Recommend a budget-minded gaming desktop builder that overclocks?

[fueledbymetal]

I built my last couple of systems, but with kids, work & other commitments I don't have the time for the setup & inevitable trouble shooting of doing it myself again. I'm looking for a computer to be exclusively used for gaming and I have a budget of $1200. Are there any good desktop builders out there that would overclock their system in that price range?

 

[wuliheron]

You can probably get a much better deal by using a local repair shop to assemble and overclock parts you order online. Give us an idea of what kind of games will be played on it, what kind of monitor you have if any, etc. and we can give you an idea of what to buy.

For example, a phenom II 955 or core i5 2500k are two great overclocking gaming processors right now, but very different in price. Some games prefer a faster processor and others prefer a better gpu. Knowing if you want the option of crossfire/sli also makes a big difference in price.

 

[mnewsham]

If you buy from NCIXUS.com you can pay them $50 and everything in your cart will be assembled (if compatible) NCIX will also price match most places (newegg).

 

[fueledbymetal]

I have a 1600x1050 monitor. Starcraft 2, Crysis 2, Dragon Age 2 and Fallout 3 are some of the games that I'd be playing on the new rig. I'm indifferent to crossfire/sli - I just want whatever will give me the best performance today for $1200. I pass my old computers down to family memebers after 2-3 years, so long term upgrading isn't improtant to me.

 

[DaveSimmons]

CyberPower offers "factory" overclocking:
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/

But it's not clear to me that you need to overclock with a $1,200 budget -- that should buy you at least an i5 2500K quad-core with 8 GB RAM and an nvidia gtx 560 which should run everything well at stock speed.

 

[jihe]

I built my last couple of systems, but with kids, work & other commitments I don't have the time for the setup & inevitable trouble shooting of doing it myself again. I'm looking for a computer to be exclusively used for gaming and I have a budget of $1200. Are there any good desktop builders out there that would overclock their system in that price range?

don't have any geeky friends or fiends' geeky teenage sons?

 

[KlokWyze]

Whats your zip code? If you're near me I'll build you a nice setup in that price range...

 

[fueledbymetal]

CyberPower offers "factory" overclocking:
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/

But it's not clear to me that you need to overclock with a $1,200 budget -- that should buy you at least an i5 2500K quad-core with 8 GB RAM and an nvidia gtx 560 which should run everything well at stock speed.

Thanks for the link! I'm basically just looking for the fastest gaming rig for the dollar and thought something like cyberpower's 10% OC for $19 would be a cheap and headache-free way to get there. Their Gamer Xtreme 2000 is conigurable as you suggest and within my price range, so that's probably the way I'll go.

KlokWyze,

I appreciate the offer and am sure you could do the work well, but DC's too far a drive for me.

 

[Praxis1452]

Thanks for the link! I'm basically just looking for the fastest gaming rig for the dollar and thought something like cyberpower's 10% OC for $19 would be a cheap and headache-free way to get there. Their Gamer Xtreme 2000 is conigurable as you suggest and within my price range, so that's probably the way I'll go.

KlokWyze,

I appreciate the offer and am sure you could do the work well, but DC's too far a drive for me.

It's fine to get someone else to build it, but to be honest, I think systems these days overclock with ease. It's just not that difficult because all you have to do is increase the multiplier. Memory and everything is independent and you can't overlock by changing the clock rate anymore so it's literally just one number so far as I know.

I wouldn't pay for them to overclock it. Build it maybe, but at $100 for <30 minutes of time seems a bit much. Their $19 option only promises a 10% performance boost when you could do it yourself and receive 4.4ghz on air which is >30% performance boost.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/...-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/3

^^Anand simply upped the multi and it OC's to 4.4ghz on the stock low-profile cooler. Ofc you need to increase the voltage a tiny bit, but choose a voltage you feel comfortable with running 24/7 and just go with it.

 

[DaveSimmons]

^ or run at stock and wait until you have a reason to overclock (benchmarks don't count).

If you're buying it to play games, play some games. See how the 2500K + 560 run at stock speed, and chances are you'll be happy with that for now. Maybe in a year or two you might find a good reason to overvolt and overclock.