Buying a new Home Computer (PC)

[richardheitzman]

OK This is really not aviation but I don't "chat" on anything else. I am looking to purchase a new home computer and have been looking at the webiste www.ibuypower.com to design and purchase a computer. I want to stay away from the "big box" stores and away from Dell etc. Anyone have any dealings with them?

From what I can see on the internet searches they seem to have a good rep, little late in delivery but seem to support the product if there was an issue. Pricing is fair to good and have great deals on moderate systems.

Any other online "build your own" that you have used in the past with good results ?

Thanks in advance

Rich

[Skywarrior]

Recommend you look for a local computer shop that will build to order and be there if something breaks.

Nothing like proximity.

 

Chuck M.

 

Addendum:

Just looked at the iBuyPower.com site. My son would love them.

(That's not a compliment.)

I would stay away.

[MARZ]

Are you planning to do a gamers pc?  If not I would suggest doing a laptop - if the display and key board are determining factors - they can be used with the laptop just the same as a desktop.  If it's more graphics related apple is the better way to go albiet more bux.

When I was into buiding my stuff I did newegg.com a lot - good prices on barebones and components

[richardheitzman]

I would love to do a lap top but in reality a home PC for the fun of games (now and into the next couple years) as well as the ability to expand, upgrade etc. I have a laptop that I take with me for work so the home PC is the best for me. Also I work two computers when I am home so the laptop/PC works the best.

[richardheitzman]

seems the newegg site sells the ibuypower systems. I might as well go to the source.

[rob]

Why are you trying to avoid the big box names?

[MARZ]

Quote: rob

Why are you trying to avoid the big box names?

[richardheitzman]

Thanks for the comments you all. I think I will be going to Ibuypower.com and see how that goes. I will post a report when I am done.

 

Rich

[jetmech1972]

Take a look at tigerdirect.com. If you have an operating system disk at home building your own is very easy and you can control the quality and expense of the hardware.

[Barry]

Quote: jetmech1972

Take a look at tigerdirect.com.

[Ned Gravel]

I guess any suggestion to buy a Mac instead is not really going to be considered, is it?

For home use, I owned an Apple IIe from 1984 to 1992 at home.  PCs from 1992 to 2010.  Today it is a Mac.

At work, I used PCs from 1992 to 2001. Then, at a new job, it was Macs from 2001 to 2010.  Today it is PC.

Only ever had one problem with any of my Macs from 1984 to today and that was because the OS was not able to run some of the newer apps in 2007 (I had a 4 year old OS at that point in the office).

Over the same period, I have rebuilt every PC I owned (4 from 1992 to 2010) at least twice because of some virus or or registry error.

Today I work on a PC at work (because that is what IT built for the company) and my home computer is a Mac laptop.

Cost, support, and whether or not we agree with the tactics of the company that builds them will always influence our decisions, I suppose.  I have just had better luck with Macs than PCs (and I was an X-base programmer for a while in all that time).

YMMV.

[jlunseth]

Yeah, the manufacturers computers are often proprietary designs.  Dell is famous for this.  A few years after buying you want to upgrade the video card and put in a new power supply.  You find out the power supply is a custom wired supply that you can't upgrade at all, and if you want to upgrade the video card you have to buy the upgrade from Dell because nothing else will work.  That's been my experience with Dell and a couple of others.  I just build my own.

[Steve Dawson]

I've had the same experiance with Tiger Direct but have loved Dell. I had bought their Gold service thinking that it may be just a scam, however it's been the best option I've bought. It's onto the second year of their service and I'll continue. The biggest advantage is that I can get ahold of their tech support anytime. They speak English and they're in North America, so there's not any cultural differences. I've never had a problem with upgrades either. We use Autocad and Mastercam so video support is essential. We've updated the cards a couple of times and sans problems. I believe their gold service is ~$150/year

This Tuesday we're ordering another PC from Dell for design work.

 

[Steve Dawson]

Double post

[richardheitzman]

thanks for all the comments folks. I had a Dell for the last 6 years and that is the one that finally "died". I have never really been happy with the product, too many prepackaged programs on it that cannot be removed, always popups with "dell alerts" and just did like the performance at all. Anyways I am ordering today the computer system from ibuypower.com and I will post the specs so you all can see what I am getting

Thanks

Rich

[richardheitzman]

OK Here is the system I ordered. I think I did pretty good in setting it up. Comments are encouraged

Item		Unit Price	Quantity	Subtotal Price
[ship Out Next business Day] Intel Core i7 RTG		$1,266.35	1	$1,266.35
1 x Case	Azza Spartan Gaming Case - Black
0 x Case Lighting	None
1 x iBUYPOWER Labs - Noise Reduction	Basic - iBUYPOWER Harmony SRS Sound Reduction System - Reduce System Noise
0 x iBUYPOWER Labs - Internal Expansion	None
1 x Processor	Intel® Core™ i7 960 Processor (4x 3.20GHz/8MB L3 Cache) - FREE Upgrade from Intel Core i7 950 Processor
1 x Processor Cooling	Liquid CPU Cooling System [sOCKET-1366] - [Free Upgrade] Standard 120mm Fan
1 x Memory	6 GB [2 GB X3] DDR3-1333 - ** FREE Upgrade to DDR3-1600 ** Corsair or Major Brand
1 x Video Card	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 - 1GB - Single Card
1 x Video Card Brand	Major Brand Powered by ATI or NVIDIA
1 x Motherboard	MSI X58A-GD45
1 x Motherboard USB / SATA Interface	Motherboard default USB / SATA Interface
1 x Power Supply	700 Watt -- Standard
1 x Primary Hard Drive	2 TB HARD DRIVE -- 32M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s - Single Drive
0 x Data Hard Drive	None
1 x Optical Drive	24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black
0 x 2nd Optical Drive	None
1 x Flash Media Reader / Writer	12-In-1 Internal Flash Media Card Reader/Writer - Black
0 x Meter Display	None
0 x USB Expansion	None
1 x Sound Card	3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard
1 x Network Card	Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100)
1 x Operating System	Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + Office Starter 2010 (Includes basic versions of Word and Excel) - 64-Bit
1 x Keyboard	iBUYPOWER USB Keyboard - Black
1 x Mouse	iBUYPOWER Internet Mouse
0 x Monitor	None
0 x 2nd Monitor	None
1 x Speaker System	iBUYPOWER 2.1 Channel Stereo Super Bass Subwoofer Speaker System
0 x Headset	None
0 x Video Camera	None
1 x Warranty	Standard Warranty Service - Standard 3-Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support
1 x Rush Service	Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) - [RUSH !!!], Ship Out in Next Business Day

 

[jlunseth]

Pretty nice.  SSD's are much faster than standard hard drives.  An SSD large enough for the operating system works really well, boot up is much faster.  2TB is alot of storage.  I actually have more than that.  But you will find that you don't need nearly that much unless you are storing lots of large format digital photos, or video, or things like that.  The bigger issue with hard drives is back up.  My choice would be a smaller HD, like 1 TB, but add on a home server of some kind for back up and/or large volume storage.  Having built a few, the weakest link is the HD, I have had quite a few go belly up after a year or so.  The second weakest link is the CPU and/or the cooling for it, if the CPU is running hot it will fail early.

[richardheitzman]

I was looking at them, but the upcharge busted my budget and the 2tb harddrive was a "free" upgrade from the 500mb that comes standard so I stuck with it. The system has a liquid cooling system and a 120mm fan and I didn't overclock the CPU or the Video card so I think it should run "cool". I think heat is what killed my home system last week.

I have an external HD (500mb) so I have been in the habit of backing up the main drive. I might buy the SSD later on this summer.

[fantom]

So what did that set-up set you back, Richard?

[richardheitzman]

little over $1200 plus the $125 for fed ex 2 day shipping. They also have a special going right now that they offer free "expidite" service on some of the systems (wait time is usally 5-7 business days to complete a system" and also %5 off if you type in "ibuypower" in the coupon box at check out. Many "free" upgrades when you are building the system as well as pretty good Easter specials. (LOL a computer store offering Easter specials".

I am waiting on my "Sales rep" to contact me and confirm the order "reveiwing the selection" is what they say. (Waiting on the credit card charge to clear is more likely". I'll keep up on the posts.

[fantom]

Excellent....we may have to admit you to the cheap ba$tards (CB) club :-))) 

[richardheitzman]

In the last couple days I have received periodic updates on the stages that my order has gone through. For a "Ship in 24 hours" order it took three days for them to ship so my system should be in Texas by Friday. I expected no less so I am not upset. I am just hopeful the system will come through the shipping undamaged.

[richardheitzman]

Just a follow up on the home computer. The system took about a week after ordering to arrive at the house. The 24 hour ship comment is not true, and that is ok. They provided updates on each stage of the process via email and so it kept me in the loop and not having to call to find out what was up. The system shipped and arrived with no damage. Looks great but a bit noisey. There are a bunch of upgrades that was unexpected. (more ports to plug into, etc). Fast as hell, runs all my stuff no problem. Now I just have to finish loading in all my office stuff. All in all a good price and great system. I would recommend.