Gaming help buying a gaming pc

[W.I.C.K.E.D.]

Has anyone ever heard of this company, bought/known someone who has bought from them? I checked resellerratings, and it seems kind of a toss up. Most people seemed pleased, but there were a few who had dead pcs or malfunctioning ones upon arrival. Here's the link, if anyone has any opinions or suggestions I'd appreciate it. I'm trying to spend around 1000 dollars, so lemme know what you think or if you've experienced their computers at all. Here's the link...

http://www.ibuypower.com/


Thanks to all that help

 

[playallday]

You should think about buying it part by part and blinding it yourself. You can save a few bucks.

 

[W.I.C.K.E.D.]

anyone in that case know of a good site to buy parts at? I've only upgraded a pc and never built one. I've done hard drives, video and sound cards, and dvd drives, but that's the extent of my knowledge. Any stores to buy parts from would help.


I also wondered, I have a compaq laptop right now, would it be possible and how hard would it be, to install a new hard drive, processor, ram and video card? Is there anything else that would help make it better for gaming? I know with the upgraded that i mentioned it would make it near suitable.

 

[Noobix]

Well I would advise against building your own system nowadays ...go check out Dell and customize a base PC for your own needs. It'll "probably" be cheaper and you get a peace of mind warranty to cover the whole system!

In the old days is was fun to DIY and you could save some money, but unless you got plans to really customize your build it's just not worth the hassle now.

Upgrading a laptop is generally not a good idea either. (But would depend a lot on the model concerned. ie has it got integrated graphics or a dedicated graphics card that can be replaced?) Apart from adding more memory, laptops aren't made to be upgraded and it can end up costing a lot of money that would be better spent elsewhere. (It might work out better to just buy a new laptop. )

 

[playallday]

Well I would advise against building your own system nowadays ...go check out Dell and customize a base PC for your own needs. It'll "probably" be cheaper and you get a peace of mind warranty to cover the whole system!

Not true. My PC that I built cost me less then what Dell was offering AND it had better parts and allows for a lot more upgrading. Think I just don't like Dell? NOT! My last two PC's were Dell's, loved 'em both.

I'd look at NewEgg for parts.

 

[W.I.C.K.E.D.]

Well I would advise against building your own system nowadays ...go check out Dell and customize a base PC for your own needs. It'll "probably" be cheaper and you get a peace of mind warranty to cover the whole system!

In the old days is was fun to DIY and you could save some money, but unless you got plans to really customize your build it's just not worth the hassle now.

Upgrading a laptop is generally not a good idea either. (But would depend a lot on the model concerned. ie has it got integrated graphics or a dedicated graphics card that can be replaced?) Apart from adding more memory, laptops aren't made to be upgraded and it can end up costing a lot of money that would be better spent elsewhere. (It might work out better to just buy a new laptop. )

Well the laptop is a compaq presario, hp, but I just figured it'd be cheaper that way instead of buying a whole new pc.

QUOTE(Noobix @ Apr 30 2009, 10:04 AM) Well I would advise against building your own system nowadays ...go check out Dell and customize a base PC for your own needs. It'll "probably" be cheaper and you get a peace of mind warranty to cover the whole system!

Not true. My PC that I built cost me less then what Dell was offering AND it had better parts and allows for a lot more upgrading. Think I just don't like Dell? NOT! My last two PC's were Dell's, loved 'em both.

I'd look at NewEgg for parts.

I wonder if newegg sells the casing too, i've never seen those on there.

 

[playallday]

I wonder if newegg sells the casing too, i've never seen those on there.

They do.

 

[Sao Mortel]

These days I would wait some more months to have windows 7 machine. Anyways don't buy XP or Vista thats for sure.

 

[playallday]

You can just download the Windows 7 Beta and use it until it comes out.

 

[updowners]

Has anyone ever heard of this company, bought/known someone who has bought from them? I checked resellerratings, and it seems kind of a toss up. Most people seemed pleased, but there were a few who had dead pcs or malfunctioning ones upon arrival. Here's the link, if anyone has any opinions or suggestions I'd appreciate it. I'm trying to spend around 1000 dollars, so lemme know what you think or if you've experienced their computers at all. Here's the link...

http://www.ibuypower.com/


Thanks to all that help

If you are not going to buy each component separately then ibuypower will probably be the best place to buy a pre-built computer. Their computers are frequently advertised and recommended by PC Powerplay (an australian magazine).

Edit: What the fuck! I just checked the site and their pre-built computer is better and cheaper than my computer which was built by myself. Well that sucks.

 

[playallday]

I just checked the site and their pre-built computer is better and cheaper than my computer which was built by myself. Well that sucks.

Wasn't that way for me. It came out $50 more plus it didn't have as good of RAM and motherboard.

 

[notnarb]

Well I would advise against building your own system nowadays ...go check out Dell and customize a base PC for your own needs. It'll "probably" be cheaper and you get a peace of mind warranty to cover the whole system!

Not true. My PC that I built cost me less then what Dell was offering AND it had better parts and allows for a lot more upgrading. Think I just don't like Dell? NOT! My last two PC's were Dell's, loved 'em both.

I'd look at NewEgg for parts.

if you keep an eye out for dell deals, you can usually make out with a cheaper / better computer then if you were to make it yourself. I scored a Vostro 220 for around 400 with a 22 inch monitor, sold the monitor for 170 dollars (ebay, didn't even have to package it, just threw a new label on the monitor box) and spent 120 of that getting a 4830 and a 400W corsair power supply. I have myself a respectable gaming rig for around 350 dollars total.

My specs are (newegg prices in parenthesis): 2.8Ghz C2D (120), 2GB RAM(30), 250GB HD(50), Sapphire 4830(75). I built a comparable machine on ibuypower, opting for a 2.66 C2D and a 160GB hard drive, both downgrades, and it still came up as 491 dollars. With the above specs, I would need to get a motherboard, DVD burner, case, and power supply for under 75 dollars to beat the deal I got - not easy (216 to beat the ibuypower machine, easily doable)

Moral: Prebuilt desktops can be cheaper with a good sale
Pros: a better case usually (I'm really digging the vostro 220's) with a smaller form factor, warranty
Cons: No overclocking, hard to find

 

[blitzer320]

building a pc can save you money but can also cost you money in some cases it all depends on what you want like i wanted a tv tuner and to get that i had to get vista ultimate but if i built my own pc i could *cough*download*cough* a copy without shelling out $300 saving me alot of money in total it came out to about $500 and on dell it was $1000 but as i said just like those money making infomercials my case was a rare and some might say extreamly rare case

 

[Joe88]

mine came to about $350 (excluding all software) more on that site buying a prebuilt system

 

[pEpz]

I have myself a respectable gaming rig for around 350 dollars total.

My specs are (newegg prices in parenthesis): 2.8Ghz C2D (120), 2GB RAM(30), 250GB HD(50), Sapphire 4830(75).

We are talking about gaming rig. Not an internet browser. That's about the price of a video card.

Mine melted today

 

[notnarb]

I have myself a respectable gaming rig for around 350 dollars total.

My specs are (newegg prices in parenthesis): 2.8Ghz C2D (120), 2GB RAM(30), 250GB HD(50), Sapphire 4830(75).

We are talking about gaming rig. Not an internet browser. That's about the price of a video card.

Mine melted today

I sure hope you are a troll. Unless you are talking about obscene resolutions