Gaming PC good price?

[zoozilla]

I wasn't sure where to post this, but this seems good enough. Basically, I want the best computer possible for the least money possible. I checked out Cyberpower PC, and thought that their prices were very reasonable. My question: Is this a good deal? I have configured a PC to these specs:

CASE: Raidmax Sagitta Mid-Tower 420W Gaming Case
CPU: (Sckt775)Intel® Core? 2 Duo E6400 CPU @ 2.13GHz
MOTHERBOARD:MSI P6N SLI-FI nForce 650i SLI Chipset LGA775 FSB1333 DDR2 Mainboard
MEMORY: 1GB (2x512MB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory
VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB 16X PCI Express
LCD Monitor: 17" VA1703WB TFT Active Matrix SXGA LCD Display Monitor
HARD DRIVE: Single Hard Drive (250GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)
OPTICAL DRIVE: 18X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER
SOUND: 3D WAVE ON-BOARD 5.1 SOUND CARD

as well as speakers, a mouse, keyboard, yadda yadda. This is all for $1340.00.
My main concerns are: "How long will an 8800 GTS 320 last?" and "Is 1 Gig of RAM enough, especially with Vista?"
So....for this price - Deal or No Deal?

 

[emilyek]

Looks OK, but a 17" monitor is too small, really.

 

[Cabages]

It depends on if your going to be gaming on that monitor the whole time, or if you plan to upgrade.

1 GB of ram and the 320 MB GTS may be fine if your only running 1280x1024, although I dont think the full GTS is all that much more, is it?

 

[brikis98]

for anything mid to high end, i almost always prefer to put the system together myself. the price doesn't seem too unreasonable, although i think you could do better. some suggestions:

* I don't know much about that case and PSU, but am a bit skeptical. Given that cases stick around from upgrade to upgrade and PSU's are never good to skimp on, I'd invest in something slightly better. (Example: Antec P180 for the case and Enhance 5150gh for the PSU)
* 1GB of RAM will be enough - as in, everything will work ok - but 2GB is preferable nowadays. Vista is a memory hog and many games out today (BF 2, Oblivion, etc) also like lots of RAM, so if you can spring it, an extra GB is worth it
* The 8800GTS is a beast of a card, but no one could say how long it will last... It very much depends on what resolution you play at, but as a total guess, you should be just fine for the next 2-3 years at high settings.
* I'd recommend getting a different hard drive: namely, the Seagate 7200.10 series with 16mb cache. 320gb is just $90 and they are super fast and quiet.
* If you have decent speakers, or are an audiophile, consider investing in a sound card, such as the soundblaster audigy or x-fi. otherwise, on board sound is quite decent.
* Biggest gripe: get a bigger monitor!!!! 17" is the smallest they make nowadays and IMO, totally inadequate given what you're spending. 19" is the minimum I'd get, esp. given the video card you're getting.

EDIT: i was looking around at systems myself, so here's a sample config from newegg/ewiz for roughly the same price that, IMO, is much better:

* Antec P180 Silver: $130. Can be had for cheaper elsewhere (Best Buy had it for $80) and is one of the quietest and coolest cases out there.
* Enhance 5150gh 500W: $70. Reliable/quality PSU for relatively cheap.
* Gigabyte GA-965P: $108
* Intel Core 2 Duo E6300: $183. Can be head cheaper elsewhere. Easily OC's to over 3.0ghz, so it's an amazing value. The E4300 and cheaper RAM is also a good alternative.
* G.Skill 2gb ddr2-800: $165
* eVGA 8800GTS 320MB: $280 AR.
* Seagate 7200.10 16mb cache 250gb HD: $80
* Sceptre x20wc 20.1" Widescreen LCD: $200 AR. Much more appropriate monitor size for your setup.

Total: $1216

The way I see it, you get more RAM, a much better case, a more reliable PSU, faster hard drive and a much nicer monitor for a cheaper price. Of course, this system doesn't come with a mouse/keyboard/speakers, but those are cheap and up to you...

 

[schneiderguy]

The 420 watt raidmax that comes with the case is nowhere near enough power to power everything :Q

 

[zoozilla]

Originally posted by: schneiderguy
The 420 watt raidmax that comes with the case is nowhere near enough power to power everything :Q

I customized the power supply to a 500 watt one. Also, the price includes Windows Vista Home Premium (don't know if that changes anything). With 2 gigs of RAM and a 19" monitor, the price gets jacked up to $1487.00. I guess building my own will be much cheaper. Thanks for the advice. Just wondering - if I really wanted someone else to build my comp, what company would you recommend? Or is Cyberpower one of the cheapest?