computer purchase- opinions needed

[zorak1066]

Ive been mulling things over (yes I am as slow as a tree ent when it comes to making a decision). I'm going to just buy a new pc system and bite the bullet. i'd use it for surfing, some work, offline games like diablo 2 and elder scrolls oblivion. i'd like a fast computer that wont be totally obsolete in a year so ive been 'shopping' around. my budget is at most 2grand. can you take a look at the below specs and give me an opinion? im looking at cyberpower's black pearl.

I don't need top of the line graphics or sound but I might in the future want to play something more advanced than oblivion. I wanted a 2nd hard drive to throw all my docs, videos, pics and etc to keep the main drive for programs and the OS. I wont be overclocking. im a tech noob. I came up with this:

CyberPower Black Pearl (NO MONITOR)

$1,853.00 × Qty

Total: $1,853.00
•*BASE_PRICE: [+1260]
•BLUETOOTH: None
•CARE1: Ultra Enhanced Packaging Solution - Protect Your Dream System During Transit [+19]
•CAS: Thermaltake Level 10GT Full Tower Wide Body Gaming Case w/ Side-Panel Window [+163] (Black Color)
•CASUPGRADE: None
•CD: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive (BLACK COLOR)
•CD2: None
•COOLANT: Standard Coolant
•CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-4820K Quad-Core 3.70 GHz 10MB Intel Smart Cache LGA2011 (All Venom OC Certified)
•CS_FAN: Default case fans
•ENGRAVING: None
•FA_HDD: None
•FAN: Asetek 510LC Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan (Enhanced Cooling Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA) (Single Standard 120MM Fan)
•FLASHMEDIA: None
•FREEBIE_CU: None
•FREEBIE_VC2: None
•GLASSES: None
•HDD: 2TB (2TBx1) SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (Single Drive)
•HDD2: 500GB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [+59] (Single Drive)
•IEEE_CARD: IEEE 1394 CARD AND DRIVER [+19]
•IUSB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
•MEMORY: 32GB (8GBx4) DDR3/1600MHz Quad Channel Memory [+175] (Corsair Vengeance [+0]) ------ I might go just 16gb ram
i•MONITOR: None
•MONITOR2: None
•MONITOR3: None
•MOTHERBOARD: * (4-Way SLI/CrossFireX Support) GIGABYTE X79-UP4 Intel X79 Chipset Quad Channel DDR3 ATX Mainboard w/ Ultra Durable 5, 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, 4 Gen3 PCIe x16, 2 PCIe x1 & 1 PCI [+13]
•MOUSE1: Microsoft Explorer Optical Mouse [+27]
•NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
•OS: Microsoft® Windows 7 Professional [+31] (64-bit Edition)
•OVERCLOCK: No Overclocking
•POWERSUPPLY: * 850 Watts - Corsair Enthusiast Series TX850 V2 850W 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply [+58]
•RUSH: NO; READY TO SHIP IN 5~10 BUSINESS DAYS
•SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
•SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
•SPEAKERS: None
•TABLET: None
•TEMP: None
•TUNING: None
•TVRC: None
•USB: External USB 3.0 4-Port Hub [+29]
•USBFLASH: None
•USBHD: None
•USBX: None
•VIDEO: AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB 16X PCIe 3.0 Video Card (Major Brand Powered by AMD)
•VIDEO2: None
•VIDEO3: None
•WNC: None
•_PRICE: (+1853)





thanks...

[RickBeer]

I don't know Cyberpower, but spending that kind of money on a computer now-a-days is totally unnecessary. You should be able to buy one for maybe 1/3rd the price.

Lookup the game requirements on the manufacturer's sites and make sure your configuration meets the needs a good experience, but I suspect you're way high. And buying a 2TB drive for the OS and programs is unnecessary, you don't even need a 200gb drive for that. And you won't see any speed advantage by splitting them up. Add an external drive for backup that you can get 2TB for under $100.

[duff]

RickBeer has some decent suggestions and I agree with him spending that much money on a computer is pretty overkill.

It says you have standard coolant which I assume means you have water cooling. Water cooling is pretty unnecessary for running things in there stock configuration. If you are going to overclock or you just like water cooling that is cool as well. I would normally say 850 watts is pretty overkill for a good power supply. Power supplies are less efficient if they are not handling a decent percentage of their load which can cause them to run hot making the fans run louder. But if you are water cooling you might need that.

Also as far as hard drives go if you want to see a huge performance boost in hard drive speed go with SSDs they are soooo much faster than your standard drives. And while it's true you can see performance increases by seperating your OS and data drives as RickBeer says it's usually not noticeable.

For what you say you are doing 32 GB of RAM seems unnecessary. Most people are still getting away with 4GB so 8 GB would probably work for you. I would go with 16GB and that is because I use VMWare with a few Virtual Hosts running at the same time for school. 16 MB might help future proof you on some games but 8GB is most likely the better option.

You could use the money from the RAM better on a video card upgrade such as to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 2GB 16X.

I don't really have time to price it out compared to other manufacturers at the moment though but it does seem expensive.

[Gymrat]

I thought you actually do need all that power if you are gaming. But then the only gaming I do is chess. And I am convinced my computer is over powered for that

[Beer-lord]

All great suggestions and I agree. That's a top of the line system with liquid cooling which is totally not needed. It looks to be a great system but if all you want is to surf the net, do some video work and even some gaming, you can get by with much less.
I build my computers and even using the best parts available, and with stock liquid cooling, I only spent $1200 and I put stuff in there just because. I use an SSD for my OS drive and have 3TB for my data and that's overkill.

As for backing up, newegg.com has a 48 sale today for a Seagate 2TB external, 3.0 hard drive that is only $69. Grab one now and get that out the way.
I'd think you can still get a great, fast computer for about $1000. As far as it being obsolete fast....it will and that's just the industry and how it works.

[mashani]

That's more then I paid when I built my own box and my box has way more stuff in it.

I do use a closed loop liquid cooler to save on noise. That one he has linked is one of those, it's not a full liquid cooling setup. It's not really that spendy of a component.

But I don't see need for 32 gig. I personally DO have 16 gig in my box, but that's because I'm running 3 hyper v virtual machines for development purposes - Windows and Unix server OS's with SQL Server and IIS and Apache and MySQL and the like installed. if I wasn't doing that I'd just get 6 or 8 gigs of RAM. Even if you do get a game that an use 4 gigs that still leaves plenty for the OS and some background apps.

I would personally get a small SSD for the OS/Boot drive, and a bigger drive for the apps. (I've got an SSD boot and a RAID array, but that's again because my box is a development box, so I need the redundancy. Most folks do not really).

I don't see that you need an 850 watt power supply unless your planning on buying more video cards and doing crossfire. I've got a 650 watt power supply and I've got way more stuff in my box then you have there. It's only when you start dumping multiple high end video cards in there that you need that kind of beast.

I'm hoping to not need to upgrade until Haswell E is out. I could use 8+ cores due to all the stuff I run. But I'm not normal.

[DirtRacer]

I have no experience with CyberPower but have been using HP's for years with no problems. Check out Newegg.com, Amazon.com, Woot.com. I have had great luck with refurb/remanufactured PC's. Can get them at about half the price of new.

[Bluejaye]

Zorak, can you link where you looking at this? I may be able to reconfigure it a bit, since I am a heavy gamer and a computer geek.

[mashani]

This is cyber powers web site.

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/

This company does the same thing (rumor has it they are really the same company with a different store front).

http://www.ibuypower.com/

This is a different company:

http://www.digitalstormonline.com/

Then of course there is alienware. But the are a total rip off.

It's much cheaper to buy the components yourself and build it yourself if you are up to it.

Or, if you have a Microcenter near you it might be cheaper to BYOPC with them and have them put it together for you if your uncomfortable with it.

[Bluejaye]

Well, I can't really say I liked that CyberPower configurator.

I was just going to see what video cards they offered, and remove the liquid cooling, and perhaps add an SSD for your main drive.

The biggest things to spend your money on for a gaming rig is the video card first, and the CPU second. You won't need more than 8gigs of ram, games will use the memory on the video card for its textures, etc. A fast drive (i.e. SSD) will simply load new levels or areas much faster, but is a bit costly.