Videos
Looking to upgrade my current PC from CyberPower. Going to be moving on from my 1080ti sadly. It’s about time…
I looked today and was recommended the PowerSpec G721.
My buddies are recommending me build a PC on PCPartPicker and doing it through MC that way. But I don’t really know enough about building PCs to be comfortable picking the parts out.
Any suggestions here? Thanks!
Looking for something for high end gaming that will last for 5 years
I’m looking to get a new PC this weekend and settled on 3 tentative options, an Asus ROG and 2 Powerspecs. My target use for the PC is 1080p 60+fps gaming with raytracing being a fun possibility but not a dealbreaker. Mostly play games like fallout 4, cyberpunk 2077, and open world games and want to make use of features like dlss.
Asus ROG
Powerspec G445
Powerspec G44
The Asus looks good for my use case but the only ding against it to me is the 16gb RAM but that can be upgraded down the line.
I’m wary of the powerspecs because of their included AIO liquid coolers. A micro center spokesperson in the comments of one of the PCs mentioned them being closed loop and requiring no maintenance/upkeep but I find that somewhat dubious. What’s the possibility/rate of failure on these liquid coolers? Has anyone had experience with leaks? Even if they’re closed loop and no maintenance required, is it still advised to flush/refill the units occasionally?
Hey everyone,
Wanted to share my experience paying Micro Center to build a custom PC so that you know how it works and what went well/what didn't. Here's the parts list.
Did the $150 build which means hardware assembly with air cooling only. No OS install as I prefer to do that myself. They had two specials I took advantage of - 10% off the entire purchase if you signed up for the credit card and pay the bill in full, and a bundle where you got the CPU, mobo, and RAM for $450. Also did some price matching. They didn't have the case I wanted in black, so they discounted the white version to $99. Thought that was nice and completely unnecessary.
Went on a Wednesday night, had a parts list picked out, and the PC was ready for pickup the next day!
Brought it home and immediately noticed the CPU cooler was quite loud and my CPU temps were hitting 91 celcius. Then I started gaming and the PC would intermittently shut off.
Took it back to Micro Center and they couldn't replicate the issue. Took to Reddit to help troubleshoot and nothing worked. Was convinced my power outlets at home were faulty, or that the power supply was bad.
Took it back again to Micro Center and they found that the tech had left the plastic on the heatsink. Immediately after removing this, CPU temps went down to 65-70c peak and the CPU clock from 3.3ghz to 4.4ghz. Fans were noticeably quieter, and haven't noticed any shutdowns since.
My guess is the CPU was peaking into the 100s but my software wasn't showing me because it would be for fractions of a second.
I asked them to warranty the CPU incase of plastic damaging it and they gave me a complimentary 2 year warranty.
All in all, a bit of a frustrating experience, especially bringing it back in and telling me there's nothing they can do since they couldn't replicate the power offs (even though the temps were sky high for my CPU/fan combo), but they made it right in the end.
If I had to do it again, I'd probably still do it but I'd be checking for plastic everywhere after this experience. It's something I never would've thought to check for.
Hope this helps!
Given the current state of the GPU market, I went into the local MicroCenter (Duluth, GA) to get a pre-built with a 3080. Ended up walking out with one of their-brand pre-builts, PowerSpec. They also had a ton of 3000 series gpu in stock (only 3080TI). My build was supposed to have a 3070. 100%. It seems someone f-ed up and I have a 3070-Ti for the same low price. This is more of a recommendation than a discussion for anyone searching for a gpu lol. I now love MicroCenter
Edit: Thought I'd add one since the post got more comments than I expected. I've stressed the pc pretty hard for the past couple of days and haven't had any issues so far. Great performance.
I have money saved up to build a new SFF PC and turn my current chonky boy into a server / NAS (around $2500ish total). The Miami Micro Center is supposed to open "soon", but I am not sure if waiting for possibly 4+ months will be worth it or not.
A lot of persons praise Micro Center for great discounts and bundles for parts, but realistically, how much is the difference between buying them at the store versus just getting them off Amazon / NewEgg?
Builds I am planning (minus PSUs, coolers, etc, which I cannot recall right now):
SFF PC
Fractal Ridge
7800X3D
4070ti Super or 7900 GRE / XT
NAS (Everything else I will reuse from my current PC, so I would just need the case and HDDs)
Fractal Define R5
4 4 TB HDDs