Need Pre Built PC Help

[Dann]

I'm looking at this right now http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Ship_..._AMD_FX_8-Core
thinking about upgradeing the video card to the AMD Radeon HD 6970 - 2GB and upgradeing the power supply to 750 watts should that be enough to run the relativly high settings?

[acpowell]

I'm looking at this right now http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Ship_..._AMD_FX_8-Core
thinking about upgradeing the video card to the AMD Radeon HD 6970 - 2GB and upgradeing the power supply to 750 watts should that be enough to run the relativly high settings?

That is a great machine but for $100 you might not get much more out of a 6970 vs a 6950.

Take a look here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ew,3107-7.html

That gives you a list of most of the cards out there right now, and then shows you the Hierarchy of which is better out of the 3 GPU companies (although Intel is never really a viable option).

THe 70 is only 1 level above the 50 and in my opinion not really worth the extra $100. But that is up to you. SOmeone else here might have more to say about it, not sure. Other wise it is a great machine.

edit: I would stick with the 700 power supply, for the money the 750s are not worth the cost unless you planed on adding another graphics card, then I would get an 800 not a 750.

[Dann]

Cool good to know I'll put that 100 towards a better cooling unit then and dual fans, I heard the standard cooling one they give you sucks some times

[Geesus]

So checked the Mobo you have ordered for that build Dann and user reviews are rather bad.

Newegg user's reviews here and here. Now one of these is an EVO board the other is not. General rule of thumb for reading Newegg reviews for most folks is, if the combined score of 4 & 5 eggs =s 80%, solid piece of equipment. Anything below that, purchase at your own risk. Sometimes, that risk has worked for me . But with you being a non-building user, if anything goes wrong, you're pretty much SOL and will need someone to come out and fix your PC if it breaks or take it somewhere to get fixed. That's gonna cost you extra $ or cost you game time.

[Asmeret]

You need to be really careful if you buy from iBuy Power/CyberPowerPC. Pay attention to their RMA process. I know for CyberPowerPC you pay to have your computer shipped to you, and if it's DoA or something needs fixed, you have to pay to ship it back to get fixed.

You really should look into building your own computer, with parts purchased from NewEgg. They have amazing customer service if anything were to be DoA. When I sold my laptop I thought I would just take the money from that and buy a prebuilt PC from CyberPowerPC... Huge mistake. The computer ended up being DoA about a month after they said it had shipped. I got really fed up with them and ended up returning my PC all together and thus losing out on the shipping cost. The computer I have now I bought off Craigs List. (I honestly don't recommend buying off CL but sometimes you do get lucky.) The computer was custom built, less than three months old, and it came with all the boxes/manuals/receipts. He spent over a grand on it, I got it for 500.

Specs: 23 Inch LED Monitor, Logitech X-530 Speakers(Crap), Saitek Eclipse III Keyboard, 4 GBs Mushkin Ram, AMD Phenom IIx4 Black Edition (Running As Quad), Geforce GTX 550 TI Zotac Edition, Windows 7. Not sure what the name of the mobo is other than it's a Biostar. It also came with a ton of games, and wired controller.

[Dann]

Order has been sent in! Hopefully all goes well.

[Asmeret]

Hope all goes well Dann! By the way, what did you end up going with?

[Dann]

The pre built one i linked a few posts up with some upgrades to a better liquid cooler with dual silent fans. Maybe next tax season I'll look into building my own and give this one too my little brother.

[Dann]

Order arrived not to long ago game plays great! all settings to max except that depth of field and ambiant. only stutters very very very slightly when i wandered into some big forest. Other then that very happy with it! Thanks for all the advice guys!