Post your gaming rigs and other PC's.

Hey

The main problem I've always had with sales types (and I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way or an insult to you in this instance) is that, well, you employ salesman. And salesmen by design are supposed to sell the most expensive gear regardless of client. Unfortunately this means the following suffer:

• Uncertain parents who wish to build a mid powered rig for their kiddies.
• People who don't and haven't planned on spending the dollar on a special rig.
• People who wander into the store looking for something that will handle modern applications.

Anyone in the history of computers who's actually looking to buy a shit hot rig capable of speed of light bus transfers (by the standard of the day) already knows what they need to buy.

Salesmen are specifically for people who know fuck all, and will like I said 'by design' always sell the most expensive gear. I mean otherwise they've failed as salesman.

--

I've visited homes of women who bought a computer for spreadsheets which would make most gaming rigs shite in their pants and run home to mommy (mummy - Uk terminology lol). This was all down to the sale on the day...

I'm talking 1GB graphics card and 5GB ram with 4.7Ghz processor. For fucking spreadsheets and email!

 

I would say that I agree with you 100%.... in most cases.

Salesman are scum. We all know why.

I can honestly say that I don't employee salesman. Truthfully, the money I make is more from commercial customers than residential. I also make more money repairing an old machine that building a new one.

I don't want to sound like I'm advertising my company, but for the last 3 years we have been chosen as "The Overall Best" and "Most Honest" computer repair/networking/retail company in the tri-county area by the Flint Journal (the big newspaper in mid-Michigan). I really look out for my customers, and so do my employees.

Most of the time, when a customer comes in and wants to price out a custom build, I give them 2 estimates. 1 that will cover everything they need, and 1 that is a more "enthusiast" machine. I even show them what I pay for the parts (and I don't play with the numbers).

Customers like that honesty so much that they almost ALWAYS decide to have us build it for them. I don't make any money on the parts at all. My charge is installing the Operating System, installing free anti-virus, flash player, adobe reader, java, etc., and building the machine. I also offer to transfer all of their old pics, movies, documents, favorites, etc. over to the new computer for no extra charge.

I have to agree with you that 90-95% of shops try to screw their customers over and get the most they can out of the customer. I can tell you (and others) that I have a client list of about 5,000 (residential and commercial) from the last few years, including local car dealerships, township halls, Burger Kings, Tim Hortons, etc. We even teach classes for no charge at the local Senior Center. I most definetly could be making more from these customers, but the long-term relationship is MUCH more important to me than the immediate cash advance.

I truly believe that there are things I can do with my company that will help the general public, and not just line my pockets. I would like to think that others think like me, but I know I'm in the minority.

P.S.- I'm not trying to defend myself, and I know you weren't directly attacking me, so take this as my "business manifesto".

I can help others pick out parts that are right for them, and tell them where to buy the parts, and still have a happy customer or a happy friend.

BTW,
What's up?

 

@Prea, just wanted to chime in that i have currently $566 and give or take a few cents in to my computer, NEWEGG KICKS MAJOR ASS!!! tigerdirect is my second choice but they never seem to match what i can get from newegg.

 

An articulate and clear explanation. I like how you didn't try to deny the facts of salesmen. I tell you what, if what you say is even half true then it's a damn shame you remain nameless. However I would say that while those are the principals I would try to run a business by (live and die by) - it wouldn't be enough I'm willing to bet...

How is business? Do you own your own premises?

By the way, genuinely interested, not trying to prove a point ether!!

 

Thanks for asking. Business is doing great! I've got the two locations right now, and I'm looking to open a third by Spring of next year.

In regards to "it wouldn't be enough I'm willing to bet...", you'd be surprised by the amount of life-long customers I have. Being honest, cheap, and forthcoming is the best practice for a business like mine. Think about it. Are you more likely to go to Walmart, or the corner market down the road from your house where they know your name and take the time to check up on how you're doing?

My MAIN focus is creating an environment where people know that we have not only their computer taken care of, but their interests taken care of. They will keep coming back.

I have customers that are out walking around town and drop by the store just to say "hi" to myself or my employees.

I have a story that I like to explain to people when they don't quite understand what I am trying to accomplish with my business model:

I did quite a lot of work for a lady named Jan. Jan was a sweetheart. She would bake us cookies, she would make us signs, and she would tell everyone she knew that she loved our work.

One time, I was over at Jan's house, copying emails from an old version of Outlook to her new computer with Outlook 2010. I moved the .pst archive over using my flash drive. Once completed, I assured Jan that I would be zeroing my flash drive so there was no potential for someone to steal her data.

The next day, Jan came to the store and she had watery eyes. She looked like she had been crying. She stated to talk to me, and I could tell something was up, so I asked her to step into my office.

In the office, Jan told me that she had told her kids (who were in their 30s) that I had used my flash drive to import the data the day before. They jumped on her for being so "trusting" of a computer guy. She fought with them for a while and eventually ended coming into talk to me.

After I assured her that there was nothing to worry about, she stated "I know, I just couldn't explain it to them". She then went on to explain to me that she was dying of cancer and she only had about 8 months to live. She also explained that she had not told ANYONE in her family, and that I was the first to know.

We sat in that room for about an hour, speaking about life, laughing, crying, and all the above.

By the end of the ordeal, Jan said to me something that I'll never forget. She said, "I know this is weird, but you have been so good to me. I feel like you're one of my grandchildren. Thank you for just treating me like a person instead of a customer."

Jan ended up dying not too long after that. She was a great woman, and it's a shame the world lost such a nice lady.

Sad story aside, it just goes to show that people in power can make a difference. If the rest of the business owners and politicians would treat people like people instead of numbers, the world would be a better place.

@Prea,
Sorry for semi-hijacking the thread man. I think that AMD factory-locking cores is garbage too. It really depends on how you look at it though. You can buy the cheaper "dual-core" chip and unlock the other cores pretty easily. I like to think of their "Fail" as our "Win".

 

I can also help out if you guys need a rig built. Like evil does, just send me your price range and I'll send you back a recommendation.

No problems. Like I said above. if you need some help. Send me a PM with your price range and I'll gladly sort you out.

I can also offer lower price points than retail. I can go through my clan leader who is an OEM basically and get you some good deals. I always get my stuff through him. I place my order, tell him what i want, and he get's me a deal. The only thing that sucks with him though, is sometimes you gotta wait awhile. He's extremely busy working 3 jobs, so sometimes he can take quite awhile. In which case if you want me to go through him I'll tell him it needs to be filled within X number of days or I won't bring business to him. If it was me doing the build I wouldn't have any problems waiting awhile. But if I'm gonna be the middle man I gotta hassle his ass.

But even if I don't go through him i can still get some damn good deals. I have also been designing, building, and maintaining computers since I was around 5 years old. Well in all honesty I was raised around computers right out of the womb. So I know my stuff.

Nah your good dude. I also use newegg. Newegg is a good site.

I also wouldn't charge extra either. . So between everyone here, we can all sort you out with a monster rig for an amazing price point. So basically just take your pick!

Told ya. I love newegg. Tigerdirect is awesome as well but newegg is my first choice. As long as you pay attention to sales and everything else, you can build an amazing rig for pretty damn cheap.

 

No problem. Also I'm kind of divided on my opinion. It really depends on the batch you get. If you go for the good batches where you can guarantee a successful unlock, I think it's awesome. But I have seen batches that don't unlock at all. Which basically means the users bought it for the sole purpose of unlocking and got screwed. But in all honesty it still rests on the consumers shoulder. AMD doesn't actually advertise these factory locked processors. It's actually through reviewers, and word of mouth that people find out. So you can't really blame the company as they are just doing it to increase the yield of that production cycle.

But if it does benefit the user, I'm all for it. In my case my 4th core is screwed up but I still got a triple core processor at a dual core price. So I'm satisfied.

 

That's amazing then, all the best for sure!!!

Yeah but do you have a Saturn??

 

yep newegg=the shit for pc parts

i don't have a saturn but i do have 2 ps3's a broken jtag 360 a psp (in pawn) a ds (also in the pawn lol), a dreamcast, a wii, a three in one nintendo/snes/sega genises system

 

I dont have a gaming rig, I dont play many games, but when I do I just use the PS3.

Main PC
Used for day-to-day internet browsing, occasional downloading, video processing.

Gigabyte G33m-S2L board
Intel Q6600 Core 2 Quad @ 2.40GHz
OCZ Reaper 8 Gb DDR2 ram
Corsair 64Gb SSD
Hitachi 2Tb HDD
Hitachi 1Tb HDD
Hitachi 250Gb HDD in removable caddy.
Nvidia GT9600 1Gb Graphics
LG 4x Blu-Ray Writer
Sytek Cyborg keyboard
Logitech M570 Trackball
Samsung Syncmaster P2250 22" Monitor
AOC LM726 17" Monitor
Canon iP4500 Inkjet Printer
Samsung CLX-2160 Colour Laser Printer
Running on Windows 7 Pro 64bit


Secondary PC
Used for heavy downloading (over 1tb per month), media storage and serving to the PS3, running FTP and Webcam servers.

Gigabyte GA-M566S-S3
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4600+ @2.40 GHz
OCZ Reaper 8 Gb DDR2 ram
2 x SATA 2 PCIE cards
2 X Seagate 500Gb HDD
4 X Samsung 1Tb HDD
2 X Hitachi 2Tb HDD
Pioneer DVR-109 16x DVD Writer
Nvidia 7300SE Graphics
Dell 17" monitor
4 cam CCTV system connected to capture card for web viewing.
Running Windows 7 Pro 64bit
Runs PS3mediaserver to send media to PS3


Wifes PC
Used for internet browsing and Skype (a lot)

Dell Inspiron 530
Intel Core 2 Dual
4 GB Ram
2 X Hitachi 1Tb HDD
Pioneer 16x DVD Writer
Viewsonic 2040 20" Monitor


Old Games PC
Used for emulated arcade games using Gamex frontend.

Asus Pundit P2
AMD Semperon @ 1.6Ghz
Hitachi 1Tb HDD
Connected to Samsung 40" Full HD TV


PS3, PS2 & Wii for games.


Everything is networked using a Netgear Gigabit router and wired network (first thing we did when buying the house was to run network cables).
Printers are networked using USB Multifunction Print Server (Easier than using windows printer sharing).
Also on the network is a USB storage server (plug in USB external hard drives or flash drives and thet become available on the network, same as a NAS drive).

 

As far as gaming systems, I have this weird thing where I feel like I need doubles of everything, just in case one breaks. Currently, I can locate:

2x PS3 (one slim and one phat custom painted white and blue)
2x 360 Slim (also a Kinect, but I don't have enough room to use it.. lol)
3x 360 Phat (people left them when I was into 360 repair)
1x PS2 Phat
1x Nintendo Wii
2x Xbox 1
2x PSP (one phat, one slim)
2x Nintendo DS Lite (I can't remember how or why I got two of these)
1x Nintendo DSI-XL
1x Nintendo 3DS
1x iPod Touch 2G
1x SEGA Dreamcast

I can't remember what else off the top of my head. I was going to get into collecting classic consoles for a while, since I still believe SNES and NES had some of my favorite games of all time.

I'd love to go back to the good old days with no responsibility. I'd play SNES for 7+ hours a day.

 

Rep for the Toshiba Laptops I got me one of those too

 

i used to have one toshiba laptop one satelite i can't remember the model XD was long ago, first laptop i had, i didn't like it at all to tell you the truth it would overheat like hell.

anyway what i am looking for is a mid range machine, i don't want a beast for gaming, as for gaming i own an xbox 360 jatgged, a ps3, and other gen machines... but i could use a mid range computer for day to day activity but could handle a game or two on medium quality if i would throw it in... there are two games that i always have in my pc and they are basically the two games i play on PC one is oblivion cause of its mods, and the other is Football manager 2011, football manager doesn't require anything special to play it in terms of specs and oblivion doesn't either, but i am also waiting for skyrim, therefor i would like something that could handle skyrim at least on medium, don't think it would be too expensive, but i just wanted to build one for the sake of building one, and get it ready to play skyrim

 

You can build a damn good gaming rig from scratch for about.. $500, that would be able to push the graphics on games to the highest setting, but of course to really give you any help, we kinda need to know what you're cap on spending for the rig will be.

But, for a 'medium' sorta set up.. building from scratch.. probobly 200 IF that, you just have to order the parts and get them seperatly (if ordering online, that may bump up the cost pretty high, last one I built for someone was $575, was able to max out Crisis (this was built... 3 years ago), mind you I picked all the parts up for the guy myself without ordering anything online, so that helped keep costs down I'm sure.

 

CPU: Intel Core2 Duo E7200 @ 3.6Ghz 1.2v. 450x8.0
MB: Asus P5K-PRO P35.
RAM: 2x2GB OCZ Platinum PC2-8500 DDR2
GPU: XFX Radeon 4870-1GB xXx Edition.
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12P 120MM
Sound: Realtek HD
Main HD(s):
[x]Samsung Spinpoint F1-640GB 32MB Cache SATA2
[x]Samsung Spinpoint HD501-500GB SATA2.
[x]Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA2
[x]Seagate ST3250-250GB SATA2.
PSU: Corsair VX450. 450w/33a @ 85% eff
Case: NZXT Lexa Blackline
External HD: LaCie Rikki 500GB MiniHDD
Optical: Optiarc DVDRW AD-7203S SATA.
Mouse & Keyboard: Logitech MX518 GG Mouse, Microsoft Wireless Series 700 Keyboard.
Speakers: Creative Arena Surround HS-1100
Monitor: Samsung P2450 24" 1920x1080


Old and in desperate need of an upgrade If anyone has a cheap Q94/Q95 for sale, I'd be much obliged

 

Going to the "Buy/Sell/Trade" subsection of a forum like AVForums/Hexus and getting stuff that way helps too (and you might bump into a weirdo who is planning to sell the latest equipment for 60-75% of the original RRP)!

My brother tends to do that kinda stuff quite often you see.

Also, I don't understand why people buy ridiculously low-spec machines for a laughably high price as well!

 

yeah i know digital i still need to gather the money though... when i get some money i ll talk to you all, i still have some time to 11-11-11

 

CPU: AMD Athlon 7750 Black
MB: MSI-7367
RAM: 4.0GB DDR2
GPU: Radeon 4830.
CPU Cooler: Arctic cooling
HDDs: Around 9TBs combined (mostly Samsungs since they are..well dirt cheap)
PSU: Some cheapo 500w
Case: Some cheapo tincan
Some cheapo wireless ACE mediaboard and mouse
Speakers: Laptop external speakers screwed to the monitor
Monitor: BenQ G900W

Main use of this "rig" is to transcode and demux videofiles for use on another machines.
As for HDDs that combined 9TB is spread between PC, PS3 and my TV. Got to say that I <3 the mediaplayer on that TV (Samsung LE40C535).

Next thing on shopping list is a Samsung F4EG 2TB (HD204UI) 71€

 

Actually ordering the parts online is far cheaper than getting them at a retail store. Especially for sites like newegg. Most of the time you can get OEM parts which means it only comes with the hardware and a generic box. Than just download any drivers you need from the manufacturer's website. The "pretty" box adds a good $10 - $60 a lone. That's why I love shopping online. I can get the OEM parts which saves a shit ton. ya you have to get the drivers from a website, but that's not hard with today's hardware.