heyy guyss girls i need some advice on iBuyPowerr?

[MagicEmperor]

ok so the thing is i was thinking about buying a new computer making it myself so its pretty powerfull. so i found this site Im wondering if anyone used it here? iBuyPower is it too big of a rip off since they put everything together for you, you just pick parts? so anyways if u know anything let me know and tx..

[Werefrog]

I've never used it, but I'm fairly certain it's going to be more expensive than just buying the parts. Is it a rip-off? Well, that depends on your ability to put a computer together and how valuable you feel that your time is.

What kind of a computer do you want? Laptop or desktop? My friend who builds his own computers said that he would never think about making a laptop as easy it is to screw up.

Honestly, if you want a powerful desktop, you may be better off buying a computer with a good processor from Dell and then upgrading it. Let's face it, no matter how great your computer is when you buy it, it won't be able for long without upgrading it.

[Sonic#]

I built my computer a year ago from parts I ordered online from Newegg. It's pretty stable. I'd never messed with any hardware much before, and after reading up on some online documents I didn't have much difficulty putting stuff together. You have to be careful, have a steady hand, ground yourself to prevent static buildup, and so on. I probably saved a couple of hundred dollars by doing that. I won't have to upgrade it at all for another little while, too. It took me an evening to put together once I had the parts, and that includes reading the manuals and taking a long time before I'd do any step.

You can, as Werefrog said, buy a basic system and upgrade it from there. That way, you won't have to mess much with the power supply, motherboard, or the processor; it's easier to adjust things like the harddrive, RAM, and the graphics cards.

So what I'd do, with any given build you make on the site, is then proceed to see how much the individual parts cost. If it's especially cheaper to buy those parts separately, and they don't seem especially hard to install, then it might be better to just build the PC. And if you don't mind paying someone a certain amount to build your PC for you under guarantee, that's fine too.

[MagicEmperor]

hmm i c that would be smarter to do buy a normal one like dell sony ect..then upgrade it im trying to make it a gaming computer that can almost take anything i was also thinking of making it a good video player but yea ill check it out i guess from what i herd newegg is pretty good on parts tx guyss

[phyco126]

Note: The more expensive the PC from a company such as Dell (I'll forgive you for saying Sony) or HP, the more money you are essentially throwing away. A sub $1,000 will cost either slightly less or equal to the amount you would have paid for quality parts to build it yourself. However, once you hit the $1,000 mark you'll start to save money for a DYI. Example? My PC with the same set-up as one of the systems on Dell only cost me around $1,800 around the time I built her. The set-up on Dell cost nearly $3,000. The price does drop on Dell fairly quickly after the first two months... but so does the parts that you purchased, making it even cheaper yet for you to build.

At the time I built my PC, it was one of the more powerful ones you could build. I can overclock my processor to 4.05 Ghz (you can't overclock with almost any store bought PC), and even overclock my videocard (you can do this with a store bought at least). Heck, if you really want to get into it, you can overclock your RAM too. My PC had some of the best gear you could buy, without going broke either. I was one of the lucky ones to get my hands on the new Intel processors manufactured at 45nm (E8400 FTW), and had a 8800GT. The PC still rips through games and whatnot. If I really needed to upgrade, really all I would need is a new videocard and I would be set for the next year or two.

Edit: Also, watch out if you buy from a company such as Dell or whatnot. You will be limited on what you can typically upgrade. With my motherboard, I can downgrade to P4, or upgrade to the high end quad cores. Only things I can't upgrade without a motherboard change is DDR3 RAM and Core i7s or the Core i5s. Dell has a notorious habit of throwing motherboards into a system that can only handle very specific processors, so who knows what you'll get when you buy from them.

[MagicEmperor]

oo i see what your trying to say, makes sense i guess ahah im going to do that really need a new computer i just want it to have alot of ram

[Werefrog]

If you want it to be a good gaming PC, you'll also need a good processor in addition to the RAM. And yeah, Phyco is right: motherboards limit the processors that you can choose from. That's why I would choose a good one to begin with.

[phyco126]

You really don't need that much RAM. I think more non-server high end boards now run somewhere around 16GBs of RAM. Mine can handle 8GBs. 3GBs is the sweet spot, 4GB is decent, but you may not always see a difference in performance (but you will see an increase in electricity use, unless you go with a 2x2GB sticks). Anything higher than 4GBs is a waste. Its like have a 600HP car thats tied into the road system to keep it from ever going higher than the posted speed limit on that part of the road. Now, if you were planning some major photoediting, sure, more RAM = good. Not so much on games, as only a very small amount of games even use 2GBs, much less 3 or 4GBs, and I doubt any beyond that, aside from MAYBE 3 or 4 games. Need proof? On the other hand, as more games and programs allow use of more than 2 GBs of RAM, I suppose slapping in the maximum RAM amount never hurts (well, it'll hurt the wallet =P).

In any event, if you do decide to max out RAM, whether its at 4GBs or higher, you will need to get a 64-bit operating system. AKA Vista 64-bit, XP-64 bit, or Windows-7 64 Bit. If you get a 32 OS, well... hope you don't mind wasting money on RAM you'll never use.

[MagicEmperor]

man are you smart ahah i see what your saying tho i never understood the ram thing like how only a certain amount works with the 32 bit, but my friend showed me this site called crucible and like it reads how much you can puut in for maxx preformance tx alot

[phyco126]

If you need anymore help, lemme know. I'm not the smartest when it comes to building PCs, but I've read a lot. (I've only built 1 PC, which is the one I'm using, and repaired another with a new motherboard, processor, and RAM).

[MagicEmperor]

alright no problems if i get into some trouble ill just PM u on here tx