Good Gaming PC?

[Azuremen]

I disagree with some of the posters above that you can just buy stuff that fits and slap it together. That would not be my first approach to a good build. For example, a lot of the older motherboards required a 4-pin, 12v CPU power supply in addition to the huge 22/24 pin main motherboard power harness from the power supply. I recently built a Z68 board with a 2600k processor and found myself scratching my head with the CPU needed a 8-pin power plug for the CPU. Completely took me by surprise and changed what Power Supply we were going to use as a result. It also pushed back my build a week because of the return and reorder. So, do a little research. This technology is changing so fast, there are new standards coming out all the time.

Standards are fairly easy to check and there are some good resources if you are unsure about what will work, such as Toms Hardware.

But compared to the old days, before Internet was common place, dealing with jumpers, IDE Slave/Master/Cable, far less onboard stuff like audio, no USB, fdisk, loading ATAPI drivers, bios settings, and so on made it quite a bit more complicated. Now we have SATA, PCI-E, and auto clock sets via bias, with most of the other stuff handled by the board and bios much better. I was pretty excited when being able to boot from the optical drive became standard; made life a lot easier.

Though I tend to work more towards budget focused stuff now, so pin counts for CPU and GPU power are less of a concern. But certainly something a touch of Google'ing and asking about can quickly sort out.

I was mostly just saying it isn't scary and now a days quite tricky to damage anything in the process. No more frying a CPU because you forgot a jumper or such

 

[Pako]

Standards are fairly easy to check and there are some good resources if you are unsure about what will work, such as Toms Hardware.

But compared to the old days, before Internet was common place, dealing with jumpers, IDE Slave/Master/Cable, far less onboard stuff like audio, no USB, fdisk, loading ATAPI drivers, bios settings, and so on made it quite a bit more complicated. Now we have SATA, PCI-E, and auto clock sets via bias, with most of the other stuff handled by the board and bios much better. I was pretty excited when being able to boot from the optical drive became standard; made life a lot easier.

Though I tend to work more towards budget focused stuff now, so pin counts for CPU and GPU power are less of a concern. But certainly something a touch of Google'ing and asking about can quickly sort out.

I was mostly just saying it isn't scary and now a days quite tricky to damage anything in the process. No more frying a CPU because you forgot a jumper or such

Oh, no doubt. It is waaaaaaaaaaay easier than it used to be. It is pretty much idiot proof now when it comes to getting everything configured and setup. Like I said, a little research goes a long way. There are other things to consider also like Ram speed. Sometimes just a few bucks can almost double your performance. Take Dual channel 1333 vs. 1866 ram. Ram is so stupid cheap right now, sure....the 1333 ram probably fits, but if your system supports it, a guy should probably know to spend the extra 10 bucks for the additional performance. But these types of the little things is something that we can help guide him into finding the right components. My point is, just because it fits, that doesn't make it "the best fit".

 

[nick09]

Well it depends on what games you want to play, budget, and concerns about computer tower size. You could easily get away with a smaller microATX case if you plan on having a mid-end system. There is also barebone systems which already have the motherboard and the power supply in the case installed. Shuttle is pretty popular in the barebone area and some of them come with decent power supplies to power a decent GPU. All you need to supply is the CPU, GPU, RAM, Hard Drive, and a DVD drive. Install Windows 7 and you will be ready to set up programs and get your games installed fairly quickly.

For anyone who is wondering, "Is he going to suggest an FX CPU?", I'm not going to. I've benched my FX-8120 CPU in PassMark PerformanceTest. It directly competes with an i5-2400 and loses to an i5-2500K in the benchmark. So I would not recommend the FX series for gaming. To see my benchmark click here. Go to the webpage and click the image for the full resolution.

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

Regarding the $10 000 PC question.....

How long will a 3960X rig with a GTX 580 Four Way SLI last? I mean, that thing is a beast. Imagine it with 2100 Mhz 16 GB RAM in quad channel and 10 SSDs in RAID!

 

[Azuremen]

Regarding the $10 000 PC question.....

How long will a 3960X rig with a GTX 580 Four Way SLI last? I mean, that thing is a beast. Imagine it with 2100 Mhz 16 GB RAM in quad channel and 10 SSDs in RAID!

3 years, maybe 4. Maybe...

 

[Dennisch]

But compared to the old days, before Internet was common place, dealing with jumpers, IDE Slave/Master/Cable, far less onboard stuff like audio, no USB, fdisk, loading ATAPI drivers, bios settings, and so on made it quite a bit more complicated.

Oh no. I know what all that means.

I'm old.

 

[tlowr4]

The only true part of that statement is the price being greater. There are PLENTY of boutique builders that can build a system with quality, current parts that are the same ones you could buy individually to build your own. Neither one will last any longer or shorter than the other. You're just going to play a premium to have someone else build it, install an OS and get things running, and update any drivers and software that need it before having it shipped to you.

No. Most shops use rubbish parts. Stock boards from unbranded companies, rubbish RAM, and userally un-branded hard drives (very unreliable). Walk into Wal-Mart and have a gander. Then you'll know what I'm talking about. If he goes to a dedicated Computer store, it's a different story. But I"m talking about something cheap like what I said.

That's just not possible. If it were possible, someone somewhere would have an old P2 with PCI graphics running Windows 98 with 256MB of memory that can play Crysis at 1920x1080@60FPS. Even the best parts today can't play the most demanding games at max, at a normal resolution, at hundreds of FPS. At smooth, playable FPS...probably, but not hundreds. Spending $10k to try and get 15 years is stupid, you'd be better off paying $2k every 4 years. You'll have better parts and pay less over 16 years.

I wasn't being serious. You're just nit-picking my post. Posting specs like that and the FPS is childish. What I was talking about was the creme of the creme, Quad SLI, the top of the range CPU, the whole works. I know it's better to spend less over a longer period of time, but we don't know untill the OP replies and tells us what he wants. I'm just giving him some outlay, of what he could do.

And yes, hundreds of FPS on max is possible with lots of games, particularly with Quad SLI.

@Azurmen. I was explaining to the OP of how easy it is to make a system, and how quickly I and he can even learn about such things.

Calling me a 'kid' and 'child' isn't respectful either. I have a name. Look it up on my profile. If you're too lazy to do that, just use my username. I'm not a child, nor a baby goat. Also, bringing up the box situation was what previously got you in trouble. Do you really want to go down that route again? Just because I do things differently to you, dosen't mean you have the right to mock them (or at very least, roll your eyes at them). You are right about the top end build though, I'd go as far as to say possibly 5 years, but you'd most likely have parts starting to fade in performance by that time. And in 6 - 8 years, it'd be good enough to surf the web, play light games etc.

@nick09 Also, if we're relying on budget, I'm not going to suggest AMD either. For what this gentleman obviously wants, is performance. A low end i5, possibly 2400 or such would be what he's chasing. Or as we said, could build him $10'000 worth of computer. 3 7970's, i7 3960X, 32GB RAM, the creme ar'la cream.

 

[AOS-]

Oh no. I know what all that means.

I'm old.

Would you be young again if I erased your memories via knock out?

 

[Dennisch]

Would you be young again if I erased your memories via knock out?

Just pull the battery of my motherboard.

 

[bergauk]

No. Most shops use rubbish parts. Stock boards from unbranded companies, rubbish RAM, and userally un-branded hard drives (very unreliable). Walk into Wal-Mart and have a gander. Then you'll know what I'm talking about. If he goes to a dedicated Computer store, it's a different story. But I"m talking about something cheap like what I said.

Do you ever think about how stupid you sound?

My computer is an OEM built machine. It came with an OEMD975XBX Motherboard.. If you're not sure what that means, I'll put it in the simplest terms for you. It was one of THE best LGA775 boards on the market. Capable of Crossfire right out of the box, 8 gigs of DDR2 Ram, and THREE, YES, THREE PCI Express slots. Paired to that board, it came with an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 @2.66 GHz, two ATI Radeon X1950XTX's in Crossfire, and two WD Raptor 150GB 10000Rpm HDD's in RAID0.

This computer was the top of the line when it came out. It was THE BEST that money could buy. And the price was still barely above the price that it would cost to find all these parts and put them together yourself.


Bottom line, stop talking out of your ass. You don't know much at all. OEM's still build fine computers. You just need to know what you're looking for.

 

[Dennisch]

I must say, this part of the forum has the most heated debates of all!

 

[Azuremen]

@Azurmen. I was explaining to the OP of how easy it is to make a system, and how quickly I and he can even learn about such things.

Calling me a 'kid' and 'child' isn't respectful either. I have a name. Look it up on my profile. If you're too lazy to do that, just use my username. I'm not a child, nor a baby goat. Also, bringing up the box situation was what previously got you in trouble. Do you really want to go down that route again? Just because I do things differently to you, dosen't mean you have the right to mock them (or at very least, roll your eyes at them).

You are 14. You are a kid basically. It would be like calling me an adult or older person. Cause I am. Get over it.

What got me in trouble was calling you names, when you had flipped out about my post at another user. Stop implying I'm going to get in trouble for calling you out on things. The box thing was you and Skyline arguing with several people that have many, many years more experience than you on system building. Learn to respect those that know better, since you seem to be hung up on this respect non-sense.

 

[tlowr4]

Do you ever think about how stupid you sound?

My computer is an OEM built machine. It came with an OEMD975XBX Motherboard.. If you're not sure what that means, I'll put it in the simplest terms for you. It was one of THE best LGA775 boards on the market. Capable of Crossfire right out of the box, 8 gigs of DDR2 Ram, and THREE, YES, THREE PCI Express slots. Paired to that board, it came with an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 @2.66 GHz, two ATI Radeon X1950XTX's in Crossfire, and two WD Raptor 150GB 10000Rpm HDD's in RAID0.

This computer was the top of the line when it came out. It was THE BEST that money could buy. And the price was still barely above the price that it would cost to find all these parts and put them together yourself.


Bottom line, stop talking out of your ass. You don't know much at all. OEM's still build fine computers. You just need to know what you're looking for.

I only stop to think how stupid I sound when others tell me. Where did you buy that computer? If you actually read my post, you'd see I said it depended where he bought it. Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, Harvey Norman, those sort of places sell the worst heap of rubbish on planet earth. A dedicated computer store however, build quite decent systems.

I only know as much as I've learned. That mightn't be much, but it's enough. People have to learn, and I'm in the learning stage. I'm not 100% like you lot all claim to be, but will you just accept me for the level that I'm at? Or no, you're going to cast me out until I own my own computer business? I'm trying. That seems to be not allowed here. You have to be perfect. Well here's a newsflash, no one's perfect. Even though you might all think yourselves to be, you're not. And I mean that in the nicest way possible.

 

[Dennisch]

I only stop to think how stupid I sound when others tell me. Where did you buy that computer? If you actually read my post, you'd see I said it depended where he bought it. Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, Harvey Norman, those sort of places sell the worst heap of rubbish on planet earth. A dedicated computer store however, build quite decent systems.

I only know as much as I've learned. That mightn't be much, but it's enough. People have to learn, and I'm in the learning stage. I'm not 100% like you lot all claim to be, but will you just accept me for the level that I'm at? Or no, you're going to cast me out until I own my own computer business? I'm trying. That seems to be not allowed here. You have to be perfect. Well here's a newsflash, no one's perfect. Even though you might all think yourselves to be, you're not. And I mean that in the nicest way possible.

And the best of all, you're still a kid, your best years are yet to come. We are all old people, just being jealous at your age.

 

[Azuremen]

I only know as much as I've learned. That mightn't be much, but it's enough. People have to learn, and I'm in the learning stage. I'm not 100% like you lot all claim to be, but will you just accept me for the level that I'm at? Or no, you're going to cast me out until I own my own computer business? I'm trying. That seems to be not allowed here. You have to be perfect. Well here's a newsflash, no one's perfect. Even though you might all think yourselves to be, you're not. And I mean that in the nicest way possible.

You make so many assumptions in this it is amazing. Along with the attitude.

You are still learning; we all are. The only difference is you continually refuse to acknowledge those that might, just maybe, know more than you. And get extremely moody when people call you possibly being mistaken.

Which is why I call you a kid. 'Cause honestly it looks like you are throwing a temper tantrum.

 

[Dennisch]

Which is why I call you a kid. 'Cause honestly it looks like you are throwing a temper tantrum.

Language

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

You make so many assumptions in this it is amazing. Along with the attitude.

You are still learning; we all are. The only difference is you continually refuse to acknowledge those that might, just maybe, know more than you. And get extremely moody when people call you possibly being mistaken.

Which is why I call you a kid. 'Cause honestly it looks like you are throwing a temper tantrum.

You're the one with the attitude. Throwing a temper tantrum (which I have failed to find... tlowr's comments have been quite respectful) doesn't offend people unlike you when you refer to people as "kids". Its called respect, please use it when talking to people. Just because he is younger than you doesn't mean that he's a nut. Maybe if you proved your points without offending people, people would appreciate your presence in the forums.

And Dennisch, you might wanna find a different version of that video.... the cover of it isn't too appropriate.

Regarding the boutique quality parts.. you really get what you pay for. The smaller and sketchier the boutique, the worse the parts. I've seen some pretty low quality and outdated parts at some boutiques..

 

[Azuremen]

You're the one with the attitude. Throwing a temper tantrum (which I have failed to find... tlowr's comments have been quite respectful) doesn't offend people unlike you when you refer to people as "kids". Its called respect, please use it when talking to people. Just because he is younger than you doesn't mean that he's a nut..

I never said he was a nut. Just young, a kid. Literally. Much like yourself. And it shows often in how you guys act and post.

And I have little reason to give tlowr4 much respect after his explosive reaction to me talking to you about building outside of the case to test stuff. Hardly respectful.

And if you can't see the attitude in his posts, well, oh dear

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

Firstly, if you haven't gotten the idea of it, calling someone a kid is offensive and annoying. In fact, if you physically saw me and knew me well, you wouldn't even think of calling me a kid.

Secondly, I would love to see you show me an example of his attitude towards you.

Thirdly, we don't act in any negative way. Ok, sometimes we don't give the best advice, but that doesn't mean that you can come in like a king and tell everyone to stop posting. If people listened to you, then there would be very few people left in this section of the forums. I don't think you have had the time to sit and think and actually realize that sometimes, your cocky responses are not well recieved at all. After all, getting the "Most Opinionated" award can mean that you were just being arrogant towards others.

I highly reccomend you to read over whatever you post and try to become less offensive.

 

[Azuremen]

Firstly, if you haven't gotten the idea of it, calling someone a kid is offensive and annoying. In fact, if you physically saw me and knew me well, you wouldn't even think of calling me a kid.

You have no idea how often I call people kids, and in the context of which I do it. I assume you are attempting to sound intimidating or that you look large/old for you age. I don't really care because I'm willing to bet I'd figure you are under 18 in a matter of moments.

Secondly, I would love to see you show me an example of his attitude towards you.

An example

Thirdly, we don't act in any negative way. Ok, sometimes we don't give the best advice, but that doesn't mean that you can come in like a king and tell everyone to stop posting. If people listened to you, then there would be very few people left in this section of the forums. I don't think you have had the time to sit and think and actually realize that sometimes, your cocky responses are not well recieved at all. After all, getting the "Most Opinionated" award can mean that you were just being arrogant towards others.[/quote]

If the people I thought posted poor information stopped posting, a lot of other users would go back to posting here. And the people I'm thinking of, those that tend to be a bit over the top in mis-information or poor ideas, can be counted on a single hand.

And wow, more assumptions. You don't think that I've had the time to think about how I post? Oh dear. Honestly, just keep deluding yourself, please.

I highly reccomend you to read over whatever you post and try to become less offensive.

And I highly recommend you read out whatever you post and try to sound more informed.

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

I can't seem to find the attitude towards you. He is politely asking you to stop treating him like a little child. I don't know why it is so hard for you to show some respect.

If you call people kids often, I wonder how many people you call your friends.

Humans are humans. Treat them like one. We try to treat you with respect, please return the favour.

This is all we ask of you. Is it really that hard? You know, kids show a lack of respect towards people, until they learn it as they grow up.

If the people I thought posted poor information stopped posting, a lot of other users would go back to posting here.

If I may quote you:

And wow, more assumptions. You don't think that I've had the time to think about how I post? Oh dear. Honestly, just keep deluding yourself, please.

Give me proof of the members, or delude yourself.

I sincerely hope you consider my request regarding giving more respect. It would make this place a much brighter place, and even if you are right, it may "bring back some of the members that left".

 

[bergauk]

To be honest. I actually love it when Cody posts. I often laugh, and learn a bit depending on the subject. There are other members here on the forums where I just wonder where they get their information though.

 

[Icarus25]

No. Most shops use rubbish parts. Stock boards from unbranded companies, rubbish RAM, and userally un-branded hard drives (very unreliable). Walk into Wal-Mart and have a gander. Then you'll know what I'm talking about. If he goes to a dedicated Computer store, it's a different story. But I"m talking about something cheap like what I said.

I said boutique, not big box store. Do you know what boutique means? A boutique would be a small niche shop dedicated to one thing, in this sense computers. Falcon Northwest, iBuyPower, Maingear, even Alienware are boutique PC shops. They build custom rigs with top quality parts, ready to plug in and go, for a price premium. You say you're only 14 and in the learning stage. I suggest learning quite a bit more before trying to sound like you're an authority on the subject. Not everything in a big box store is rubbish. Maybe over there and in a place like China will you find these so-called "unbranded" hard drives, but I can walk into any store and find a hard drive from any one of the 4 major companies: WD, Seagate, Samsung, Hitachi. I can even go to walmart.com and order a high end video card from a trusted manufacturer. I wouldn't do it because I know better places to buy parts, but it can be done.

But compared to the old days, before Internet was common place, dealing with jumpers, IDE Slave/Master/Cable, far less onboard stuff like audio, no USB, fdisk, loading ATAPI drivers, bios settings, and so on made it quite a bit more complicated.

Bootdisks with optimized autoexec.bat and config.sys files for the win!

 

[Joey D]

Build your own PC, it isn't all that difficult and you can look on Tom's Hardware for all their latest reviews. They even do a budget system build every so often that lays out all the components for you and even gives you benchmarks so you know exactly what you are getting. Plus unlike buying something out of the box, you get to put the parts you want on it and tailor it to your needs better. You also get to choose the installed software instead of getting a bunch of pre-installed non-sense on it. Up until I got my MacBook any laptop I had got a fresh install of Windows right out of the box to get rid of all that crap HP thinks you need.

Custom build shops are going to be an arm and a leg and they are pretty much out there to screw over the uneducated. I've looked at a couple custom build places around here to see what I could get, an almost identical PC to the one I currently have, which was just under $1,000 when built, was $2,500 from a custom build shop...and it included free Norton Anti-Virus! Shoot me now.

For the best bang for the buck building your system is typically the way to go unless you can snag a really good deal on something from one of the manufactures. You also get a sense of accomplishment when you build your own computer and then see how awesome games look. You can then kick back and go "ya, I built that".

If you are going to buy a gaming PC I'd stay away from manufactured ones that market themselves as "gaming PC's", they tend to be way overpriced for what you get. You easily snag a Dell or HP for quite a bit less and have it just as good.

Obviously everyone has a different view on this, but this is just my input. I never thought I could build a computer either, now I don't know why I would ever consider anything else.

 

[RX-7_FD3S]

No. Most shops use rubbish parts. Stock boards from unbranded companies, rubbish RAM, and userally un-branded hard drives (very unreliable). Walk into Wal-Mart and have a gander. Then you'll know what I'm talking about. If he goes to a dedicated Computer store, it's a different story. But I"m talking about something cheap like what I said.

No I dont agree, that's only if you buy pre-build computer like HP or other crap. If you build it yourself and let them assemble it for you, you'll have exactly the same stuff as you and me can get. You choose every piece, they assemble it, that's plain simple enough I think.

And no again Joey, custom build shop dont cut you an arm. There's shop doing it for very humble price and it's very well made, my dad order one not so long ago and I was very pleasently surprised. You're from USA, OP is from europe, stuff dont work the same in europe (not trying to attack us or anything please dont take it that way thanks).

And btw you guys are derailling too much out of subject, continue by pm if you want to call yourself name, but it's a bit rude to fight on another person thread.

 

[tlowr4]

I said boutique, not big box store. Do you know what boutique means? A boutique would be a small niche shop dedicated to one thing, in this sense computers. Falcon Northwest, iBuyPower, Maingear, even Alienware are boutique PC shops. They build custom rigs with top quality parts, ready to plug in and go, for a price premium. You say you're only 14 and in the learning stage. I suggest learning quite a bit more before trying to sound like you're an authority on the subject. Not everything in a big box store is rubbish. Maybe over there and in a place like China will you find these so-called "unbranded" hard drives, but I can walk into any store and find a hard drive from any one of the 4 major companies: WD, Seagate, Samsung, Hitachi. I can even go to walmart.com and order a high end video card from a trusted manufacturer. I wouldn't do it because I know better places to buy parts, but it can be done.

Ok, sorry. I must have missed where you said boutique. I thought you just meant into an elcheapo electrical store or such. Like I said in my post, it's different in a specialized computer store. And please, don't start with the learning thing. I'm not an authorative, I told you that, but I'm not a total idiot. I've got enough hassle with this subject with Azuremen as it is...

Build your own PC, it isn't all that difficult and you can look on Tom's Hardware for all their latest reviews. They even do a budget system build every so often that lays out all the components for you and even gives you benchmarks so you know exactly what you are getting. Plus unlike buying something out of the box, you get to put the parts you want on it and tailor it to your needs better. You also get to choose the installed software instead of getting a bunch of pre-installed non-sense on it. Up until I got my MacBook any laptop I had got a fresh install of Windows right out of the box to get rid of all that crap HP thinks you need.

Custom build shops are going to be an arm and a leg and they are pretty much out there to screw over the uneducated. I've looked at a couple custom build places around here to see what I could get, an almost identical PC to the one I currently have, which was just under $1,000 when built, was $2,500 from a custom build shop...and it included free Norton Anti-Virus! Shoot me now.

For the best bang for the buck building your system is typically the way to go unless you can snag a really good deal on something from one of the manufactures. You also get a sense of accomplishment when you build your own computer and then see how awesome games look. You can then kick back and go "ya, I built that".

If you are going to buy a gaming PC I'd stay away from manufactured ones that market themselves as "gaming PC's", they tend to be way overpriced for what you get. You easily snag a Dell or HP for quite a bit less and have it just as good.

Obviously everyone has a different view on this, but this is just my input. I never thought I could build a computer either, now I don't know why I would ever consider anything else.

Exactly. This is the best post in this thread so far. Very informative, and you didn't nit-pick any of my posts!

EDIT: You have a MacBook? I love you! (nohomo).

EDIT2:

...
And no again, custom build shop dont cut you an arm. There's shop doing it for very humble price and it's very well made, my dad order one not so long ago and I was very pleasently surprised.

Depends where you are. Here in AU, you have to donate a kidney to get a system. Prices are through the roof here in AU for labor, let alone the store's profit margin that they place on it. Plus Tax, Carbon Tax, GST...

You're from USA, OP is from europe, stuff dont work the same in europe (not trying to attack us or anything please dont take it that way thanks).

Take a look under my profile pic. Union jack and stars never looked so good...

 

[RX-7_FD3S]

Take a look under my profile pic. Union jack and stars never looked so good...[/COLOR]

Sorry that part was supposed to be an answer for Joey's stuff not yours. It's not really clear now that I re-read lol. Remember me to not write stuff when I just woke up XD

And yes I agree with you on depends where you are, but OP is from europe too. That's why. But you're right ultimatly, I dont know how taxes works exactly in norway.

 

[bevo]

I must say, this part of the forum has the most heated debates of all!

It does . It's always the same people too, starting the wars, and putting other people down. It's a shame that it's so hard to get any help with PC stuff in here because a few people feel like making you feel stupid for not knowing everything there is about them, and then when anyone with a fresh perspective comes in, they start a war with them, and completely ignore the OPs questions. It happens in almost every thread in this section. It's one thing to tell someone they are mistaken, it's another to tell them how stupid they sound.

 

[Joey D]

And no again Joey, custom build shop dont cut you an arm. There's shop doing it for very humble price and it's very well made, my dad order one not so long ago and I was very pleasently surprised. You're from USA, OP is from europe, stuff dont work the same in europe (not trying to attack us or anything please dont take it that way thanks).

I can't imagine custom build shops work all that differently in different parts in the world. There may be shops that don't ridiculously overcharge but you are still going to be paying much more for the same computer at a custom shop verse the one you build yourself. Shops will mark every part up, as well as charging for labour. So the RAM you choose may be $100 on Newegg, but at a custom shop they may charge you $175 to cover shipping and their businesses overhead.

I can't see a custom build shop being anything more then a business preying on those who fear technology. Building a computer is very easy to do and you can get way more bang for the buck verses a custom build from a shop. I mean something that may run you $1,700 at a custom shop may only total out to be $1,000 if you built it yourself...especially if you deal shop.

 

[Pako]

I can't imagine custom build shops work all that differently in different parts in the world. There may be shops that don't ridiculously overcharge but you are still going to be paying much more for the same computer at a custom shop verse the one you build yourself. Shops will mark every part up, as well as charging for labour. So the RAM you choose may be $100 on Newegg, but at a custom shop they may charge you $175 to cover shipping and their businesses overhead.

I can't see a custom build shop being anything more then a business preying on those who fear technology. Building a computer is very easy to do and you can get way more bang for the buck verses a custom build from a shop. I mean something that may run you $1,700 at a custom shop may only total out to be $1,000 if you built it yourself...especially if you deal shop.

Totally depends on the shop. I can often get my parts locally for most builds and when I have to order parts, he can always match Newegg or Tigerdirect for me, plus he doesn't charge shipping if I can wait for him to bundle with his weekly orders. If I'm too busy to build a system, I will have his guys build it for me. His labor cost is $30-50 depending on the build. In some cases he can build it cheaper than I could get it from Newegg. What's nice is if there is a RMA issue, I am dealing directly with him. In some cases, if he has the same part in stock, he will swap me out that day and deal with the RMA himself. Totally depends on the shop.

Back to Finduszip, if you are not willing to build your own, what is your budget? Are you looking for a desktop or laptop?