Complete newbie thinking of a prebuilt

what is the resolution you will be gaming at? and what is your bugdet?

Edited by DST4ME - 10 Jul 2009 at 9:39pm

Ok for a 24" you are looking at a res of 1900 x 1200.

for your budget and that you want to upgrade an i7 platform is much better.

the pre build you have listed is a penryn system and not an i7, which means you can't upgrade to the future cpu (6 core), nor can you upgrade to an i7.

you can't ask DS to add a gpu to the prebuild, you will have to do that yourself.

we don't know how long the speicails last so it may not be here.

now having said all that, if you want a pc you don't need to upgrade for atleast a couple of years, a pc that is on i7 platform, a pc that can be easily upgraded, then you need to spend more and get a customized pc, this is a much better bang for the buck:

Here you go Ticket# 306198 --- Price: $2337 (To see this build click here) Price after current promotion $2137

Copy of Specifications:
Chassis Model: Cooler Master HAF 932
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Interior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz (Quad Core)
Motherboard: EVGA X58 LE Edition SLI (Intel X58 Chipset) (Supports SLI or CrossFire)
System Memory: 6GB DDR3 1333MHz Digital Storm Certified by mushkin enhanced (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested)
Power Supply: 750W Digital Storm Certified (Dual SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition)
Card Reader: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (320GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA)
Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 20x / CD-Writer 48x)
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card: 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 896MB (Includes PhysX Technology)
Add-on Card: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 2: V8 Cooler Master High Performance Cooler (Compatible With ONLY i7 Processors)
Liquid Color:- Not Applicable, I do not have a H20: Stage 3 Cooling System Selected
Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Internal Lighting: Internal Chassis Lighting System (Red)
Enhancements: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Boost Processor: Stage 1: Overclock the processor between 3.3GHz to 3.9GHz (Requires Air Cooling Upgrade)
Boost Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
Tweak Windows: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64-Bit Edition) With Windows 7 Upgrade Coupon
Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based)
Virus Protection: - No Thanks
Office: - No Thanks
Benchmarking: - No Thanks
Install/Test Game: - No Thanks
LCD Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks
External Storage: - No Thanks
Exclusive T-Shirt: - No Thanks
Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 5-10 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed
Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Care Extended Parts & Labor Warranty

now that is a bit over budget, but its a much faster and more upgradable pc, first of all you got 2 x 275 in there so you can have the settings on high, and that itself cost a good bit of money.

I would have like to give a 1000w psu, but your budget does not allow it so we stick with a 750w.

your mobo is a great mobo that can do both sli and crossfire so in the future if ati has a better gpu you like and would like to upgrade to that, you can, with the penryn mobo you can't.

I gave you 6GB of ram so that will not need to be upgrades for atleast 3 to 5 years. but if you drop that to 3GB you will come within $40 of your $2000 budget, however you will need to upgrade that at some point.

this pc is much much faster then the per build you have picked.

now keep in mind if we drop the gpu to only one 275 then you are within $30 of your budget however you will not be running on high settings at 1900 x 1200 in games.

I guess what I'm saying is we can do this:

Here you go Ticket# 306201 --- Price: $1941 (To see this build click here) Price after current promotion $1791

Copy of Specifications:
Chassis Model: Cooler Master HAF 932
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Interior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz (Quad Core)
Motherboard: EVGA X58 LE Edition SLI (Intel X58 Chipset) (Supports SLI or CrossFire)
System Memory: 3GB DDR3 1333MHz Digital Storm Certified by mushkin enhanced (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested)
Power Supply: 750W Digital Storm Certified (Dual SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition)
Card Reader: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (320GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA)
Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 20x / CD-Writer 48x)
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card: 1x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 896MB (Includes PhysX Technology)
Add-on Card: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 2: V8 Cooler Master High Performance Cooler (Compatible With ONLY i7 Processors)
Liquid Color:- Not Applicable, I do not have a H20: Stage 3 Cooling System Selected
Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Internal Lighting: Internal Chassis Lighting System (Red)
Enhancements: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Boost Processor: Stage 1: Overclock the processor between 3.3GHz to 3.9GHz (Requires Air Cooling Upgrade)
Boost Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
Tweak Windows: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64-Bit Edition) With Windows 7 Upgrade Coupon
Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based)
Virus Protection: - No Thanks
Office: - No Thanks
Benchmarking: - No Thanks
Install/Test Game: - No Thanks
LCD Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks
External Storage: - No Thanks
Exclusive T-Shirt: - No Thanks
Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 5-10 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed
Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Care Extended Parts & Labor Warranty

but you need to add anoher 275 gtx if you want to run high settings and at some point you will need more ram.

now I know you got questions so fire away.



Edited by DST4ME - 10 Jul 2009 at 10:05pm

Well listen please ask what you don't understand so I can clarify, I'm here to for this reason, so you understand exactly what is what and what you are doing, so please ask.

DS's PC's are tested before they come to you, they are a reputable company, otherwise I would not be here helping people

your resolution of your monitor requires you to get 2 GPUs (graphic cards), that will bring your cost up, you won't get a PC with 2 good GPUs for $1500.

you see if your resolution of your monitor is 1600 x 1200 or below, one good GPU will give you 60 frames per second.

60 fps is what you need to have a smooth gaming experience.

if your resolution is at or above 1900 x 1200, you need 2 GPUs to get 60 fps.

at 2560 x 1600 or higher resolution you will need 3 GPUs.

now for todays games a 275 GTX GPU is the way to go, price is low compared to others but it does as good as more expensive cards like the 285 GTX which costs $150 more.

as for the PC itself, the brain of the PC is the CPU (central processing unit), in the case of the prebuild its the q9300, in the case of my configs its the i7 920.

now the i7 is the model of the CPU, the q9300 model is called the penryn.

penryn is the older model and can't be upgraded to the new model "i7" chips.

the i7 current chips, can be upgraded to the next model coming out in 2010 which will be a 6 core CPU, the current i7 and the old penryns are 4 core CPUs.

the 920 is much more powerful then the penryn models.

now the motherboards that the CPU go on are different also, penryn CPUs had their own mobo(mother board) and the current i7 CPUs have their own mobo.

the i7 mobo can do both sli (2 Nvidia GPUs working together to produce more GPU power/ better fps), and crossfire (2 ATI GPUs working together to produce more GPU power/ better fps), the penryn mobo can only do sli, it can't do crossfire.

now for your need as we mentioned you need 2 GPUs ( 2 x 275 GTX in sli) however say in 2 years ATI has the best cards that produce better performance but with a better price, if you have a penryn based mobo you can't use ATI in crossfire so that will not be an option, but with the i7 mobo you can go both sli or crossfire so that would be an option.

does all of that makes sense now?

whatever questions you have please ask

Edited by DST4ME - 10 Jul 2009 at 10:59pm

well my second build is with one gpu only, so we could lower the mobo, lower the case and come up with this:

Here you go Ticket# 306225 --- Price: $1827 (To see this build click here) Price after current promotion $1677

Copy of Specifications:
Chassis Model: Antec Nine Hundred Two
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Interior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz (Quad Core)
Motherboard: XFX X58 3X SLI (Intel X58 Chipset) (Supports Triple SLI or CrossFire)
System Memory: 3GB DDR3 1333MHz Digital Storm Certified by mushkin enhanced (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested)
Power Supply: 750W Digital Storm Certified (Dual SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition)
Card Reader: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (320GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA)
Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 20x / CD-Writer 48x)
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card: 1x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 896MB (Includes PhysX Technology)
Add-on Card: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 2: V8 Cooler Master High Performance Cooler (Compatible With ONLY i7 Processors)
Liquid Color:- Not Applicable, I do not have a H20: Stage 3 Cooling System Selected
Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Internal Lighting: Internal Chassis Lighting System (Red)
Enhancements: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Boost Processor: Stage 1: Overclock the processor between 3.3GHz to 3.9GHz (Requires Air Cooling Upgrade)
Boost Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
Tweak Windows: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64-Bit Edition) With Windows 7 Upgrade Coupon
Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based)
Virus Protection: - No Thanks
Office: - No Thanks
Benchmarking: - No Thanks
Install/Test Game: - No Thanks
LCD Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks
External Storage: - No Thanks
Exclusive T-Shirt: - No Thanks
Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 5-10 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed
Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Care Extended Parts & Labor Warranty

or you can check the prebuild, "best bang for the buck"

the difference will be that my config will be much faster since its oced.

Edited by DST4ME - 10 Jul 2009 at 11:29pm

well the beauty of the i7 is that you can always upgrade it to the new round cpus coming out next year, so say in a year or two you can upgrade it to the 6 core cpu and keep it powerfull and upto date besides it would be a shame to have a 1900 x 1200 res and not game at that res on high settings

good luck, when you get your money remind me to reconfig a system for you as prices and hardware changes around here pretty quick

Edited by DST4ME - 11 Jul 2009 at 12:40am

1. the 1000w will allow you to go Tri sli down the road if you need to, the 750w maxes out at dual sli.

2. the current config comes with vista and an upgrade to win7, now win7 is suppose to be more expensive, so its possible that the price might be higher but I'm not sure to be honest.

Medibot.  Like you - I am a noob.  My last PC came from Best Buy and this time I set out to build my own, thinking it would cost less.  My bank's IT guy sent me to a Tiger Direct barebones.  By the time I got it complete (hard drive, video card, optical and OS) I was well over my budget of $1,000.  I was researching at Tom's Hardware and caught the DS website advertisement. 

I bought the $1,099 prebuilt on Friday because of the i7 920 processor.  It will allow you to upgrade the RAM to 6GB from 3GB, and add a second GTS 250 card if you'd like.   More power will be required to do this but they are not that expensive.  My Blitzgrieg comes with a 475 PSU which is adequate for the one card but I suspect barely.

I do light gaming (Quake 3 and Quake Live) meaning I do alot of it but they are easy on the system.  If your gaming demands are heavy, you may need to part with more $$.  I'm not sure what my video settings will be as I have to upgrade my 15" Samsung which is set to 1024 x 768.

Good luck.  I'll post again when I get my rig set up.