I have decided NOT to deal with him but he seemed so nice in the begining and get this he said I could pay on it like a lay-a-way. I will admit that I am a novice but I am not a fool. I knew if I came here to my friends you would steer me in the right direction. At this point I am leaning toward to eCollege for my build but I will have to start now laying away some cash in order to get it for a Christmas present. You guys are wonderful and I can't thank you enough for your help and support.

No need to say thank you lexxy !

I'm sure this tech guy IS a very nice guy. But he keeps trying to push something on you that is not going to be a good computer for YOU since you're a gamer. Maybe one of these days I'll get some good information on how those CPU graphics are for gaming, but so far I haven't found anything definitive.

To be honest, I'd be asking more questions about the motherboard specs and the power supply than anything. And I'm still curious to know what he planned on putting in for a $120 video card. If he can put in a comparable video card and a 550 or 600 watt power supply and still stay in the range of eCollege or Cyber Power, then maybe it's not a bad way to go. But questions about the motherboard specs still remain unanswered.

He's still got the problem of whether the case can accommodate extra fans to help cool the video card. If it can't, the case will get hotter than it is meant to, which will lead to shorter computer life.

Good point, Jenny. I can't figure out what case this is, but of the two choices I've found with Lenovo, the cases don't offer much in the line of cooling options.

Draclvr,
I have question concerning the cyberpower system for $789 and the one by ecollege for $900. I may be missing something but the systems seem to be prety much the same, what makes the one at ecollege about $100 more. BTW I have almost decided on the one at cyberpower even with the $75 shipping fee. I said almost because ut will probably be much more by Christmas.

I see virtually no difference either. I suspect that it is because Cyberpower is a very large company while eCollegePC is a small business located in a shopping center in South St. Louis County - which happens to only be about 50 miles from me. Cyberpower may be able to get huge discounts on their components due to the large volume.

When you add the $75 shipping charge to the Cyberpower computer, there is only about $36 difference in the costs of the two PCs. Another point is one Jenny made that Cyberpower gets an 8.5 out of 10 customer satisfaction rating at resellerratings.com and eCollegePC has a 10 out of 10 customer service rating. So, you might want to weigh that into your final decision.

It's hard to say what prices will be 10 months from now, but hopefully at least the prices of hard drives will be back down to earth.

Hi all,
It's been a while since I was here, due to the fact that I am using my siste's low tech machine and it's not fast enough to play any of my games. Good news I have finally found a tech who is building a computer for me and it's only $16 over my $1000.00 budget and the overage was due to labor. The specs are as follows, he is using the Cooler Maste 690II case and the parts are: Intel Corr i5-2400 Sandy Bridge Quad Core Processor,Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB Hard Drive,USUS P8Z68 Mother Board, Galaxy Geforce GT520 1 GB Video Card.Kingston 8GB Ram, 700 Watt PS W7Hp. As I stated before the labor @ $35 an hour was what took me off budget but I am not complaining. Well what do you think, did I do good or what. I am so excited I could scream. I can pick it up shortly and get back to some serious gaming. I may have missed the mark on a couple of components but I am happy. This will probably be the last computer I will buy so I wanted to make it as complete as I could afford.

Lexxy if it will make you feel any better,I have purchased around 6 Cyberpower computers and have had no problems.

It sounds fine for an adventure game computer. The GT520 video card would be a bit slow for some Darkside games.
Let us know when you get it.

I agree with Jenny. Sounds like a good one for adventure gaming. Can't wait to hear how you like it!

"Everyone should keep in mind that the Intel HD 2000 graphics is not "on board" as we are used to thinking about it being integrated into the motherboard. The Intel HD 2000 is the graphics that is integrated into the 2nd Generation CPUs (or Sandy Bridge processors). Although it's supposed to be far superior than motherboard graphics, I am not convinced of its usefulness in gaming. Look at what it touts in the specs... seamless images, videos, and graphic effects. Not exactly what we want to see in gaming. "

I think I said this before Drac, as far as graphics go it's pretty lame.

Did I tell you my story of the flooded out town in Sims 2 with Sandy Bridge graphics?

Don't expect great gaming results with it.

I bought an E-College PC with sandy bridge graphics and no video card. The reasoning is because my I had ordered a video card for my older pc from New Egg. The PC died and I was waiting delivery of the the card when I ordered the E-College PC.

I checked the graphics without putting the card in. Absolutely horrible for gaming. Like I said above a town in Sims2 was underwater because the Sandy Bridge graphics could not render the demanding Sims 2. (Demanding Sims 2 is a sarcasm) If it cannot handle sims2 it can't handle much.

I threw in the video card (less than an hour after the pc arrived) Suddenly my town looked perfect almost as if FEMA did something right.

Thanks Drac for the recommendation of E-College. since then I bought a system for my better half and another for my daughter. The next question is does Ecollege give frequent buyer awards?

I'm finally getting more and more feedback on those Sandy Bridge graphics and if you do more than email, web surfing and a bit of casual gaming, they are pretty awful.

Sounds like eCollegePc SHOULD give you a frequent buyer award! I think as long as they keep up with their excellent customer service, they will be quite successful.

Draclvr,

What would suggest instead of Sandy Bridge? The components are ready to assemble but I can always ask for a change.

Oh, you should definitely get the Sandy Bridge processor - they are excellent. Just be sure to get a good stand alone video card. We're talking about the graphics integrated into the processor, not the processor itself.

Here's what Jenny said about your video card.

Thanks for the clearification I was a little scared for a minute. I can always up grade my viddeo card but I only play adventure games not RPG. Since we are on the subject of a video card what would you suggest instead of the GT520, how about a GTX 550 ti?

The GTX 550 TI is certainly a more capable card than the GT 520.
You can see a comparison here
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=647&card2=650

Are you wanting to stick with Nvidia or would ATI be OK?

At this point I am planning to stick with Nvidia. Thanks for the comparison chart it really helped. I priced both cards and it appears that the GTX 550ti is almost twice as expensive as the GT520 and I can see the reason. In your opinion should I be able to play my adventure games w/o an up grade to the GTX 550 ti at this point.

Yes, though there may be some upcoming adventure games that have higher video card requirements than current games. For those, you'd need you to reduce graphics enhancements in the game menu in order for the game to play smoothly. The upcoming Sherlock Holmes game may be one of these. The question is whether you want to pay more not to have to turn down the graphics enhancements in some (not all) games.

Thanks Jenny100,

I think I will pay more now than later...the GTX550ti it is.

I think you'll be happy with it, Lexxy.
For myself, I prefer getting a little more power than I think I need, and I've never regretted it.

Good move, lexxy!