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Looking to get a new computer


NightOwl
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Custom built

if built properly, you'll need just as much maintenance as prebuilts will otherwise

upgradability can be considered higher and more customisable (depends on who you ask)

 

Personally, I have a custom built, I do a lot of maintenance to it because of the modifications I work on everyday, it can be a bit more demanding but certainly worth it in terms of learning how things work in the computer (and modifying them).

 

Oh, less expensive in most instances... my build is on the sig.

 

Prebuilt:

less maintenance in the sense that you no longer require to do as much work to fix an issue with the computer

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In almost every case, if you're looking at building something cheap and powerful, it's best to simply order the parts and build it yourself. If you're looking for cheap, here's a list of parts that you might want to take a look at:

 

Motherboard: ECS P67H2-A3 - $100

Processor: Intel Core i3 2100 - $125

Memoy: 4GB (2x2) Mushkin Enhanced 1333MHz - $43

Graphics Card: Palit GTX 560 - $200 (OR a GTX 550 Ti, costs $130-$160)

PSU: Corsair Builder Series 500W (CX500) - $60

HDD: 1TB WD Caviar Black - $90 (Or 500GB Seagate Barracuda - $40)

Case: Anything you want really, I recommend the Corsair 650D, the Antec 900, or Azza Hurrican 2000.

Disk Drive: Once again, anything you want. They range from $30 to $90 depending if you want Blu-Ray combo or not.

 

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit costs about $100.

 

In total: Around $700.

 

The i3 2100 may be a dual-core, but it's a freakishly powerful one. As it has HT it does have 4 cores in total (2 physical, 2 virtual) meaning it will not bottleneck the GTX 560. My girlfriend has one in her PC paired with a Radeon 5850, runs basically any game she wants.

 

If you want a quad-core, go with either the i5 2500K (Add $100 basically) or the 2600K (Add $200). The i7 2600K will beat the 980X in nearly every gaming scenario unless the game takes advantage of 12 threads (Metro 2033 with Quad-SLI). The i5 2500K is definitely the best deal, being overclockable to 4.3GHz on the stock air cooling. I don't believe the ECS motherboard has auto-overclocking, but a quick read-up on some forums will teach you how to overclock it safely.

 

Just thought I'd help out. I constantly help out on the NCIX forums (recommending Newegg if you're in the US to reduce shipping costs), and I guarantee you this is probably your best bet for a reliable system. The Corsair 500W is reliable, hence why the higher price. That and it runs on a single 12V rail which is a huge plus since it means better efficiency and you don't have to worry about overloading one of the rails (wouldn't happen with the configuration regardless).

 

Anyways, sorry about the massive reply. I like giving lots of info. =P

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