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I planned to have a local tech build a new high end gaming system with components as below. Unfortunately neither the tech nor anyone local is available to do it. Then I recalled a very recent comment of Susan’s in favor of getting a branded PC. She mentioned Dell, ASUS,HP, Acer, Lenovo. Another consideration is getting a Windows 11 ready system.

I am looking for recommendations for a PC brand based on warranty/returns and reliability.

As you can see from the parts list, I was looking at a high end gaming system.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X

Cooling: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 280

Mobo: Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite Wifi

GPU  ?

Case: Mid tower

RAM: 128GB basic RAM

Windows 10 Pro

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If you’re building it yourself, make sure you get a big enough power supply!

Dell E5570 Latitude, Intel Core i5 6440@2.60 GHz, 8.00 GB - Win 10 Pro

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doriel

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Hi John:

I’m looking for people who have bought a PC in the last few years, as to their experience with their vendor.

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Given your specs, you might want to look into seeing if Dell still sells the Alienware line of computers. Those used to be some really decent prefab’d gaming rigs. However, I don’t know if they’ll let you take the memory all the way up to 128 gigs.

The remainder of the sellers probably don’t have anything even close to what you’re looking for, especially if you’re dead set on having the specific mobo from Gigabyte.

Oh, and as @ScotchJohn said above, DON’T skimp on the power supply. Sounds like you’ll be needing at least a 600W unit, especially if you’re going to be looking at one of the latest cards/chips from NVidia, like the 3000 series.

As an alternative, see if there might be another system builder such as another local mom and pop shop that you trust to build the system for you. They might be able to get the parts as well as build it, or they may very well be willing to build it for you for a flat fee if you bring them all of the components.

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cmar6

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128 GB RAM was if I was going to have the system built for me. If buying prebuilt, I’ll go with 64 GB of RAM. For most gaming, one wants a high end GPU, but I’m doing chess, so all I need is a Win 11 ready GPU.

G.SKILL Trident Z Royal Series 128GB (4 x 32GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2666 (PC4 21300) Intel XMP 2.0 Desktop Memory Model F4-2666C19Q-128GTRS $550 with additional 30% off at Newegg, which is a great price if available.

I’m not dead set on the Giga mobo.

Your point about few big vendors having such a high end system will cause me to look harder for another local system builder rather than what you imply would be a waste of time checking out big vendors.

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The Dell Alienware’s are the gaming rigs that my friends use if they don’t build their own.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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cmar6

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Thanks, Susan, that points me to where I will be looking if I don’t have the system built for me.

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@cmar6, you might also want to take a look at the Omen series of gaming PCs by HP. My newest machine is a TG01-1070m. It’s blazing fast and I am very happy with it.

Whomever you decide to buy from, just bear in mind that if you want a high-end graphics card, you may end up waiting for a while. I ordered my Omen in mid-March and the order kept getting delayed due to supply issues; it didn’t arrive until late May. (Less than a week after I placed my order, my wife bought a business PC from HP with no GPU, only integrated graphics, and that one arrived in just a few days. So I conclude that the problem lay with GPU availability.)

As delivery of my PC kept getting put off, in April I looked into buying from specialty gaming-PC shops like Digital Storm and ibuypower.com, but their lead times were even longer at the time, well into July.

The Omen PC arrived in the nick of time, as my main work machine went belly-up about four days after the Omen showed up.

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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cmar6

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I think I would go for M.2 SSD, since it has better write/read speeds than SATA.

Dell Latitude 3420, Intel Core i7 @ 2.8 GHz, 16GB RAM, W10 22H2 Enterprise

HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29

PRUSA i3 MK3S+

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Cybertooth, cmar6

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Definitely M.2 storage.  I tend to use a smaller M.2 stick for the OS and another larger one for apps and storage.  Whatever computer brand you decide on, I would make sure it has M.2 slots available for future use should you not use them to start.

Part of the OTHG (over the hill gang). Which way did they go --- I'm their leader!

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By M.2 storage, do you mean something like this, which I had on my component list:

Storage: TEAMGROUP T-FORCE CARDEA ZERO Z330 512GB NAND TLC NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4 M.2 $51 x 2 = $102

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Yes, that could be fine. Also Samsung EVO is available for this kind of motherboard.

Dell Latitude 3420, Intel Core i7 @ 2.8 GHz, 16GB RAM, W10 22H2 Enterprise

HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29

PRUSA i3 MK3S+

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We have three alienwares.  Even if you’re not a gamer, they’re excellent computers, great for video editing and 4k videos.   They’re on sale often; I’ve bought previous year’s models exclusively, they don’t change a lot year to year.  They also have excellent high refresh 2k gaming monitors at a decent price.  We have two of them; systems were the result of kids winning (drat!) a grades challenge.  Bribery works?  Now they know what a GOOD computer and screen are like and they love them.

Graphics card is most important, for Nvidia any 2000 or 3000 series is more than enough.  Ray tracing isn’t really necessary, we have (2) 1060 ti cards and a 1660 Super, they’re fine.  Games have to support ray tracing and HDR for them to be a factor.  HDR’s a mess, rarely used for the extended range it’s intended, mostly just blown out colors.

The problem you’ll have with build your own is cost.  Graphics cards are incredibly expensive, the Nvidia 2000 and 3000 series are over $2000 now.  My 1660 is over $500; I paid a little less than $200 for it 2? years ago.  This stuff’s supposed to get cheaper!  If you go alienware or other prebuilt, cost is much more reasonable.  If you can wait a year, that may be best.  Gaming addicts with lots of money who parallel a number of cards are calling foul at today’s prices.

Our computers are 2020 Area 51 17 in laptops(kinda huge) and a 2105 17R3 laptop.  The Area 51’s have discrete components like a desktop and are just as upgradable; they’ll take 4 NvME drives.  The 1660 is in an Inspiron Desktop.  The Area 51’s play games well at the highest refresh rates you need at 1080p or 2160p.  The Inspiron has a 4k Monitor and will play 60 Hz with a little lag at 4k.  The 17R3 laptop has a beautiful 4k screen and is super for video editing.  Its GEForce 980M card is a little long in the tooth, a lot’s changed in 6 years.

Dell Desktops have been good to us.  I’d avoid the smaller ones, they have limited upgradability.  A good one is about the same cost as Alienware, though. XPS are the better models.

Here are Dell’s gaming specials today:

https://deals.dell.com/en-us/category/gamingpcs

Their overstocks and returns:

https://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?brandid=2202&c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh&frid=198

I’ve purchased 3 returns; they were brand new, unused, just returned for some reason.

Here’s an excellent ALienware desktop (sticker shock warning but there’s an additional 17% off):

https://deals.dell.com/en-us/productdetail/alqf

I have limited experience with AMD, they have a 32 or something core threadripper cpu. Not sure if their cards can take advantage of such a beast.  I have a Dell laptop with AMD card, it’s not good for gaming at all but the card is a lower level one, no surprise.  AMD has a rabid fan base, without owning a current AMD product, not sure what to make of ther faithful.

Overall, my advice is buy for the long haul, you’re in $$$ territory and a few more won’t matter much.  I don’t see 2d gaming changing a lot soon.

 

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cmar6

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Thanks for the excellent and very useful post. The key is the GPU card. Dell likely is getting them much cheaper than I could be at eBay but way over “list price.”

I’ll try to find a builder. That way I can use the GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti SSC Graphics Card 01G-P4-3652-KR  for $260 that I bought in eBay. It’s not Win 11 ready but I have till 2025 to swap out to an NVIDIA 3000 series hopefully at 1/3 current prices.

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cmar6,

Take a look at this 4 part series on Linus Tech Tips it’s an eye opener!

HTH 😎

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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