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want to buy decent gaming pc, but havent purchased pc in ~5yrs

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eddiebravo

Senior member
a few months ago i set out to upgrade my pc myself...bought an e5200, ati 3870, 2 gigs of ram, and new mobo...anyways i had a hell of a time installing everything and i STILL cannot get all of the necessary drivers to work without causing a ton of problems(if i install videocard drivers my network card stops working and i cant get online, i cannot install audio drivers without crashing, etc.) i am sick of wasting time with tech support and not getting anywhere, so ive decided to just give up and buy a pre-made.

so...i am looking for a solid gaming computer for anywhere up to $1500, but the cheaper the better. i want something that will perform well today and last a little while before i make a major high end purchase in ~1.5-2yrs. this is going to be a gaming pc, and i play at 1650x1080 resolution(pretty sure those are the numbers for my 22in lg).

i used to buy voodoopc's and they were always AWESOME, but it seems like they are in a weird transition phase right now and only offer a seemingly underpowered desktop through HP, and their signature omen which costs like $11,000. i have heard a lot of horror stories from alienware, so i am hesitant to buy from them. at the same time, i feel like dell builds shit machines that come pre-installed with a bunch of garbage and always seem to take forever to boot up.

however, dell seems to be able to provide a much better system on paper for the price compared to anything else i have been able to find.

look at this for example...$1360:
My System Details
Intel® Core?2 E8400 (6MB,3.0 GHz, 1333FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-Bit
Black Bezel Chassis
4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4 DIMMs
500GB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
Dual Drives: 48x Combo + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable
nVidia GeForce GTX 280 ? 1024MB
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
Dell 19 in 1 Media Reader with Bluetooth


is that a good buy? what do you guys suggest? thanks!
 
ok i looked at the studio xps...i have a few builds...which would be the best choice? again, im looking for pretty high end gaming performance now, but i dont want to end up on the wrong side of the performance/price curve where you dont get enough extra performance to justify the extra cost:

1) $1365

Intel® Core?2 E8400 (6MB,3.0 GHz, 1333FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-Bit
4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4 DIMMs
500GB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
Dual Drives: 48x Combo + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable
nVidia GeForce GTX 280 ? 1024MB
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio

2) $1699

Intel® Core?2 Q9550 (12MB,2.83GHz, 1333FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-Bit
8GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz (4 DIMM)
750GB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable
nVidia GeForce GTX 280 ? 1024MB
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio

3) $1529

Intel® Core?i7-920 processor(8MB L2 Cache, 2.66GHz)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-Bit
6GB Tri-Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 6 DIMMs
500GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capability
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
ATI Radeon HD 4870 GDDR5 1024MB

or, 4) order #3 with the crappier radeon 3650 for $1,279, and then buy a videocard on my own to upgrade(maybe gtx 285 for ~$340, bringing the total to $1619).
 
Well I would go with the i7 personally, though you say it is $250 cheaper to get a 3650 instead of a 4870...So definitely just go buy any video card on your own, because a 4870 1gb is a lot cheaper than that, or you can go with the gtx285 like you mentioned. But for the price, I think it might be worth it go with the i7 system for $165 more, given the newer technology and extra ram
 
How did you build this exactly where you have a Core2 system costing more than an i7? While pre-built is just fine, there's 2 things you almost never want to buy from the company, that's ram and the video card because that's one area where they really screw you. My advice is go with the Q9550 or i7 set-up, get the cheapest possible video card and lowest possible amount of ram they offer, then buy those separately from Newegg or something and install them yourself.
 
thanks for the suggestions about ram and videocard. i didnt know they raped you that hard with the ram.

the core2 system priced out $100 more than the i7 system because it has a gtx280 compared to the radeon 3650 in the i7 system. my upgrade experience traumatized me a bit, so i was hoping to just order something and not have to deal with installing new parts and drivers, even if it is something as simple as a videocard. but i think i will end up going that route because now i know that it is a lot cheaper to buy the ram and videocard on my own...but if i end up getting compatibility/stability issues, i will probably throw the computer out the window and just buy a ps3 and typewriter.

how will i know what kind of ram/videocards are supported by the dell mobo and case?
 
also, how does the i7 920 compare to the q9550 in terms of gaming performance? i dont care about encoding or anything else like that.
 
Originally posted by: eddiebravo
anyways i had a hell of a time installing everything and i STILL cannot get all of the necessary drivers to work without causing a ton of problems(if i install videocard drivers my network card stops working and i cant get online, i cannot install audio drivers without crashing, etc.)
Click to expand...

Classic problem. First thing to install are the mobo chipset drivers on first boot, before doing anything else. Then install the latest service pack (if necessary), then the hardware drivers. Otherwise, hardware problems galore, especially on the cheaper mobos.

But I digress. The videocards supported on a Dell depends on the depth of the case and the PSU cables. If the case depth isn't long enough, you can forget about most of the current powerful cards, they're too long. The way you will know is getting measurements. And when you configure cheap on a Dell, you get a PSU specifically designed for the shipped hardware, so there most likely won't be enough connections, the correct connections, or no connections at all, for current videocards. The way to know is to open the case, I don't think there are any PSU specs at Dell when you are configuring your system.

RAM is less of a crapshoot.

how does the i7 920 compare to the q9550 in terms of gaming performance?
Click to expand...

It's comparible
 
You sound like a guy who needs Ibuypower.com I think I7 comps don't hit the price/performance sweet spot. A regular C2D+4870 or the Nvidia equivalent is what I'd get. It hits the price/preformance sweet spot.
 
"
Classic problem. First thing to install are the mobo chipset drivers on first boot, before doing anything else. Then install the latest service pack (if necessary), then the hardware drivers. Otherwise, hardware problems galore, especially on the cheaper mobos. "

tried that. about 15 times. seriously, i tried every imaginable order(chipset first then only sp1, chipset first then sp2, chipset first then sp3, sp1 first then chipset, etc.) nothing works.

anyways, thank you hacp for the pugetsystems link! they look perfect...
 
Originally posted by: eddiebravo
i configured an i7 system on cyberpowerpc and the price came to exactly $1337.00

i think this is a sign from the heavens
Click to expand...

You MUST be kidding me.

No offense intended, but hail and tornadoes are also signs from the heavens.

Cyberpower uses used and "like new" components in their builds, and if you were to take a look at their tech forum, you will see that many of their systems have been failing "within ten minutes".

Check out: www.cyberpowerpc.com/forum and go to the tech section at the bottom of the Forum.

I'm a FORMER customer...returned my rig during 30 day "guarantee period" for no less than NINE significant defects.

So, IMHO...stay away from Cyberpower. Inferior waste of time and money.
 
ouch, thanks for the warning. i was definitely not totally sold on cyberpowerpc because i never got a great feeling from them, but the low price was tempting. you do have to admit that pricing out a system to exactly $l33t dollars and no cents is a pretty funny coincidence.
 
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