New Computer

A month or two back I bought a new main work station / desktop. Typically I opt. to build my own but this time around I did not want to bother dealing with RMA’s and other potential hassles during the build phase. Instead I took to finding pre-builts by trusted companies and price matched their parts used. I figured if I can find someone that is selling pre-builts that are close to the cost of the parts, I’d be in good shape. If not, I can just build my own in the long run if need be.

I took about a week looking through some various companies. Most of which landed up seeming to be more then $250 or more on labor costs for the parts you were getting, that alone could build a desktop computer, so no thanks. My price range was not limited but I was not interested in being able to build another system or even the cost of another graphics card just in “labor”.

I came across CyberPowerPC and saw their lower-end prices and was pretty amazed. I took a few of their systems and price-matched them on Newegg and a few other sites and came up with a total labor cost of around $50-150 in each of their machines. This, for me, was a comfortable spot for the cost of having someone else do the work. I took to their forums and reviewed some of their feedback sections and such and pretty much every post was nothing but good. Newegg has them listed as a reseller as well with great ratings so this was a company I could personally put trust into.

The system I priced turned out to be just under $100 in labor, and it was well worth it.

The parts list consists of:

• Processor: Intel Core i7 - 4790K (Unlocked @ 4.4GHz)
• Motherboard: Gigabyte Z97-HD3 (GA)
• Hard Drive: Toshiba DT01ACA200 2TB
• RAM: Team Group 4GB DDR3 1600 (x2 - 8gig total)
• Graphics Card: MSI Geforce GTX 970
• Power Supply: Atng 600W w/ Rounded Cables (OEM style power supply)
• Optical Drive(s): LG HL-DT-ST GH24NSC0 DVD/RW

In total the system priced part for part was about $100 less then the asking price so I went for it. Knowing the drive situation it came with, I opt’d to buy two additional SSD’s for it.

I also needed a new monitor so I got one as well. Additional parts I snagged were:

• Hard Drive: SAMSUNG 850 EVO MZ-75E250B/AM 250GB SSD x2
• Monitor: Asus VH238H 23” Full HD HDMN Backlight LCD w/ Speakers

I went with the ASUS monitor because I enjoy having a monitor with built in speakers. I do not have the desk space for a separate sound system (Speakers and so on.) so having them built in is best for me. The SAMSUNG drives came recommended from a friend of mine so I went with those based on his (and reviews) opinion.

End result I spent around $1600 total on all parts, the system and the monitor. I also had to snag a few SATA cables which were only about $2 a piece.

The system performs amazingly, nothing was dead-on-arrival. CyberPowerPC ships things wonderfully with expanding packaging to ensure nothing moves during the ship. The system was solid and fresh. Paint looked great and parts were secure and in-place. Nothing was damaged, scratched, or had any issues.

The system comes pre-installed with an OEM copy of Windows 8.1, however this is the most amazing OEM install I’ve ever seen. There is 0 bloat-ware, ad-ware, spy-ware, etc. installed. Literally nothing comes with the install. It is a stock Windows 8.1 Pro install, not even a custom wall paper. The only thing changed is in the system properties they show their personal logo as the OEM provider. That is it.

I reformatted immediately anyway to double-check this with their included OEM install disk and it held true. The reformat yielded the same results. A nice clean stock Windows 8.1 experience.

Overall I’m very happy with my purchase. The system is setup as a work machine as well as a gaming machine in my free time. 1 SSD is being used as a the main OS drive along with the main work programs I use, the 2nd SSD is my gaming drive which I have all my games installed to. The last drive being the 2TB non-SSD is just for storage holding old stuff. I bought a IDE to USB cable and backed up a bunch of old hard drives onto the 2TB drive.