[Hitaxas]

So, the time has finally come for me to get a new PC. The last working USB port on my PC finally died the other week.

Normally, this shouldn't be an issue... However I bought a USB 2.0 PCI express card, in hopes that would solve my issue... only that did... nothing.

So yeah, I believe it is time for a new PC anyway. I have been stuck on a dual core AMD for nearly 6 years now, and even with a new GPU my PC barely can handle games such as Skyrim on high settings, nor handle other games such as the newer Batman games on medium. (Not sure why, since I threw my new card into my GF's older Dell inspiron 530, and it can handle Skyrim without an issue)

The problem is, I am not able to just pull 1.5G's out of my ass. So the only way I can get a new PC is if I pay for it in monthly payments.

Is Dell my only option? I went to the websites for Gateway, HP, Acer, V3 Gaming PC and Origin PC as well, but when customizing a rig and "checking out", I did not see any option for monthly payments... Am I just blind?

I have a rig saved to a cart on dell.com, just in case it is my only option.

Here is the specs

PC model - XPS 8500
OS - Window's 7 Ultimate 64 bit
CPU - Intel® Core™ i7-3770
RAM - 12GB Dual Channel DDR3 1600MHz
HDD - 1TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive 6.0 Gb/s
GPU - AMD Radeon™ HD 7770 2GB GDDR5
Optical drive - Blu-ray Combo Drive (BD-R, DVD+/-RW)

It would cost me around $42USD a month, even with the 2 GB external I added on as an extra.

A setup like that should be able to run all my games on the highest settings, and mutitask without an issue (I'd believe). I just want to know if Dell really is my only option in my situation.

[winterhell]

If I were you I'd change some things. If you are primarily gaming, you wont need more than 6GB of ram for many years to come. Also Core i5-3770 or i5-2500K are more cost-effective. Whatever GPU you get today in this combination, the GPU will be the first to bottleneck the games and need upgrade.
Also I'd consider if you really are going to use the Blu ray part of the drive.
Otherwise, it looks nice and good luck.

[Hitaxas]

Sadly I cannot change the processor in the customization screen, so I am stuck with what they give me. Thank you for the input, I might lower the RAM down to 8GB (the lowest option on that rig), and maybe even ditch the blu-ray (for now, I do want on at some point).

[Azu]

I suggest ordering parts off NewEgg. Excellent service, and I personally never has a DOA.


If you don't know how to build one, then I suggest look at this.

[Hitaxas]

Trust me, I would if I could afford. it but with my current situation, all I can do is pay in installments. I know how to put a PC together, the one that just died on me was one I built myself, and upgraded over the years.

[JaredAFX]

The reason why you can't choose a less expensive processor is probably because you selected a "higher" model. Basically, Dell usually provides 3 or 4 different versions of the same computer for people who don't want to customize their computers. For example, although they're the same case, the least expensive version won't have the same higher-end/more expensive options, the most expensive version will. Actually, in this case, the base version has the most options. Although they're basically the same, you must've customized any one besides the base model.

If you've checked, I'm going to take your word for it, because I've only heard of Dell offering monthly payments as well. Of course, you could try to be my dad and get them to lower the price. He did that once, and he ended up paying about $1,000 for a $1,400 computer (US dollars.) That was crazy. He just doesn't believe in paying over $1,000 for computers. But, I digress. Dells are good computers. I've never once had a problem with them, only their printers. NEVER get one of their printers. They're not even made by Dell, they're Lexmark printers with Dell branding.

EDIT: Forgot to mention this. Unless you really, really need it, I would skip out on Win 7 Ultimate. Home Premium gets the job done, unless, like I said earlier, you need the added features.

This post has been edited by JaredAFX: 09 July 2012 - 09:07 PM

[Azu]

Hitaxas, on 09 July 2012 - 08:26 PM, said:

Trust me, I would if I could afford. it but with my current situation, all I can do is pay in installments. I know how to put a PC together, the one that just died on me was one I built myself, and upgraded over the years.

Couldn't you save the money?

[Hitaxas]

Saving the money for that would take me the 2 years it would take me to pay off the Dell PC (or longer, I have bills to pay... rent, cable, hospital. I also end up buying most of the groceries). The end result is the same, but the Dell method gets the PC to me quicker.

As of now, I only get to use the only other PC we have at nights, when the girlfriend sleeps. Which kinda sucks, because it limits gaming time. Also, it would be nice to get the PC sooner so that I can get back to playing Aion with her (we like to MMO together).

This post has been edited by Hitaxas: 09 July 2012 - 11:58 PM

[Azu]

Ah, well, those are important. Well, personally, I'd get a setup with a niVida card and/or and i5 Core CPU.

[Hitaxas]

@ JaredAFX: It appears I missed that page. Dell hides the page with the multiple selections, I had to dig to find it. The funny thing is that I checked out the cheapest option, and selected the same hardware as the other one, and it turns out to be a ton cheaper too. lol


@ Azu: Would you be able to explain the advantages over getting a nVidia over AMD and i5 CPU over the i7? I've tried to compare them through the specs listed on newegg, but I am not seeing why your choices would be better.

[winterhell]

nVidia has support for PhysX, 3D Vision and CUDA if you care about those. Probably better windows drivers too(or maybe that was in the past).
If you get the individual parts of the PC I guess you can salvage some of your own, like the HDD, DVD drive, possibly the video card and the case. When you collect the rest of the money upgrade. That is if you can get the first parts on monthly payment.

[Hitaxas]

When comparing the only options for graphics they give me, Which is a NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 640 1GB GDDR5 and AMD Radeon™ HD 7770 2GB GDDR5... The performance of the AMD card is superior, while it does consume a little more power. (given this chart is not 100% accurate, as the only comparison choice they gave for the GeForce was the ddr3 version, and I think the AMD is the 1GB version on it as well)

Comparison Chart

As far as the CPU goes, the i7-3770 looks the be the best choice in terms of performance by a large margin.

Comparison chart

I was able to find the cheaper Dell XPS, even with the same hardware I previously mentioned. It will run me around $27USD a month. I think I might just go with that.

This post has been edited by Hitaxas: 10 July 2012 - 02:13 AM

[Kreigyr]

Hitaxas, on 10 July 2012 - 01:02 AM, said:

@ Azu: Would you be able to explain the advantages over getting a nVidia over AMD and i5 CPU over the i7? I've tried to compare them through the specs listed on newegg, but I am not seeing why your choices would be better.

nVidia's GPUs arguably have a price-performance advantage, but only in the higher brackets. The only real reason to get an nVidia GPU over an AMD GPU is that CUDA is "faster" than OpenCL.

As for the i5 vs. i7, yes, the i7 is more powerful, in some cases by alot. But, honestly, if your main concern is gaming, unless you have an abysmally old CPU and three state-of-the-art GPUs, the GPU will always be your bottleneck. Even with 2 AMD 6950s, my CPU usage in Battlefield and similar games is always around 60% with an i5-2550k. The idea is to get the i5 because you don't -need- and i7, but it might come useful if you find yourself doing absolutely mountains of Photoshopping and the like. If you can get an Ivy Bridge i5 for even $40 less than an Ivy Bridge i7, by all means go for it if you're on a budget.

[Aerosol]

I didn't know about this. Does Dell charge a fee for paying off the PC early? I'm very interested in doing the same thing you're doing.

EDIT: Oh..there's an approval process. My credit is pretty shitty so scratch that!

This post has been edited by AerosolSP: 10 July 2012 - 01:23 PM

[Hitaxas]

I did not want to make a new thread, so I will bump this one.

Does anybody here have a Newegg Preferred Account? Wouldn't having one of those essentially mean I could setup a payment plan with them, thus saving more money than if I were to go through a company like Dell?