Does this look like a good deal?

Discussion in 'Tech Talk' started by Belthasar, Oct 11, 2011.

  1. Belthasar
    Member

    Joined:
    Jul 9, 2010
    Messages:
    736
    Likes Received:
    0
    Occupation:
    Burger Flipper
    Location:
    Marshall, Michigan
  2. EniGmA1987
    Veteran Staff Member Xenforcer

    Joined:
    Aug 25, 2010
    Messages:
    4,778
    Likes Received:
    34
    It looks like a good deal for the price, however I will point out some limitations you may or may not have noticed about it:


    processor is a good one, but it is not the overclockable model. Meaning it only turbos to 3.8GHz, at best you can hit around 3.9GHz. So if you have been hearing about people who get them way up almost to 5GHz, that is not this model.

    The graphics card is a 550Ti. While this is adequate for gaming, you wont be able to play the newest games coming out soon at high settings like BF3. But if you dont care about playing at the highest settings then it should be ok for a while.

    No memory speed and timings are listed, which leads me to believe it is DDR-1333 @ 9-9-9-24-2T timings. This is "ok" for a cheaper computer, but may become a bottleneck not too far down the line. These processors love higher MHz memory, and this memory is the lowest speed grade supported by the CPU. The size is good though, 8GB.

    And lastly for possible cons is the power supply. Nothing is listed so we dont know what is in it. The PSU could be crap and not have enough wattage or connectors to power an upgraded graphics card down the line.

    Optical drive and hard drive are good.






    If you need a new computer, and you dont care about running things at high settings for the next years as games come out then this will do fine. If you do want to play them at high settings, it would be more worth it to get a little bit worse CPU and a better GPU. It all is just about what your priorities are here
     
  3. Kitsune
    Guest

    Joined:
    Jun 27, 2010
    Messages:
    4,270
    Likes Received:
    1
    Location:
    New Jersey
    Enigma rocks my socks. Seriously. x_x <3
     
  4. Blackice
    Veteran

    Joined:
    Apr 18, 2011
    Messages:
    507
    Likes Received:
    0
    Occupation:
    Baker
    The 550TI is a tricky piece of merchandise because it SEEMS like the best value choice like 560TI, but they are very different.

    I read your question as something like: If you purchased the parts separately, would it be a different deal?

    The breakdown

    Case- ~100
    Fans-20
    PSU-65+ (if it isn't a piece of junk)
    CPU w/ stock fan-300
    Mobo-80
    Win7-100
    Memory-45
    GFX-125
    Fans-20
    DVD-20
    HDD-45
    Mouse-20 (generic)
    Keyboard-10 (generic)

    If you just went on a buying spree and got it all separately you'd pay about $50 more than the deal shown in your link. Considering that it comes already assembled, and is less than the actual cost of the parts, it is a fair deal to buy into. The largest downside is that you can't go Crossfire/SLI with that motherboard, so when you're upgrading the graphics card it will always be a steep single card purchase.

    Because it's a decent rig, it might actually have a decent PSU, but you won't know without calling and asking (or buying without knowing!) Also, you might be able to get the same rig with a 560TI (or other video card) instead.

    The below section however gives me the idea that the motherboard may not be able to upgrade the video at all:

     
  5. Belthasar
    Member

    Joined:
    Jul 9, 2010
    Messages:
    736
    Likes Received:
    0
    Occupation:
    Burger Flipper
    Location:
    Marshall, Michigan
    Thank you both ^^
     
  6. Belthasar
    Member

    Joined:
    Jul 9, 2010
    Messages:
    736
    Likes Received:
    0
    Occupation:
    Burger Flipper
    Location:
    Marshall, Michigan
    Any suggestions on what you all would think would be a good buy?
     
  7. Deadend
    Veteran Crowfall Member

    Joined:
    Jun 22, 2008
    Messages:
    1,449
    Likes Received:
    14
    Occupation:
    Monkey.
    How much you want to spend and what do you want to do? If you want to run at 1080p and ultra settings for the next couple years you talking about 2grand or so. If your happy with some medium to high settings you can put something together for 750-850 +taxes and such. Me I don't trust premades with out part numbers for each part but that's just me.