Computers & Electronics

America has better cpu prices? Game Rig !

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  • Mar 26th, 2010 1:23 am
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Newbie
Jan 27, 2010
7 posts
scarborough

America has better cpu prices? Game Rig !

Gentlemen, I am looking to get a new computer for gaming purposes (mainly starcraft 2, and diablo 3) I can not decide which of these three paths to take.

1). Custom build a cpu from NCIX

2). Drive to Buffalo (i live in Toronto) and goto Costco and pick up this awesome deal of a HP that comes with a 23inch HD monitor. ( US Costco's have way sicker deals...)

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.as ... lang=en-US

3). Drive to Buffalo and pick up a Alienware Aurara (the EXACT same model is 200 dollars more expensive in Canada btw, EVEN though the dollar is par).

http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/desktops ... =19&~ck=mn


Now I understand the games I want to play dont require the best graphics card, but none the less I want my CPU to be able to hold it own for 2-3 years. I dont know to much about HP computers, but I know Dell owns Alienware and Dell cpu's use cheap parts. Though Alienware seemingly has a good reputation. I would appreciate advice on which option I should pick, as I want to pick up a computer within the next month.
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Feb 11, 2004
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Are you talking about just a standalone tower ?? Full system ?? with OS ?? Price your looking to spend is ???

US prices MAY seem cheaper, BUT our canadian $ is strong & still rising that its making the US dollar less attractive, in fact our $ is so good right now that our goverment is moving to impliment polymer based dollar bills to prevent counterfeiting thats been on the rise of it in the last couple years.

IF your not very Savvy with knowing how to use a pc or do minor upgrades on it then alienware wouldn't be a bad idea thought fairly exspencive one.

Getting some of us on the forum to configure a pc on NCIX is going to idealy be your best option & your also going to get the most for your $ that way cause of price matching, 5% tax & the savings will allow for faster shipping of the unit. If your not confident enought with assembling the parts we help you select then you can pay NCIX $50 to do it for you. They give you all the box's & ect for the parts your purchased & warrenty the pc as a whole for the 1st year.

Awnser the 1st few things I asked there & I am shure we'll be able to respond better for you in what your looking at. :)
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4) Buy the components you need without being restricted to one store and build your own.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_To_Bui ... l_computer

People shy away from assembling rigs on their own, but it is a seriously useful skill to have. You'll be dealing with computers for the rest of your life, so you might as well learn what's in your box. It's not hard at all, it's fun, and you save money.
Newbie
Jan 27, 2010
7 posts
scarborough
First off thanks for the help guys.
verteqz- Ya I should check out multiple sources, I said NCIX because many people on RFD's recommended it in the threads Ive been reading. And I dont really know any other trust worthy sites, other then tiger direct and newegg.

terrybear - I definitely want a OS and ideally a full system for ... all in around 1500 dollars. Thats why I think the HP deal from Costco is so appealing (the monitor is actually really nice and chrisp).

I've never built a computer before but I've done things like replaced power supplies and snapped some ram in. I don't know if I would want to take a chance by doing it myself on such a large investment. The 50 dollar fee from NCIX is rather appealing.
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Feb 11, 2004
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cucatz wrote: First off thanks for the help guys.
verteqz- Ya I should check out multiple sources, I said NCIX because many people on RFD's recommended it in the threads Ive been reading. And I dont really know any other trust worthy sites, other then tiger direct and newegg.

terrybear - I definitely want a OS and ideally a full system for ... all in around 1500 dollars. Thats why I think the HP deal from Costco is so appealing (the monitor is actually really nice and chrisp).

I've never built a computer before but I've done things like replaced power supplies and snapped some ram in. I don't know if I would want to take a chance by doing it myself on such a large investment. The 50 dollar fee from NCIX is rather appealing.
I wouldn't trust TigerDirect as far as I can throw them for pc info/builds, there focus is pushing cheap outdated EOL hardware onto there buyers to make it as some "amazing" deal.

I had a bud buy the amazing HP monitor/pc combo from a sams club about a year ago in his local town of milwakie, 1 year warrenty & not even 2 days after it the hard drive failed on him & he had no choice but to buy 1 & a new copy of windows out of his own pocket. IF he would have done what I told him to do & just built or buy a custom box with parts I told him to use he wouldn't have had it occure.

For $1500 your going to get a pretty nice full system shipped from ncix with our users help. :)
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if you buy a system from US and it breaks down, you have to ship back to US for service, keep that in mind.
it's not who you are, it's what you do.
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Oct 3, 2004
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you also have to pay tax when bringing it into Canada. PST and GST depending on where you live.

cuz you can't wear computer parts like clothing... :cheesygri
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champ91 wrote: you also have to pay tax when bringing it into Canada. PST and GST depending on where you live.

cuz you can't wear computer parts like clothing... :cheesygri
Bskll wrote: if you buy a system from US and it breaks down, you have to ship back to US for service, keep that in mind.
+1

Exellent points & posts which are also VERY important as well !! gj guys !! ;)
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Newbie
Jan 27, 2010
7 posts
scarborough
I've heard a similar story about the HP cpu crashing a few days after the warranty. I think I'll do the NCIX and ship it to me then, thank you all for the info and opinions.

I've been playing around with the builds but I cant get a decent computer with similar stats to the Costco HP (i7, 8gigs of DDR3, and 23inch widescreen HD monitor, and 1gig graphic card). Can anyone recommended a good NCIX build that would rival the HP computer? Keep in mind the HP is only 1200 dollars American.
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Dec 6, 2006
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cucatz wrote: I've heard a similar story about the HP cpu crashing a few days after the warranty. I think I'll do the NCIX and ship it to me then, thank you all for the info and opinions.

I've been playing around with the builds but I cant get a decent computer with similar stats to the Costco HP (i7, 8gigs of DDR3, and 23inch widescreen HD monitor, and 1gig graphic card). Can anyone recommended a good NCIX build that would rival the HP computer? Keep in mind the HP is only 1200 dollars American.
For a cheap good build I would recommend(all prices are pricematched):

Motherboard: Asus P7P55-LX for approx 125$
CPU: Core i5 750 approx 205$
Ram: Gskill Ripjaws 4 gb DDR3 109$
PSU: Corsair 650 watt 100$
Case: whatever it is you fancy maybe look into HAF or NXZT or Coolermaster (100$)
HDD: 1.5 TB Western digital (100$)
Video card:Radeon 5770 1 GB ram (about 130$)
Dvd-burner: Pioneer recent model (20$)
Monitor: 23 inch Samsung 2343bx (dont know if it is super good but it is 179$)
Mouse and keyboard: 50-150 (depends what you want, only 20$ if you cheap out)
OS: Windows 7- 108$

Assembly :50$

Total:1276$
+tax and shipping

= approx 1350 (or less if you have free shipping)

I think it is pretty close (the graphic card is way better in the custom computer while the CPU is slightly slower due to no HT) to the HP computer and is less expensive considering gas, taxes and duties and conversion cost.
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Mar 21, 2010
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On a $1500 computer you better have an SSD in there even a small one just for OS/Apps, thats all I have to add at this time.
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Feb 11, 2004
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1st off, I'll give you abit of advice/tip here. Don't be looking to build/buy just right now. If you can wait another couple more weeks new AMD Phenom II X6 cpu's & 8xx series motherboards, 2 unlocked Intel socket1156 cpu's & of course the Nvidia Geforce 470 & 480GTX's are about to hit the market. This in turn is going to push alot of pricing down on componets from AMD,Ati & somewhat for Intel & Nvidia.

So we know your looking to spend around $1200 on a FULL system with os, monitor. Do you want speakers, keyboard & mouse with it as well ??

Also what are you going to primarely be doing with the system & how "futureproofed" do you want it to be ??
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Dec 6, 2006
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terrybear wrote: how "futureproofed" do you want it to be ??
I find that such a concept does not exist in the computing world.

For future proofing, the best bet is always to buy the best performance/price ratio that you can find and that satisfies the minimum level of performance that you want and keep the rest of the money for the future.

There is no point in paying double the price for a CPU(insert component here) that is 20% faster(insert quantitative metric here).
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Oct 15, 2005
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i somewhat agree with terry. but yeah if you tell us what you plan to do with your machine you may not even need all that power. 1200 can get you a pretty pimped out computer these days.
Newbie
Jan 27, 2010
7 posts
scarborough
Just to clarify about the purpose of the system. I want my new computer to be be able to handle modern upcoming games such as starcraft 2, and more importantly diablo 3. I would like it to be able to handle running the games on FULL settings for hours on end. I require only the tower and monitor, i already have speakers and a wireless keyboard/mouse set. I suppose no cimputer is 'futureproof' but ideally I would want the computer to be considered 'fast' for as long as possible, but understand technology changes rather rapidly. I would like to order it within the next couple of weeks, perhaps I'll wait to see what happens with prices in refference to what terrybear was saying.




guigz - Thanks alot for showing me a good build for about 1300 dollars, you mentioned that it's price-matched? I was wondering on how you go about doing that with NCIX, do you call them up and list competitor websites? The graphic card is of a great importance and is much newer then the the HP computer. Your custom rig does have a slightly slower CPU (i5-i7), 4gigs less ram. But in the end I dont know how much of a difference that would make. In any event it is a viable option, thank you for composing it as I found it difficult to design my own.
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Oct 25, 2003
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terrybear wrote: US prices MAY seem cheaper, BUT our canadian $ is strong & still rising that its making the US dollar less attractive, in fact our $ is so good right now that our goverment is moving to impliment polymer based dollar bills to prevent counterfeiting thats been on the rise of it in the last couple years.
Huh?! A strong Canadian dollar (weak American dollar) makes buying things in US Dollar MORE attractive....

So because the Canadian dollar is so good, the government is looking to make plastic bills? Right....
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B0000rt wrote: Huh?! A strong Canadian dollar (weak American dollar) makes buying things in US Dollar MORE attractive....

So because the Canadian dollar is so good, the government is looking to make plastic bills? Right....
as reported right here:

"Canada Plans Shift to Plastic Currency"
Jansen Ng (Blog) - March 8, 2010 12:00 PM

http://www.dailytech.com/Canada+Plans+S ... e17846.htm
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Jan 31, 2007
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Are you ordering online and having it shipped to the Buffalo area? The reason I ask is that there isn't a Costco warehouse in upstate NY; you have to drive to the New York City area or maybe even Michigan (I think near Detroit area) to find the nearest US Costco warehouse.
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Aug 22, 2008
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Since when did Blizzard make graphic intensive games???



Anyhow, most medium gaming rigs are more than able to run SC2 and D3 at max settings o_O.

You don't need a top of the line gaming comp to make that work... a 5870 + i5 750 - setup, with some mild overclocking, and you are set for a while.
cucatz wrote: Just to clarify about the purpose of the system. I want my new computer to be be able to handle modern upcoming games such as starcraft 2, and more importantly diablo 3. I would like it to be able to handle running the games on FULL settings for hours on end. I require only the tower and monitor, i already have speakers and a wireless keyboard/mouse set. I suppose no cimputer is 'futureproof' but ideally I would want the computer to be considered 'fast' for as long as possible, but understand technology changes rather rapidly. I would like to order it within the next couple of weeks, perhaps I'll wait to see what happens with prices in refference to what terrybear was saying.




guigz - Thanks alot for showing me a good build for about 1300 dollars, you mentioned that it's price-matched? I was wondering on how you go about doing that with NCIX, do you call them up and list competitor websites? The graphic card is of a great importance and is much newer then the the HP computer. Your custom rig does have a slightly slower CPU (i5-i7), 4gigs less ram. But in the end I dont know how much of a difference that would make. In any event it is a viable option, thank you for composing it as I found it difficult to design my own.
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B0000rt wrote: Huh?! A strong Canadian dollar (weak American dollar) makes buying things in US Dollar MORE attractive....

So because the Canadian dollar is so good, the government is looking to make plastic bills? Right....
:lol:

I get pretty cracked up when I read his posts sometimes.

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