Buying a new PC.

[S0L|D]

Hey everyone, my first post here, even though I've used the ratings fora while.

I'm looking to buy a new PC, and I'm having a hard time finding a reputable place that doesn't charge an arm and a leg. This is for gaming, so it has to be fast. I went to Alienware, and they are overpriced for what they offer, to say the least. Same w/ Falcon, Voodoo, etc etc. I then stumbled upon CyberPower in my PC Gamer mag. I went there, and built an entire system, 2200+ T-Bred, 1024 XMS PC2700 ram, (2) 80GB WD 8MB cache HDs in raid 0 array, GF4 Ti4600, 19" Viewsonic E90 monitor, 3Com modem, 3Com NIC, Asus mobo, forget the model, good one though, mouse and keyboard(generic crappy ones are all the offer, I'm probalby going to buy a painted set from alienware), plextor cdrw and pioneer dvd rom and winxp pro all for around 2300. Basically the best of everything.

Now I'm thinking, rockin', this should be sweet, basically as much as I could build it for. I then go to ZDNet and Resellerratings and check the company out. Blah, most of the reviews are bad, and horror stories about refurbished parts and wrong components. So now I'm having second thoughts. For $2300 anywhere else, I'm looking at a XP 2200+, 512, (1) 80GB HD, GF4 Ti4600, and some other more mediocre components, and probably not even a monitor. The next best place was ThunderboxPC.com but they are more expensive, however they got really good reviews, all 14 are positive.

So my question: Go w/ CyberPower, and get the best, most ownage rig around, but risk shoddy quality and lots of headaches, or go w/ a better, maybe more reputable company and sacrifice performance? Or maybe I'm totally wrong and CP is a great company and those reviews don't represent it welL? I dunno, any opinions?

Also, I don't really want to build. Even though I priced out the same exact system as Cyberpower w/ a much nicer monitor and some speakers for the same price. I'm very computer savvy on the software side, but for hardware the extent of my knowledge is changing video and sound cards, memory and hard drive. Never gotten anymore in depth than that. So I really would like to buy.

[daveleau]

I would like to say that building a system is a piece of cake. The hard parts are picking the parts and installing the OS. You can slap one together without even tweaking it and it will be the same thing you get from a company. Companies tend to not tweak or tweak poorly.

Have you thought about barebones systems? Basically, the company sells you a system that has a case, mobo, CPU, memory and floppy already assembled.

I love Newegg and MWave for this option. I have used it often.

Best of luck. Welcome to TechIMO. Thanks for posting.

Dave

[Avicus]

You really should build it yourself. There really isn't much special knowledge required, over and above what you say you know. I built mine with no problems at all and I had only basic experience changing out hds. I even lathed and installed a spiffy copper heat sink.. pretty simple. Building is your best choice if you're thinking about expenses. Plus it makes for some great overnight fun (when it's your first one). Just be extremely careful and paranoid about static, and everything should work out fine.

Also... check out www.newegg.com they have AWESOME prices, and have a great rating on resellerratings.com.. >9

[Avicus]

DON'T buy a monitor online. You're just asking for trouble and huge shipping fees. Don't tempt fate :P Browse locally.

I agree shipping is always high, but if you look around, you can find some really good deals.

I suggest getting them from someplace that is very reputable. Check reseller ratings of course.

I would recommend:

MultiWave Direct

I purchased 3 17" monitors a couple of years ago and they arrived defect free and are still working fine. I think they cost me $150.00/ea. before s/h

[S0L|D]

Good replies, but I'm still cautious about building. I'm very familiar with Newegg, as I've heard great things from a site I frequent alot (www.guru3d.com). I would prefer to buy a system already built though, especially because of the warranty. If I did, on the rare occassion, decide to build, what is a good motherboard for an Athlon 2200+? I've heard bad things about ASUS, so that leaves Abit, Soyo, Epox, MSI, shuttle, leadtek, few others. I like the Soyo platinum, but I hear they aren't good for oc'ing. Which brings me to my next point. While I'm probably not going to overclock, if I did, is it possible to OC a 2200+? I visit madonions site alot and frequently see P4s OCed past 3GHz. Is it possible to OC a 2200 to say...2GHz? Or even higher? I know the P4 1.6 can be brought to 2.6ghz very easily w/ a simply uppping of the fsb. Alright...let mek now.

[Avicus]

Originally posted by S0L|D
Good replies, but I'm still cautious about building. I'm very familiar with Newegg, as I've heard great things from a site I frequent alot (www.guru3d.com). I would prefer to buy a system already built though, especially because of the warranty. If I did, on the rare occassion, decide to build, what is a good motherboard for an Athlon 2200+? I've heard bad things about ASUS, so that leaves Abit, Soyo, Epox, MSI, shuttle, leadtek, few others. I like the Soyo platinum, but I hear they aren't good for oc'ing. Which brings me to my next point. While I'm probably not going to overclock, if I did, is it possible to OC a 2200+? I visit madonions site alot and frequently see P4s OCed past 3GHz. Is it possible to OC a 2200 to say...2GHz? Or even higher? I know the P4 1.6 can be brought to 2.6ghz very easily w/ a simply uppping of the fsb. Alright...let mek now.

First off, most pieces come with warranties... I know my components did. I'd much rather pay to ship an individual part than the entire box if I ever had a problem.

I'm not sure of any good mobos, as the last time I needed to research them was about a year ago when I purchased my current t-bird, but in my experience asus have worked wonderfully, so don't rule them out.

You might be able to OC it to that, it really depends on your mobo and your cooling system. Also, in my experience AMDs tend to run hotter, so I would be wary of any excessive overclocking unless you're willing to splurge on a water cooling system.

B-u-i-l-d i-t. It's fun and a great learning experience. Why depend upon a company to fix your computer?

[tharose]

There is a site you might wanna check out to help you decide on which motherboard you might go with, found it just surfing but had some really good reviews in my opinion. It's www.motherboards.org.

[Tary]

I just recently received my PC from ABS (www.buyabs.com) and was very pleased.

I posted my review of them under their listing on this site. I think it's listed as ABS Computer Technologies, but I'm not sure. If you do a search on ABS, you should find it.

If you want some more in-depth info, feel free to email me:
mdacobas@aol.com

Michael