PC Buying Advice

I've had this computer for a long time and am shopping around for a new one. I know what hardware level I'm looking for, so I don't need any help there. I've been browsing around ads and stores here and there and checking out product reviews online and whatnot, but so far nothing is really sticking out and I've never really had to buy for myself before. So I wanted to ask the forum for any advice that you guys are willing to provide.

Are there any brands I should avoid or any you'd recommend? Do some crap out sooner than others or have a reputation for lasting longer?

Anything shifty that I should be aware of in the market?

Any advice is much appreciated.

You're planning on buying a prebuilt computer I assume. If so, you may want to consider building one yourself, it can be cheaper and you have greater control over your parts. You can pick and choose the best brands for each component and so on, and it can be rather fun.

However, if you're deadset on buying a prebuilt one for a decent price you may want to look at Cyberpowerpc or Ibuypower. I had a Cyberpower once several years ago before I started buying my own and it worked very well, never had any problems with it.

If you want to spend a little more for a premium maybe look at something like Alienware.

What is your price range?

Originally posted by BackFire
You're planning on buying a prebuilt computer I assume. If so, you may want to consider building one yourself, it can be cheaper and you have greater control over your parts. You can pick and choose the best brands for each component and so on, and it can be rather fun.

However, if you're deadset on buying a prebuilt one for a decent price you may want to look at Cyberpowerpc or Ibuypower. I had a Cyberpower once several years ago before I started buying my own and it worked very well, never had any problems with it.

If you want to spend a little more for a premium maybe look at something like Alienware.

I find this interesting, because from my understanding building one usually ends up being more expensive. At least, that's what I've always been told. I had planned to just get a prebuilt, but if this is true then I'd gladly consider building.

@dadudemon, I've pretty much got anywhere from $400 - $1,000 available, but I'd rather not spend the whole thousand, if possible.

Originally posted by MooCowofJustice
I find this interesting, because from my understanding building one usually ends up being more expensive. At least, that's what I've always been told. I had planned to just get a prebuilt, but if this is true then I'd gladly consider building.

@dadudemon, I've pretty much got anywhere from $400 - $1,000 available, but I'd rather not spend the whole thousand, if possible.

Building your own CAN be more expensive, because you can get ridiculously high-end stuff at each part. But if you build a PC with equivalent specs as a pre-built computer, chances are you'll save some money compared to the pre-packaged one. You're paying for the brand name oftentimes.

If you're building a desktop and want it to play current and next-gen games smoothly, I'm not sure what your luck will be with that price range. It seems a bit low if it's a gaming rig. I built mine from scratch for about $1,800 three years ago, and it has specs that are roughly equivalent to the next-gen consoles that are just now coming out. You could build something similar for less nowadays, but under 1K might be tricky without sacrificing performance. Mine was also a completely new rig, so it was as expensive as it will ever be. The other nice thing about building your own is that after an initial purchase you can more easily just upgrade parts periodically instead of building a whole new PC. Mine's been good thus far, but I had to buy an external HD this year. Otherwise, it should be fine across the board for another 3-4 years before anything starts needing replaced.

New Egg is the industry standard for individual parts, btw. Browsing there can start to give you an idea of price ranges for various levels of performance.
http://www.newegg.com/

You can make a very decent gaming PC for around 1k, assuming you already have a monitor. Just have to be on the look out for good deals.

If there's one near you, Microcenter can save you literally hundreds of dollars if you buy your stuff from them. They have the best deals on CPU's consistently, and can have very good deals on other components as well. The last two times I've build a PC I've bought almost all of my parts from them.

And no, I don't work for them.

Get a Mac

Originally posted by BackFire
You can make a very decent gaming PC for around 1k, assuming you already have a monitor. Just have to be on the look out for good deals.

If there's one near you, Microcenter can save you literally hundreds of dollars if you buy your stuff from them. They have the best deals on CPU's consistently, and can have very good deals on other components as well. The last two times I've build a PC I've bought almost all of my parts from them.

And no, I don't work for them.

👆

I inherited nothing for the computer when I moved out of my parents' place, so I needed to buy a monitor when I built my last one. But that's a good point.

Originally posted by Bardock42
Get a Mac

Troll.

Originally posted by BackFire
You can make a very decent gaming PC for around 1k, assuming you already have a monitor. Just have to be on the look out for good deals.

If there's one near you, Microcenter can save you literally hundreds of dollars if you buy your stuff from them. They have the best deals on CPU's consistently, and can have very good deals on other components as well. The last two times I've build a PC I've bought almost all of my parts from them.

And no, I don't work for them.

I built a future-proof gaming PC about four years ago priced at 1400, including everything high end. Four years later, the only cost I've had to sink in was RAM (under 40 bucks) and a new GPU (220 on sale). The GPU was not really necessary but simply a good upgrade and a good deal so I got it at the time.

I'm not sure I'd commend ibuypower or Cyberpower pc, if only because reviews for them across various websites paints a bad picture. Building is always preferable to premade.

It is.

I'm familiar with their online reviews, but I always take those with a grain of salt because those who have a bad experience are more likely to write a review about their experience than those who have a good experience. From my own personal experience with them I had no problems.

But yeah, like you said, you can build a very good PC for around 1500, and keep your system up to date pretty easily with just a graphics card update a few years later.

Also, MooCow, there may be some local independent computer/tech repair businesses that would be willing to build the computer for you with the parts of your choosing, for a small fee. Some of them may even offer a warranty should something go wrong. Something you may want to look into.

Good point on the reviews. People with issues who post are far more common than happy customers.

I got NCIX.com to build my computer. They have a fair number of pre-selected systems where you can change different components. When I say pre-selected, I mean that there is set systems but they use over the counter parts and not custom cases (like Dell)

The good thing about their ordering process is that its very hard to order the wrong parts (CPU not compatible with mobo as example).

I could build my own and it's cheaper but the job quality from those guys are much better than mine. The cabling job alone is worth the 50 bucks for the assembly fee. As well, the sound card I wanted cause issues for them and took another few days so they upgrade my sound card for free.

I went through multiple websites to review the components I wanted. I checked benchmarks to see what was the fastest for the best amount of money (the really important factor for a vid card) and then choose from that. I spent around $2500.

A cool benchmark website where you can compared multiple products against each other to see what is best. http://www.anandtech.com/Bench/CPU/2

Wow. I definitely appreciate all the advice everybody. I'll have to get to checking out these websites and price ranges for parts, I guess.

Is building on your own complicated?

It can be a little scary the first time. I was intimidated, but it ended up going very smoothly. I recommend watching some videos on youtube - there's a good amount of tutorials on there that really are helpful.

The most important thing when building your own is being patient and taking your time. Don't rush or else you will make mistakes, and that will just end up making it take more time.

Really, once you get used to it it's essentially like putting together a set of big expensive legos. Things just sorta go in their spot and most can't really go anywhere else.

Yeah, taking your time is essential and if you get frustrated, stop what you are doing. As well, make sure you do not build it on a fuzzy carpet and make sure you touch the metal part of the case so you are grounded. Static electricity could wreck a few things if you are not careful.

The only hard part I find is the attachment of the CPU to the socket and putting on the CPU fan/cooler. They can be mighty tricky. I was taught to put the CPU/cooler on before you attach the mobo.

You can also sometime find a local computer store that will assemble your parts for maybe $50.

The processor-to-motherboard connection was the only nervous part for me. Everything else was easy...well, the power connections can be complicated, but it's not something you can permanently mess up.

Originally posted by Stealth Moose
Troll.

More like savior!

Building a PC, to me, is like putting together a very expensive lego set.

The hardest part for me was getting over my fear of how fragile the parts were. Some need to be really shoved in to place.

That said, don't buy a mac if you want to game. Or even, just don't buy a mac. Over-priced as hell, Imo, especially considering the quality of the parts they use.

You can game alright on a Mac if you put Windows on it. And you have the added benefit of having a Mac, which is priceless, really.

Originally posted by Bardock42
You can game alright on a Mac if you put Windows on it. And you have the added benefit of having a Mac, which is priceless, really.

"If you put Windows on it". All that needs to be said really.

Though I have to admit, I like this brand of trolling you're using.