NBSN :
1. Warranties are a tricky subject for most pre-built PCs because many times you have to pay for that 1, 2, or 3 year extended warranty, which can cost hundreds more on top of the actual cost for the PC. And the standard warranty for that pre-built PC might be less than one year, and not include the issue that happened. While dealing with individual warranties may seem like a bit of a process to deal with, many times you get a better warranty for free. For example, my power supply came with a five year warranty. There is no PC that comes with a five year warranty for any aspect of it.
2. If you are worried about having issues diagnosing problems with a new build or preparing for a new build, you can always do a lot of research and ask questions on sites like this one. If you have a horrible issue, it may take some time to get helped completely, but through the members of this site you should be able to get pretty far. Google, YouTube, and tomshardware.com are huge help for information.
3. Many component manufacturers are pretty honest with customer support, but that is where research comes in. Go with a reliable and recommended brand and component that may cost a bit more, rather than just go cheap for cheap's sake. Besides, most manufacturers are better than the pre-built companies with providing customer support and fixing issues.
4. If you are wanting build recommendations for a particular budget for comparison against a system like the one you mentioned above...just post that in a question on the forum and see what sort of build people can offer up. Give as much information as possible so that they can give you a build that is as close to what you want...I personally ask these questions when trying to assist someone:
Questions:
1. Do you need a keyboard? Any preferences? Wired/wireless/mechanical?
2. Do you need a mouse? Any preferences? Wired/wireless/DPI?
3. Do you need a monitor? If you already have a monitor/tv, what type is it and how many hz is it? Do you plan on using multiple monitors? Or do you have any monitor/tv preferences? Screen size, built in speakers, resolution, refresh, hz?
4. Do you want a blu-ray drive, dvd/cd drive, or no drive? If you already have one, what is it?
5. Do you prefer Intel or AMD processors? If you already have a processor, what is it?
6. Do you want to be able to overclock the processor?
7. Do you prefer NVidia or AMD graphics cards? Do you plan on using multiple GPUs at a later date?
8. Do you plan on overclocking the graphics card?
9. Do you want to have more options for upgrading later on, such as adding extra RAM or running multiple graphics cards together?
10. What operating system do you prefer, Windows 7 or 8.1, or Ubuntu/Linux? If you already have an operating system, then what is it specifically? For example: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. (list the entire specifications for your operating system. Check this link if deciding what Windows OS you want
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366778(v=vs.85).aspx )
11. Does your budget include the operating system?
12. Do you prefer air cooling or liquid cooling?
13. Is there a particular case size you would like to go for, mid tower, full tower, etc?
14. Is there a particular theme or color scheme that you prefer, or a particular style case? (Please give a few examples)
15. What is your budget, minimum and maximum costs?
16. What sort of games or programs do you want to use? (Please give plenty of examples)
17. What settings, fps, resolution do you want to play those games at?
18. What country do you live in, so we can know what currency and/or sites to link for you?
19. Do you have a hard drive type preference, such as normal hard drive, hybrid, or SSD? Or do you want a smaller SSD for the operating system and a normal hard drive for saving files to?
20. Is there any other component that you already have that was not asked about specifically already? If so, what is it?
That first point is an excellent one I failed to consider, the PSU I'm looking at is a nicely priced EVGA for $129.99 with Gold rating, and has a crazy long 10 year warranty. I guess they figure if it works for five, it'll likely last much longer than you'll use it for.
So the warranty may only cover certain components in a pre-built? I was an idiot when I was kid, and spent an enormous sum of money on a "gaming" laptop from Dell's XPS line of apparently extreme performance systems. The laptop was a total joke, and again, me being the idiot I was, bought a 3 year full coverage and accidental warranty for $300. I will never, in a million years do that again, what a waste it was for all of it. The PC was a joke, with a 256Mb GPU, and the standard was becoming 512Mb at the time, the PC could barely run Mass Effect on the lowest settings.
Anyways, the extended warranties seem like a scam almost.
I will be using Tomshardware for sure, and also contributing in attempt to "give back" for all the help I've received over the months, which has been an immense amount. I went from knowing absolutely nothing about anything, to knowing a decent amount, which is thrilling.
I'm glad manufacturers of components are good at honouring promises with warranties. I feel I'll stick exclusively with Intel, and either AMD or Nvidia for GPUs, specifically Asus, MSI, Gygabite, EVGA or something like that.
I'm almost certain what I want for the build, I'm just juggling around the Xeon vs i5 and the H97 vs Z97 still, otherwise I'm almost completely ready to build.
Also worth throwing in, my currency is Canadian dollars, so the price will rise since I'll be doing business with American manufacturers, of course.
I'm going to answer those questions:
1. I do need a mouse and keyboard, I prefer wired and a backlight on the keyboard would be nice but not necessary. Other than those things, nothing else is necessary other than two buttons for the mouse and the scrolling thing in the middle.
2. I need a monitor, I've included a $120-$140 for a 1080p monitor (although I'm fine with 720p since I'll often be scaling down I think due to my choice of GPU, GTX 760). Speakers would be nice, but I'll be using a headset for most of the things I will be doing. Refresh rates can be low, no biggie, 90% of my PC gaming will be stratgey games, many of which will be turn based. I don't need ultra graphics either, I might play some online shooters, but not many.
3. I threw in a cheap dvd/cd drive from Samsung for $19.
4. I plan on using Intel CPUs, I'm not against AMD but I hear Intel is best for gaming.
5. I don't plan on overclocking, but if I find a nice sale on a good Z97 that makes the price difference between it and an H97 negligible, I will go Z97 and consider someday maybe overclocking. I don't know much about it.
6. I prefer Nvidia, but for trivial reasons, I don't know much about AMD GPUs. I'm down to try them out if there's more of a benefit.
7. I didn't know you could overclock GPUs, and I don't know how to do it or what needs to be considered to do it. I'll have to do some research, but I wasn't planning on overclocking them.
8. For the OS, I'll likely go Windows 7, but I'll consider Win8.1, whichever is better for gaming. I won't have a touch screen for Windows 8.1 though. I need to buy the OS and my budget has taken it into consideration. The OS needs to be 64-bit, not much else really. Likely the OEM version, whichever is cheapest I guess.
9. I prefer air cooling for monetary reasons, but I'll consider liquid cooling. Because I'm not planning on overclocking, I'm thinking air cooling. The Evo Hyper 212 seems awesome, but it's heavy and the Gygabite H97 supports a max of 450g, while the Evo cooler is supposed to be something like 650g. I found another Coolermaster cooler that was highly regarded for 29.99 that weight about 420g.
10. For case side, mid ATX or full ATX would be preferred. I wasn't planning on spending much more than $80, $100 if absolutely necessary, but mid ATX seems to be the only nicely priced ones I can find, which offer good cooling and air flow options. Aesthetics don't matter at all in the case or motherboard, only performance, quality, and cooling matter to me
11. No colours or styles matter to me at all, it could be the ugliest case, as long as it works well and is durable, I'll be very happy.
12. My budget is odd, theoretically, I can put $2000 CAD into it (so something like $1800 USD or so), but I'm looking to keep the price below $1500, as I don't need super high end components like a super high end GPU, since I'll never use it with 720p-1080p. I won't be going above 1080p for my resolutions and if I need to scale graphics back for improved performance, then so be it. There is no official minimum cost, but I want quality components that will last several years, and I want to be able to upgrade components, so a decent wattage and high quality PSU is important, and I'd like to be able to upgrade to Broadwell (if it turns out to be worth it), so a 97 series mobo is important.
13. For games, mostly strategy games, like: Civilization 5, Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes, Planetary Annihilation, Wargame: Red Dragon, Civilization: Beyond Earth (when it comes out in the Fall), Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion.
I'd also like to be able to play FPSs like Planetside 2, games like DayZ Standalone, and survival games like The Forest, or the Stomping Lands.
I can't think of other games I really want right now.
14. For settings, I'd like at least medium settings in all games, an at least 40-60 FPS, with resolutions of 720p-1080p. High and ultra settings would be very nice, but not necessary for me.
15. Canada.
16. In order to cut costs, I'll likely go with an HDD with 7200 RPM, at least 500Gbs. I don't think I'll go with an SSD, and instead use the money on a GPU or something.
17. For other components, a built in sound card and LAN card into the motherboard is fairly important, I can't think of anything else though. I guess I'd like to say that high quality core components like the PSU and Mobo are high priorities, I can always improve the GPU or CPU down the road, but the motherboard will be hard to upgrade later on I think.
Thank you so much for the help, this is an insanely detailed answer with so much to offer!
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