Carlo_M
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Oct 31, 1997
- Messages
- 13,381
In 2006, when Apple switched to Intel CPUs, I began my move to the Apple ecosystem. Several Macbook Pros and iPhones later, I'm still neck deep in it.
However I wanted a desktop PC. The current crop of Mac desktops are aging, and honestly, I wanted to see if I could try my hand at PC gaming. While maxed out iMacs (and iMac Pro) and the upcoming modular Mac Pro, running Windows via bootcamp, I'm sure would make for great gaming PCs...I was not really in the mood to spend $3K-$5K for a Mac that would make for a capable gaming machine.
Also, the old "build your own PC guy" in me also loves being able to upgrade my builds incrementally. I had a 6-core 8th gen i7-8700K + nVidia GTX 1080 machine spec'd out for about $1800 (including a nice gaming mouse, keyboard and 16GB RAM, SSD + HDD, liquid cooling, etc.). I hadn't built a PC in about 10 years but I figured it was like riding a bike.
On a whim, I checked Best Buy and found this bad boy. It was nearly identical to my build but...$200 cheaper! Now I had to make some concessions. I had spec'd out DDR4 3000 sticks and this "only" has DDR 2400. I'm sure the power supply is a little less robust than the one I had chosen. But the processor was the same, it supported USB 3.1. And comes with an ASUS GTX 1080 8GB card (I was afraid I'd get some no name). It also has liquid cooling for the CPU (a first for me). It does have a 240GB SSD in the 2.5mm SATA factor, and the build I had in Newegg used an M.2 SSD stick, which is faster. The good news is that there is an M.2 slot in the mobo that I can see, so if I want I can add one later. It also comes with a 1GB spinning HDD and an ability to add more later.
Best of all I didn't have to sit hunched over in my living room for a couple of hours putting the thing together and stressing over whether it would power up because I didn't seat the CPU, video card or RAM properly.
I'll say this: I started building PCs in the 90s because my friends had terrible luck with pre-built Dells and HPs and Compaqs. I swore off of pre-builts. But this IBuyPower build is quite a well built machine. No, it won't go up against the top-tier $3000 gaming rigs with dual 1080 Ti cards, but it's not supposed to. What it is, is a $1600 machine that is quite literally about the price of its components if you were going to build it. Now I have no doubt IBP probably gets their parts for cheaper direct from the suppliers, but in all honesty if you're in the market for a high performing budget gaming PC, this is worth price. There is almost no cost savings to be had from building a similar build (though you could probably squeeze 10-15% more performance by getting faster DDR4 RAM and an overclock tuned graphics card--I'm sure the one here is the "stock" speed). What little you save will be eaten away by your time and effort putting it together and installing everything, and even then you won't have free tech support and a warranty (though if you're a builder, you can likely fix your own PCs easily enough).
I'll update with some specs and pics as time permits. It's a super-clean build. The inside looks spacious. And it's the first pre-built, bought-at-a-big-box-store PC (I'm not counting the specialty online gaming PC builders that you order direct) that I'm not only happy with...but I'm impressed with. This is coming from both a Mac and a (now former) PC builder.
Just installed Fortnite. When it "examined" my PC, it set everything to 4K (like my monitor) and turned all settings to "max". A good sign! I did splurge a little though and bought a Razer Blackwidow Chroma v2 keyboard and a Logitech G502 gaming mouse. It's funny. I went with Mac all those years ago for the quieter keyboards (and the new MBPs in the store are nearly silent!) but I find myself enjoying the mechanical noise that the gaming keyboard provides!
However I wanted a desktop PC. The current crop of Mac desktops are aging, and honestly, I wanted to see if I could try my hand at PC gaming. While maxed out iMacs (and iMac Pro) and the upcoming modular Mac Pro, running Windows via bootcamp, I'm sure would make for great gaming PCs...I was not really in the mood to spend $3K-$5K for a Mac that would make for a capable gaming machine.
Also, the old "build your own PC guy" in me also loves being able to upgrade my builds incrementally. I had a 6-core 8th gen i7-8700K + nVidia GTX 1080 machine spec'd out for about $1800 (including a nice gaming mouse, keyboard and 16GB RAM, SSD + HDD, liquid cooling, etc.). I hadn't built a PC in about 10 years but I figured it was like riding a bike.
On a whim, I checked Best Buy and found this bad boy. It was nearly identical to my build but...$200 cheaper! Now I had to make some concessions. I had spec'd out DDR4 3000 sticks and this "only" has DDR 2400. I'm sure the power supply is a little less robust than the one I had chosen. But the processor was the same, it supported USB 3.1. And comes with an ASUS GTX 1080 8GB card (I was afraid I'd get some no name). It also has liquid cooling for the CPU (a first for me). It does have a 240GB SSD in the 2.5mm SATA factor, and the build I had in Newegg used an M.2 SSD stick, which is faster. The good news is that there is an M.2 slot in the mobo that I can see, so if I want I can add one later. It also comes with a 1GB spinning HDD and an ability to add more later.
Best of all I didn't have to sit hunched over in my living room for a couple of hours putting the thing together and stressing over whether it would power up because I didn't seat the CPU, video card or RAM properly.
I'll say this: I started building PCs in the 90s because my friends had terrible luck with pre-built Dells and HPs and Compaqs. I swore off of pre-builts. But this IBuyPower build is quite a well built machine. No, it won't go up against the top-tier $3000 gaming rigs with dual 1080 Ti cards, but it's not supposed to. What it is, is a $1600 machine that is quite literally about the price of its components if you were going to build it. Now I have no doubt IBP probably gets their parts for cheaper direct from the suppliers, but in all honesty if you're in the market for a high performing budget gaming PC, this is worth price. There is almost no cost savings to be had from building a similar build (though you could probably squeeze 10-15% more performance by getting faster DDR4 RAM and an overclock tuned graphics card--I'm sure the one here is the "stock" speed). What little you save will be eaten away by your time and effort putting it together and installing everything, and even then you won't have free tech support and a warranty (though if you're a builder, you can likely fix your own PCs easily enough).
I'll update with some specs and pics as time permits. It's a super-clean build. The inside looks spacious. And it's the first pre-built, bought-at-a-big-box-store PC (I'm not counting the specialty online gaming PC builders that you order direct) that I'm not only happy with...but I'm impressed with. This is coming from both a Mac and a (now former) PC builder.
Just installed Fortnite. When it "examined" my PC, it set everything to 4K (like my monitor) and turned all settings to "max". A good sign! I did splurge a little though and bought a Razer Blackwidow Chroma v2 keyboard and a Logitech G502 gaming mouse. It's funny. I went with Mac all those years ago for the quieter keyboards (and the new MBPs in the store are nearly silent!) but I find myself enjoying the mechanical noise that the gaming keyboard provides!