Jump to content

My turn to ask about current builds for a new PC (pre-built)


brucoe

Recommended Posts

I bought my last one through CyberpowerPC, and it was generally okay. I had some recent problems with it (had it over a year, so didn't really panic that much). And yeah, I could probably fix it if I wanted to spend a ton of time trying to diagnose and figure out what it is doing. Basically, it started making sounds like it was calling for Emus to attack, so after all of the Emus attacked, I turned off the computer. I then opened it up, ran it for a bit, and then it started up again about a few hours later (the Emu attack sound). I figure it's either a fan going nuts (although I can't seem to locate it) or my video card's engine just went nuts (and possibly its fan as well).

 

So, rather than try to figure it out, I'm just thinking of treating myself and getting a brand new system. I figure I have about 4k to spend (if needed), so would love to see some ideas from you all. I kind of want to have something I can get soon, rather than later, and I really don't want to have a bunch of parts delivered to me and then having to install them all. Yeah, I know that's cheaper, but I've made too many systems in my time and just don't feel like going through the work again.

 

Up until I get one, I have a pretty awesome Alienware laptop, but while my laptop was kind of nice, and I'd like to move from 2017 to 2018-9 now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, SimpleG said:

Thanks. Any preference from one to the other? The one thing I thought of adding (to both) is at least 32 RAM at 3200 instead of 3000. Think most of the rest I thought was pretty decent. I tried configuring one with them earlier but kept getting crappy systems at way overpriced amounts; both of those look a lot nicer, although I'm torn between both configurations.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, brucoe said:

Thanks. Any preference from one to the other? The one thing I thought of adding (to both) is at least 32 RAM at 3200 instead of 3000. Think most of the rest I thought was pretty decent. I tried configuring one with them earlier but kept getting crappy systems at way overpriced amounts; both of those look a lot nicer, although I'm torn between both configurations.

I prefer intel but AMD is really kicking ass,you cant go wrong with either. 

32gb for gaming is a waste, the difference between 3000 and 3200 is so negligible in 99% of games its not worth it, like increase of just a few frames in best case.It wont hurt to do what you want but IMO its not worth it,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

So, finally got the computer last night. Doesn't work at all. The power button does nothing. Plugging it in shows there is electricity flowing into it (the insides light up a bit), but nothing starts. No motors turn, no fans start, nothing. Part of me thinks it might just be the start button itself, but all attempts to figure out what's wrong with that have proved useless as the system appears to be designed to cover up practically everything, so I can barely see anything significant to the problem on the insides.

 

The worst part is that I have to send it back to them, and when UPS delivered it, the box was wet from the rain and a whole side of it basically was too wet to salvage (meaning I don't have the box to be able to send back, and it's such an absurd size (30x30x15) that I may not be able to find a box to replace it.

 

I'm so frustrated right now. The biggest problem is that I added so much extra stuff into the system that when I looked at the insides, it's not like anything I've seen before on a system's insides. Had tubes and all sorts of other components that just made me feel like I was a teenager with his first computer.

 

Woe is I.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Massdriver said:

That sounds awful. I thought cyberpowerpc was okay.

@brucoe I wouldn't be surprised if the issue is the power supply. My recommendation is to not accept the standard power supply they put in there. Get a name brand one. 

I actually did. I paid quite a bit to get a bunch of upgrades to quality equipment. Part of me suspects that my real problem is that I really went with high tech, as I looked into the system and noticed it had all sorts of tubes and stuff that caused me to think, wow, this isn't the type of computer we used to make. To make it worse, I couldn't diagnose a way to fix the problem, which is absurd in my opinion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you suspect the power button, check the cables from the case to the motherboard and make sure everything is plugged all the way in on the motherboard (should be in the bottom right corner) maybe something came loose during shipping. You could try checking the individual wires to make sure none are on the wrong pins (doubt it's this since it would have been revealed in testing but check it just in case) and you can try connecting the reset button to the power button pins and try turning it on with the reset button.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Turns out, I was able to solve the problem of power by resetting the motherboard. Unfortunately, the computer has a new problem since getting power. The liquid cooling doesn't seem to be activating, which means it immediately overheats. I've tried everything I can think of to fix it, but unless there's a broken pump, I'm at a complete loss. I also have zero experience with liquid cooling and am really kicking myself for throwing in the extra money for liquid cooling when I should have just stuck with air cooling as it's so much easier, more reliable and would not be leaving me in a world of anger right now.

 

Thinking I'm going to have to somehow box this thing up (UPS practically destroyed the box, so I have to find a box for this monstrosity soon) and send it back to only have them have to send it back to me again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, brucoe said:

Turns out, I was able to solve the problem of power by resetting the motherboard. Unfortunately, the computer has a new problem since getting power. The liquid cooling doesn't seem to be activating, which means it immediately overheats. I've tried everything I can think of to fix it, but unless there's a broken pump, I'm at a complete loss. I also have zero experience with liquid cooling and am really kicking myself for throwing in the extra money for liquid cooling when I should have just stuck with air cooling as it's so much easier, more reliable and would not be leaving me in a world of anger right now.

 

Thinking I'm going to have to somehow box this thing up (UPS practically destroyed the box, so I have to find a box for this monstrosity soon) and send it back to only have them have to send it back to me again.

 

Take it to a FedEX or UPS store. THey have all sorts of boxes and packing stuff. Expensive but doesn't break the bank imo. THey should refund you for it anyway 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

25 minutes ago, brucoe said:

Turns out, I was able to solve the problem of power by resetting the motherboard. Unfortunately, the computer has a new problem since getting power. The liquid cooling doesn't seem to be activating, which means it immediately overheats. I've tried everything I can think of to fix it, but unless there's a broken pump, I'm at a complete loss. I also have zero experience with liquid cooling and am really kicking myself for throwing in the extra money for liquid cooling when I should have just stuck with air cooling as it's so much easier, more reliable and would not be leaving me in a world of anger right now.

 

Thinking I'm going to have to somehow box this thing up (UPS practically destroyed the box, so I have to find a box for this monstrosity soon) and send it back to only have them have to send it back to me again.

Unless you plan to LC your GPU as well (for a more silent overall system), you might as well just go with air cooling anyway. AIO pumps are OK, but their performance against a good air cooled solution is often not sufficiently better to warrant the headache. I say this from having built (and learned the hard way) 12+ rigs since 2012. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe talk to support and see if they'll just send you a replacement cooler and you can install it yourself?  Use the pity story about how your local delivery drivers are bad and destroyed the box and you don't trust them anymore.  Guilt the shit out of them, and don't forget to ask to speak to their supervisor if they don't play ball!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, cusideabelincoln said:

Maybe talk to support and see if they'll just send you a replacement cooler and you can install it yourself?  Use the pity story about how your local delivery drivers are bad and destroyed the box and you don't trust them anymore.  Guilt the shit out of them, and don't forget to ask to speak to their supervisor if they don't play ball!

They wouldn't do it. Cyberpowerpc is incapable of feeling or showing any guilt or pity. And I've gone the supervisor route. There's never one there, and they have to call me the next day. Guy called me and was the worst customer service person I've dealt with in ages.

 

Rather than send it back, I brought it to a repair shop in town (that has a lot better facilities than my apartment and people I trust) and had them take a look at it (yesterday). The first thing he noticed was the smell of liquid immediately; my ability to smell anything is kind of messed up after years in the service...kind of both a good thing and a bad thing, but a whole other story. He thinks something ruptured (like the pump), but he's taking a look at it now. Waiting to hear from him. The one good thing I know is that they're not going to charge me an insane amount. My bigger concern is if he tells me that it would be too much for them to fix it, so he would recommend me sending it back. Then I'm back to that original problem of having to send it back and wait weeks for it to get back.

 

The problem I've discovered with Cyberpower PC is that they have a history of kicking the can down the road with computer systems, in which they don't do a really good job repairing anything.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/23/2019 at 4:41 PM, GeneticBlueprint said:

Let's start our own prebuilt gaming computer company! With good customer service! And hookers!

All of that sounds AWESOME.

 

So, yeah he looked at the computer in much more detail now, and it turns out that the pump ruptured, fluid spilled everywhere, and basically ruined the power supply. He recommend I send it back to them to do as it was a bit expensive to fix, but I'm so tired of dealing with this, so I told him to fix it. He's also replacing the power supply with a Corsair brand as it turns out the power supply that I originally bought with it was really crappy.

 

So, it may be until next week until I see it (they have to order the specific parts which take a few days to arrive), but then, hopefully, I'll have a brand new high end gaming computer. Next time, I make my own. Simple as that.

 

On another subject, what's the recommendation these days for virus protection for the computer? I know back in the day (not that long ago), the recommendation was to stick with Microsoft's installed protection, but I kept hearing stories of how it's gutted and doesn't work as well. I've kind of lost track of that area of info.

 

Also, any other little things to add to a brand new system? I've got Office, so I'm good with that.

 

As an aside, the tech said when he first saw the computer: "Don't see many high end systems like this. Graphic design or games?" Mostly, it's video editing I want it for, but I just said: "Gaming." He nodded. "Same here. What game you playing these days?" My deadpan response: "Microsoft Solitaire." I got that infamous Heath Ledger/Joker, not sure if serious look back.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Damn, well I guess the reason they are so cheap is their refusal to play ball with broken ass systems.  And definitely one of the huge benefits of building one yourself is the security of each item being shipped in its own secure packaging.  These components are not engineered, when fully assembled, to be tossed around.  There's a lot of force being applied in unexpected directions.  The CPU cooler and graphic cards are the biggest targets to be dislodged because they only have a few dimensions that are actually secured to the case.  Two sides of a video card are just dangling out there freely in standard systems.  

 

The best virus protection is simply not to click on any link you even suspect of being unsafe.  I don't even run my virus protection half the time, and it hasn't caught something in real time for several years now anyway.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I usually stick with all air cooling for my pcs, the exception being my current video card. If I ordered from any of these custom pc builders, I think a good lesson from all this is to get all air cooling and a decent PSU. If you can build it, then build it.

 

I have heard off and on that NewEgg can assemble pcs for people, but I cannot find the service listed anywhere.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, learned my lesson the hard way. Well, two of them. First, I'm never going with anything but air cooled. At least then I could have fixed it myself. Felt like I needed to be a plumber. Second, build my own. I just thought it would be nice to have them do it. Big mistake. Sure, you can get lucky, but it definitely looks like they profit mostly by putting bad labor into high end quality systems. Won't do that again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Wow, after all of this time, I finally got my computer running. Paid a bit of money to get it repaired (lost complete trust in Cyberpowerpc.com. One bad turn after another.

 

Anyway, a local repair place was able to fix the liquid cooling system problem (I will NEVER buy a computer with that type of system in it because it was the one thing I couldn't fix on this computer and ended up being the biggest complication I've ever gone through with a computer ever). Right after they fixed that, the video card, of course, didn't work as planned. Being a 2080, it is one of the 50 percent that fail after a short while of working. So I have to send that back, YET the box to send it back won't fit into any UPS bin, which means I have to find a local UPS drop off place (as two UPS Store locations refuse to send anything with an RMA that they can't charge for...yeah, no kidding). Anyway, I bought a Nvidea 1070 and stuck it in the machine to at least get some of the quality of this machine up and running, while I wait for the card fiasco to play itself out. I'm thinking of just throwing an older 1080 Ti into it and forget about this new version from Nvidea until they finally fix the problems. Or I just might wait a short bit for the new AMD card and throw it in instead.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Damn....sorry to read what you're going through.  No way you should spend that amount of money and get a system like that in return.  I know things happen during shipping and I can imagine it happens all the time that the cyberpowerpc support just rolls their eyes everytime they get a call about it.  The only experience I have had with them was probably 10 years ago when a friend of mine ordered a pre built system from them and it had one issue after another. He eventually sent it back for good and got a refund.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At least I know enough to know what should or should not be happening, and my patience with customer support is just enough to realize when I'm not going to get any of the assistance I need. This weekend is the first time I've been able to start using the computer, and it was nice. It's just sad that a computer I bought in the beginning of December finally got to be used (not in its finished form) in the second week of February.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...