New PC 2020
For me, the challenge of building a custom PC is finding someone to put it all together. I know what parts to get and how to put it all together, but I can’t physically do the work, so I have to talk someone else through the process. Troubleshooting the problems that inevitably come up is also hindered by my inability to physically manipulate the hardware.
This time, however, I decided to try my luck at ordering a fully assembled system. I ordered a custom PC from CyberPowerPC. Here are the specs:
- MB: ASUS ROG Strix Z390-E Gaming
- CPU: Intel Core i9 9900K @ 4.7GHz
- RAM: 32GB (2x16GB) G.SKILL Ripjaws V DDR4 3200MHz
- GPU: MSI Geforce RTX 2080 Ti 11GB
- Storage: 1TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe M.2 SSD
- PSU: EVGA 850W GQ 80+ Gold
- Case: Corsair Carbide Series 678C
- CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro H115i PRO RGB 280mm Liquid CPU Cooler
- OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Professional
It took about two weeks to arrive after placing the order. It was packaged very well (I ordered the enhanced packaging) and everything was in perfect condition. It worked right out of the box. They did a great job with cable management with most of the wires out of sight and neatly bundled with zip ties.
We had to transfer some drives and the capture card from my old system, so some of the zip ties had to be cut and cable management disturbed. The M.2 cards are secured to the motherboard by the heat sinks rather than mounting screws. I don’t know if that is how it’s supposed to be but that is how it came. That caused an issue where the main drive was not detected and we had to re-mount it. Other than that, everything went as planned.
I have a few minor complaints. The GPU I ordered was an Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti, but the one that I got was an MSI RTX 2080 Ti, but those are equivalent as far as I am concerned. I was also supposed to get a free 2TB 7200 RPM hard drive but I got a 5400 RPM drive, but I can’t really complain about a free hard drive. I also would have preferred that the boot drive be installed in the M.2 slot farther from the CPU, but that is a very minor complaint (in hindsight, we could have easily swapped the M.2 cards when we had it open).
In conclusion, the overall experience was good and I would use CyberPowerPC in the future. I also considered iBuyPower but I decided to go with CyberPowerPC because I was able to get a better GPU for the same price.
Anyway, please enjoy this photo of the inside of the case. The AVerMedia capture card and the Blu-ray drive were supplied by me. Also there are a few untamed SATA cables that were not there originally.
