What is it that makes that such a good computer?
If you want the best price to performance ratio, then DIY is the only way. Meaning that you buy all components individually and assemble everything yourself + OS installation.
With prebuilts, you will always pay extra since someone else has assembled the build for you, installed OS (sometimes optional) and with prebuilts, the store from you bought it, remains as customer support for you. For DIY, you, yourself are the customer support for your build.
Now, as of what makes StarForge in general good, is that they are one of the very few prebuilt system sellers, who actually assemble the build properly, without minor or major issues.
GamersNexus is buying prebuilt PCs incognito and then making in-depth reviews of them, so that people know which prebuilt company to look for and which one to avoid like a plague.
Here is their YT playlist of prebuilt reviews:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsuVSmND84QuM2HKzG7ipbIbE_R5EnCLM
StarForge prebuilt has been on the spotlight 2 times now. 1st time there were some loose screw issues but 2nd time around, all was in order and build was one of the very few properly built.
Another thing that i like about StarForge is that they openly state what make/model PSU comes with the prebuilt PC. This is actually very rare to see, since most prebuilt PC brands only list PSU's wattage. Sometimes even efficiency but that's it. This means that PSU is often the cheaped out component inside the prebuilt PC. Because when PSU is crap, no-one is going to openly state the make/model. But if PSU would be actually good, stating the make/model actually helps to sell the PC.
Prime example; random Asus prebuilt,
specs:
https://rog.asus.com/desktops/mid-tower/rog-strix-g13ch-series/spec/
If you look at PSU specs, all it says, is wattage and efficiency. Nothing more. If same info would be said about CPU or GPU, the listing would say;
CPU - Intel Core i7 (16 cores)
GPU - Nvidia (8GB VRAM)
Yet, there's in-depth info about CPU and GPU.
But with StarForge PC and the Horizon III Pro i linked, you can see on the tin, that the PSU it comes with, is MSI MAG A650GL.
That PSU is Tier B unit.
PSU Tier list:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...aSpZRB6Xt6JWkc/htmlview?pli=1&gid=1973454078#
While i'd like to see Tier A or A+ PSU in the prebuilt, it would jack up the overall price and only very few people are willing to pay money for great quality PSU (including yours truly). While most people love to cheap out on PSU.
But with PSUs, there is a catch:
Since PSU powers everything, it is
the most important component inside the PC.
Hence why NEVER cheap out on PSU! Also, never buy used PSU either.
What sorts of things would I want to be looking for in a pc to consider it a good system?
It comes down to your use case of a PC;
1. Office PC (web browsing)
2. Gaming PC
3. Workstation PC (e.g 3D rendering, number crunching)
Once you have the main goal for the PC, what helps to narrow down components (especially GPU), is the monitor you're using. Since when you are using 1080p monitor, it would be waste of money to go after a GPU that can push 60+ FPS on 1440p (2K) or on 4K in games. So, better to look for GPU that does well on 1080p.
Also, when it comes to gaming, you need to look what kind of FPS you're expecting to get.
20 FPS is slideshow.
40 FPS is somewhat playable.
60 FPS is playable and good enough for most people.
120-144 FPS is smooth and usually favored by hardcore gamers.
Of course, target FPS also depends on your monitor refresh rate (measured in Hz). Since when you have 60 Hz monitor, it can only show you 60 FPS. Anything higher is waste of GPU performance. Heck, most people can see 30-60Hz range, whereby 120 Hz/144 Hz monitor is pointless for them. And i'm not even going to talk about 240 Hz or even 500 Hz monitors (yes, there are those out there as well).
All-in-all, here is a good form with questions that you can fill out and post your results here. This way we know what kind of PC spec you're looking,
link:
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/how-to-ask-for-new-build-or-upgrade-advice.528714/