Is this computer a good and safe buy?
June 9, 2009 8:47 PM Subscribe
We're looking at picking up this computer through Newegg.com, and it looks like a great deal for the price, but it's unclear whether there'll be SLI compatibility and iBuyPower has a slightly questionable reputation. Has anyone got any experience or recommendations in this area, specifically recently with iBuyPower, or could you please evaluate this build to see if it's worth the price? Thanks!
Response by poster: Apparently they ship it with varying motherboards, though, based on what they have in stock at the time - so you may get SLI, you may not. I'll be some p6t variant, most likely, but not a particular one guaranteed...
posted by Lady Li at 9:31 PM on June 9, 2009
posted by Lady Li at 9:31 PM on June 9, 2009
For the price there are probably a lot of other computers out there to buy that wouldn't leave you scratching your head over MAJOR details such as what motherboard they put in the thing...
posted by wfrgms at 11:22 PM on June 9, 2009
posted by wfrgms at 11:22 PM on June 9, 2009
Historically, SLI as a means of improving game play, has been a pretty hit or miss proposition, in that many games don't include effective support for SLI, and thus take no advantage of extra GPUs. Indeed, because of bus overhead, many games/video suites run slightly slower on SLI equipped rigs than they do on single video card machines.
While the pace of video card development has slowed in the last couple of years from the torrid pace of the 2002-2004 time frame, dollar wise, you're still generally better off to upgrade video cards regularly on a good motherboard, than to pursue SLI expansion. The additional pipeline, buffer, and engine improvements in next gen video cards nearly always outpace 2 card SLI rigs, and if you upgrade early in the cycle, you can still recover enough money from selling your old card to make the upgrade path worthwhile from a price/performance standpoint.
posted by paulsc at 1:23 AM on June 10, 2009
While the pace of video card development has slowed in the last couple of years from the torrid pace of the 2002-2004 time frame, dollar wise, you're still generally better off to upgrade video cards regularly on a good motherboard, than to pursue SLI expansion. The additional pipeline, buffer, and engine improvements in next gen video cards nearly always outpace 2 card SLI rigs, and if you upgrade early in the cycle, you can still recover enough money from selling your old card to make the upgrade path worthwhile from a price/performance standpoint.
posted by paulsc at 1:23 AM on June 10, 2009
I bought a machine from iBuyPower 4 years ago (not real sure on that, it's got an Athlon64 3200 in it). I haven't had any problems with it. except for the power supply, which was replaced last summer.
I don't understand this: Apparently they ship it with varying motherboards, though.
if you go direct to their page and do a custom configuration (link here), you should be able to choose all the options you want. a quick run through using the specs from the Newegg page puts the total around $1239.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 5:24 AM on June 10, 2009
I don't understand this: Apparently they ship it with varying motherboards, though.
if you go direct to their page and do a custom configuration (link here), you should be able to choose all the options you want. a quick run through using the specs from the Newegg page puts the total around $1239.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 5:24 AM on June 10, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Osmanthus at 9:22 PM on June 9, 2009