Help finding a new rig?
FWIW
Posts: 320
Okay so hubby is buying me a new desktop in March, now that we have some place to put one (finally got our house praise be *insert chosen deity*) But I would rather NOT spend the entire tax return on it. Can someone who is better with tech help me please? I considered building one (with a lot of tutorials) but my hand tremors are just too bad to risk it at this point. So I need to find something comparable to this, for less than $2000. And I am open to suggestions on improvements/changes. The only real mandatory are 32gb ram (at least), dedicated video card with at LEAST 4GB memory, wifi because the location we can put it we can't get ethernet and I have NEVER had luck with an internet dongle thing, and at least 2TB harddrive. It's mostly for Daz, animation, and Gaming.
Specs on the one we picked out:
Alienware Aurora R6
Processor
7th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-7700 Processor (4-Cores, 8MB Cache, Turbo Boost 2.0, up to 4.2GHz)
Operating System
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit English
Cable
US Power Cord
Chassis Options
Alienware™ 850 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply with High Performance Liquid Cooling
Video Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1070 with 8GB GDDR5
Memory
32GB DDR4 at 2400MHz; up to 64GB (additional memory sold separately)
Hard Drive
128GB M.2 SATA SSD (Boot) + 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s (Storage)
CD ROM/DVD ROM
Tray-loading Blu-ray Burner
Wireless
Intel® 3165 1x1 802.11ac Wi-Fi Wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.2
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Comments
For $2000 and no monitor specified you should be able to do much better than the GTX 1070.
CPU $300
Mobo $170
RAM $280
M.2 Samsung EVO 960 256 GB - $120
2 TB 3.5" HDD - $65
BluRay burner $60
Just at $1000 without the video card, most prices from Amazon. So you should be able to squeeze in a GTX 1080 Ti and a monitor.
Missed the power supply & case... subtract the monitor you should still be able to do $2000 with the 1080 Ti but a tighter squeeze.
...they also have been bought out by Dell, and in my view lost their cutting edge because of it.
I live somewhere where I don't have anyone around that I trust to build one and my hands shake to bad to build one myself :( I am not thrilled about the Dell thing either, but the only other things I found were iBuypower and heeeeeell no. Shoot.
So many of the reviews for iBuyPower and Cyberpower were horror stories about things showing up in pieces or not connected and customer service being a nightmare. I had considered them but people kept telling me it was a terrible idea.
...every place gets negative comments. For example, I deal with Newegg exclusively and yes there are those "one egg" reviews (usually a part or system arrived DOA which most likely happened during shipping) yet I have experienced excellent service from them. I've read where comments here where members go through IBuyPower and CyberPower and were very pleased with their systems and service.
It is still best to get a system that you can "customise" before purchasing. Stock "off the shelf" systems like you find at Best Buy or Frys really don't cut it for 3D work (unless you purchase a gaming rig but those can be very expensive) particularly since they often skimp on two the most important parts, the PSU and case. Many will have the "bare minimum" needed PSU for what is factory installed, meaning if you decide to upgrade later, like adding nore memory, extra atorage drives, a beefier GPU card or second card, you could easily overextend the unit. As to the case, ventilation and air movement is important so you should look for a case with several fans (at least 4 - 5) to promote reasonable airflow. A larger case also provides more breathing space and makes it easier to service internal components. It is too bad Antec discontinued the P-193 (which I have) as it also has a large exhaust fan on the left side panel right where the GPU and CPU are. Liquid cooling on a PSU seems a little odd as I would thin that is more inportant for the GPU and/or CPU. However, neither the GPU opr CPU you specify would really require it as the 1070 already runs fairly cool (it actually consumes less power than my old 1 GB GT 460), and if you aren't into overclocking the CPU, a standard aftermarket CPU cooler with heat pipes and sink would be sufficent.
Muy one suggestion would be to take one step back and get a Broadwell 6 core (3.4 GHz) as it would give you 4 more CPU threads should the render job dump from VRAM and also improve for multitasking performance as well as 4 memory channels instead of 2 (which is more efficient as it spreads the load over all the sticks more efficiently especially if you decide to go with 64 GB [4 x 16 GB])
I also agree that Alienware is overpriced for what you get. After the Dell takeover, their options also became more limited.
As to shaky hands, I have severe arthritis, yet with a little help here and there from a freind who has built computers, I managed to put my own system together as well have been able to maintian it (again this is where an oversize case helps a lot). It ias been running reliably for over four years now and while not as fast as a newer system (especially rendering in Iray) it still gets the job done.
Any computer that is going to be shipped will always have the chance of internal cards becoming un-seated in their plugs because... Mail handlers.
That being said, I have had no issues with CyberPowerPC and they are always running pretty good deals on cusom build computers.
Like this one for example https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Daily-Deal-RyZen-1700-Sale
$1365
8 Core Ryzen 7 1700 (-$50 to drop down to a 6 core Ryzen 5 1600X or -$96 to got down to a 6 core Ryzen 5 1600)
Liquid Cooling for the CPU
16GB RAM (wait till ram prices come back down before upgrading past this)
Geforce GTX 1080 (8GB) [+$308 to go up to a GTX 1080 ti (11GB) or -$90 to go down to a GTX 1070 (8GB)]
1 TB HDD (if you scroll down there is a free upgrade you can select, 2TB HDD)
Then you can add on things like Wifi or a DVD burner if you need them
You can also upgrade to Windows 10 Pro for $31
They also have a large selection of computer towers to chooes from for your build
I second this. Horror stories are usually shipping related and can happen with Alienware too.
I agree about newegg. I have never had a problem through them they didn't fix quickly and politely.
Is the Broadwell 6 core going to be as useful for gaming as 3d? (one of the main reasons he is springing for it is because he wants to be able to Game on it when I am not working on it)
I am super uncomfortable with the idea of spending that much money to build something myself and it screwing up and having no one to turn to because I don't know anyone computer inclined so it would literally be me with youtube and no warrenty. Given my luck with projects I attempt with no technical skills and no assistance I would probably end up wioth a $2000 paper weight. (A couple years ago before the unsteeadiness got so bad and when I still had some in town friends I tried to help someone build one for me that ended up an email machine because somehow it ran worse than my 5 year old laptop.)
I will reconsider ibuypower though.
...true, I had the benefit of a very adept friend who could help me with the really tricky small parts. I also spent about 18 months in my spare time learning about PC design and construction as well as researching components to make sure what I got were all compatible with each other before embarking on my project. It saved me a fortune as back then custom houses were more expensive than BIY and the only other alternative was off the shelf stock prebuilds (most of which were terribly insufficient as they were designed more for home office use rather than than 3D work).
..the worst ever happened to the late Jaderail who was a forum member here. His system was on a UPS cargo plane that crashed on approach to the Birmingham AL airport.
Fortunately the shipment was fully insured so he was able to get a replacement.
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/407359/#Comment_407359
Whoa.
Holy Canola Oil, that's.... wow.
I have bought one from Cyberpower and my last 3 rigs were from IBuypower, Great rigs and customer service, no complaints here at all. If you don't have access to any place to fix things around you, just get the extanded warranty they offer.