Hello,

I'm not very tech savvy, so I'm willing to pay 'a' premium for pre-built. 

Here's the pre-built PC I was looking at: Dell XPS 420

With an upgraded processor, memory, and video card, I'm looking at $1,350.  Important specs are:

• Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Processor Q9450 (12MB Cache,2.66GHz,1333FSB)
• Memory: 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4 DIMMs
• Video card: ATI Radeon HD3870 512MB GDDR4
• Hard drive: 320GB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache (Don't need a big HD)
  

My question is, could I build an equal/superior PC for under $1,050?  I'm willing to spend ~$300 more for a pre-built.

There are a lot of pre-built vendors out there. It all depends on what you are looking for. If you're looking at a rig just for gaming, Velocity Micro or Puget Systems both have good things said about them, though I have not dealt with either personally. Otherwise, you could get a basic computer from Dell, Gateway, HP, Sony, etc. that would be both cheap and suit your needs.

Many many thousands of NO's to vista.i made the mistake not realizing how inept all the graphic manufacturer's are at making drivers for vista.You play anything older and it will play like crap with vista.There isn't anything new either that makes use of anything modern.Quad chips/duo chips/8800 vid cards all a waste of money.Your better off with a XP system using those top end xp nvidia cards,i think they were 7600's/7900's???? can't remember been so long.The very small performance increase you will get from anything modern is just wasting your money.The problem of course is 4 mb ram is great ,however i don't think you can get xp to recognize that?or can you,won't matter anyhow with xp you only need 2mb.

just make sure that you get a very new mobo with a newer bios ,so you don't have to mess around with bios upgrades.I honestly don't know if the game developers will ever make full use of dx10/vista and duo/ quad chips and SLI.There is still far too many players with older machines that they would alienate.Making a game fully benefit both platforms would take a lot of time and resources,i doubt developers are willing to go that extra mile.

My gut feeling tells me that square enix will be the first to fully implement a game that utilizes all modern hardware,nothing announced ,so that's about 2 years away.

This is another option dell offers, is actually cheaper than the quad core.

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor E8500 (6MB L2 Cache,3.16GHz,1333FSB)

Its always cheaper to build, its really not all that hard to build but for a first timer, find a friend and just watch what he does or walk through it.

If you ask me that PC seems a bit expensive for what its giving you if you ask me.

I would suggest looking at some of the nonmainstream Pre builts, ones that usualy advertise in PC gamer or something like that, it helps close the gap but all in all building yourself.

I mean my new PC will be a grand in total and il be getting more then that. Have my 700W power supply (Was super cheap thanks to black friday last year)

A thermaltake Armor series 8003W

9850 Black edition quad core

Zulamn 110mm Fan

HD 4870

As for the ram and motherboard im still waiting for the new 750 southbridges to come out and see what ram they need, cause i plan on overclocking my processor like hell.

Like the Above poster stated.  I too believe in building the rig yourself for a couple of reasons.  I do mean to bad mouth any computer companies.  However the mainstream computer companies are required by their partners/sponsor suppliers to add certain "spam/junk programs" to the computer for advertisement.  Believe it or not even if you remove them they still big you down just how they format their hard drives.  You are limited to what they have in stock / who get supplied from (There for upping your final purchase price when not even intended).

When you build your own rig, you can choose by both price and quality.  Some people stick to certain manufacturers for their main components.  I myself am a fan of XFX products so I like to peak around at their mid range priced Motherboards/Graphics Cards and such.  And if your a new comer to the market, again as the above posters stated, just ask a tech savvy friend to show you what's hot/good/value-able.  You'd be surprised at how much you can save over a 5 to 10 year period just by building your own machines.  As it stands I recently built my own quad core machine for around 1600 or so USD which would have ran me easily about 2000-2500 USD from a PC manufacturer.

Do note however, the big downside to building your own rig is also that there is no warranty, other than the parts failing (As long as you don't overclock you shouldn't have to worry about that).  But when certain programs or network problems arise you will be forced to be the "Do-it-yourself" type of person, which in the end is actually neat because after you while you become tech savvy yourself just by staying on the lookout on what's happening and fixing this and that.

Also regarding vista and such, it's not as bad as people make it.  And just to be frank, Microsoft is turning turning off the support line for XP, which means drivers and such for X64 based XP systems will be scarce.  I use Vista Ultimate 64bit on my system and I love it as well as many others, the only hitch is that you do need to dig around on the internet for the correct drivers, it wasn't long though until I found the right drivers for my old sound blaster audigy 2 card.  Don't be afraid to try it at least, it's well worth it, especially if you plan on playing DX10 Games which do require Vista.

Originally posted by NeokiNaomi

Like the Above poster stated.  I too believe in building the rig yourself for a couple of reasons.  I do mean to bad mouth any computer companies.  However the mainstream computer companies are required by their partners/sponsor suppliers to add certain "spam/junk programs" to the computer for advertisement.  Believe it or not even if you remove them they still big you down just how they format their hard drives.  You are limited to what they have in stock / who get supplied from (There for upping your final purchase price when not even intended).

When you build your own rig, you can choose by both price and quality.  Some people stick to certain manufacturers for their main components.  I myself am a fan of XFX products so I like to peak around at their mid range priced Motherboards/Graphics Cards and such.  And if your a new comer to the market, again as the above posters stated, just ask a tech savvy friend to show you what's hot/good/value-able.  You'd be surprised at how much you can save over a 5 to 10 year period just by building your own machines.  As it stands I recently built my own quad core machine for around 1600 or so USD which would have ran me easily about 2000-2500 USD from a PC manufacturer.

Do note however, the big downside to building your own rig is also that there is no warranty, other than the parts failing (As long as you don't overclock you shouldn't have to worry about that).  But when certain programs or network problems arise you will be forced to be the "Do-it-yourself" type of person, which in the end is actually neat because after you while you become tech savvy yourself just by staying on the lookout on what's happening and fixing this and that.

Also regarding vista and such, it's not as bad as people make it.  And just to be frank, Microsoft is turning turning off the support line for XP, which means drivers and such for X64 based XP systems will be scarce.  I use Vista Ultimate 64bit on my system and I love it as well as many others, the only hitch is that you do need to dig around on the internet for the correct drivers, it wasn't long though until I found the right drivers for my old sound blaster audigy 2 card.  Don't be afraid to try it at least, it's well worth it, especially if you plan on playing DX10 Games which do require Vista.

 

No games require DX10 as of yet though. Also Ive talked with someone who knows a crap load of stuff on this stuff. Right now the 8 series tech is top of the line. You may say well what about the 2 new ones. Well they didn't really do anything to make them stand out. DX10 was the last big step for graphics. Now they just add to the power no true upgrade.

But yeah heres the thing. Vista sucks at managing memory. Thats why you need at least 2gb. So if memory is a big issue a 7 series with 4gb of ram on a xp will run very well.

Originally posted by Arndur

Originally posted by NeokiNaomi

Like the Above poster stated.  I too believe in building the rig yourself for a couple of reasons.  I do mean to bad mouth any computer companies.  However the mainstream computer companies are required by their partners/sponsor suppliers to add certain "spam/junk programs" to the computer for advertisement.  Believe it or not even if you remove them they still big you down just how they format their hard drives.  You are limited to what they have in stock / who get supplied from (There for upping your final purchase price when not even intended).

When you build your own rig, you can choose by both price and quality.  Some people stick to certain manufacturers for their main components.  I myself am a fan of XFX products so I like to peak around at their mid range priced Motherboards/Graphics Cards and such.  And if your a new comer to the market, again as the above posters stated, just ask a tech savvy friend to show you what's hot/good/value-able.  You'd be surprised at how much you can save over a 5 to 10 year period just by building your own machines.  As it stands I recently built my own quad core machine for around 1600 or so USD which would have ran me easily about 2000-2500 USD from a PC manufacturer.

Do note however, the big downside to building your own rig is also that there is no warranty, other than the parts failing (As long as you don't overclock you shouldn't have to worry about that).  But when certain programs or network problems arise you will be forced to be the "Do-it-yourself" type of person, which in the end is actually neat because after you while you become tech savvy yourself just by staying on the lookout on what's happening and fixing this and that.

Also regarding vista and such, it's not as bad as people make it.  And just to be frank, Microsoft is turning turning off the support line for XP, which means drivers and such for X64 based XP systems will be scarce.  I use Vista Ultimate 64bit on my system and I love it as well as many others, the only hitch is that you do need to dig around on the internet for the correct drivers, it wasn't long though until I found the right drivers for my old sound blaster audigy 2 card.  Don't be afraid to try it at least, it's well worth it, especially if you plan on playing DX10 Games which do require Vista.

 

 

No games require DX10 as of yet though. Also Ive talked with someone who knows a crap load of stuff on this stuff. Right now the 8 series tech is top of the line. You may say well what about the 2 new ones. Well they didn't really do anything to make them stand out (Not sure what you meant here I didn't say anything in regards to anything similiar). DX10 was the last big step for graphics. Now they just add to the power no true upgrade.

But yeah heres the thing. Vista sucks at managing memory. Thats why you need at least 2gb. So if memory is a big issue a 7 series with 4gb of ram on a xp will run very well.

Require? No but optionize? Yes.  And as a matter of fact Unreal Tournament 3 looks about twice as good in DX10 than it does DX9.  I currently run a 8800GT and don't plan on upgrading anytime soon, and yes Vista is a memory hog and i have 4gb of ram myself I see no issues or leaks in the 6 months that I've used it on this machine. The real Vista downer comes from people using Vista Home Premium or worse yet Vista Home Basic and running only 512mb of ram (Asking for big trouble).  And I'm not calling myself a computer expert but formerly being a Computer Repair Tech I do try to stay updated because it's fun to see the 6 month trends of outdatage pass. 

This year does appear to be going slower though in terms of software progression and yes majority of games still do not support DX10, but why live in the past when you can live in the future in terms of hardware for mearly the same price and performance? That's what I do not understand.  But then again change is something lots of people cannot accept.

To the OP,

I wouldn't downgrade any of your specs.  The computer looks nice and is fairly cheap.  Plus, more and more games will start to utilize quad core along with a high end vid card.

Yes everything is cheaper if you build it yourself, but i went through that process with my brother about 4 years ago and it was HORRIBLE.  My brother had built his own computer so i asked him to help me build mine.  The problem was, my brother missed a couple of "steps" when installing the hardware, and all hell broke loose. I went without my computer for close to 4 months...which also made me kick my everquest 2 habit (heh).

Anyways, the point im making is, if you do not have experience in building a computer or you do not have any trusted person to do it for you, why take the risk? 

I'm willing to take the risk 'if' I can get a superior PC for at least $300 less.  I reconfigured the PC above w/ a duo core and 3gig ram and it brought the price down to $1.1k and some change.

As far as Dell using cheap parts, what parts are cheap (and non-customizable on order) that hurt performance?

---

Thanks for the replies, btw.

I used to buy computers from Dell, but now the only prebuilt computer I buy are laptops from Asus.  I like to build my desktops now, it's so much cheaper and I think it comes out cooler(custom case, lights, ect.)

 I can say that the only thing that pre-builts are good for is getting a copy of vista or other software (9/10 of the time its useless though). Very rarely you can find a system that has a copy of the student edition of Office 07 which is about $150.00 so keep an eye out cause those types of deal or around alot in August for back to school sales. I get copies of all Microsoft products because where I work they have a contract and get volume liscense keys all the time, so for me I will never buy a prebuilt machine. If i could build my own monitor, I would.

Just try it yourself and I'm pretty sure you wont find a chepaer price on dell. Go to newegg.com and search what you want and you'll probably save $300.00+  And you were saying $1,350.00 IMO thats expensive for a computer.

Originally posted by Kamion

Hello,

I'm not very tech savvy, so I'm willing to pay 'a' premium for pre-built. 

Here's the pre-built PC I was looking at: Dell XPS 420

With an upgraded processor, memory, and video card, I'm looking at $1,350.  Important specs are:

• Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Processor Q9450 (12MB Cache,2.66GHz,1333FSB)
• Memory: 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4 DIMMs
• Video card: ATI Radeon HD3870 512MB GDDR4
• Hard drive: 320GB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache (Don't need a big HD)
  

My question is, could I build an equal/superior PC for under $1,050?  I'm willing to spend ~$300 more for a pre-built.

Pre-built systems.

ibuypower.com

Processor: [=== Quad Core ===] Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q9450 (4x 2.66GHz/12MB L2 Cache/1333FSB)

Memory: 4 GB [2 GB X2] DDR2-800 PC6400 Memory Module   Corsair-Value or Major Brand

Video card: NVIDIA GeForce 8500GT 512MB

Hard drive: 320 GB HARD DRIVE   [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 16M Cache]

Priced at $979 not including OS and Shipping. Still cheaper to build your own rig though. The trick is knowing what you want, where to get the parts and which parts are compatible.

The building part isn't as hard as people make it out to be. There are a ton of guides you can look up online.

EDIT: There are several other threads around here that you can use. The people are very helpful and actually go out of their way to literally look for the cheapest parts for other people who are new at building their own rig - use those as a reference imo.
More Options

If you going to get a machine through iBuyPower, CyberPower, or thier other brand I recommend getting it through newegg.  Newegg is more likely to honor a warranty then going through the company directly.  HP is also good on the price to performance ratio.  Here are some recommendations.  The only thing I don't like are the video cards.  It would be nice if there were some HD4800's which would be priced around the same but outperform the cards on these machines.

• 4GB Intel E8400 w/9600GT $899.99
• 4GB Phenom 9850 w/9600 GT $899.99
• 4GB Intel Q9300 w/8800GT $999.99
• 4GB Intel E8500 w/9600GT $1,049.99
• 4GB Phenom 9850 w/9800 GTX $1,119.99
• 6GB Phenom 9850 w/9800 GT $1,129.99
• 4GB Intel Q9450 w/9800GTX $1,449.99
• 4GB Intel Q9300 w/8800GT $1,499.99
• 8GB Intel Q9300 w/9800GT $1,529.99

If you want Quality, then you are gonna have to spend some cash.  Some good quality builders are Falcon Northwest and VoodooPC.

Originally posted by CleffyII

If you going to get a machine through iBuyPower, CyberPower, or thier other brand I recommend getting it through newegg.  Newegg is more likely to honor a warranty then going through the company directly.  HP is also good on the price to performance ratio.  Here are some recommendations.  The only thing I don't like are the video cards.  It would be nice if there were some HD4800's which would be priced around the same but outperform the cards on these machines.

• 4GB Intel E8400 w/9600GT $899.99
• 4GB Phenom 9850 w/9600 GT $899.99
• 4GB Intel Q9300 w/8800GT $999.99
• 4GB Intel E8500 w/9600GT $1,049.99
• 4GB Phenom 9850 w/9800 GTX $1,119.99
• 6GB Phenom 9850 w/9800 GT $1,129.99
• 4GB Intel Q9450 w/9800GTX $1,449.99
• 4GB Intel Q9300 w/8800GT $1,499.99
• 8GB Intel Q9300 w/9800GT $1,529.99

If you want Quality, then you are gonna have to spend some cash.  Some good quality builders are Falcon Northwest and VoodooPC.

If 8GB Intel Q9300 w/9800GT $1,529.9 isn't quality enough for you, wow? That thing is pretty powerful. And I'm 100% sure you can build your own rig just like that for less.

EDIT: Falcon Northwest and VoodooPC - definitely expensive.

Bottom line is if you don't already have the knowledge on how to build your own PC, then don't bother. Its a much better option to have a company build it for you if you lack the experience.

Honestly, If I were you I wouldn't even think about ordering one from any company like Falcon Northwest, Voodoo or Alienware. They are just status symbols. Unless you want to spend a lot more money for the same parts, stay away from those companies. All that extra money gets you in a cool case and some tech support.

Here are a few sites to check out if you're going to have a company build and ship you a PC.

www.ibuypower.com
www.tigerdirect.com
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/

Here is one currently one Cyperpower that greatly exceeds your build for quite a bit less money. Just tweak it to your liking.

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Mega_Special_III/

Originally posted by Raunu

Bottom line is if you don't already have the knowledge on how to build your own PC, then don't bother. Its a much better option to have a company build it for you if you lack the experience.

Honestly, If I were you I wouldn't even think about ordering one from any company like Falcon Northwest, Voodoo or Alienware. They are just status symbols. Unless you want to spend a lot more money for the same parts, stay away from those companies. All that extra money gets you in a cool case and some tech support.

 

Here are a few sites to check out if you're going to have a company build and ship you a PC.

 

www.ibuypower.com
www.tigerdirect.com
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/

 

Here is one currently one Cyperpower that greatly exceeds your build for quite a bit less money. Just tweak it to your liking.

 

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Mega_Special_III/

I don't see how that build is better than his.

That build has Duo Core at 3.0 with 6MB Cache - His has Quad Core at 2.66 with 12MB Cache

That build has 2GB RAM - His has 4GB RAM

The only up side is the video card.

The 320GB is plenty of room

Originally posted by Vint4ge

Originally posted by CleffyII

If you going to get a machine through iBuyPower, CyberPower, or thier other brand I recommend getting it through newegg.  Newegg is more likely to honor a warranty then going through the company directly.  HP is also good on the price to performance ratio.  Here are some recommendations.  The only thing I don't like are the video cards.  It would be nice if there were some HD4800's which would be priced around the same but outperform the cards on these machines.

• 4GB Intel E8400 w/9600GT $899.99
• 4GB Phenom 9850 w/9600 GT $899.99
• 4GB Intel Q9300 w/8800GT $999.99
• 4GB Intel E8500 w/9600GT $1,049.99
• 4GB Phenom 9850 w/9800 GTX $1,119.99
• 6GB Phenom 9850 w/9800 GT $1,129.99
• 4GB Intel Q9450 w/9800GTX $1,449.99
• 4GB Intel Q9300 w/8800GT $1,499.99
• 8GB Intel Q9300 w/9800GT $1,529.99

If you want Quality, then you are gonna have to spend some cash.  Some good quality builders are Falcon Northwest and VoodooPC.

 

If 8GB Intel Q9300 w/9800GT $1,529.9 isn't quality enough for you, wow? That thing is pretty powerful. And I'm 100% sure you can build your own rig just like that for less.

EDIT: Falcon Northwest and VoodooPC - definitely expensive.

It isn't about the power but the value.  It also has 1TB of storage and a blu-ray drive.  For about $800 I can make a better performing PC.  But that all comes down to if you have the savvy to build it.

If your interested in building it yourself, you can move in smaller steps.  I started to learn how to build my own PC by getting a Bare-Bones kit and adding in the parts it didn't have.

Originally posted by CleffyII

Originally posted by Vint4ge

Originally posted by CleffyII

If you going to get a machine through iBuyPower, CyberPower, or thier other brand I recommend getting it through newegg.  Newegg is more likely to honor a warranty then going through the company directly.  HP is also good on the price to performance ratio.  Here are some recommendations.  The only thing I don't like are the video cards.  It would be nice if there were some HD4800's which would be priced around the same but outperform the cards on these machines.

• 4GB Intel E8400 w/9600GT $899.99
• 4GB Phenom 9850 w/9600 GT $899.99
• 4GB Intel Q9300 w/8800GT $999.99
• 4GB Intel E8500 w/9600GT $1,049.99
• 4GB Phenom 9850 w/9800 GTX $1,119.99
• 6GB Phenom 9850 w/9800 GT $1,129.99
• 4GB Intel Q9450 w/9800GTX $1,449.99
• 4GB Intel Q9300 w/8800GT $1,499.99
• 8GB Intel Q9300 w/9800GT $1,529.99

If you want Quality, then you are gonna have to spend some cash.  Some good quality builders are Falcon Northwest and VoodooPC.

 

If 8GB Intel Q9300 w/9800GT $1,529.9 isn't quality enough for you, wow? That thing is pretty powerful. And I'm 100% sure you can build your own rig just like that for less.

EDIT: Falcon Northwest and VoodooPC - definitely expensive.

 

It isn't about the power but the value.  It also has 1TB of storage and a blu-ray drive.  For about $800 I can make a better performing PC.  But that all comes down to if you have the savvy to build it.

If your interested in building it yourself, you can move in smaller steps.  I started to learn how to build my own PC by getting a Bare-Bones kit and adding in the parts it didn't have.

Where do you get your parts from? I'd be very interested to see how you can build a more powerful machine at only $800.

For fun, I made a wish list on Newegg - check it out.