that build from like 2 years ago? That thing isn't worth anything close to 3 grand...

LOLz sorry I forgot the sarcasm mode. I just pulled those specs form the ABS PC website:
http://www.abs.com/

Thats why I was asking for some suggestions...the sites I seem to recall are all defunct.

I thought Id get a quick reply of a few good places...but there really dont seem to be any. I found one that looks like it has what I want, cyberpower, but it seems 50/50 as to whether theyre any good or not.

 

[IlllI]

cyberpower has been around for many years

another is ibuypower

and pugetsystems (anandtech did a review on them a while back if i recall)

 

[madeuce]

before I built one I was looking at cyberpower a lot. Seemed to have the lowest prices.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Newegg has this for $1,000:
HP Pavilion Elite HPE-250F Intel Core i7 860(2.80GHz) 8GB DDR3 1TB ATI Radeon HD 5770 Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

The 5770 is decent though for serious gaming you'd be better off with 4 GB RAM, a slower CPU, and either a 5850 or nvidia GTX 460 1 GB.

 

[EliteRetard]

Hadnt heard of pugetsystems...their prices are terrible lol. 250$ for a 4770, 400$ for a 5850, 450$ GTX470...ouch

the low prices are why Im looking at cyberpower, but there do seem to be several bad reviews. Mostly poor quality control and customer service.

But I can get a system with an AMD x6, 4GB RAM, 1TB HDD, 2x5770s, CM 430 Elite, Corsair 750w, Asus/Gigabyte MOBO (havent decided) Win7 64bit ect ect for just over 1000$. Im thinking maybe drop one of the 5770s since I dont really need it and upgrading something else. Could get 8GB RAM.

Im actually unsure of which MOBO to get...Im kinda wondering which one would be most likely to support bulldozer (is there something specific I should look for?). I might just get a lower CPU one 5770 and 4GB RAM and call it a day. Maybe even drop the GPU if I can find a good MOBO with integrated, since new cards will be coming out soon. Dropping in a new video card would be super easy. Wait for an SSD that doesnt need magical powers to run or get a hybrid drive...the hard drive thing might be a pain, but they dont offer any good options anywhere so I dont have a choice there.

I knew what I wanted...then I had a thought. Damn it.

 

[Chiropteran]

I'd suggest Dell. For a non-gaming PC you can usually get a pretty nice deal if you shop around a bit. For example in the $1000 range I'd look at the studio XPS 8100, you could get one with an i7 860 (faster than the i7 920 you mentioned, and faster than the AMD 6 core CPUs) for less than $900. Although it wouldn't have dual 5770 cards, it would otherwise be superior to the system you just mentioned. Why would you go crossfire on a non-gaming system?