[Q]wanna buy a PC online

Hi all
I was planning to buy a gaming Laptop but after searching I discovered that the most advanced custom built expensive laptop I could get will have 8700mGT as a top-end graphic card for laptops which is not enough for real gaming (again talking about Crysis), and waiting for cards like the 8800GT/GTS/GTX/Ultra to fit-into some laptop is currently a hopeless case!

So here I am searching for a normal PC, and I'm planning to buy it online.
I found those three website :
MALIBAL and Alienware and ibuypower

And feeling enthusiastic about IBuyPower and the way it works
My budget is around 1300USD, without a monitor, without an OS, without a keyboard or mouse, just a case+motherboard+power supply+prossecor+sound and video cards) and I think my choice for the video card would be 8800GT (unless I can go a little bit higher)

I'm I thinking right until now? Is this a good website and can anyone recommend some other website? Should I wait until 2008 for newer graphic cards? Should I wait for that XXX edition from XFX for 8800GT?
thnx

IBUYPOWER has a fairly bad reputation, especially in the customer service department, and their build quality is in general average or worse. While their configurations offer some of the lowest prices and overall you can pick out a good config out of them, in general it comes with some baggage. Some people have bought computers from them and never had an issue, but there are a ton who have issues as seen on their resellerratings page. While [H] Consumer is dead, their reviews are still pretty good for getting a picture into companies practices and how they treat their customers, so you may want to read this: http://consumer.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTA4NywsLGhjb25zdW1lcg==

I haven't looked at Malibal before clicking your link, but they seemed to only have laptops, and I thought you were looking at desktops now? As for Alienware, their customer service has also taken a hit in its rep for a while now, and in general their prices seem a bit high for what you are getting, which doesn't really play well with your budget. With the only unique thing about them in general seems to be their case, which is in most ways just a regular steel ATX case with a painted plastic shroud.

Ideally in computers, you want to wait until you can't wait anymore. If you need or want a computer now, you should get a computer now, as things move pretty quickly technology wise. If you can survive waiting for a few monthes until new graphics cards (and perhaps new CPU's based on the 45nm process) then you can get better performance for the same money as well.

If you decide you can't wait, and wait to buy from an online vendor instead of putting it together yourself, consider AVA Direct. They make pretty good computers, their customer service is supposedly much higher (Reseller Ratings Page). Here's one of their reviews on [H]Consumer: http://consumer.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTIzMCwxLCxoY29uc3VtZXI=

Using this configurator: http://www.avadirect.com/product_details_configurator.asp?PRID=830

I configured it as:

ANTEC, Performance One P180 Black Mid-Tower Computer Case, ATX, No PSU
CORSAIR, VX Series 550W Power Supply, 24-pin ATX12V EPS12V, SLI Ready
GIGABYTE, GA-P35-DS3R, LGA775, Intel P35, 1333MHz FSB, DDR2-800 8GB /4, PCIe x16, SATA 3Gb/s RAID 5 /8, HDA, GbLAN, ATX, Retail
INTEL, Core™ 2 Duo E6750 Dual-Core, 2.66GHz, 1333MHz FSB, 4MB L2 Cache, 65nm, 65W, EM64T EIST XD, Retail
OCZ, 2GB (2 x 1GB) Gold GX XTC PC2-6400 DDR2 800MHz CL 5-5-5-12 SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC
eVGA, e-GeForce 8800GT Superclocked 650MHz, 512MB GDDR3 1900MHz, PCIe x16 SLI, DVI /2, HDTV/S-Video Out, Retail
SEAGATE, 320GB Barracuda 7200.10, SATA II 300MB/s, 7200-RPM, 16MB cache
RAID, No RAID, Independent HDD Drives
LITE-ON, LH-20A1S Black/White 20x DVD±RW Dual-Layer Burner, SATA, Retail
MITSUMI, Black Internal 1.44MB 3.5" Floppy Drive
NONE, No Operating System (Choose or subject to Limited Support)
WARRANTY, Silver Warranty Package (3 Year Limited Parts, 3 Year Labor Warranty)

for $1210.10 before shipping and taxes. I would go with onboard sound honestly unless you are a big time audiophile, it's come a long way in general and for the budget you'd get more value elsewhere I think. You can have them add an aftermarket cooler if you are interested in overclocking, although you'd void their warranty...But there's not many companies at this price range that you could get to warranty the overclock. It also fits your needs since it doesn't have a OS, no keyboards or mice. I have no idea how good the XXX Edition of the XFX 8800GT would be, but I'd imagine it's just another overclocked 8800GT, of which case it's probably not that big a deal to wait for. You can try other configurations also, and they also have other builders if you click on their Desktops tab, so try and see if you can find something that fits you.

You can also consider places like Velocity Micro or Maingear, and I'm sure there are others, but I haven't looked into system integrators that much. You'll probably have a tough time though finding quality low margin (IE Low prices) builders like AVADirect, as Maingear and Velocity Micro mostly make computers at a slightly higher price range.

Maingear has a system called the Prelude that you might want to look into; it has a bit of a premium (not as much as there F131 or Ephex), but you can get top quality parts with little increase in price, plus a warranty and great customer support.

Customizations: Total: $1,321.12
Exterior Automotive Color: Silver Brushed Aluminum Finish
Power Supply: MAINGEAR 750W Ultra Quiet Power Supply
Motherboard: Asus P5N-E SLI nForce 650i SLI
Processor: E6550 Core 2 (2.33GHz x 2)
CPU Cooling: Intel Quiet CPU Cooler
Memory: 2GB Corsair XMS2 PC2 6400
Hard Drive One: Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache - SATA II
Optical Drive One: 16X DVD-ROM - Black
Video Card: NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800GT 512MB DDR3
Sound Card: Onboard 8-channel High Definition Audio
Network Card: Dual Gigabit LAN
Game: FREE! Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (32-Bit)
Warranty: 1 Year Maingear Warranty

It is slightly over your budget, but you do get an OS with it and very good customer support.

What TheDreamer posted is pretty good too, I hadn't looked into Maingear that much for that price point. You can compare and constrast, they are fairly equal though from my point of view, although I don't like nvidia based motherboards on computers that don't plan to go SLI as intel based chipsets are in general of a higher quality and run cooler. But yeah there are definitely places to shop around as you can see.

I would not personally recommend Alienware or Ibuypower. There are simply better builders. Maingear and AVA are excellent examples.

I'm sure i'll get flamed for using the following 4 letter word, but dell (I'm sorry!) has a hell of a lot of good deals on their scratch/dent/refurb/return outlet as long as you keep watching/refreshing the page. I got my (now year-old) xps m1210 w/ 2gb memory and a c2d 2ghz w/ 120gb hd for about a grand...supposedly because of cosmetic defects but it came looking flawless except for a small scuff on the windows sticker on the bottom...why they didn't just load another copy of the OS instead of taking $1000 of the price, i'll never know.

Either case, I've been carrying that photomonster around india, nepal, thailand, cambodia, laos, burma, singapore, malaysia, indonesia and soon japan for the past 11 months and it still works perfectly. My fiancee even dropped the damn thing, which ended up chipping the corner of the thing off, and it still works just fine.

but there are a ton who have issues as seen on their resellerratings page

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wow the resellerratings page is really scary not to mention the hardocp page

I haven't looked at Malibal before clicking your link, but they seemed to only have laptops

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u'r right I saved it when I had some hope in laptops

With the only unique thing about them in general seems to be their case

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I’ll keep there case's to them then

Ideally in computers, you want to wait until you can't wait anymore. If you need or want a computer now, you should get a computer now, as things move pretty quickly technology wise. If you can survive waiting for a few months until new graphics cards (and perhaps new CPU's based on the 45nm process) then you can get better performance for the same money as well.

Click to expand...

100% right, I have a PC now but it sucks, and I can wait if waiting worth’s (I have a question about this at the end)

If you decide you can't wait, and wait to buy from an online vendor instead of putting it together yourself

Click to expand...

Seems that I’ll take my chances and put that thing together

I admit that AVA and Maingear is better but frankly you guys got me scared from these companies, and between me and you.. I'm from the Middle East and I discovered that I’ll have to ship the PC to my relative in the US and then he'll send it to me, so I won't take any benefits from the warranty, not to mention the extra shipping cost
if you are wondering why I chose to buy the PC online u'll find later that buying a good PC in the middle east is not easy (specially that currently I’m working outside my country)

I would go with onboard sound honestly unless you are a big time audiophile

Click to expand...

I’m not and I would defiantly go for onboard sound right now

You can have them add an aftermarket cooler if you are interested in overclocking

Click to expand...

I discovered that aftermarket coolers is expensive but I think they are useful (I still don't know how exactly but i'll find out) so I’ll put it in mind while buying (maybe they need some special/big case)

It is slightly over your budget, but you do get an OS with it and very good customer support.

Click to expand...

I hate to say this but I think that after searching I discovered that I’ll have to raise my budget to something like 1500-1600USD I’ll delay replacing my car with better one

although I don't like nvidia based motherboards on computers that don't plan to go SLI as Intel based chipsets are in general of a higher quality and run cooler

Click to expand...

I’ll search around to find out what exactly you said now then ask about it

my fiancée even dropped the damn thing, which ended up chipping the corner of the thing off, and it still works just fine.

Click to expand...

so I suppose that you made her responsible for carrying the damn thing, now that’s what a real man should be, and yes Dell is good (I consider them the best in laptops/no offence Toshiba but stop shipping the same model with hidden low quality futures to middle east)

I finally decided to gather a decent PC and get rid of the 128mb graphic chip life
I’m not really into the hardware stuff and believe me when I say that here in the middle east I consider my knowledge better than all the local suppliers here
Yesterday I circled a whole area of computer shops just to ask them about the GeForce 8800GT and not just that they don’t have it, they didn’t even heard about it
I entered a shop and start asking a guy and it was like love from the first look, we instantly knew that we know
After a long discussion and 2 cigarettes I found the following:

processor
Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 (4x 2.4GHz/8MB L2 Cache) = what equals 307USD
My question:
I didn’t go for Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6700 (4x 2.66GHz/8MB L2 Cache) cuz it’s much more expensive (I think it would be 280USD more than the 6600)
And didn’t go for Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad-Core Processor cuz I don’t have a money printer (yet)!
And didn’t go for Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6850 (2x 3.0GHz/4MB L2 Cache) cuz I liked the sound of the word “Quad” (though it costs about the same price like the one I chose)
My question:
I’m I right? I’m not really into overclocking and I noticed in the 6600 is mentioned a lot in the overclocking challenges so I thought that maybe it’s an overclocker processor
I have a good budget but not an open one, so does the 6700 deserve the extra price since the only deference I noticed is the + 0.200GHz
Now to the usual middle eastern complex, generally when companies (for example Toshiba) manufacture a Laptop they make 2 types from the same model, one for the middle east and the other for the rest of the world
Not exactly but it happens a lot of times, it happened to me when I bought my Sony DVD Player and discovered after that that the model I bought is exclusive for middle east region.
So is there more than a model from Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 (4x 2.4GHz/8MB L2 Cache)?
Is there some fully optioned/higher quality version and lower end/quality one?

I noticed here that there might be:
and what the hell is this
is it an upgrade or what?

MotherBoard
For the mobo I went for the eVGA NForce 680i SLI = what equals 334USD
the question:
Is this the right choice? I don’t know a lot about these new motherboards but I just like the sound of the word EVGAAA!
And of course.. is there more than a version from this model? Should I look for some specific option in it?
Should I go for something like:
Asus P5N32-E SLI nForce® 680i SLI (about 90USD more)
Asus Striker Extreme nForce® 680i SLI (about 180USD more)
Would they give me better performance or cooling or anything that deserves the money difference?

Graphic Card
For the graphic card he had EVGA GeForce 8800GTS = what equals 388USD
And he told me that he can order the 8800GT for me and that it would cost me around 428USD (I think he said its 512 DDR3 XFX model)
question:
Shouldn’t the GT be cheaper than the GTS? Should I tell him to order some specific version from the GT specially that it’s all about the Graphic card for me, at least should I be far from some GT models cuz I heard about some heating problems with it, and I also noticed that there is a big deference between the GT models (I mean one could be a lot better that other one)

The funny thing is when I told him that I want a normal 400W power supply, he was disappointed from me and told me that he thought that I’m better than this then he explained the reason that you all know, so I think I’ll go for some 800W one.

Final Q, I have a PC and I may be able to wait a little bit if the waiting deserves, so should I wait another 2 or 3 months cuz I heard (yes I hear a lot) that there will be some major changes at the beginning of 2008 Specially than 45 nm Processors from Intel which I have no idea about

Ya I remembered, he told me something about installing 2 Graphic cards on the mother board and stuff like that, could the eVGA mother board handle 2 GT’s? How can you tell if a mother board does? Or a graphic card can? and is this to the nvidia based motherboards that anchen mentioned?

could any1 at least answer 1 question

If you are planning to build your own computer, try reposting in General Hardware. The Computer and Gadgets forum is more for completed Computer Systems and well, gadgets. General Hardware is more where people will respond to posts about individual components and builds. I might reply a bit later with specific replies to your questions, don't have time at the moment though.

this is it
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1241916
thnx