Deciding between Building and buying?

Making the decision between building my own PC again or just getting a system by MaxforcePc. Heard that MaxforcePc builds some nice Rigs. Has anyone heard about them or had any dealing with them in the past? It would only cost around $200 more to have the whole system built that would be worth to avoid the hassle of getting each part shiped then the hassle of building it hoping not to have a bad component. Here is the system I am considering:

Case: Cooler Master RC-690-KKN1-GP
Power Supplies: Corsair VX 550W - SLI/Crossfire Capable
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3R (P45 Chipset)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E8400 3.00GHZ
CPU Cooling: Asus V-60 (Quiet Cooling, upto Quad 3.0Ghz)
Memory 2: OCZ Reaper DDR2-1066 4GB (2 x 2GB) CL5
Graphics Card: EVGA nVidia GeForce 8800GT Superclocked 512MB
Graphics Card 2: already have an MSI 8800GT OC 512MB
Sound Card: HT OMEGA STRIKER 7.1
Hard Drive 1: Seagate ST3250410AS 250GB SATA2 7200rpm 16MB NCQ
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-S223F 22X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW SATA Drive
Operating System: Microsoft Vista Home Premium 64-bit

For around $1250 shiped

Wanted some advice. Thanks..

Message edited by ozcot on 09-30-2008 at 02:28:40 PM

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The reason most enthusiasts build their own is because they enjoy doing it.
Picking their own parts, assembling, and the general good feeling of accomplishing something when done. I find that after all the plannning, buying and building is done, I am kind of like, okay that was fun, now what? It's all over.
Yeah, you do have to wait for the stuff to arrive. That is why I always buy my stuff from local retailers. I also hate the order and wait game. When I buy something, I want IN MY HAND AT THAT MOMENT. I know that some however don't live where PC parts are readily available just down the street.
And, of course you save a little money if you really shop around.
If all this does not appeal to you, then just buy one.

One question though, you have 2 8800GT's, I guess your are not planning to run SLI since you are buying a Crossfire motherboard????
Also, I would not spend extra money on a sound card until I got the system up and running. The on-board may well be good enough. If not, you can always add one in.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to jitpublisher

^+1, esp. on the SLI thing. The P45-DS3R dosen't have onboard by btw, none of the P series chipset based ones have onboard.

As far as specs goes that PC looks good. Has a good PSU too, which some manufactures don't have.

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Reply to Shadow703793

Shadow703793 wrote :

^+1, esp. on the SLI thing. The P45-DS3R dosen't have onboard by btw, none of the P series chipset based ones have onboard.

As far as specs goes that PC looks good. Has a good PSU too, which some manufactures don't have.

Come out into the sunlight Shadow, this board does have onboard sound.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to stoner133

Like sheila said you need a SLI motherboard, like 750i or 780i to take advantage of those two cards. The 2 cards would work at the speed of the slower one.
You might reconsider that cooling.

Top 5 heatsinks:

http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm

http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 67-12.html

Top 5 Low Profile Heatsinks on Frostytech

http://www.frostytech.com/top5_low [...] tsinks.cfm

------------------------------ Google is your friend and Bob's your uncle
Reply to evongugg

stoner133 wrote :

Come out into the sunlight Shadow, this board does have onboard sound.

:lol: I meant on board GPU.

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Reply to Shadow703793

The only reason I build is to save money. I would rather take that $200 and get a better GPU, like the ATI 4870.

Reply to DXRick

Shadow703793 wrote :

:lol: I meant on board GPU.

Then again step into the sunlight and read all the posts, not one mentioned anything to do with onboard video. The only comments on video had to do with the original poster listing two nVidia cards with a Crossfire supported board. The only post mentioning onboard had to do with trying the onboard sound before spending money to buy a sound card.

:lol:

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to stoner133

Doing the research is what takes the time, although I see some problems.
Assembling is only a couple of hours. If you make over $50 per hour, go ahead and have somebody else do it, otherwise, do it yourself. Do it yourself, anyway, the experience is priceless.

As to your selections, as shiela and others pointed out, the P45 chipset won't run SLI with two Nvidia cards. I do like the mobo, though and would suggest that you just sell your 8800GT card and put the proceeds towards a very good single card. Think GTX260/4870/9800GX2.

The core2 cpu is not sensitive to ram speeds. Look for a 4gb kit of DDR2-800.

---good luck---

Reply to geofelt

stoner133 wrote :

Then again step into the sunlight and read all the posts, not one mentioned anything to do with onboard video. The only comments on video had to do with the original poster listing two nVidia cards with a Crossfire supported board. The only post mentioning onboard had to do with trying the onboard sound before spending money to buy a sound card.

:lol:

True. Just stating. And yes, looks like I mis read it lolzzzzzzzz

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Reply to Shadow703793

jitpublisher wrote :

The reason most enthusiasts build their own is because they enjoy doing it.
Picking their own parts, assembling, and the general good feeling of accomplishing something when done. I find that after all the plannning, buying and building is done, I am kind of like, okay that was fun, now what? It's all over.
Yeah, you do have to wait for the stuff to arrive. That is why I always buy my stuff from local retailers. I also hate the order and wait game. When I buy something, I want IN MY HAND AT THAT MOMENT. I know that some however don't live where PC parts are readily available just down the street.
And, of course you save a little money if you really shop around.
If all this does not appeal to you, then just buy one.

One question though, you have 2 8800GT's, I guess your are not planning to run SLI since you are buying a Crossfire motherboard????
Also, I would not spend extra money on a sound card until I got the system up and running. The on-board may well be good enough. If not, you can always add one in.

Problem is my job makes it hard to be home when each and every part arrives and there is not a parts store close unless Newegg allows us to go by their warehouse and pick them up I think there is on here in Memphis, TN. Made a mistake on the MB the one I have for that build is EVGA 123-YW-E175-A1 (750i SLI Chipset) did not update the build from the one I was looking at getting a 9800GT instead for single card use. Tahnks for the info..

Reply to ozcot

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