My new gaming rig arrived

I posted back in February asking about on-line custom PC shops. Then later posted that I had gone ahead and ordered a new custom PC from Cyberpower. I was a little worried about some negative reviews that these sites get, but they came through so far by me.

My build was delayed because the EVGA factory got behind on filling orders for the NVidia GTX295 graphics card I picked. I placed my order on the 16th of February and by last week they still did not have a shipment in of these cards. I had thought about having it built without the card and buying the card myself, but then I found out that both Newegg and 2 other sites I checked were also out of stock.

On last Thursday I decided to drop down the GTX285 1gb card which should be more than adequate for what I plan on playing. Cyperpower then surprised me by building and shipping my rig the next day on Friday. It arrived yesterday, but knowing I would not be home until late, I was able to get FedEx to hold it at their terminal so I could pick it up myself.

I got it unpacked last night, but it was so late I waited until today to start setting it up.

Here it is out of the box. They did an excellent job of packing by putting it back in the Thermaltake case box and then putting in the huge box to the right surrounded by foam rubber. I picked a full tower, but did not realize how huge it was until I saw the box and then unpacked it.
https://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y7...onitors001.jpg

Here's a shot of the guts. You can see the liquid cooler and radiator for the CPU. The GPU and PSU have separate compartment partitions and their own fans.
The case has two huge 230mm fans-one on top and one on the side, one 140mm in front, and 2 back 120mm fans plus a 3rd 120mm internal. I worried about picking a case with the PSU at the bottom, but with the partition and all of the fans there should be no issue.
https://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y7...onitors008.jpg

This morning I hooked everything up, prayed a bit, pushed the power button, and viola--I have a new monster gaming rig.
https://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y7...onitors010.jpg

I going to give it some time, but if everything keeps working as it does now, I will happily give Cyberpower a positive review at resellers.com

Now, I'm off to load up some games--including Empire total war.

Cheers

That's a nice looking system and looks well built with all the wiring neatly and compactly bundled. Enjoy your new system FO!:2thumbsup:

That looks very nice indeed. :2thumbsup:
I also notice you went to simHQ before the .org. :whip:

Hope it keeps working nicely!

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Originally Posted by Husar

That looks very nice indeed. :2thumbsup:
I also notice you went to simHQ before the .org. :whip:

Hope it keeps working nicely!

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Yeah, I actually post over there a bit more than I do here, and we had a bit of a running debate on the pros and cons of ordering from places like Cyberpower or Ibuypower, so I had promised I would post when my PC arrived their first, and of course--if it worked. I came here next with essentially the same post.

You know how it is when you get a new toy--you just gotta show it off--lol

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Originally Posted by Forward Observer

Yeah, I actually post over there a bit more than I do here, and we had a bit of a running debate on the pros and cons of ordering from places like Cyberpower or Ibuypower, so I had promised I would post when my PC arrived their first, and of course--if it worked. I came here next with essentially the same post.

You know how it is when you get a new toy--you just gotta show it off--lol

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?Cuanto Cuesta?

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Originally Posted by TuffStuffMcGruff

?Cuanto Cuesta?

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$1964.61 which included $95 for 2nd day FedEx and $20 for what they call professional wiring.

The final build specs:
Case: Thermaltake Spedo Full tower
PSU: NZXT 800 watt quad SLI ready
MB: Asus P6T Intel X58 chipset 3 way SLI or Crossfire support
CPU: Intel i7-940 2.93 GHz (which is suppose to over-clock pretty well)
Cooling: Asetek Liquid CPU cooling system
Memory: 6GB DDR3/1600Mhz Corsair
Video: NVIDIA GeForce GTX285 1GB Video Card
Hard drive: 1 terabyte SATA II/ 7200rpm (Hitachi)
Optical drives 2 LG 20X double layer DVD+-R/RW--one with lightscribe
Thermal Display: NZXT color LCD thermal control panel
12 in 1 external card reader
OS: Windows Vista home Premium 64 bit with 60day trial of Windows office
Plus I got two free games--Farcry 2 and Halo 2

They also included a standard no-frills Logitech keyboard and mouse, which they value at $8.

Prior to changing out the GPU in my build, I ran a total of the cost of all the parts at NewEgg. At that time it would have cost me just over $200 more just to buy the parts, and I would have still had to put the thing together plus hope that it worked. Additionally, I would only have warranties on the various components from a dozen companies. With Cyberpower, I have a 3 year parts and labor warranty on the whole unit---plus free lifetime phone support.

Of course the home builder can sometime save money by recycling non-obsolete parts from previous builds, but for all new parts in my case, Cyberpower just came out cheaper than building it myself.

Cheers

Just thought I'd let you know FO, that I'm sitting here grunting like Tim Allen as I look at your rig. You've got More Power!

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Originally Posted by Forward Observer

Prior to changing out the GPU in my build, I ran a total of the cost of all the parts at NewEgg. At that time it would have cost me just over $200 more just to buy the parts, and I would have still had to put the thing together plus hope that it worked.

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Yup, that's what drove me into the loving arms of ibuypower for this computer. I did the same calculations, reached the same conclusion. Although I already had a valid copy of Windows XP, so I had them ship it without an OS, which made my life a little more complicated (they forgot to include some of the driver CDs for some of my stuff which led to a game of find-the-driver-for-the-unmarked-component).

Overall, I was really impressed with the the package I got from Cyberpower.

They included the factory installation disks from Asus and EVGA for the mobo and GPU plus a recovery disk which contains the O.S. Even though it is a plain vanilla version of Windows and has no adware like one would get from HP or Dell, it can only be used with this PC.

They also sent a bag filled with all the plugs, connectors, harnesses, and other stuff that came with the mobo and GPU plus manuals for the MOBO, the tower Case, and the NZXT temp and fan control.

Luckily every component they used is a name brand item, so I should have no problems if I need driver updates.

In retrospect, the only thing I would have done differently would have been to fore-go the basic keyboard and mouse they sent and used the refund I got from the GPU downgrade to have included a gaming keyboard and mouse, or maybe even an extra set of speakers.

I got to checking and Cyberpower's prices for peripherals on the whole are 5 to 20% cheaper than NewEgg. I wouldn't have thought this to be the case until I checked about 5 different items out.

It's just the opposite if you order stuff like this from say--Dell, who will end up charging 10% to 20%more for such brand name items.

I'm going to wait a week or two and if everything is still going well, I plan on posting a positive customer satisfaction report on Cyberpower at reseller.com.

Cheers

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Originally Posted by Forward Observer

Overall, I was really impressed with the the package I got from Cyberpower.

They included the factory installation disks from Asus and EVGA for the mobo and GPU plus a recovery disk which contains the O.S. Even though it is a plain vanilla version of Windows and has no adware like one would get from HP or Dell, it can only be used with this PC.

They also sent a bag filled with all the plugs, connectors, harnesses, and other stuff that came with the mobo and GPU plus manuals for the MOBO, the tower Case, and the NZXT temp and fan control.

Luckily every component they used is a name brand item, so I should have no problems if I need driver updates.

In retrospect, the only thing I would have done differently would have been to fore-go the basic keyboard and mouse they sent and used the refund I got from the GPU downgrade to have included a gaming keyboard and mouse, or maybe even an extra set of speakers.

I got to checking and Cyberpower's prices for peripherals on the whole are 5 to 20% cheaper than NewEgg. I wouldn't have thought this to be the case until I checked about 5 different items out.

It's just the opposite if you order stuff like this from say--Dell, who will end up charging 10% to 20%more for such brand name items.

I'm going to wait a week or two and if everything is still going well, I plan on posting a positive customer satisfaction report on Cyberpower at reseller.com.

Cheers

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Good to hear - I just bought a PC from Cyberpower and am biting my nails to see whether I will be part of the vast horde to get a non-working computer. I bought my peripherals from newegg:

a 23.6' ASUS monitor for $250
Empire Total War - $47
WD 400GB external HD - $70
HP Laser Printer - $80
APC 750 VA UPS - $90

My PC is

the Titan liquid cooled case
intel quad 2.86, 12mb l2 cache
asus nforce 750 sli chipset (i think)
4GB ddr2 800 Ram
500 GB HD
2 DVDRW/CDRW drives (LG and Sony)
Nvidea 9800GTX 512 mb video card
speakers
microsoft flight sim x
Windoes vista premium 64 bit
and a bunch of other stuff

Newegg plus Cyberpower
all totalled I spent - <$1500

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Originally Posted by Lemur

Yup, that's what drove me into the loving arms of ibuypower for this computer. I did the same calculations, reached the same conclusion. Although I already had a valid copy of Windows XP, so I had them ship it without an OS, which made my life a little more complicated (they forgot to include some of the driver CDs for some of my stuff which led to a game of find-the-driver-for-the-unmarked-component).

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I've heard some, erh, "iffy" remarks about ibuypower, in terms of their reliability? They do alright for you?

EDIT: I'm being rude again. :whip: Nice system there, FO! 'Gratz!

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Originally Posted by seireikhaan

I've heard some, erh, "iffy" remarks about ibuypower, in terms of their reliability? They do alright for you?

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Well, I wouldn't send my grandma to them. For instance, they got everything in my build right except for the soundcard, which came in a baggie. No biggie. I popped out the mobo sound riser and popped in the card. But my grandma would have been floored and desperate.

For somebody who knows what they're doing ibuypower is fine. It's a great way to get a (mostly) assembled rig for cheaper than you could at NewEgg. But I wouldn't direct a n00b to them. They can go try their luck at Dell or some other place that offers phone support.

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Originally Posted by Lemur

Well, I wouldn't send my grandma to them. For instance, they got everything in my build right except for the soundcard, which came in a baggie. No biggie. I popped out the mobo sound riser and popped in the card. But my grandma would have been floored and desperate.

For somebody who knows what they're doing ibuypower is fine. It's a great way to get a (mostly) assembled rig for cheaper than you could at NewEgg. But I wouldn't direct a n00b to them. They can go try their luck at Dell or some other place that offers phone support.

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I'm kind of a noob at this stuff. I hope I can do it.

You bought yours with an OS, correct? That means they're going to boot it up and make sure it's working. I'm so cheap that I skipped that part, so it was perfectly understandable that somebody missed my custom sound card. I think that last sentence makes sense. Sort of.

Anyway, I'm not trying to scare you, I'm just saying that I would not direct a computer idiot to ibuypower or cyberpower. I don't know if they even maintain a support department, and I kinda think they don't.

My stepmom, for instance, is a business consultant who knows Outlook, Excel and Word, and not in any depth. She doesn't understand hardware or an OS and doesn't care to. At her age it's pointless to try to teach her. She likes calling up Dell when Word is acting funny. God help her if there's a hardware issue. I would never, ever send her to a low-overhead place that specializes in getting hot hardware at rock-bottom prices. I keep her going back to Dell and HP, people she can call at any hour of the day for support.

My brother and I, on the other hand, are geeks. So we shop for the low price, support be damned.

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Originally Posted by Lemur

You bought yours with an OS, correct? That means they're going to boot it up and make sure it's working. I'm so cheap that I skipped that part, so it was perfectly understandable that somebody missed my custom sound card. I think that last sentence makes sense. Sort of.

Anyway, I'm not trying to scare you, I'm just saying that I would not direct a computer idiot to ibuypower or cyberpower. I don't know if they even maintain a support department, and I kinda think they don't.

My stepmom, for instance, is a business consultant who knows Outlook, Excel and Word, and not in any depth. She doesn't understand hardware or an OS and doesn't care to. At her age it's pointless to try to teach her. She likes calling up Dell when Word is acting funny. God help her if there's a hardware issue. I would never, ever send her to a low-overhead place that specializes in getting hot hardware at rock-bottom prices. I keep her going back to Dell and HP, people she can call at any hour of the day for support.

My brother and I, on the other hand, are geeks. So we shop for the low price, support be damned.

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I just got my laptop back from HP, so I will be able to troubleshoot issues - just like an IT guy does. There is no better opportunty to learn than on your own, I guess.

Mine should be coming with a pre-installed OS, but we'll see. Lets see if I'm one of the lucky ones.

How long should my rig take? I bought it 2 or three days ago and ordered it ground. I don't mind waiting, but I realize that the return clock is ticking already.

I believe the return clock starts ticking on delivery, not before. Call and confirm that if you like. I also ordered ground and declined to play for an expedited build (dear Lord, I am one cheap lemur) and it took a while for them to get it to me. That's fine, I saved a boatload of money by going through them.

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Originally Posted by Lemur

I believe the return clock starts ticking on delivery, not before. Call and confirm that if you like. I also ordered ground and declined to play for an expedited build (dear Lord, I am one cheap lemur) and it took a while for them to get it to me. That's fine, I saved a boatload of money by going through them.

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Got my PC! Everything is working well so far.

Snap some pics for us, you cretin!

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Originally Posted by Lemur

Snap some pics for us, you cretin!

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No Camera!

Wat, you're one of the ten people in the U.S. who doesn't have a camera on his phone? Dude, come on, this is like geek porn here. Borrow a camera. Unless you're secretly ashamed of your Lara Croft custom topless side window etching ....

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Originally Posted by Lemur

Wat, you're one of the ten people in the U.S. who doesn't have a camera on his phone? Dude, come on, this is like geek porn here. Borrow a camera. Unless you're secretly ashamed of your Lara Croft custom topless side window etching ....

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My GF doesn't even carry a Camera. I lucked out. I don't beleive in them.

My phone has a non-removable card which I can update to a micro-sd, but I don't care enough to.

I am disappointed and dismayed that you haven't been able to wrangle up some sort of camera from somewhere to show us your new pimpin' rig. Shame, sir! Shame!

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Originally Posted by Lemur

I am disappointed and dismayed that you haven't been able to wrangle up some sort of camera from somewhere to show us your new pimpin' rig. Shame, sir! Shame!

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http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&articID=445

Here is a link to a review of the tower, which is great and unique.

http://www.futurelooks.com/wordpress...vh242lcd-3.jpg

Here is a picture of the monitor.

Ive got a little hard drive on top of the case that is great and simple and a 750va UPS with a cool green light on it.

I love the system, don't be pissed that I didn't post a picture. I didn't go to my college graduation either or let my parents come to my high school pre-prom

So, no problems thus far, Tuff?

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Originally Posted by Shinseikhaan

So, no problems thus far, Tuff?

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Not really. They didn't send me a fan and didn't hook the radiator hose up to the GPU, but the case runs at between 37c and 41c on full blast with the two radiator fans, liquid and main case fan. I'm afraid to open up the tower due to the liquid coolant, so I'm riding blind.

Oh, don't be a sissy. Open up the case. It won't bite you. The path to wisdom lies through thumbscrews.

Do you have water running through your case?

I opened it and it is fancy. I need tons more fans, but forunatly i've been blasting an external fan at the metal radiator and it is now ice cold.

How do you instal those fan thingies?

nice system Tuff, i think i am due an upgrade fairly soon too.

I can't recommend Cyberpower. Even though the parts were not all that expensive, I spent 1500 on a computer that does not play Empire well and support is non-existant. They forgot to hook up my GPU to the Radiator and water cooler, put no heat sinks on my card and made it litterally impossible for me to fix the situation.

If I try to install the GPU water cooler, I have to unplug the CPU cooler and there is water running through my case. I don't know what to do. I'm going to go buy a bunch of fans that they forgot to send me.

Long story short, Empire crashes or the graphics sputter like mad every 30 mins. Vista works pretty crappy with the games that I used to love playing (Battlefield 2) and the Audio input jacks are faulty on my case. They sent no instructions on anything, sent a cheap brick stereo.

The PC is good for surfing the web, playing music and vieiwng Empire for 20 mins at a time before failure.

All of the peripherals ($500 bucks from Newegg) work fine. the $966 computer is awesome in concept, faulty in cyberpower design - I should have gone with Dell because they have onsite.

I would not reccomed cyberpower to anyone who has my level of knowledge of computers. To those who are good with hardware and troubleshooting, go ahead, your money will go a bit longer with them.

I'll stick with onsite service that actually calls me back next time - I'm a gamer, not a techie.

Well, in fairness, I would not order anything with watercooling from an el cheapo site. I'm scared of having liquid inside my boxen as it is.

Why not ship it back to them, TuffStuff? Surely they have some sort of provision for that, and I know you kept the box ....

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Originally Posted by Lemur

Well, in fairness, I would not order anything with watercooling from an el cheapo site. I'm scared of having liquid inside my boxen as it is.

Why not ship it back to them, TuffStuff? Surely they have some sort of provision for that, and I know you kept the box ....

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I don't want to. I keep the things that I buy - i just put 2 cheap fans in the box. That and it plays music, surfs the web, plays movies and prints paper.

It is a pain and total loss to send things back. It will cost me 50 or more just to ship it, it will take a long time to get an RMA, take time to package, wasted my time using it etc. I'd rather just harass them about it.

Plus, I'm not sure that the card is the problem. I've scanned the pc with everything I could think of - it seems to be an empire/new nvidia problem.

I've gone all over the web, people are describing the exact same problem with the gts 250 and above. Whatever. This is why pc gaming is dying out - you can get a better, more reliable experience for less with an xbox or ps3.

Modding is the one reason to have a pc for gaming, otherwise I would just use a laptop and buy an xbox. I probably should have done that. TW obviously doesn't care much about the quality of their games anymore, so neither should I.

Bleh. It does look good while it is't failing and turing into an erratic rainbow.

I was thinking of something more along the lines of telling them what ain't right and shipping it back to have it fixed. (What possessed you to order watercooling, anyway?)

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Originally Posted by Lemur

I was thinking of something more along the lines of telling them what ain't right and shipping it back to have it fixed. (What possessed you to order watercooling, anyway?)

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I missed the part about the case having water cooling. Eh, screw it. The case is awesome. The concept is great. I don't know anyone with a case that was meant to be water cooled.

I don't think my graphics card can play this game full blast. I've set it on high and now it doesn't crash.

Didn't you say that there is no decent cooler on your graphicscard?
Maybe it was overheating?

If the card can't handle the game, I'd expect it to stutter from the first second, not to start after ten minutes.

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Originally Posted by Husar

Didn't you say that there is no decent cooler on your graphicscard?
Maybe it was overheating?

If the card can't handle the game, I'd expect it to stutter from the first second, not to start after ten minutes.

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THe card is an EVGA gts 250

I just don't know enough about computers to configure it. Maybe I have my sights too high - I've been tryign to play it pretty much maxed out. I put almost everything to ultra and use 2x anistropic filtering. I leave some shadowing lower. I didn't think it was too much to ask, but what do I know.

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Originally Posted by TuffStuffMcGruff

Long story short, Empire crashes or the graphics sputter like mad every 30 mins. Vista works pretty crappy with the games that I used to love playing (Battlefield 2) and the Audio input jacks are faulty on my case. They sent no instructions on anything, sent a cheap brick stereo.

The PC is good for surfing the web, playing music and vieiwng Empire for 20 mins at a time before failure.

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That is what I am referring to, does it stutter as soon as you enter a battle and just run fine on the campaign map or does the same "scene" start to stutter after a while of fluent gameplay?
Because if it's the latter then it should not be a problem of the card being unable to handle things but rather some tevhnical problem like overheating or something similar, maybe a software problem, driver bug or game bug.
If the card can't handle the battlefield graphics, then it should stutter on the battlefield everytime you see all of your men, look at huge reflections in a town or whatever, but if the stuttering is completely random or in certain intervals, then I'd look for another problem.