Help with Prebuilt - New to PC

[LRenzinator]

Hello!
I have been reading as much as I can while I've been off work but am getting drowned in information. I am looking for a prebuilt PC as I am typically working 50-60 hours a week in addition to having a family so I really don't want to build even though I know it will be cheaper. I have compared builds from both Alienware and NZXT and the price seems to be similar with comparable components. I would like to bundle a complete set up for around 2k if possible. I will be playing Doom, Call of Duty and Fortnite along with newer titles etc.

I have been bias towards Alienware as I find their new Aurora R9 and new peripherals to be the most attractive. I would also like for these system to not become outdated anytime in the near future.

I built these on both Alienware site as well as NZXT with the price being within a 100 for everything:

Alienware
-Processor9th Gen Intel® Core™ i7 9700K (8-Core, 12MB Cache, Overclocked up to 4.6GHz across all cores)
-Operating SystemWindows 10 Home, 64-bit, English
-Video CardNVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2070 SUPER™ 8GB GDDR6 (OC Ready)
-Color ChoiceDark Side of the Moon
-Memory16GB Dual Channel HyperX™ FURY DDR4 XMP at 2933MHz
-Hard Drive1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD (Boot) + 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s (Storage)
-Chassis Options Dark Side of the Moon chassis with High-Performance CPU Liquid Cooling and 850W Power Supply
-WirelessQualcomm® DW1810, 1 x 1, 802.11ac with Wi-Fi, Wireless LAN, Bluetooth 4.1

NZXT
-GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER - ZOTAC Twin Fan
-CPU: Intel Core i7-9700K 8-Core 3.6 GHz
-CPU COOLING: DEEPCOOL GAMMAX GTE
-MOTHERBOARD: MSI MPG Z390 GAMING EDGE AC
-RAM: XPG GAMMIX D10 16GB 3000MHz
-SSD: Intel 660p 1.0 TB
-POWER: EVGA SuperNOVA 850W G5 Gold

Thoughts/recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Zoid]

I can definitely understand being very busy and not wanting to build your own rig. If it's not your thing, no worries. For starters, the headline is that either one of those PCs will be a powerful gaming rig for 1080p and 1440p and will give you a great experience in modern games. Neither one of those builds has anything wrong with it.

Let's dive a little deeper. Since the specs of both of these machines are essentially identical, you're not going to notice any big difference in gaming performance. The factory CPU OC in the Alienware isn't really a factor for gaming.

I'd say the biggest thing to consider between these two builds is how likely you are to be opening it up and upgrading components in the future. The Alienware build is a proprietary Dell computer, whereas the NZXT build is made from off-the-shelf parts, so the NZXT is going to be easier to upgrade in the future if that's something you see yourself doing.

My own personal recommendation between these two would be the NZXT. I have been happy with all of the NZXT products I have personally used, and I prefer the certainty of knowing exactly what components (for example, motherboard and PSU) are in my machine. With the Alienware, a lot of the innards are unspecified Dell components. That's not to say they're bad, because dell makes lots of reliable computers, but I lean towards NZXT.

That said, you're busy and just looking for a cool new gaming computer to relax with. If you like one more than the other, buy it and get to gaming! Neither of these are bad choices.

 

[LRenzinator]

Thank you very much for the response! I am currently leaning toward the NZXT, but am looking at some other options as well...Way too many options in the PC world lol

 

[Oussebon]

What currency and country are you shopping in? $ + USA?

What monitor are you gaming on? What resolution and refresh rate?

 

[LRenzinator]

What currency and country are you shopping in? $ + USA?

What monitor are you gaming on? What resolution and refresh rate?

I'm in USA, yes budget is 2-3k, however, I would like to keep it 2k or under but I would rather spend more and get something I really want and hopefully "future proof".
Currently I am on a PS4 with a 7 year old 55" tv lol. Was looking at this one: ASUS VG278Q 27" 1080P 144Hz Adaptive Sync

Open for suggestions on this as well.

 

[Zoid]

I'm not a monitor expert, so I'm going to leave the specific recommendations up to others, but for your budget I'd say go for 1440p!

Another place you might want to check out is iBuyPower. They have kind of a silly name, but they have a very flexible (if slightly overwhelming) configurator and good prices. Just poking around I was able to get a Ryzen 7 3800X and an RTX 2070 Super for under $2k, and with a little creative tweaking it looked like an RTX 2080 Super wasn't far out of reach.

 

[LRenzinator]

I'm not a monitor expert, so I'm going to leave the specific recommendations up to others, but for your budget I'd say go for 1440p!

Another place you might want to check out is iBuyPower. They have kind of a silly name, but they have a very flexible (if slightly overwhelming) configurator and good prices. Just poking around I was able to get a Ryzen 7 3800X and an RTX 2070 Super for under $2k, and with a little creative tweaking it looked like an RTX 2080 Super wasn't far out of reach.

I actually was looking there last night, however, I do agree the configurator was kinda blowing my mind! lol, Corsair has some nice looking prebuilds but the reviews seem conflicted.

 

[Oussebon]

+1 to the 1440p monitor suggestion. At this budget level, and outside of very niche gaming interests, it's the go-to spec. It's important, I think, to get a monitor 'worthy' of the PC - i.e. that really lets you experience the performance you've paid for in the box

And I too would probably look at the R7 3700x / 3800x over the 9700k.

Turning to the alienware - come on Dell, you can do better:

-Processor9th Gen Intel® Core™ i7 9700K (8-Core, 12MB Cache, Overclocked up to 4.6GHz across all cores)

:/

The CPU boosts upto 4.9GHz on i1 core on its own, and upto 4.6GHz across all 8 cores as its native turbo spec. There's an argument Dell could make to say it's overclocked (in that you need to run the CPU out of its TDP rating to sustain the clocks, I think) but a lot of motherboards do that by default. So it's a bit cheeky to sell it as overclocked given what most people would understand by that!

And the GPU being "OC ready" ... get rekt, Dell Marketing.

Anyway...

You could consider other US system builders like Maingear, Origin, and ofc iBuyPower.

Note that the RX 5700 XT is nearly as powerful as the RTX 2070 Super but is often $100 less.

And whatever system you get, make sure the case has decent airflow. Not just the number and positioning of fans, but whether there is decent air intake at the front.

 

[LRenzinator]

+1 to the 1440p monitor suggestion. At this budget level, and outside of very niche gaming interests, it's the go-to spec. It's important, I think, to get a monitor 'worthy' of the PC - i.e. that really lets you experience the performance you've paid for in the box

And I too would probably look at the R7 3700x / 3800x over the 9700k.

Turning to the alienware - come on Dell, you can do better:



:/

The CPU boosts upto 4.9GHz on i1 core on its own, and upto 4.6GHz across all 8 cores as its native turbo spec. There's an argument Dell could make to say it's overclocked (in that you need to run the CPU out of its TDP rating to sustain the clocks, I think) but a lot of motherboards do that by default. So it's a bit cheeky to sell it as overclocked given what most people would understand by that!

And the GPU being "OC ready" ... get rekt, Dell Marketing.

Anyway...

You could consider other US system builders like Maingear, Origin, and ofc iBuyPower.

Note that the RX 5700 XT is nearly as powerful as the RTX 2070 Super but is often $100 less.

And whatever system you get, make sure the case has decent airflow. Not just the number and positioning of fans, but whether there is decent air intake at the front.

Advantage to AMD vs Intel ? Seems to a lot of argument here but not a real difference for gaming purposes?

Also, Monitor recommendations for this spec?

Just built these two: One AMD, one Intel. Price is about the same on here.

Review Build Configuration

Gaming PCs by NZXT

www.letsbld.com

Review Build Configuration

Gaming PCs by NZXT

www.letsbld.com

 

[Oussebon]

AMD possibly more futureproof due to the 'hyperthreading' on its R7s, which Intel lacks on its 9700k. Intel is adding back HT to its i7s for the 10th Gen CPUs and adding it to its desktop i5s for the first time, so that seems to indicate which way the wind is blowing there.

Also, you don't need an X570 board.
If you go with X570, you get the advantage of PCIe 4.0 which Intel systems don't offer, but the price is then about the same as Intel.
Alternatively you can get a B450 board which slices off $100 in that configurator. And it's an MSI TOMAHAWK, which while described as 'basic' by NZXT is actually pretty decent.

But do look beyond places like NZXT. They will generally sell at a premium versus other system builders.

For instance you can get the same sort of thing but with an RTX 2080 Super for $1855 here

Customize Columbus Day RTX 4070 Ti SUPER Gaming PC

Columbus Day RTX 4070 Ti SUPER - Intel® Core™ Processor i9-14900K - 32GB (16GBx2) DDR5/6000MHz Memory - ASUS PRIME Z790 GAMING WIFI7 DDR5 Motherboard - 2TB WD Blue SN580 M.2 PCIe SSD - Windows 11 Home

www.cyberpowerpc.com

Only a 240gb SSD + 1 TB HDD but you could buy a 1TB SSD, add it yourself, and still save money while ending up with an RTX 2080 Super. And that's just the first one I came across.

Or a custom spec:

• *BASE_PRICE: [+1179]
• CABLE: None
• CAS: Corsair iCUE 220T RGB High Airflow ATX Mid-Tower Gaming Chassis W/ Tempered Glass + SP120 RGB PRO Case fans [+51] (Black Color)
• CC: None
• COOLANT: None
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6GHz [4.4GHz Turbo] 8 Cores/ 16 Threads 36MB Cache 65W Processor
• CS_FAN: Default case fans
• ENGRAVING: None
• EVGA_POWER: None
• FAN: CyberPowerPC DEEPCOOL Castle 240EX ARGB 240mm AIO Liquid CPU Cooling System w/ Copper Cold Plate [+20] (2 x Standard 120MM Fans)
• FREEBIE_SSD: Free 2TB (2TBx1) SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 256MB Cache 7200RPM HDD
• HDD: 1TB WD Blue Series SATA-III 6 GB/s SSD - Seq R/W: Up to 545/525 MB/s, Rnd R/W up to 100/80k [+45] (Single Drive)
• HDD2: None
• HEADSET: None
• IUSB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
• KEYBOARD: None [-5]
• MEMORY: 16GB (8GBx2) DDR4/3000MHz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Vengeance)
• MICROPHONE: None
• MONITOR: None
• MOPAD: None
• MOTHERBOARD: ASUS PRIME X470-PRO ATX w/ RGB, Intel LAN, 3PCIe x16, 3 PCIe x1, 6 SATA3, 2 M.2 SATA/PCIe
• MOUSE: None [-3]
• NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
• OS: Windows 10 Home (64-bit Edition)
• OVERCLOCK: No Overclocking
• POWERSUPPLY: 600 Watts - EVGA 600Watts 80 Plus Gold high-efficient Power Supply [+10]
• PRO_WIRING: None
• RUSH: Standard processing time: ship within 10 to 15 Business Days
• SERVICE: 3 Years FREE Service Plan (INCLUDES LABOR AND LIFETIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT)
• SLI_BRIDGE: None
• SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
• SPEAKERS: None
• USBHD: None
• USBX: None
• VIDEO: GeForce® RTX 2070 SUPER™ 8GB GDDR6 (Turing) [VR Ready] [+362] (Single Card)
• WARRANTY: STANDARD WARRANTY: 1 Year Parts WARRANTY
• WNC: None
• WTV: None
• _PRICE: (+1659)

i.e. 3700x, 16gb 3000MHz RAM, X470 board, RTX 2070 Super, 1TB SSD, 600W EVGA GD PSU, Corair case with decent airflow. And a free 2TB HDD apparently. Windows included. For $1659

no record found

 

[LRenzinator]

AMD possibly more futureproof due to the 'hyperthreading' on its R7s, which Intel lacks on its 9700k. Intel is adding back HT to its i7s for the 10th Gen CPUs and adding it to its desktop i5s for the first time, so that seems to indicate which way the wind is blowing there.

Also, you don't need an X570 board.
If you go with X570, you get the advantage of PCIe 4.0 which Intel systems don't offer, but the price is then about the same as Intel.
Alternatively you can get a B450 board which slices off $100 in that configurator. And it's an MSI TOMAHAWK, which while described as 'basic' by NZXT is actually pretty decent.

But do look beyond places like NZXT. They will generally sell at a premium versus other system builders.

For instance you can get the same sort of thing but with an RTX 2080 Super for $1855 here

Customize Columbus Day RTX 4070 Ti SUPER Gaming PC

Columbus Day RTX 4070 Ti SUPER - Intel® Core™ Processor i9-14900K - 32GB (16GBx2) DDR5/6000MHz Memory - ASUS PRIME Z790 GAMING WIFI7 DDR5 Motherboard - 2TB WD Blue SN580 M.2 PCIe SSD - Windows 11 Home

www.cyberpowerpc.com

Only a 240gb SSD + 1 TB HDD but you could buy a 1TB SSD, add it yourself, and still save money while ending up with an RTX 2080 Super. And that's just the first one I came across.

Or a custom spec:

• *BASE_PRICE: [+1179]
• CABLE: None
• CAS: Corsair iCUE 220T RGB High Airflow ATX Mid-Tower Gaming Chassis W/ Tempered Glass + SP120 RGB PRO Case fans [+51] (Black Color)
• CC: None
• COOLANT: None
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6GHz [4.4GHz Turbo] 8 Cores/ 16 Threads 36MB Cache 65W Processor
• CS_FAN: Default case fans
• ENGRAVING: None
• EVGA_POWER: None
• FAN: CyberPowerPC DEEPCOOL Castle 240EX ARGB 240mm AIO Liquid CPU Cooling System w/ Copper Cold Plate [+20] (2 x Standard 120MM Fans)
• FREEBIE_SSD: Free 2TB (2TBx1) SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 256MB Cache 7200RPM HDD
• HDD: 1TB WD Blue Series SATA-III 6 GB/s SSD - Seq R/W: Up to 545/525 MB/s, Rnd R/W up to 100/80k [+45] (Single Drive)
• HDD2: None
• HEADSET: None
• IUSB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
• KEYBOARD: None [-5]
• MEMORY: 16GB (8GBx2) DDR4/3000MHz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Vengeance)
• MICROPHONE: None
• MONITOR: None
• MOPAD: None
• MOTHERBOARD: ASUS PRIME X470-PRO ATX w/ RGB, Intel LAN, 3PCIe x16, 3 PCIe x1, 6 SATA3, 2 M.2 SATA/PCIe
• MOUSE: None [-3]
• NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
• OS: Windows 10 Home (64-bit Edition)
• OVERCLOCK: No Overclocking
• POWERSUPPLY: 600 Watts - EVGA 600Watts 80 Plus Gold high-efficient Power Supply [+10]
• PRO_WIRING: None
• RUSH: Standard processing time: ship within 10 to 15 Business Days
• SERVICE: 3 Years FREE Service Plan (INCLUDES LABOR AND LIFETIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT)
• SLI_BRIDGE: None
• SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
• SPEAKERS: None
• USBHD: None
• USBX: None
• VIDEO: GeForce® RTX 2070 SUPER™ 8GB GDDR6 (Turing) [VR Ready] [+362] (Single Card)
• WARRANTY: STANDARD WARRANTY: 1 Year Parts WARRANTY
• WNC: None
• WTV: None
• _PRICE: (+1659)

i.e. 3700x, 16gb 3000MHz RAM, X470 board, RTX 2070 Super, 1TB SSD, 600W EVGA GD PSU, Corair case with decent airflow. And a free 2TB HDD apparently. Windows included. For $1659

no record found

Man...I have even more to think about than I thought lol! Think I'm getting some paralysis by analysis. That definitely seems to be a better deal for sure. I think I've watched too many videos and read almost too much at this point haha - I will most likely go with what you guys recommend. Both cyberpower and NZXT seem to be the best options from what I'm seeing. Cyber with the apparent price advantage.

 

[Inspireless Llama]

I've learned that buying PC's or building them is alot of self studying. And I think there's barely any "perfect" choice, or there are multiple "perfect choices" which can make it alot harder. Upto this day I am not sure if I went for the best combined parts in my own PC .

Usually besides parts and benchmarks I might look at seller reviews too. I don't know the quality of these here, but sometimes I might go for the more expensive one because it has better support.

 

[Oussebon]

Trustpilot is often quite useful for that. Cyberpower I've never used personally, but they're known in the UK too and have a decent reputation. You could buy from them, or PCS, or Scan, or Overclockers UK, and what would probably swing it for me would be price and component choice, rather than minor reputational differences. As they're all kosher.

I'm sure there are plenty of other system builders in the USA that may offer competitive pricing and services. I had a look at Origin and Maingear earlier and their prices did seem rather higher so didn't mention them.

Like with any big purchase, shop around!

Also, Monitor recommendations for this spec?

1440p, 144hz, with adaptive sync (freesync, gsync compatible ideally)

If you like a curved screen, check out the MSI Optix MAG271CQR and its competitors.

For IPS screens, LG 27GL83A-B/ LG 27GL850-B, Asus TUF VG27AQ, Gigabyte FI27Q

For less expensive TN panels, Dell S2719DGF, AOC Agon AG271QX, GB2760QSU-B1

If you want a 32" screen, maybe LG 32GK850F

 

[Zoid]

Man...I have even more to think about than I thought lol! Think I'm getting some paralysis by analysis. That definitely seems to be a better deal for sure. I think I've watched too many videos and read almost too much at this point haha - I will most likely go with what you guys recommend. Both cyberpower and NZXT seem to be the best options from what I'm seeing. Cyber with the apparent price advantage.

It can be a lot to take in. The good news is, none of the specs you're looking at so far in your budget are the "wrong" choice, so you needn't stress about ending up with a bad computer.

If you handed me $2k and told me to order you a pre-built computer, I would probably go to CyberpowerPC or iBuyPower and spec up something pretty similar to what @Oussebon posted above - with a Ryzen 7 3700X and an RTX 2070 Super (or higher if you find deals).

We're happy to offer feedback on specific parts too, if you're liking the look of a certain build but uncertain about some components.

 

[LRenzinator]

1440p, 144hz, with adaptive sync (freesync, gsync compatible ideally)

If you like a curved screen, check out the MSI Optix MAG271CQR and its competitors.

For IPS screens, LG 27GL83A-B/ LG 27GL850-B, Asus TUF VG27AQ, Gigabyte FI27Q

For less expensive TN panels, Dell S2719DGF, AOC Agon AG271QX, GB2760QSU-B1

If you want a 32" screen, maybe LG 32GK850F

Was about to go ahead and order one of these monitors but I can't find any stock ! Maybe everyone else during this quarantine have the same idea as I do.

 

[Oussebon]

Which one were you looking at?

 

[LRenzinator]

Which one were you looking at?

pretty much all of them seem to be low availability from what I saw. Would like the LG as it seems to be rated the best but wouldn’t mind a cheaper option if it was in stock

 

[LRenzinator]

Pretty much finalized what I want. Probably going with NZXT - due to the speed at which they can arrive, warranty, etc. Heavily considered building my own actually after all of this research but I like that this is warrantied etc. Please offer quick critiques! Especially on mother board, cooling and power supply! Thanks in advance!

Review Build Configuration

Gaming PCs by NZXT

www.letsbld.com

 

[Oussebon]

Did you manage to get your hands on a nice monitor in the end?

What are you using this for exactly, again? Why the R9 3900x?

 

[Oussebon]

Motherboard: Many of MSI's X570 motherboards were heavily criticised for VRM temperatures. The MSI MPG X570 Gaming Edge WiFi was one of those criticised, which is not just snobby elitism but a real issue with 12 core+ CPUs. I gather the Asrock Phantom gaming 4 was also not great in that regard. The Taichi is good but is another $100. Tbh I'd be buying elsewhere given the limited choices.

 

[LRenzinator]

Did you manage to get your hands on a nice monitor in the end?

What are you using this for exactly, again? Why the R9 3900x?

I did manage to find a monitor! LG 27GL83A-B.

Primarily gaming - I want use it to run stock trading software as well. Might use it for other things in the future as well depending on where my career takes. I was comparing the 3900x to the 9900k and it was 100 less in this config, looked like the 3900x is better for multiple tasks? Slightly lower FPS compared to 9900k however? Considered the 3950x just for complete overkill but don't think I will ever need it lol.

 

[LRenzinator]

Motherboard: Many of MSI's X570 motherboards were heavily criticised for VRM temperatures. The MSI MPG X570 Gaming Edge WiFi was one of those criticised, which is not just snobby elitism but a real issue with 12 core+ CPUs. I gather the Asrock Phantom gaming 4 was also not great in that regard. The Taichi is good but is another $100. Tbh I'd be buying elsewhere given the limited choices.

Where else would you recommend with similar timeframe for shipping, and warranty other than doing my own build? I liked origin PC but that looked like several weeks and a lot more cost.

Also, if I go to PCpartpicker's "system builder" is that absolutely everything I need to build?

 

[Oussebon]

"Better for multiple tasks" is a bit vague. It's better if you want to run a game and encode video files at the same time. If it's just fairly generic multitasking like a game and some work stuff in the background, an 8-core, 16 thread CPU like the R7 3700x would have you more covered. It's not really the case that more cores beyond that = more futureproof. Because by the time you might really start leveraging them you'd want a new CPU from a new generation anyway.

Also, if I go to PCpartpicker's "system builder" is that absolutely everything I need to build?

Yes, it's all you need to self build. And you can get feedback from online forums like this one e.g. if you overlooked something like forgetting to add a power supply Or whatever.

I don't shop in the USA so don't know the detail of other stores, other than to suggest checking Cyberpower, Maingear, iBuyPower, as well.

 

[LRenzinator]

"Better for multiple tasks" is a bit vague. It's better if you want to run a game and encode video files at the same time. If it's just fairly generic multitasking like a game and some work stuff in the background, an 8-core, 16 thread CPU like the R7 3700x would have you more covered. It's not really the case that more cores beyond that = more futureproof. Because by the time you might really start leveraging them you'd want a new CPU from a new generation anyway.

Yes, it's all you need to self build. And you can get feedback from online forums like this one e.g. if you overlooked something like forgetting to add a power supply Or whatever.

I don't shop in the USA so don't know the detail of other stores, other than to suggest checking Cyberpower, Maingear, iBuyPower, as well.

I just like the idea of it...I know I probably don't NEED it haha. Well...I'm pretty much just ready to get this thing ordered. I value you guys recommendations and I would much rather spend extra and get exactly what I want rather than pinch pennies....thoughts on this?

System Builder

pcpartpicker.com

 

[Oussebon]

It's not pinching pennies as much as saving up for a future upgrade imo

That partpicker link is just to the partpicker website. You'd need to link to it specifically e.g. https://pcpartpicker.com/list/sF8TwP (top left-ish) or use the "BB" formatting at the top that lets you post a list of the parts as well as a link to the build