Thoughts on I Buy Power

[Melena]

Ok, before the dur build your own comments, I do. Built my last 6 computers. With that said, I don't have the time I used to, and currently I'm a little on the lazy end. Long story short though I'm due for a new gaming PC, and if I get this new job, which I should, I will be splurging. So I'm currently going over options. I already know the specs and what will roughly cost me including shipping from newegg and fry's for the heavier items, and IBP is pretty close in price with a 3 year warranty. I also checked Falcon Northwest (3k+ for my box, no thanks), Alienware was about 200 more with a 1year warranty and you have to pay extra for recovery disks in case things go south. Voodoo since being bought by HP seem to only focus on the HP Firebirds and Laptops which I don't want.

So right now, I have 3 options.

1. Build my own. Cheaper, bit more time consuming, and have to deal with RMA's and crap if there are any DOA parts. I am also my own warranty and tech support when shit goes south.

2. Buy a prebuilt from one of the big sites. Leaning towards IBP due to cost and what not, but would scratch them off if I hear any major horror stories. So far heard 1 good review from a WoW guildmate, but since me and most of my friends build our own, haven't heard much on that.

3. Get recommendations from BG on any other good lesser known builders.

Specs on what I'm building.

Intel I7 2.66ghz

6-8gb Ram DDR3

EVGA I7 Mobo

500-750gb HDD. I will also be throwing my drive in my current computer in the new one as a slave, as well as I have an external 160gb drive, so not too concerned about storage.

On Board Audio. Really, is there any reason to hook my 6+ year old Creative 2.1 system to an SB Live card now a days?

Nvidia Ge-Force 285 1gb (EVGA Version if I build my own) Any reason to spend the extra 200 on the 290 version?

OS: Vista Premium 64bit. Please no lawl vista. Yes, it sucks, yes i'll be upping to Windows 7 when it's out. But new job will have me working on Vista so I need to get it fluent like I have with XP now, so kill two birds in one stone.

[Epical]

How much was the advertised price for said build on IBP? I just customized the same specs as you outlined there on Maingear and the price came out to $2079.

[Melena]

That was about what I had. Give or take a few dollars due to the case I chose and 1000w psu. Buying parts seperately before tax and shipping was about 1700.

[Epical]

Ah, ok. With the 1000w PSU it would be another $108 (I had configured that with a 750w).

[Melena]

Yea, price wise it doesn't seem too bad compared to the old fashioned do it yourself method, which is also why i'm worried. They were also like the only prebuilt pc company that never seemed to have any systems reviewed by PC gamer during the 2 years I had a subscription with them.

[Olo401]

Check out Cyberpower's website - www.cyberpowerpc.com. I just did a custom config on one of their water-cooled systems, using most of the specs & parts you mentioned, and got a total under $1500.

[Ordengate]

I've gotten my last four or five computers from ibuypower. A couple of them have had issues, but I chalk that up to shipping knocking the case around. Mainly I just had to open her up and reseat some stuff like the video card. Only other issue I've had with them is one of my fans went bad and kept causing the system to trip and shut down. Not really their fault though.

The only problem I've got with them personally is they seem to take on average three weeks to deliver a system.

I just bought myself a new computer about two months ago. No issues.
Laptop from them finally burned up after four or five years of constant use. Video card went up in flames. Thing was a beast for being so old as I ran AutoCAD MEP 2009 off it without a hitch.

[Calina]

Just 1 thing make sure you get 3gb 6gb or 12gb of ram not 2 4 or 8.When i was first reshearching to build my i7 i took a look at IBP and other sites all where giving DDR3 with dual channel ram witch they fail to mention are not rated for the proper voltage.Acording to intel max dimm voltage should be no more then 1.65 the dual channel ram are pretty much all 1.7-8 and up.

so be carfull and check to make sure of the ram voltage befor buying.

If you build yourself buy a triple channel kit.and dosent really take much time to build yourself took me like 2hrs to put mine together.

By 290 you mean 295? the 295 is a dual GPU card so its basicly 2 GTX 260/280 combind i say 260/280 because it has the 260's ram but doubled and the 280's shader cores.Its a good card saves cash over SLI IF your where planing on SLI