What computer should I get?

[Giantz]

iBUYPOWER Gamer Power 535SLC
-AMD Athlon II X4 620(2.6GHz) 64 bit Quad-Core Processor
-4GB DDR3 1600 of Memory
-500GB SATA II Hard Drive
-ATI Radeon HD5670 1GB graphics card
-480W Power Supply
-$619.99


(Additional Information here.)

or

CyberpowerPC Gamer Ultra 2023
-AMD Phenom II X2 550(3.1GHz) 64 bit Dual Core Processor
-4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333 of Memory
-500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 7200RPM HDD Hard Drive
-NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 1GB PCI Express Video Card
-700W Power Supply
-$659.99

(Additional Information here.)

I'm not what you would call a hardcore gamer, and wouldn't need to run games like Crysis, etc. Mainly just KF, L4d2, and other modern games.

I'm leaning more towards the first one, but any advice would be helpful as this is my first gaming computer.

 

[Yoshiro]

CyberpowerPC Gamer Ultra 2023

 

[Olivier]

The second choice!! For 40$ its totally worth the price.

 

[Capt.Marion]

That extra .5 Ghz processing power is def. worth it. 2nd one fo sho

 

[Giantz]

The only thing I'm worried about in the CyberPower is that people said it crashed frequently.

 

[Colt .45 killer]

your right, the reviews do say that. the first one would be better if you could get a friend to overclock it and get a 650 watt or higher power supply in there.
( or get somone to build you a computer, it will probably come out to a bit more then 600, but if done right will last longer)

 

[Reddog]

The two things that worry me about the second choice are, firstly it's a dual core, albeit a faster one. More and more games are requiring quad's to work as intended (look at BFBC2), a quad is a lot more future proof. That said though I notice it's an 'Athlon' I'm not right up on AMD stuff these days but isn't Athlon the older architecture than the Phenom chips?

Secondly, the GTS 250 GPU, that's a pretty weak GPU by today's standards, the HD5670 is a much better card (and it's DX11!!!). That said you can easily swap out the GPU on either machine.

Personally I'd go my own build and make something based around a lower-mid end i7. But since you're asking I'm gonna go against the flow and say option 1

 

[Peter.Steele]

The two things that worry me about the second choice are, firstly it's a dual core, albeit a faster one. More and more games are requiring quad's to work as intended (look at BFBC2), a quad is a lot more future proof. That said though I notice it's an 'Athlon' I'm not right up on AMD stuff these days but isn't Athlon the older architecture than the Phenom chips?

Secondly, the GTS 250 GPU, that's a pretty weak GPU by today's standards, the HD5670 is a much better card (and it's DX11!!!). That said you can easily swap out the GPU on either machine.

Personally I'd go my own build and make something based around a lower-mid end i7. But since you're asking I'm gonna go against the flow and say option 1

I'm going to agree on this one. Quad core FTW. Yes, it's a slightly older architecture, but it's still a quad core, and the video card is better, too.

I've got a Phenom X4 9850, and with DDR2, the the AII X4 620 will marginally outperform it. With DDR3 like you're showing there, you should smoke my Phenom.

Only really weak spot I see is the power supply. 480 watts isn't that much these days.

 

[Tomcat_ha]

build one yourself tbh.

but to be honest the first pc is the better choice in every area save the psu which will limit your upgrading possibilities somewhat. It definitely got a faster 3d card than the 2nd though and you will notice that the most of all.

 

[fiftyone]

Put the Radeon in choice 2 and you're good to go.

 

[Ralfst3r]

You don't want a 450watt PSU in this day and age.

Edit:
Lol, read moar. Already said, nvm. Carryon

 

[Fedorov]

can't you just buy the components separately?

 

[Zetsumei]

Secondly, the GTS 250 GPU, that's a pretty weak GPU by today's standards, the HD5670 is a much better card (and it's DX11!!!). That said you can easily swap out the GPU on either machine.

5670 aint that great the 250 is a better card performance wise although it uses more power and doesn't have dx11. Overall i find build 1 more enticing though. But I would look around and see what others are offering as well.

 

[Tomcat_ha]

5670 aint that great the 250 is a better card performance wise although it uses more power and doesn't have dx11. Overall i find build 1 more enticing though. But I would look around and see what others are offering as well.

im quite sure the 5670 is faster than a gts250, and i just looked it up and it isnt.

Tbh the gts250 is still rather old and slow.

 

[Colt .45 killer]

why dont you post a link to a few close places that sell components and will assemble specified parts for you? Im pretty sure a few of us here on the forums could assemble you one that would kick the snot out of either of those...

 

[Floyd]

Just built the following:

Asus P755D-E Pro $170
Intel i5-750 (quad core) $195
Asus EAH 5770 $165
4 Gb Ripsaw 12800Cl7D Ram $150
Seagate 500GB SATA 3gb/s $45
Asus 24x SATA DVD burner $22

Had the case and a 650watt P/S.

I didn't price shop, I used a small store I've dealt with for years.
Could've saved on the RAM, M/B, and graphics card but I'm looking to O/C.

Granted its a couple hundred more than what you're listing, but just showing that screaming gaming systems don't have to cost an arm and a leg today. Its a good time to build/buy a moderate machine.

 

[Discoisntdead]

Asus EAH 5770 $165

Shoud've gone for a 4890. The 5770 is a rip-off. DX11 definitely isn't worth it.

 

[Colt .45 killer]

pretty good rig floyd, tis important to make sure its a asus mobo, otherwise youve built the Eiffel tower on a stack of shat.

 

[Tomcat_ha]

actually the 5770 is not that much slower than the 4890 in current games and it is bound to overtake it in the future.

 

[Floyd]

I just build comps for my family and for fun. Between myself and two kids I've built about two dozen computers in the last few years. Most of my boards have been Asus and all but two have been intel CPU's. All have had nVidia cards until this one. I'm impressed with the performance of this build. Plus, its easily upgradeable to i7 and SLI or Crossfire.

I have to say that this was BY FAR the easiest build I've done to date. It was literally plug and play. We even took advantage of Microsoft's $64 Win 7 64 bit Pro for students offer and downloaded the O/S (I had Ultimate on my machine and was afraid the Key given by Microsofts program for Pro wouldn't work.) So we downloaded the file and then created an .iso file on a DVD and installed from that.

From unpackaging, to installing hardware, to installing drivers and O/S, less than an hour and a half!

Sure we could've gone i7, 4890 or even 5970 (?). But the point of the build was to put together a comp that would play most of what is out there with ease without breaking the bank. And to be able to do so for the near future without any upgrades. The case was a little small and the power supply somewhat limited, so we opted for a shorter, less power hungry graphics card. Down the road, we can easily go Crossfire by adding another 5770 for <$150. Or go bigger if/when prices drop.

Sorry I derailed the thread
.....but if someone is looking to upgrade or buy new, it seems to me that prices today are really low. If everything were bought brand new (including the Samsung P2350-1 monitor), the machine would've cost around $1100. By contrast, in 2000 I built a 1Gz PIII machine with 128MB of 133MHz RAM that cost over $2200. That machine was twice the price for about 1/8 of the computing power.