As the title says i am looking to buy a new gaming PC. My budget is around 1.5k - 2k dont really wanna build it myself does anyone know a really good site to customize it on and buy it from?
Bought the first in 2003 and the second in 2007. Both still run and have been given to family members. ALso had 2 friends buy laptops that still run perfectly. If you are hesitant to build your own computer I'd go with this or a similar "second tier" company as the big names (Dell, HP, etc.) will not get you the best bang for your buck.
Do be warned that iBuyPower will give you a chance to pick out a real lemon of a computer if you don't know what you're doing. They offer some good parts, but also some pretty bad ones.
From a cursory look through, to try to pick a build from there, I use the Memorial Day E1 special as the starting point to configure from. A build that would work pretty well for you given their prices would be to change to the following options:
Case: Cooler Master HAF 922
Memory: 4 GB [2 GB X2] DDR3-1600
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4-B3
Video card: AMD Radeon HD 6970 - 2GB
Power supply: Corsair CMPSU-750AX
Primary hard drive: 120 GB Corsair Force Series F120
Data hard drive: 1 TB HARD DRIVE -- 32M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s
That comes to $1561.
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You should be aware that if you were to build it, you could get something basically identical for hundreds of dollars cheaper. And it's not that hard to actually assemble a computer from parts, as plugging things into PCI Express slots and SATA ports inside the computer isn't any harder than plugging things into USB, DVI, and Ethernet ports outside of the computer. If you've got more money than free time, then maybe it still makes sense to hire someone else to assemble it. But do be aware that you're paying a price premium for it.
You should also be aware of cut corners. There are some that you can get around, by getting a good power supply like the one I mentioned above, rather than a cheap junk "standard" power supply.
But there are some that you can't get around. It doesn't tell you what memory they give you. If you want to specify, they charge an absurd price premium, and even then, it still doesn't tell you exactly what. They do tell you clock speed, number of modules, and total capacity. But they don't tell you latency timings or voltages. There's a decent chance that the 1600 MHz memory that they sell is overvolted to 1.65 V, in which case, it's basically 1333 MHz memory that they've factory overclocked for you. If that's the case, then you can run it at 1333 MHz and 1.5 V and it will be fine. Or even 1600 MHz and 1.65 V would probably also be fine, though caveats about overclocking and overvolting still apply.
They also won't tell you exactly what video card they're selling. Or if they do, they charge quite a bit extra for a factory overclocked card that really isn't a premium card. I could understand paying extra for a MSI Twin Frozr or Sapphire Vapor-X, but not a HIS Turbo or a Palit anything. If you're lucky, you'll get a reference card, but that might not be the case. My guess is that for a Radeon HD 6970, it will probably be a reference card, since there aren't any cut down, cheaper versions of the 6970 like there are with some other cards.
On your budget, there's a decent case for going with a CrossFire or SLI setup. The problem is that if you do that, iBuyPower says you have to get a much stronger power supply. The reason is that they only go by the nominal wattage rating, and some power supplies have a nominal wattage rating that is completely fake--including some that iBuyPower offers. So if a given hardware setup means that you should get about a 600 W power supply, then they'll assume that if you get a "600 W" power supply from them, it's cheap junk and will fry if you actually pull 600 W from it. So they'll say that you have to get at least an 800 W power supply for that setup.
More to the point, a Corsair AX750 can handle two Radeon HD 6970s in CrossFire without any problems. But if you want to get two 6970s in CrossFire from iBuyPower, they say you need at least a 950 W power supply. That means you have to pay more for an inferior power supply, unless you get the Corsair AX1200, which is overkill to the point of absurdity. They'll let you get a 1000 W "Extreme Gaming Series" power supply with two 6970s in CrossFire, though, even though it's a pretty safe bet Corsair AX750 can deliver more power safely under real world circumstances than the latter "1000 W" power supply.
Now, it's likely that a single Radeon HD 6970 will give you all of the video performance that you want. But if it doesn't, you can add another for CrossFire and it will be fine. You just can't get iBuyPower to do that for you, which is completely stupid.
It also doesn't tell you what hard drive it is, which means it's probably the cheapest, slowest hard drive that technically meets their claimed specs. If you were getting a hard drive only, then getting a slower than necessary hard drive would not be good. But if you get a good SSD, too, then the hard drive doesn't matter so much.
The forums were acting strangely, and I tried to post about four times before it finally took one. Then I reloaded the page and there was only one post of mine there. Then apparently it accepted a second one sometime later. Weird.
maybe this would be something you are interested in. It's well below your budget..and if you are inclined to use a six core CPU, it might be something you're interested in.
p.s. I have purchased many products from newegg as well. I have nothing but good things to say about them. They deliver fast, and if it's crap..you send it back. I have never had them give me any problems.
Playing: BF4/BF:Hardline, Subnautica 7 days to die Hiatus: EvE Waiting on: World of Darkness(sigh) Interested in: better games in general
maybe this would be something you are interested in. It's well below your budget..and if you are inclined to use a six core CPU, it might be something you're interested in.
And then if you wanted to make a modern $1000+ gaming machine out of that, you'd have to start by tossing out the motherboard, processor, and case. The power supply is bad enough that it would be overpriced even if it were completely free. The hard drive is all right so long as you don't try to run real programs off of it, so you'd still want new storage. The memory should be fine, except that you need two modules, not one, so you'd still have to buy new memory.
And then there is also the issue that the original poster doesn't want to build it himself.
That's the wrong platform entirely. Bloomfield is Intel's best processors from 2008. Sandy Bridge is Intel's best processors from 2011. Guess which one is better.
It looks like you want to overclock, in which case, you should get either a Core i5 2500K or a Core i7 2600K. The latter is a little better, but a lot more expensive. On your budget, you could go either way. But even the Core i5 2500K is vastly better than the processor you picked, in addition to being cheaper. Either of those processors should be paired with an LGA 1155/P67 motherboard.
If you want 8 GB or more of system memory, then you should go with 4 GB modules rather than 2 GB modules. That means less power consumption, less strain on the memory controller, and more room for future upgrades if you decide you need more memory in the future.
The Corsair TX series power supplies were pretty nice in their day, but are rather dated by now. They're still decent enough, but I wouldn't get one at those prices. Corsair's AX series power supplies are a lot better, most notably with much higher energy efficiency and much lower ripple. Speaking of which, you'll get back some of the extra cost of an AX series power supply in the form of lower electric bills, at least if you pay your own electric bills.
If you don't want to shell out for a Corsair AX series power supply, then you might as well get the XFX Core edition one instead. That's better than the Corsair TX, and cheaper, too. For what it's worth, the Thermaltake power supplies on their page are garbage, and the Cooler Master ones aren't that good, either.
I would highly recommend getting a solid state drive on your budget. Otherwise, you're going to end up paying $2000+ for a computer that is painfully slow. Here's my usual explanation for why you need a solid state drive:
See the Western Digital VelociRaptor down at the bottom of those charts? That's the fastest consumer hard drive on the market. And it gets completely destroyed by the SSDs. It gets left off of the second chart entirely, because the bar length would round to 0 pixels long. And yes, longer bars are better.
If you need a lot of storage space, then what you do is to get a small SSD together with a large hard drive. You install the OS and your main programs on the SSD, and then put random junk like videos, music, and pictures on the hard drive. Any programs that you run off of the SSD will be fast and responsive. You put stuff on the hard drive for which speed doesn't matter.
The basic problem with hard drives is that they're an intrinsically slow technology that cannot be made fast. Whenever a hard drive is supposed to do something, it has to stop and wait for the platters and heads to physically move to the right spot before it can do anything. When it has to do that hundreds of times in a row to load a program, or perhaps zone in an online game, then you get to sit there and wait.
If you had a good solid state drive, then you wouldn't have to wait nearly so much. At the prices that iBuyPower offers, I'd probably recommend the 120 GB Corsair Force. Ignore the Kingston and Adata SSDs, as at least some of them are junk that a reputable company wouldn't sell, and I'm not sure about the others.
If you want to watch Blu-Ray movies on your computer, then go ahead and get a Blu-Ray drive. Otherwise, don't. Even if Blu-Ray catches on in the future, a DVD drive today plus a Blu-Ray drive then will be cheaper than a Blu-Ray drive alone today.
I really don't see the point of paying $26 for a fan controller.
You're also paying $25 for an extra 4 USB front panel ports. If you want front panel USB ports, then get a case that has them, as a lot of cases have at least two. The $25 for extra front USB ports only makes sense if you have a lot of stuff that you want to plug into USB ports in the front of the case--as opposed to USB ports on the back, of which there will be plenty.
Don't expect miracles from the Bigfoot 2100 network card. It will typically reduce your ping times by a few milliseconds, and maybe get you an extra frame per second in some cases if you're processor-bound. If that's worth $89 to you, then go ahead, but most people wouldn't.
If you want Crysis 2, then consider that iBuyPower will sell it to you for $59. Amazon will sell it to you for $42. Do you really want to buy it from iBuyPower? I didn't look very far, so you might be able to find it cheaper than from Amazon, too.
If you want to spend $72 on a keyboard, it's your money. For most purposes, a $20 keyboard will work just as well. If you're going to use some of the special stuff on a gaming keyboard that a good $20 keyboard doesn't have, then go ahead.
1-2k USD? You can self build pretty much a future proof top of the line machine with that.
People really do keep saying this for a reason. If you're not going to crossfire, I really can't see the logic of the build you listed. I just built one off newegg that has the 6 core thuban and the top of the line MSI MB and Radeon 6970 VC. I got the HAF coolmaster case, and everthing else I needed for a new system all the way down to the mouse pad. I didn't spend a penny over 1200.oo
It took me less than two hours to build it and install the OP, and it posted and booted right up.
Why would I want to spend more for the chip and all the cooling and ram you have listed when I'm not going to crossfire? Just how it looks to me. I don't claim to be an expert, but I am really happy with my build and I know it's great for what I need.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I would never pull the trigger on that setup from IBUY.
That build in that post would it be a good gaming computer and that 1tb is too how much I can store right? Sorry kinda new to all this haha and thanks for the help
That build in that post would it be a good gaming computer and that 1tb is too how much I can store right? Sorry kinda new to all this haha and thanks for the help
The build I posted above isn't designed purely for maximum frame rates for the dollar. It's designed to be an all-around nice computer for whatever you want to use it for, including gaming. It should be reliable, and give you future upgrade options if you decide you need something better in the future, without having to replace the whole machine outright.
If you need more storage space, then replace the 1 TB hard drive by something larger. Check your current hard drive to see how much space you've used. If you've only got 200 GB on there right now, then even 1 TB is already overkill.
The idea is that you get a 120 GB SSD, together with a hard drive of whatever capacity you need. The OS will be installed on the SSD, and you put your main programs that you use a lot on the SSD, too. Then you put everything else on the hard drive. Presumably the SSD will be your C: drive and the hard drive will be your drive or something like that, so it will be clear which is which from the Windows file system.
If you want more memory than 4 GB, you could go with a 2 x 4 GB setup for 8 GB total. I think going with more than 8 GB right now would be ridiculous.
honestly i want to buy a computer that can play all games on high settings and will continue to do so for a couple years and then down the line upgrade as needed and also 1tb is plenty of space for me haha
A Core i5 2500K together with a Radeon HD 6970 will run nearly any game on the market smoothly at high settings. I say "nearly" because there are a relative handful of badly-coded games out there that won't run that well no matter what hardware you have.
As I use it, high settings isn't really the same as max settings. To me, high settings means, you turn settings high enough that turning them higher doesn't make the game look nicer, but only slows your frame rates. So, for example, stop at 4x AA, rather than pushing for 8x AA. I turn depth of field and shadows off in a lot of games, because I think they make the game look worse, not better, even apart from the frame rate hit. Max settings, on the other hand, means you turn all settings as high as they can possibly go, as if the goal is to get as poor of frame rates as possible on given hardware, so you do stuff like 8x SSAA+MLAA.
That's just the default link for one of their configurators, which I don't think is what you meant. Or at least I sure hope you're not planning to build a gaming computer around a Radeon HD 6450 and a generic, cheap junk 450 W power supply. One possibility is to copy and paste the product details window.
The basic issue that you need to address is, do you want to get two video cards in CrossFire/SLI, or just one video card? You've got some of the infrastructure set up for two video cards, in ways that don't make sense if you're only getting one card. And then you only get one video card, and not even a particularly high end card.
If you only want one video card, then save some money and get the Corsair AX750, rather than the AX850. Even 750 W is massively overkill for a single card. And if you want two video cards, then get two video cards.
I'd go higher end on the video cards. If you only get one card, I'd make it either the Radeon HD 6970 or GeForce GTX 570. The 6970 is a better card than the GTX 570, but also more expensive, and both are priced about in line with how good of cards they are. If you get two cards, you could get either two of those in CrossFire or SLI, or else two GeForce GTX 560 Tis or Radeon HD 6950s.
You may be running into a problem with the having two video cards making the site claim that you need a stronger power supply, and that the Corsair AX850 wouldn't be good enough. The Corsair AX850 would be a better power supply for any two card setup than any of the 1000 W power supplies that they offer. To say that the 1000 W power supplies are good enough and the AX850 isn't is terminally stupid.
Maybe they say that 850 W isn't enough because the Thermaltake TR2 may explode if you try to pull 850 W from it, but if that's what they're trying to protect you from, then they should just take the Thermaltake TR2 off their list. Actually, they should take the TR2 off their list anyway, as it's garbage.
If you want two video cards, and iBuyPower won't make an exception when they see that you're going with the AX850 and not some random cheap junk power supply, then I'd simply take your business elsewhere. Cyber Power PC has the same business model and comparable prices, without pulling that nonsense on power supply wattages.
Of course, if you only want a single card, then that's all moot. And if you get a Radeon HD 6970 or GeForce GTX 570, you could add a second on your own and the Corsair AX850 would handle the two cards quite well.
I don't see much sense in getting a Gigabyte -UD7 motherboard. Unless you have some very weird needs that you haven't brought up, I'd save some money and either the Gigabyte -UD4 motherboard or else the Asus P8P67 Pro. Even those two would be overkill for most people, and they'll still support CrossFire or SLI just fine, as well as a hefty processor overclock.
On your budget, I'd strongly advise that you get a solid state drive. You could set the 120 GB Corsair Force to your "primary hard drive", and keep the 1 TB hard drive as the "data hard drive". As you've got it set up now, you're getting two separate 1 GB hard drives.
I questioned the Blu-Ray drive and Bigfoot Killer 2100 on the previous page. If you want to get them, go ahead, I guess.
Do you really want to pay them $49 for a modest overclock that is less than the processor will sometimes get from turbo boost at "stock" speeds? An "up to 20%" overclock on a Core i5 2500K is goofy and useless, as it probably entails disabling turbo boost. If you want to overclock the processor, it should overclock pretty easily, but you're probably better off doing it yourself.
Comments
Before I began building my own, I bought 2 PCS from http://www.ibuypower.com/
Bought the first in 2003 and the second in 2007. Both still run and have been given to family members. ALso had 2 friends buy laptops that still run perfectly. If you are hesitant to build your own computer I'd go with this or a similar "second tier" company as the big names (Dell, HP, etc.) will not get you the best bang for your buck.
k i will build one with using that site and see how it turns out
thanks.
Do be warned that iBuyPower will give you a chance to pick out a real lemon of a computer if you don't know what you're doing. They offer some good parts, but also some pretty bad ones.
From a cursory look through, to try to pick a build from there, I use the Memorial Day E1 special as the starting point to configure from. A build that would work pretty well for you given their prices would be to change to the following options:
Case: Cooler Master HAF 922
Memory: 4 GB [2 GB X2] DDR3-1600
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4-B3
Video card: AMD Radeon HD 6970 - 2GB
Power supply: Corsair CMPSU-750AX
Primary hard drive: 120 GB Corsair Force Series F120
Data hard drive: 1 TB HARD DRIVE -- 32M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s
That comes to $1561.
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You should be aware that if you were to build it, you could get something basically identical for hundreds of dollars cheaper. And it's not that hard to actually assemble a computer from parts, as plugging things into PCI Express slots and SATA ports inside the computer isn't any harder than plugging things into USB, DVI, and Ethernet ports outside of the computer. If you've got more money than free time, then maybe it still makes sense to hire someone else to assemble it. But do be aware that you're paying a price premium for it.
You should also be aware of cut corners. There are some that you can get around, by getting a good power supply like the one I mentioned above, rather than a cheap junk "standard" power supply.
But there are some that you can't get around. It doesn't tell you what memory they give you. If you want to specify, they charge an absurd price premium, and even then, it still doesn't tell you exactly what. They do tell you clock speed, number of modules, and total capacity. But they don't tell you latency timings or voltages. There's a decent chance that the 1600 MHz memory that they sell is overvolted to 1.65 V, in which case, it's basically 1333 MHz memory that they've factory overclocked for you. If that's the case, then you can run it at 1333 MHz and 1.5 V and it will be fine. Or even 1600 MHz and 1.65 V would probably also be fine, though caveats about overclocking and overvolting still apply.
They also won't tell you exactly what video card they're selling. Or if they do, they charge quite a bit extra for a factory overclocked card that really isn't a premium card. I could understand paying extra for a MSI Twin Frozr or Sapphire Vapor-X, but not a HIS Turbo or a Palit anything. If you're lucky, you'll get a reference card, but that might not be the case. My guess is that for a Radeon HD 6970, it will probably be a reference card, since there aren't any cut down, cheaper versions of the 6970 like there are with some other cards.
On your budget, there's a decent case for going with a CrossFire or SLI setup. The problem is that if you do that, iBuyPower says you have to get a much stronger power supply. The reason is that they only go by the nominal wattage rating, and some power supplies have a nominal wattage rating that is completely fake--including some that iBuyPower offers. So if a given hardware setup means that you should get about a 600 W power supply, then they'll assume that if you get a "600 W" power supply from them, it's cheap junk and will fry if you actually pull 600 W from it. So they'll say that you have to get at least an 800 W power supply for that setup.
More to the point, a Corsair AX750 can handle two Radeon HD 6970s in CrossFire without any problems. But if you want to get two 6970s in CrossFire from iBuyPower, they say you need at least a 950 W power supply. That means you have to pay more for an inferior power supply, unless you get the Corsair AX1200, which is overkill to the point of absurdity. They'll let you get a 1000 W "Extreme Gaming Series" power supply with two 6970s in CrossFire, though, even though it's a pretty safe bet Corsair AX750 can deliver more power safely under real world circumstances than the latter "1000 W" power supply.
Now, it's likely that a single Radeon HD 6970 will give you all of the video performance that you want. But if it doesn't, you can add another for CrossFire and it will be fine. You just can't get iBuyPower to do that for you, which is completely stupid.
It also doesn't tell you what hard drive it is, which means it's probably the cheapest, slowest hard drive that technically meets their claimed specs. If you were getting a hard drive only, then getting a slower than necessary hard drive would not be good. But if you get a good SSD, too, then the hard drive doesn't matter so much.
Edit: removed double post.
The forums were acting strangely, and I tried to post about four times before it finally took one. Then I reloaded the page and there was only one post of mine there. Then apparently it accepted a second one sometime later. Weird.
I buy all my stuff at http://www.newegg.com . I been using them for years and I never had any issues with them at all.
cyberpower is a good one. bought a couple from them
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=602617&sku=B69-0371&SRCCODE=WEM2689BY&cm_mmc=email-_-Main-_-WEM2689-_-tigeremail2689
maybe this would be something you are interested in. It's well below your budget..and if you are inclined to use a six core CPU, it might be something you're interested in.
p.s. I have purchased many products from newegg as well. I have nothing but good things to say about them. They deliver fast, and if it's crap..you send it back. I have never had them give me any problems.
Playing: BF4/BF:Hardline, Subnautica 7 days to die
Hiatus: EvE
Waiting on: World of Darkness(sigh)
Interested in: better games in general
And then if you wanted to make a modern $1000+ gaming machine out of that, you'd have to start by tossing out the motherboard, processor, and case. The power supply is bad enough that it would be overpriced even if it were completely free. The hard drive is all right so long as you don't try to run real programs off of it, so you'd still want new storage. The memory should be fine, except that you need two modules, not one, so you'd still have to buy new memory.
And then there is also the issue that the original poster doesn't want to build it himself.
1-2k USD? You can self build pretty much a future proof top of the line machine with that.
what do you guys think of this one
http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Intel_X58_Core_i7_Configurator/w/69692
if you are spending that kind of cash, you might as well pick up a silverstone fortress2 case:D
That's the wrong platform entirely. Bloomfield is Intel's best processors from 2008. Sandy Bridge is Intel's best processors from 2011. Guess which one is better.
It looks like you want to overclock, in which case, you should get either a Core i5 2500K or a Core i7 2600K. The latter is a little better, but a lot more expensive. On your budget, you could go either way. But even the Core i5 2500K is vastly better than the processor you picked, in addition to being cheaper. Either of those processors should be paired with an LGA 1155/P67 motherboard.
If you want 8 GB or more of system memory, then you should go with 4 GB modules rather than 2 GB modules. That means less power consumption, less strain on the memory controller, and more room for future upgrades if you decide you need more memory in the future.
The Corsair TX series power supplies were pretty nice in their day, but are rather dated by now. They're still decent enough, but I wouldn't get one at those prices. Corsair's AX series power supplies are a lot better, most notably with much higher energy efficiency and much lower ripple. Speaking of which, you'll get back some of the extra cost of an AX series power supply in the form of lower electric bills, at least if you pay your own electric bills.
If you don't want to shell out for a Corsair AX series power supply, then you might as well get the XFX Core edition one instead. That's better than the Corsair TX, and cheaper, too. For what it's worth, the Thermaltake power supplies on their page are garbage, and the Cooler Master ones aren't that good, either.
I would highly recommend getting a solid state drive on your budget. Otherwise, you're going to end up paying $2000+ for a computer that is painfully slow. Here's my usual explanation for why you need a solid state drive:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3681/oczs-vertex-2-special-sauce-sf1200-reviewed/6
See the Western Digital VelociRaptor down at the bottom of those charts? That's the fastest consumer hard drive on the market. And it gets completely destroyed by the SSDs. It gets left off of the second chart entirely, because the bar length would round to 0 pixels long. And yes, longer bars are better.
If you need a lot of storage space, then what you do is to get a small SSD together with a large hard drive. You install the OS and your main programs on the SSD, and then put random junk like videos, music, and pictures on the hard drive. Any programs that you run off of the SSD will be fast and responsive. You put stuff on the hard drive for which speed doesn't matter.
The basic problem with hard drives is that they're an intrinsically slow technology that cannot be made fast. Whenever a hard drive is supposed to do something, it has to stop and wait for the platters and heads to physically move to the right spot before it can do anything. When it has to do that hundreds of times in a row to load a program, or perhaps zone in an online game, then you get to sit there and wait.
If you had a good solid state drive, then you wouldn't have to wait nearly so much. At the prices that iBuyPower offers, I'd probably recommend the 120 GB Corsair Force. Ignore the Kingston and Adata SSDs, as at least some of them are junk that a reputable company wouldn't sell, and I'm not sure about the others.
If you want to watch Blu-Ray movies on your computer, then go ahead and get a Blu-Ray drive. Otherwise, don't. Even if Blu-Ray catches on in the future, a DVD drive today plus a Blu-Ray drive then will be cheaper than a Blu-Ray drive alone today.
I really don't see the point of paying $26 for a fan controller.
You're also paying $25 for an extra 4 USB front panel ports. If you want front panel USB ports, then get a case that has them, as a lot of cases have at least two. The $25 for extra front USB ports only makes sense if you have a lot of stuff that you want to plug into USB ports in the front of the case--as opposed to USB ports on the back, of which there will be plenty.
Don't expect miracles from the Bigfoot 2100 network card. It will typically reduce your ping times by a few milliseconds, and maybe get you an extra frame per second in some cases if you're processor-bound. If that's worth $89 to you, then go ahead, but most people wouldn't.
If you want Crysis 2, then consider that iBuyPower will sell it to you for $59. Amazon will sell it to you for $42. Do you really want to buy it from iBuyPower? I didn't look very far, so you might be able to find it cheaper than from Amazon, too.
If you want to spend $72 on a keyboard, it's your money. For most purposes, a $20 keyboard will work just as well. If you're going to use some of the special stuff on a gaming keyboard that a good $20 keyboard doesn't have, then go ahead.
People really do keep saying this for a reason. If you're not going to crossfire, I really can't see the logic of the build you listed. I just built one off newegg that has the 6 core thuban and the top of the line MSI MB and Radeon 6970 VC. I got the HAF coolmaster case, and everthing else I needed for a new system all the way down to the mouse pad. I didn't spend a penny over 1200.oo
It took me less than two hours to build it and install the OP, and it posted and booted right up.
Why would I want to spend more for the chip and all the cooling and ram you have listed when I'm not going to crossfire? Just how it looks to me. I don't claim to be an expert, but I am really happy with my build and I know it's great for what I need.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I would never pull the trigger on that setup from IBUY.
Do note that I picked out a build from them for you in post #4 of this thread. You may wish to add some peripherals to it, though.
The build I posted above isn't designed purely for maximum frame rates for the dollar. It's designed to be an all-around nice computer for whatever you want to use it for, including gaming. It should be reliable, and give you future upgrade options if you decide you need something better in the future, without having to replace the whole machine outright.
If you need more storage space, then replace the 1 TB hard drive by something larger. Check your current hard drive to see how much space you've used. If you've only got 200 GB on there right now, then even 1 TB is already overkill.
The idea is that you get a 120 GB SSD, together with a hard drive of whatever capacity you need. The OS will be installed on the SSD, and you put your main programs that you use a lot on the SSD, too. Then you put everything else on the hard drive. Presumably the SSD will be your C: drive and the hard drive will be your
drive or something like that, so it will be clear which is which from the Windows file system.
If you want more memory than 4 GB, you could go with a 2 x 4 GB setup for 8 GB total. I think going with more than 8 GB right now would be ridiculous.
honestly i want to buy a computer that can play all games on high settings and will continue to do so for a couple years and then down the line upgrade as needed and also 1tb is plenty of space for me haha
A Core i5 2500K together with a Radeon HD 6970 will run nearly any game on the market smoothly at high settings. I say "nearly" because there are a relative handful of badly-coded games out there that won't run that well no matter what hardware you have.
As I use it, high settings isn't really the same as max settings. To me, high settings means, you turn settings high enough that turning them higher doesn't make the game look nicer, but only slows your frame rates. So, for example, stop at 4x AA, rather than pushing for 8x AA. I turn depth of field and shadows off in a lot of games, because I think they make the game look worse, not better, even apart from the frame rate hit. Max settings, on the other hand, means you turn all settings as high as they can possibly go, as if the goal is to get as poor of frame rates as possible on given hardware, so you do stuff like 8x SSAA+MLAA.
http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Intel_P67_Core_i5_i7_Configurator
tell me what you think of this build
That's just the default link for one of their configurators, which I don't think is what you meant. Or at least I sure hope you're not planning to build a gaming computer around a Radeon HD 6450 and a generic, cheap junk 450 W power supply. One possibility is to copy and paste the product details window.
Case
NZXT Lexa-S Gaming CaseBlack w/ Blue Light
Case Lighting
None
iBUYPOWER Labs - Noise Reduction
None
iBUYPOWER Labs - Internal Expansion
None
Processor
Intel® Core™ i5-2500K Processor (4x 3.30GHz/6MB L3 Cache)
iBUYPOWER PowerDrive
PowerDrive Level 2 - Up to 20% Overclocking
Processor Cooling
Liquid CPU Cooling System [SOCKET-1155 & 1156] - ARC Dual Silent High Performance Fan Upgrade (Push-Pull Airflow)
Memory
8 GB [4 GB X2] DDR3-1600 Memory Module - Corsair Vengeance
Video Card
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 - 1GB - FREE Upgrade to GTX 560 2GB - Single Card
Video Card Brand
Major Brand Powered by ATI or NVIDIA
Motherboard
[3-Way SLI] Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD7-B3 -- 2x Gb LAN, 4x PCI-E 2.0 x16
Power Supply
850 Watt -- Corsair CMPSU-850AX
Primary Hard Drive
1 TB HARD DRIVE -- 32M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive
Data Hard Drive
1 TB HARD DRIVE -- 32M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive
Optical Drive
[10X Blu-Ray] LG BLU-RAY Reader, DVD±R/±RW Burner Combo DriveBlack
2nd Optical Drive
None
Flash Media Reader / Writer
None
Meter Display
None
USB Expansion
None
Sound Card
3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard
Network Card
Killer Xeno Pro Gaming Network Card
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + Office Starter 2010 (Includes basic versions of Word and Excel) 64-Bit
Keyboard
iBUYPOWER USB Keyboard - Black
Monitor
24" LED 1920x1080 -- Sceptre E246W-1080P (23.6" Viewable)
2nd Monitor
None
Speaker System
iBUYPOWER 2.1 Channel Stereo Super Bass Subwoofer Speaker System
Headset
None
Video Camera
None
Case Engraving Service
None
Warranty
Standard Warranty Service - Standard 3-Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support
Rush Service
Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) - No Rush Service, Estimate Ship Out in 5~10 Business Days
Free Stuff
1 x [Free Game Voucher] - Star Trek Online Free with Purchase of Selected Intel Core i5/i7 Processor or SSD
Free Stuff
1 x [Free] - ASUS USB-N13 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 300Mbps Wireless USB Adapter
Power Protection
1 x Mighty Voltage Regulator - Opti-UPS SS1200-AVR
Advanced Build Options
1 x iBUYPOWER Specialized Advanced Packaging System Protect your investment during transportation!
Advanced Build Options
1 x Professional wiring for all cables inside the system tower Achieve exceptional airflow in your chassis
Advanced Build Options
1 x Basic Pro Wiring
The basic issue that you need to address is, do you want to get two video cards in CrossFire/SLI, or just one video card? You've got some of the infrastructure set up for two video cards, in ways that don't make sense if you're only getting one card. And then you only get one video card, and not even a particularly high end card.
If you only want one video card, then save some money and get the Corsair AX750, rather than the AX850. Even 750 W is massively overkill for a single card. And if you want two video cards, then get two video cards.
I'd go higher end on the video cards. If you only get one card, I'd make it either the Radeon HD 6970 or GeForce GTX 570. The 6970 is a better card than the GTX 570, but also more expensive, and both are priced about in line with how good of cards they are. If you get two cards, you could get either two of those in CrossFire or SLI, or else two GeForce GTX 560 Tis or Radeon HD 6950s.
You may be running into a problem with the having two video cards making the site claim that you need a stronger power supply, and that the Corsair AX850 wouldn't be good enough. The Corsair AX850 would be a better power supply for any two card setup than any of the 1000 W power supplies that they offer. To say that the 1000 W power supplies are good enough and the AX850 isn't is terminally stupid.
Maybe they say that 850 W isn't enough because the Thermaltake TR2 may explode if you try to pull 850 W from it, but if that's what they're trying to protect you from, then they should just take the Thermaltake TR2 off their list. Actually, they should take the TR2 off their list anyway, as it's garbage.
If you want two video cards, and iBuyPower won't make an exception when they see that you're going with the AX850 and not some random cheap junk power supply, then I'd simply take your business elsewhere. Cyber Power PC has the same business model and comparable prices, without pulling that nonsense on power supply wattages.
Of course, if you only want a single card, then that's all moot. And if you get a Radeon HD 6970 or GeForce GTX 570, you could add a second on your own and the Corsair AX850 would handle the two cards quite well.
I don't see much sense in getting a Gigabyte -UD7 motherboard. Unless you have some very weird needs that you haven't brought up, I'd save some money and either the Gigabyte -UD4 motherboard or else the Asus P8P67 Pro. Even those two would be overkill for most people, and they'll still support CrossFire or SLI just fine, as well as a hefty processor overclock.
On your budget, I'd strongly advise that you get a solid state drive. You could set the 120 GB Corsair Force to your "primary hard drive", and keep the 1 TB hard drive as the "data hard drive". As you've got it set up now, you're getting two separate 1 GB hard drives.
I questioned the Blu-Ray drive and Bigfoot Killer 2100 on the previous page. If you want to get them, go ahead, I guess.
Do you really want to pay them $49 for a modest overclock that is less than the processor will sometimes get from turbo boost at "stock" speeds? An "up to 20%" overclock on a Core i5 2500K is goofy and useless, as it probably entails disabling turbo boost. If you want to overclock the processor, it should overclock pretty easily, but you're probably better off doing it yourself.
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/CyberPower_Z68_Configurator/
That's just a default configurator link again. But yeah, that's the right configurator if you're looking to buy from them.