Question Need opinion re. parts quality

[nostall]

Good day to everyone at Tom's. It has been a long, long time since I have posted anything: My life pretty much took a major downturn in Sept. '19 and much of my time that I was able to spend on Tom's kinda went away. Loss of employment, marital issues, major medical issues (getting old is not for sissies!), and the list goes on.
I am glad to be back, and it is interesting to see so many moderators who were active when I was on regularly have since retired from moderating. Glad you folks are still around.
Here's the question and some background: Yeears ago I built a couple PC's with MSI parts (mobos, video cards) and all these parts at some point shortly after their warranties died. All were replaced with ASUS parts and EVGA parts and are still running strong.
I have reached the stage where I want, and will surly need, a new computer for myself. Though upgraded in the CPU and graphics area many times, those upgrades are 8-12 years old; won't be long before I will not be able to game with this thing or before something major dies.

Could you share you opinions on the durability and/or life expectancy of MSI parts vs. ASUS.

I will probably end up with a prebuilt; Costco has a rather nice MSIAegis with 19 14900F, and ATX mobo (much as I tried I could not see the mobo model), MSI4070, 32GB RAM, 2TB NVMe SSD for $1700. I tried putting one together on Parts Picker and Newegg and the cost was within $200, and then I have to consider the time to build it and that each part is a separate warranty.
Someplace on Tom's are my PC specs, but damned if I could find them, so here they are with some updates: Case:Storm Sniper. CPU FX8350 black(1918). PSU: Rm850i (since 2021). Vid CardEVGA 1070Ti (second owner, from a trusted first owner). Mobo: ASUS Sabertooth V1 990FX (2012)[what a great board!]. Corsair Vengence DDR3 1600= 16GB. NOTHING Overclocked.
2.5" Sata SSD, 2TB MX500 Crucial; 3 7200 rpm HDDs for storage.
Still running, and able to play HALO Infinite and Dead Space '23 at barely playable FPS; 30-60 depending on the scenes; a mix of medium and high settings.

Sorry for the long post, Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

[USAFRet]

Nice to see you back.
Life happens.

One thing you really need to look out for with prebuilts is the specific parts.
The ones they don't list.

Power supply, RAM make/model, etc.

They'll dazzle you with all the fancy words, but cut corners on things people don't know about.

 

[Lutfij]

First off, glad to have you back with us, kind sir! 🫡

You've been with us from long back and you know very well what building a PC from the ground up is like, it's self gratifying and you also get to plan ahead with an upgrade path.

EVGA and Asus were the go to brand but since the pandemic, EVGA have taken their crown and call it a day from the industry(motherboard and GPU wise) while Asus went South with their Quality Control, RMA department and BIOS updates(kind of on the last bit). MSI have since been the go to brand but not for their AIO's.

I would highly advise against an F SKU processor since the iGPU does come in hand when you need to troubleshoot discrete GPU related issues, Windows 11 have also been throwing black screen issues awhile some GPU's have been of questionable quality out of the box, thankfully the RMA department will help you out there.

How much would you be willing to spend behind your PC build/upgrade?

Don't apologize, kind sir, the more we/the community knows, the better it is when tailoring suggestions.

 

[nostall]

Nice to see you back.
Life happens.

One thing you really need to look out for with prebuilts is the specific parts.
The ones they don't list.

Power supply, RAM make/model, etc.

They'll dazzle you with all the fancy words, but cut corners on things people don't know about.

Good to hear from you. Only info I could find re. PSU was it is a 750W 80+ Gold - which tells me very little. I suspect it is an MSI PSU but unless the store will let me open the case and look; I couldn't find much info at all on the MSI site. I have no real idea. RAM is DDR5 @ 5600, but again I don't know what brand.
One of my concerns is that the Mobo does Not have any heatsinks on the MoFets, though the CPU cooler (air) blows over them; and I don't recall seeing much cooling on the M.2 slot.
JUst for the "record" Costco also has a cyberpower and an IBuypower computer in that price range: I would not consider either brand, ever. Both use a micro mobo or an ITX mobo. BS!

First off, glad to have you back with us, kind sir! 🫡

You've been with us from long back and you know very well what building a PC from the ground up is like, it's self gratifying and you also get to plan ahead with an upgrade path.

EVGA and Asus were the go to brand but since the pandemic, EVGA have taken their crown and call it a day from the industry(motherboard and GPU wise) while Asus went South with their Quality Control, RMA department and BIOS updates(kind of on the last bit). MSI have since been the go to brand but not for their AIO's.

I would highly advise against an F SKU processor since the iGPU does come in hand when you need to troubleshoot discrete GPU related issues, Windows 11 have also been throwing black screen issues awhile some GPU's have been of questionable quality out of the box, thankfully the RMA department will help you out there.

How much would you be willing to spend behind your PC build/upgrade?

Don't apologize, kind sir, the more we/the community knows, the better it is when tailoring suggestions.

Thanks for the info re ASUS, Lutfij. Makes me sorry to hear about ASUS. The PC I described has an air cooler; if I upgraded that I would go with Corsair.
Re. how much I could afford if I built another PC - Well, all this is in the "thinking about it" stage so if I were to build one I might be able to go for ~ $1400. The thing is I don't really have the space to do that anymore, and my patience with parts and getting them all to play together nicely has just about vanished. My personal feelings at this time is let someone else build it and if there's a problem that company can fix it. Finding the right builder is now quite important. You indicate MSI is the 'go-to' mainstream one, and my son-in-law, and all three of his kids (my grandchildren) went with MSI and i have not heard of any problems. I have also looked at VelocityMicro and Puget Computers but their prices are a little steep.

One last thing guys: Good chance that I will wait until the Christmas sales start and perhaps the price will drop some.

 

[USAFRet]

Only info I could find re. PSU was it is a 750W 80+ Gold - which tells me very little.

Right.
Little or no actual info. Very typical.

Will it work? Yes, with its original parts.
The issues come in 2 years from now, when you want to upgrade something, and that no-name PSU is not up to the task.

 

[Lafong]

If you are in the USA, you may be fairly close to a Microcenter. Problem may be that they have only a couple of stores west of the Rockies, if that is where you are.

They will build a PC for you from parts you choose from their shelves. I think you have to do it in person, not online. They have some good parts, so you should be able to do quite well on quality and price.

You could carry over your storage drives from your old system.

 

[nostall]

Right.
Little or no actual info. Very typical.

Will it work? Yes, with its original parts.
The issues come in 2 years from now, when you want to upgrade something, and that no-name PSU is not up to the task.

If I end up getting it, I have no plans of running that original PSU very long: an HXi Corsair, 850W would replace it.

If you are in the USA, you may be fairly close to a Microcenter. Problem may be that they have only a couple of stores west of the Rockies, if that is where you are.

They will build a PC for you from parts you choose from their shelves. I think you have to do it in person, not online. They have some good parts, so you should be able to do quite well on quality and price.

You could carry over your storage drives from your old system.

 

[USAFRet]

If I end up getting it, I have no plans of running that original PSU very long: an HXi Corsair, 850W would replace it.

And that is one of the problems with a prebuilt.
Replacing parts before needed. Buying twice.

 

[nostall]

Thanks Lafong, I forgot about Microcenter, but the problem is they are 2 - 600 mile away.
200+ if their new store in Santa Clara is finished, otherwise way down South.
Our Best Buy has many of the parts I would need, but at a very premium price - not affordable.

 

[nostall]

That's true, seems like a waste of money. I think I will see if I can sweet-talk one of the Costco sales folks into letting me open that case. I will definitely let you know if I am successful in this venture.

 

[Lutfij]

Prebuilts are always going to cut corners, in order to make that profit margin without raising an eyebrow to the uninformed customer. For you, you've seen what they do behind curtains.

Have you looked into NZXT's prebuilt's?

I do so want to build you a system on my own but I'm not there yet, even though I have arrangements to be 'State side, sometime, lol! Then again looking at your predicament, you might need to know that even some system's come with their quirks that need you to troubleshoot them out of the box, if you're the kind of person who says just my luck, It's happened to me, so I bit the bullet and make sure I've gotten things right, from the get go, instead of waiting for someone else to do it(tech support wise).

Does that make sense?

 

[Why_Me]

Good day to everyone at Tom's. It has been a long, long time since I have posted anything: My life pretty much took a major downturn in Sept. '19 and much of my time that I was able to spend on Tom's kinda went away. Loss of employment, marital issues, major medical issues (getting old is not for sissies!), and the list goes on.
I am glad to be back, and it is interesting to see so many moderators who were active when I was on regularly have since retired from moderating. Glad you folks are still around.
Here's the question and some background: Yeears ago I built a couple PC's with MSI parts (mobos, video cards) and all these parts at some point shortly after their warranties died. All were replaced with ASUS parts and EVGA parts and are still running strong.
I have reached the stage where I want, and will surly need, a new computer for myself. Though upgraded in the CPU and graphics area many times, those upgrades are 8-12 years old; won't be long before I will not be able to game with this thing or before something major dies.

Could you share you opinions on the durability and/or life expectancy of MSI parts vs. ASUS.

I will probably end up with a prebuilt; Costco has a rather nice MSIAegis with 19 14900F, and ATX mobo (much as I tried I could not see the mobo model), MSI4070, 32GB RAM, 2TB NVMe SSD for $1700. I tried putting one together on Parts Picker and Newegg and the cost was within $200, and then I have to consider the time to build it and that each part is a separate warranty.
Someplace on Tom's are my PC specs, but damned if I could find them, so here they are with some updates: Case:Storm Sniper. CPU FX8350 black(1918). PSU: Rm850i (since 2021). Vid CardEVGA 1070Ti (second owner, from a trusted first owner). Mobo: ASUS Sabertooth V1 990FX (2012)[what a great board!]. Corsair Vengence DDR3 1600= 16GB. NOTHING Overclocked.
2.5" Sata SSD, 2TB MX500 Crucial; 3 7200 rpm HDDs for storage.
Still running, and able to play HALO Infinite and Dead Space '23 at barely playable FPS; 30-60 depending on the scenes; a mix of medium and high settings.

Sorry for the long post, Thanks in advance for any replies.

Being creative is all part of the PC fun

CPU
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256807071205641.html
AMD Ryzen 5 7500F $139.61

This cpu cooler shows out of stock on PC Partpicker yet you can nab it off of Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D1CGL7D1
ID-COOLING FROZN A620 PRO SE CPU Cooler $29.99

Tom's did a nifty piece on Windows that helps peeps save a few dollars ^^
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/get-windows-10-free-or-cheap,5717.html

And that leaves us this:
PCPartPicker Part List

Motherboard: *Asus TUF GAMING B650-E WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard ($164.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: *Silicon Power Value Gaming 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory ($89.97 @ Amazon)
Storage: *Silicon Power UD90 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($102.97 @ B&H)
Total: $357.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-07-10 22:26 EDT-0400

 

[nostall]

Prebuilts are always going to cut corners, in order to make that profit margin without raising an eyebrow to the uninformed customer. For you, you've seen what they do behind curtains.

Have you looked into NZXT's prebuilt's?

I do so want to build you a system on my own but I'm not there yet, even though I have arrangements to be 'State side, sometime, lol! Then again looking at your predicament, you might need to know that even some system's come with their quirks that need you to troubleshoot them out of the box, if you're the kind of person who says just my luck, It's happened to me, so I bit the bullet and make sure I've gotten things right, from the get go, instead of waiting for someone else to do it(tech support wise).

Does that make sense?

Yes, it makes sense. And "why me" is often my motto. Thanks for the good info.

 

[nostall]

Being creative is all part of the PC fun

CPU
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256807071205641.html
AMD Ryzen 5 7500F $139.61

This cpu cooler shows out of stock on PC Partpicker yet you can nab it off of Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D1CGL7D1
ID-COOLING FROZN A620 PRO SE CPU Cooler $29.99

Tom's did a nifty piece on Windows that helps peeps save a few dollars ^^
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/get-windows-10-free-or-cheap,5717.html

And that leaves us this:
PCPartPicker Part List

Motherboard: *Asus TUF GAMING B650-E WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard ($164.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: *Silicon Power Value Gaming 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory ($89.97 @ Amazon)
Storage: *Silicon Power UD90 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($102.97 @ B&H)
Total: $357.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-07-10 22:26 EDT-0400

Thanks for the parts search and suggestions: I was looking at a Ryzen 5 5800X but the rest of your suggested parts are pretty much what I used for my potential build.
However:
I need a new case, a new PSU, and, here's the real expense - a new video card. That puts the price right up there around $1500 or so.

 

[Why_Me]

What monitor do you have atm?

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256807071205641.html
AMD Ryzen 5 7500F $139.61

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D1CGL7D1
ID-COOLING FROZN A620 PRO SE CPU Cooler $29.99

PCPartPicker Part List

Motherboard: *Asus TUF GAMING B650-E WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard ($164.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: *Silicon Power Value Gaming 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory ($89.97 @ Amazon)
Storage: *Silicon Power UD90 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($102.97 @ B&H)
Video Card: *Gigabyte EAGLE OC GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12 GB Video Card ($599.99 @ Amazon)
Case: *Montech AIR 903 BASE ATX Mid Tower Case ($65.00 @ B&H)
Power Supply: *SeaSonic FOCUS GX-750 ATX 3.0 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1112.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-07-11 01:30 EDT-0400

Total: $1283.51

PCPartPicker Part List

Motherboard: *Asus TUF GAMING B650-E WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard ($164.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: *Silicon Power Value Gaming 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory ($89.97 @ Amazon)
Storage: *Silicon Power UD90 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($102.97 @ B&H)
Video Card: *Gigabyte EAGLE OC GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER 16 GB Video Card ($798.00 @ Newegg)
Case: *Montech AIR 903 BASE ATX Mid Tower Case ($65.00 @ B&H)
Power Supply: *be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($99.90 @ Newegg)
Total: $1320.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-07-11 03:05 EDT-0400

Total: $1490.43

 

[Lucky_SLS]

Do they ship to your location?

https://starforgesystems.com/products/horizon-ii-elite

 

[nostall]

Do they ship to your location?

https://starforgesystems.com/products/horizon-ii-elite

Looking at the Star Forge page, they do ship to my location. If the images etc. on their web page are true, that looks like a good PC and something to consider. Thank you for the link/information.

 

[nostall]

Right.
Little or no actual info. Very typical.

Will it work? Yes, with its original parts.
The issues come in 2 years from now, when you want to upgrade something, and that no-name PSU is not up to the task.

O.k. As per yesterday's post, I went to Costco and indeed they let me take a much closer look at the PC. RAM: Kingston Fury Beast, appears to be DDR5 5600; not bad.
Could not see the mobo model/version, hidden under that huge Vid.Card. I finally found what might be the mobo by searching etailer; pcpartpicker was the place. MSI PRO B760--VC WIFI is probably the build. Not to shabby, but still no heatsinks on the MosFets etc.

PSU: Nothing telling us what it was (neither I nor the very helpful and knowledgeable associate) on the three sides we could see. It was NOT fully modular and appeared rather compact for 750W. Closest I could find was on MSI's and Neweggs sites and it was the MSI MAG A750BN PCIE5 (Bronze) psu: MSI advertises a "gold" psu in this build.
Don't know if this is the correct one for any comparison, but without the real model this is the closest one I found. On the Cultists Network tier list the BN is in the low end tier --- that pretty much puts a complete ka-bosh on this PC; I wouldn't trust it.

 

[whatdoitypehere9937982739]

Only info I could find re. PSU was it is a 750W 80+ Gold - which tells me very little.

I have a friend with an Aegis and it has a "Great Wall" PSU.

 

[USAFRet]

O.k. As per yesterday's post, I went to Costco and indeed they let me take a much closer look at the PC. RAM: Kingston Fury Beast, appears to be DDR5 4800; not bad.
Could not see the mobo model/version, hidden under that huge Vid.Card. I finally found what might be the mobo by searching etailer; pcpartpicker was the place. MSI PRO B760--VC WIFI is probably the build. Not to shabby, but still no heatsinks on the MosFets etc.

PSU: Nothing telling us what it was (neither I nor the very helpful and knowledgeable associate) on the three sides we could see. It was NOT fully modular and appeared rather compact for 750W. Closest I could find was on MSI's and Neweggs sites and it was the MSI MAG A750BN PCIE5 (Bronze) psu: MSI advertises a "gold" psu in this build.
Don't know if this is the correct one for any comparison, but without the real model this is the closest one I found. On the Cultists Network tier list the BN is in the low end tier --- that pretty much puts a complete ka-bosh on this PC; I wouldn't trust it.

As expected, parts are "average" at best.

 

[nostall]

I have a friend with an Aegis and it has a "Great Wall" PSU.

Thank You! Important information. If I recall their reputation is 'meh' to 'yuck'. If memory serves me well.

 

[nostall]

To all of you who have answered and helped me with your great information and input:
THANK YOU! Remember the original question was about quality of MSI vs. ASUS and I think that has been well answered. Sad to hear about Asus, but I deal with another company that was world-wide and since 2021 their service etc. has gone into the tank. Seems to happening a lot these days.
Re. the prebuilt I was looking at I am probably going to pass. The PSU is the item that has affected my decision the most: I am not into frying parts or having problems caused by a PSU - been down that road recently and have No More patience for it.
USAFRet or Lutfij: Please close this thread tomorrow or the next day (in case anyone else wants to respond between now and then). Thanks
And again, THANK S to all who replied.
Stay safe.

 

[Why_Me]

To all of you who have answered and helped me with your great information and input:
THANK YOU! Remember the original question was about quality of MSI vs. ASUS and I think that has been well answered. Sad to hear about Asus, but I deal with another company that was world-wide and since 2021 their service etc. has gone into the tank. Seems to happening a lot these days.
Re. the prebuilt I was looking at I am probably going to pass. The PSU is the item that has affected my decision the most: I am not into frying parts or having problems caused by a PSU - been down that road recently and have No More patience for it.
USAFRet or Lutfij: Please close this thread tomorrow or the next day (in case anyone else wants to respond between now and then). Thanks
And again, THANK S to all who replied.
Stay safe.

If you don't want to mess with building it yourself then calling around to local PC / laptop repair shops usually works out well as long as you order the components before hand so you know exactly what you're getting.

 

[nostall]

If you don't want to mess with building it yourself then calling around to local PC / laptop repair shops usually works out well as long as you order the components before hand so you know exactly what you're getting.

Nice idea, but if I have to order the parts I'm going to build the SOB.

 

[whatdoitypehere9937982739]

To all of you who have answered and helped me with your great information and input:
THANK YOU! Remember the original question was about quality of MSI vs. ASUS and I think that has been well answered. Sad to hear about Asus, but I deal with another company that was world-wide and since 2021 their service etc. has gone into the tank. Seems to happening a lot these days.
Re. the prebuilt I was looking at I am probably going to pass. The PSU is the item that has affected my decision the most: I am not into frying parts or having problems caused by a PSU - been down that road recently and have No More patience for it.
USAFRet or Lutfij: Please close this thread tomorrow or the next day (in case anyone else wants to respond between now and then). Thanks
And again, THANK S to all who replied.
Stay safe.

im so sorry, the psu brand is actually high power