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So let me start this by saying, yes, I know the best way to get a good cheap computer is to build one yourself. However, it has been over 10 years since I put together my last rig, and I am just not in the mood, nor have the confidence, to build anything in this age. Every time I mention I am looking to get a new computer this is the first thing 50% of the people I ask tell me, so I just wanted to nip that option in the bud.

Now for the actual questions. I have been considering getting a new gaming/animation rig, something strong but it does not have to be a super work-horse. My preferred budget is in the range of $800, but I can go as high as $1000 if needed.

While I was searching on Amazon yesterday for options, I stumbled on this computer.

However, I am heavily weary. Based on the reviews and the information I have read, the computer and the parts that make it up are pretty good, but it's over a $100 UNDER my budget. I feel like I am going to commit and then find out I am missing something that will make this system run like a slug. I checked out systems with similar stats from brands I trust, and most of them were going for $1000 or more.

What do you guys think? Any other good computer suggestions?

I've been out of the hardware pushing scene for awhile, so I don't have the knowledge to comment on the machine you posted. To my rusty as hell eye, it looks good, but I'm sure someone can give a much better breakdown.

The last computer I bought was from www.ibuypower.com and it's still a goddamn beast. Even coming up on its fifth birthday, it can still run nearly everything at max settings at 1920x1080, and the process of buying from them was pretty painless. Back when I got my computer and price checked what it would cost me to build myself with the same specs, I was even fairly surprised to find the cost difference wasn't that high, and I was more than willing to pay that extra premium for them to go through the hassle of assembly and pre-burn so that I wouldn't have to.

I second for IBUYPOWER, before I started building my own PCs I got them made there. Of course there is some mark-up but the systems they build are solid and their warranties are amazing.

As far as I can see...

1.) The graphics card - GT 640 isn't bad. It's not the current super duper top model, but, depending on your own preferences ,you should be able to get some 18 months or 2 years out of it, and it's easily replaced.
2.) Processor - beats me. AMD processors were a lot slower than Intel for a while, but with newer builds they seem to be coming more into their own again - with console architecture being closer to them, games are supposed to become more streamlined for these kinds of systems. Still, I couldn't even tell you if that is a newer or older processor. I guess it'll do.
3.) No SSD - I suppose you could remedy this with the$100 difference with your budget...It's worth putting in a small SSD at least, it's really much more noticeable than a slightly better graphics card or a bit more memory
4.) 16 GB DDR3 is plenty for anything but hardcore video processing.
5.) A big one - for me anyway: no USB 3.0 support. If this is motherboard-bound, I'd skip it, unless you never intend to use an external HD for back-ups or anything. If the MB can support USB 3.0 but there's just no ports, again, easily remedied.
6.) A 450W power supply will make upgrading harder - I'm not sure both adding an SSD and replacing the GFX card down the line would be possible.

Looking at the manufacturer's site, the FX6377 ($909) might be a better suit - no SSD either (though you can add one in for $104, bringing it to your max budget ), better GFX card, only 8GB of RAM (which is still more than any game knows what to do with) but 2 empty banks (so it's easy to add 8 more if you want to, later on) and it's 1600MHz, slightly bigger power supply.
Staying on their site, the FX8164 looks like it might be interesting, too - slightly better processor, USB3.0 support, you can add in an SSD and still be on budget, same GFX card.





Of course, you could build this yourself even cheaper

*gets taken out back and slapped around with a wet trout, for old times' sake*

Thanks for the advice. I decided to hold off a bit and try to increase my budget over the next few months instead. See if any really good systems from brands I trust drop in price too.

The big thing for me really is that this system works well for animation (Fast, strong, and numerous cores. Lots of RAM for loading multiple programs. Decent graphics card for OpenGL effects.) The gaming is actually more secondary these days, as I have little time to play anything (even my wow play has fallen off the map in the last two months).

Will give me more time to butter up the wife too, as she has gone money crazy ever since our son was born.

If you are going to be using it for animation, you should stay away from the lower-end AMD processors. AMD's current crop of processors are not that good at floating-point, which will hamper your animating (assuming you are using a CPU-based renderer rather than a GPU-based one). Basically, AMD's 2011-and-later "shared core" design means you need an AMD chip with twice the cores as an Intel to match the performance, since AMD is concentrating more on integer performance, they "share" only one FPU for every 2 integer cores.

Just going purely on specifications, even something like this would probably be better as a workhorse.

--Patrick

So you guys really like ibuypower? I don't know. I hear horror stories about them and Cyberpower.

The only real complaint I have about them is that the free keyboard and mouse that were included with my PC were really cheap and shitty, but as I had my own peripherals to use this wasn't really an issue. I ended up just throwing them away.

Their customer service was really good, but could sometimes take a day to get a response. I got a call from them at one point during the process because one of the fan controllers I had chosen for my PC was out of stock, and they wanted to know if I wanted a different one so that there would be no delay, or to wait for the one I picked to come back in stock. They were always very professional, and answered every one of my emails, albeit not always super prompt.

ScytheRexx said:

So you guys really like ibuypower? I don't know. I hear horror stories about them and Cyberpower.

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I based mine totally on a comparison of specs. I have no brand loyalty, really.
FWIW, I hear horror stories about Microsoft, Apple, PNY, Samsung, Kingston, AMD, OCZ, Adobe, Seagate, Western Digital, AT&T, Sprint, etc., etc. If I automatically avoided everyone I'd heard horror stories about, I'd never have any computer anything.

Give me an evening to check around. I'll get back to you on Tue.

--Patrick

There's going to be a certain failure rate in any technology, and PCs come with a lot a possible points of failure. So I try to keep that in mind when seeing negative reviews on pcs, and instead look for what the warranty and replacement process is like.

I did the iBuyPower years ago. Ran it like a dog for 4 years. But the conditions in my house killed it. I let it get too hot in my house and left the PC running all the time.

I'd be much more willing to throw my money on some of last year's technology such as this:
Amazon product
Most of the architectural improvements from Ivy Bridge to Haswell benefit mobile/laptop computers, otherwise the difference on the desktop is more related to built-in graphics, and if you are using a discrete card, you probably won't care. This one comes with lots of RAM and a halfway decent graphics card.
Failing that, the following one might also be a good choice, though you might want to upgrade the video card eventually.
Amazon product

Again, these decisions are based on the specs, not the brand names or warranties involved. I have some concerns about the power supplies possibly not being able to support any sort of fire-breathing graphics in the future, but I also assume they should be good enough to last you at least 2-3 years, which should be enough time to find/build/test something better. Both of these systems should be at least TWICE as fast at rendering as the one you mention in the first post, if not faster.

--Patrick

Huh... I am not seeing any links?

Do you have adblock on? It's the same mechanic as embedded YouTube videos, these just go to Amazon.
Here are the links themselves, in case you don't get it working.

First
Second

--Patrick

Not a huge fan of Dell (use Dell at work) but I have always had good look with HP. I have been looking at the Envy systems, but I didn't notice the one you linked while doing my searching. That is pretty good for the price even if it's refurbished. "ponders"

Just wanted to thank everyone again for the help. I decided to hold off a bit longer.

As much as I would like a new system, fact is that with my son still in his toddler stage, I don't have much time to do anything on it anyways when I get home. Not much point getting a system now if by the time I can use it a lot, it already becomes obsolete. Will just keep saving my cash up in my computer stash and see what new tech appears in another year.

On the bright side, as I mentioned in my other post about the 4 monitors, my work computer is getting upgraded to something close to what I was looking at for home. My job is pretty lax as long as I get my work done and stay on standby for IT, so I may fit in some of my other projects there using the new work comp.

Hey I am still holding off on getting a computer till likely next year, but I have been hearing interesting things about Lenovo. I have never used one. Does anyone have opinions on them?

Lenovo is the company that bought out IBM's "we make computers" business a while back.
They're not IBM, though.

--Patrick

Hey guys, back again for Round 2 on this.

So decided to hold off and it's paid off a ton. I have been doing a lot of side work that I am sticking directly into my fund. Based on my projections if I hold out till December I should have raised my new budget on the system to $2000. It would be higher but I plan to get a new monitor with it.

Anything new I should know so far in regards to good prefab units?

ScytheRexx said:

Anything new I should know so far in regards to good prefab units?

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Yes. New CPUs and GPUs, DDR4 is out now, the environment has changed again.

--Patrick

God damn it why are the Lenovos always appearing so damn cheap? I found this for over 1100 off and it has everything I would need, including the best processor for my work, would just have to get a better graphics card for my gaming. Scared of the whole 1100 off though, usually there is a reason for that, thought eviews don't seem bad. Arg! I just don't know.

ScytheRexx said:

Arg! I just don't know.

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Welcome to my world.

--Patrick

Yeah, large discounts like that always make me nervous as well. On the other hand, I've been using a Lenovo as my gaming rig of choice for the past 4+ years and it's done everything I've asked of it.

ScytheRexx said:

Arg! I just don't know.

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Oh, don't worry. Just ask PatrTh....

PatrThom said:

Welcome to my world.

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Oh. Uh, sorry mate, can't help you

So just a little update. I decided not to go the prefab route, instead purchasing the parts and paying a friend to build it for me. Thankfully, due to the amount of time I decided to wait, I was able to get a large chunk of extra money to go towards this. Just waiting on the RAM to be delivered and I can start the process.

Intel i7-5960X
16GB DDR4 RAM
GeForce GTX970 4GB
ASUS X99 Motherboard
500GB SSD
BENQ 27inch Monitor

Nice! 500 GB SSD is awesome!

Dave said:

Nice! 500 GB SSD is awesome!

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It was half off at Amazon for a short time, so I jumped on it while I could. Most of the items I got were on sale, even the processor was a good $200 less then retail. Saved me a good deal of money.

So my system is built and running. This about sums up my face after spending a few hours on it last night.

New systems can be amazing, amrite? Especially if it's been a while since your last upgrade.
I remember when I went from a 1.6l I-4 to a 3.0l V-6.

Me: "Hmm, getting up to 70 is easier than I remember."
V6: I CAN DO 70
Me: "Ok, but...can you do 80?"
V6: I CAN DO 80
Me: "Wow, this was always a struggle before. I wonder if I could even hit 90?"
V6: I CAN DO 90
Me: "Wow, this is...wow I've never seen the lines go by that fast before. It almost makes me wonder if..."
V6: I CAN DO 100
Me: "HOLY SHIT I'M DOING 100 I'd better slow down...soon."

--Patrick

I can imagine him right now:

"Oh man! This computer is soooooo fast! Everything is so smooth! The graphics are awesome! I crank everything up to Ultra and they still work! WoW is going to be awesome!!"

WORLD SERVER DOWN

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Dave said:

I can imagine him right now:

"Oh man! This computer is soooooo fast! Everything is so smooth! The graphics are awesome! I crank everything up to Ultra and they still work! WoW is going to be awesome!!"

WORLD SERVER DOWN

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

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Pft, this baby would just overpower the world server and bring it back up!

Nah but really, but the time I could play any games on it, the servers were running fine. Even got two of my stable mounts!

Stable mounts. So I take it when you keep training them through dailies eventually you get them as mounts? I have a stable so I can ride while mining and not get knocked off my mount, but I don't do the dailies.

Yes, you wrangle one of the animals, then do the dailies which involve killing certain named NPCs. Once you do the final daily to kill the Garn, you get the mount you trained as an official riding mount. I just got my wolf and elekk as they required less NPCs in their daily sequence. The dailies are also a great source of Garrison resources. (20 per regular daily and you can be running 6 at a time with all mounts wrangled, then 50 for the final daily that unlocks the mount.)