I haven't the time or inclination to build my own, but the retailers won't let you customize for $hit!
All I want is a box with a reasonable processor, a small SSD and a nice 2TB HDD. Not picky in the least about the 3D card or anything else. The only options seem to be getting walloped by Dell or HP for $300+ dollars for the SSD (which costs like $90) and paying $1400 for their stuff or use iBuyPower or Alienware and end up spending dough on a bunch of crap I don't need.
Trying to avoid the other alternative which is to buy a modest box and then install the SSD myself, in large part because I don't want to be arsed with removing and installing the OS and all the apps etc. Unfortunately, I think that's in the wind.
XBL Gamertag: RobVarak
"Ok I'm an elitist, but I have a healthy respect for people who don't measure up." --Aaron Sorkin
RobVarak wrote:When did customizing a PC become such a PITA?
I haven't the time or inclination to build my own, but the retailers won't let you customize for $hit!
All I want is a box with a reasonable processor, a small SSD and a nice 2TB HDD. Not picky in the least about the 3D card or anything else. The only options seem to be getting walloped by Dell or HP for $300+ dollars for the SSD (which costs like $90) and paying $1400 for their stuff or use iBuyPower or Alienware and end up spending dough on a bunch of crap I don't need.
Trying to avoid the other alternative which is to buy a modest box and then install the SSD myself, in large part because I don't want to be arsed with removing and installing the OS and all the apps etc. Unfortunately, I think that's in the wind.
You can customize but you'll pay boutique pricing. Those systems are available from Alienware, Falcon NW and several others but like you said they are pricey. If you can hold off wait for all the Steam boxes that will get released this year and they'll probably be available with a lot of those specs. That's why I build my own stuff. I save in the 45-50% range.
RobVarak wrote:When did customizing a PC become such a PITA?
I haven't the time or inclination to build my own, but the retailers won't let you customize for $hit!
All I want is a box with a reasonable processor, a small SSD and a nice 2TB HDD. Not picky in the least about the 3D card or anything else. The only options seem to be getting walloped by Dell or HP for $300+ dollars for the SSD (which costs like $90) and paying $1400 for their stuff or use iBuyPower or Alienware and end up spending dough on a bunch of crap I don't need.
Trying to avoid the other alternative which is to buy a modest box and then install the SSD myself, in large part because I don't want to be arsed with removing and installing the OS and all the apps etc. Unfortunately, I think that's in the wind.
I'm pretty sure most SSD manufacturers these days include simple cloning software with their drives. You can just clone the OS disk to your new SSD with the user of a cheap enclosure or dock.
Seriously, build your own. You may find it quite rewarding, and your wallet will too. It's seriously not as hard as you may think. I'm sure you can find tons of youtube video that go through the basic process.
"Be tolerant of those who describe a sporting moment as their best ever. We do not lack imagination, nor have we had sad and barren lives; it is just that real life is paler, duller, and contains less potential for unexpected delirium." -Nick Hornby
Head to head, thoughts on which is a better option if they're within a couple bucks of each other? I know it's not apples-to-apples, but it's the easiest way to summarize.
Processor Cooling 1 x Liquid CPU Cooling System [Intel] - Standard 120mm Fan
Memory 1 x 16 GB [8 GB x2] DDR3-1600 Memory Module - FREE Upgrade to DDR3-1866 ADATA XPG V2
Video Card 1 x AMD Radeon R9 270X 2GB [Estimate Time of Arrival: 2/22/14] - Single Card
Motherboard 1 x Gigabyte GA-Z87-HD3 -- 1x PCIe 3.0 x16, 4x USB 3.0, 6x SATA-III 6Gb/s
Primary Hard Drive 1 x 120 GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD -- Read: 540MB/s, Write: 410MB/s - Single Drive *Free Upgrade from ADATA 64GB SSD Single Drive Only*
Data Hard Drive 1 x 3 TB HARD DRIVE -- 64M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive
Optical Drive 1 x 24x Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black - FREE upgrade to BLU-RAY Reader Combo Drive for Primary Optical Drive
Meter Display 1 x NZXT Sentry 2 Touch Screen Fan Controller & Temperature Display
Sound Card 1 x 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard
Operating System 1 x Windows 8.1 + Office 365 Trial [Free 30-Day !!!] 64-bit
2. I see that Danimal and some others have had some poor experiences with iBuyPower. I also see that Dell isn't delivering the quality of builds that they did many years ago either though. Thoughts on one builder versus the other?
XBL Gamertag: RobVarak
"Ok I'm an elitist, but I have a healthy respect for people who don't measure up." --Aaron Sorkin
Eh, disregard prior. I've been reading up on the performance difference between the 32GB SSD cache on the Dell and the standalone 120GB SSD on the iBuyPower and that seems like a fairly substantial difference. Going to sleep on this one, but it looks like I'm making my mind up. Feel free to kick me in the face or provide any other thoughts on the build, though.
XBL Gamertag: RobVarak
"Ok I'm an elitist, but I have a healthy respect for people who don't measure up." --Aaron Sorkin
Didn't really see this thread before, but I got an iBuyPower PC a little over a year ago and it rocked up until now. I started having to turn some games (like Assassin's Creed IV) down from Ultra to very high, and when that happens, I go new PC shopping. But now I am wanting to get something that might last me 2 years instead of one.
So I'm aiming this primarily at Scott and Danimal, but anybody with experience would be welcomed to chirp in--
I'm spec'ing out a machine that's got an AMD FX-9590 8-core CPU @ 4.7GHz, but turbo'd to 5.0GHz. I've already jumped it up to 32GB of DDR3/2133MHz RAM in it, and got a 1000W Corsair PSU in it. The debate I'm having is video cards. I can slap a pair of 3GB GTX 780's in it in SLI, but I'm really curious on the difference between the 780 and the 780 Ti. If it's worth the extra $800 or not is my question. I see the reviews of 780 Ti's that say they're awesome, but I haven't found any 780 vs. 780 Ti comparisons that really tell me if it's worth the extra scratch.
Looking at a configuration utility, it's telling me that a single 780 Ti will play Tomb Raider on Ultimate settings at around 91 fps in 1900x1200, yet slapping a second card in nets me 163 fps on the same config. As luck would have it, their test parameters didn't include the 780 (Non-Ti), so I have no basis for comparison against that card directly. Considering SLI setups only really use up to 1 card's VRAM, I'm still not terribly clear on how a second helps boost it. But I went from a single 2GB GTX 670 in my current rig to a 4GB and didn't see a massive jump. Threw in another 4GB and it was a substantial difference. Considering I want to be able to max out every PC game I throw at it for up to two years, while playing in 5760x1080 on at least high settings, I'm really wanting to nail this down. My wife would have a sh*t fit if I came back to her a year later and tried to buy another rig after dropping what amounts to the cost of a small commuter car on this one.
So I guess the only way to summarize this is--a pair of 3GB GTX 780's in SLI, or GTX 780 Ti's?
You're going well past my expertise level as I did all my research and upgrades last year, so I'm not up on the new top of the line stuff at all. Rob's look more mid/top end which is essentially where my computer sits now, which I have done most of the research on. That said, if you want it to last a couple years (which was my goal last year), get the best sh*t you can afford and go from there. As I mentioned to Rob via PM...you never want to think "what if" with regards to building a top of the line rig. Those 20 extra FPS will bug the sh*t out of you.
True..it's the theory that I usually subscribe to anyway. My other thought was getting a single 780 Ti and then throwing another in later when it starts to show signs of stuttering.
But who am I kidding. Just ordered the package with 2 780 Ti's in it.
I long ago gave up piecing the parts together myself. I used to grab all the components and spec it out and buy the case, mount the mobo, all of that crap.
Then I got older and would rather pay somebody else to deal with all of that and just give me a finished box, ready to roll. I ended up with this, which should be pretty much the same as above:
CASE: * AZZA Genesis 9000 w/ USB 3.0, EZ Swap HDD, 2x 230mm fans, Dual Power Supply Support (Black Color)
CS_FAN: Maximum Corsair AIR Series AF120 Performance Edition 120MM High Airflow Case Fan (Maximum Corsair AIR Series AF120 Performance Edition 120MM High Airflow Case Fan)
MOTHERBOARD: * GIGABYTE 990FXA-UD3 AMD 990 ATX w/ Ultra Durable 3, On/Off Charge, GbLAN, 4 PCIe x16, 2 PCIe x1, 1 PCI
FAN: Asetek 550LC 120mm Liquid Cooling CPU Cooler - Enhance Cooling Performance (Dual Standard 120MM Fans (Push-Pull))
CPU: AMD FX-9590 4.70 GHz (5.0GHz Turbo) Eight-Core AM3+ CPU 8MB L2 Cache & Turbo Core Technology
MEMORY: 32GB (8GBx4) DDR3/2133MHz Dual Channel Memory
VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 x16 Video Card (* EVGA Superclocked W/ ACX Cooling)
VIDEO2: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 x16 Video Card (* EVGA Superclocked W/ ACX Cooling)
HDD: 256GB ADATA SP900 SATA-III 6.0Gb/s - 555 MB/s Read & 530 MB/s Write (Single Drive)
HDD2: 4TB (2TBx2) SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (RAID 0)
SOUND: ASUS Xonar DSX 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCIe Sound Card
POWERSUPPLY: 1,000 Watts - AZZA Titan 1000W 80 Plus Bronze Active PFC Power supply
Well you already did it before I saw this thread but I'm always of the theory to buy more than I need and the PC last longer. My Falcon NW is going on 4 years old and it plays everything at top levels and I don't even have as good of video cards as you're getting.
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New rig arrived today. Checked all the parts against the invoice, put it together with a sweet touchscreen monitor and, against all my expectations, start really loving Windows 8.
Things are moving along fine until I go to start importing the data from my old PC. The second 3TB HDD is not appearing in windows. I wasn't worried. Figured it needed to be formatted. Went to the disk manager...nothing. Ok, I remember this. In some day gone by I had added a HDD and I needed to monkey with the bios before windows would see it.
Boot to the bios configuration app...nothing. Now I'm getting pissed, and it's getting late.
I figured that it could be something obvious, like a loose connection. I checked everything when I removed the packaging, and it looked fine. Double check again, it all looks good.
Now I'm pissed. There's no live tech support over night, so I have to cool my heals until 9am Pacific.
In any event, anyone have any other clues what it could be or how to address this?
XBL Gamertag: RobVarak
"Ok I'm an elitist, but I have a healthy respect for people who don't measure up." --Aaron Sorkin
Windows won't recognize an HDD partition that's over 2TB until you properly partition it. I use GPart. Tech support will help you with that over the phone. Do you have UEFI enabled in the BIOS
Rodster wrote:Windows won't recognize an HDD partition that's over 2TB until you properly partition it. I use GPart. Tech support will help you with that over the phone. Do you have UEFI enabled in the BIOS
I do. I saw that as a possible problem and did make sure that UEFI was enabled. My impression from various forums was that windows would still recognize the HDD, but only up to the 2TB limit. Lots of posts from folks who bought 4TB drives and were only seeing 2TB available.
--
Edit: But if you're right, that would be great. Not sure how I could use the software though, given that the drive doesn't exist in the eyes of the PC lol
XBL Gamertag: RobVarak
"Ok I'm an elitist, but I have a healthy respect for people who don't measure up." --Aaron Sorkin
If the drive was partitioned for 3TB and you tried to format it then no you won't see it in Windows. You'll have to run the clean command in that link so Windows will recognize the 3TB partition. If the drive shows up in your BIOS boot table then it's a Windows issue which is easy to fix.
Rodster wrote:If the drive shows up in your BIOS boot table then it's a Windows issue which is easy to fix.
Yeah, that's the problem. It doesn't.
All the troubleshooting info I can find says to check physical connections etc. at that point. I was just wondering if there's anything I'm missing.
It certainly looks like the connections are all correct, with the HDD connected to SATA Port 1, but the bios says that port is empty.
Put your finger on top of the drive and see if it feels like it's spinning. If not check the power connection to the drive. You could try swapping SATA cables from both drives to see if you have a bad SATA cable. If the cable is bad the problem will follow the cable. You could also try plugging the drive into another SATA port on the motherboard.
I've been reading up on the performance difference between the 32GB SSD cache on the Dell and the standalone 120GB SSD on the iBuyPower and that seems like a fairly substantial difference. Going to sleep on this one, but it looks like I'm making my mind up. Feel free to kick me in the face or provide any other thoughts on the build, though.
