Yeah, I paid $90 to Canada Computers in downtown Toronto, and they built the PC I wanted out of various parts, and warranty their build for 1yr. The time and effort I saved with that $90 was totally worth it. 3-day turnaround, too.
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Don't purchase a custom prebuilt, just build your own PC. A lesson learned and a horror story with Cyberpower PC
- Thread starter MazeHaze
- Start date
Yes, I would advise you build your own. It's not only educational of how things work but it also gives you full control. However even in those cases there can be issues. Driver support, Windows updates, hardware failures, it can be a headache too which is why many still prefer consoles. I kept getting blue screen of death and found out later one of my sticks of ram was the problem.
Alienware was pretty good to me back in 2012 when I got a gaming laptop from them. It worked really well till I went out to visit my Wife-to-be in India in 2015. After that it started developing minor issues and ultimately by 2017 wasn't really able to run games without major slow down. I'm fairly confident New Delhi's heat did a number on it though. I do think the time I had with it was generally pretty good, and only really became irksome in its last 6 months. I took it to Best Buy and they supposedly fixed any issues, but it felt time for an upgrade anyway. So if 4.5 to 5 years lifetime sounds good then there you go.
As for Cyberpower, my experience has been better than the OP's, but not without issue. Within a few months each of the three cooling fans died on me. I did get them to replace them all for free, but even one of the replacements bought the farm. I ended up buying a higher grade of fan to replace that, and eventually the other 2 with (Though the other two replacement fans haven't died yet.) Otherwise it's worked great. Had it approaching three years now. Though by posting this I kinda assume it's gonna start crapping out on me.
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yeah for sure. We just moved into this house in july (my first home, we bought it!) So at first I thought maybe...just maybe it was the house, even though the old GTX980 PC operated on the same setup from july-frebruary with no issues. I thought ok, maybe it's just colder now, forced heat, static, but no, the other PC still works fine in here, not even a hint of the same probelm...after confirming my two other PC's work on the same setup without this issue, I've concluded that the house wiring is not the likely culprit. (I even removed outlet covers to double check the ground wires, and plugged it in to newer outlets in the kitchen that was remodeled last year). Just a very bizarre issue that would most certainly be solved with a new PSU or new Case. The weirdest thing is, whenever I suggest the PSU to cyberpower, they almost get defensive about it. "there's no way it's the PSU, the computer wouldn't even turn on". I even asked after the second rma "is there anyway you could replace the PSU and just upcharge me for a better one, I don't mind paying" they assured me that they could definitely not do that, and I would have to refund the entire machine and start again. Here I am trying to refund the whole machine now and....they tell me no way, actually I'm a liar, there is no issue, and I can send it in and they will do nothing and send it back.
Provided you're savvy enough to build your own PC, it's always best to build your own rig. With these boutique pre-built gaming PC outlets, they inevitably have to cut corners (cheaper, perhaps off-brand OEM components) somewhere to cover overhead for running the business and turn a profit. Or you will pay more to get the same high quality components vs. building your own.
For the same amount of money, you will get higher quality components, have it _exactly_ the way you want it, AND it will grant you the opportunity to learn the inner workings of your PC.
That being said, for a complete newbie trying to get into PC gaming, pre-builts are still a decent option provided they give you hassle-free tech support and warranty coverage.
For the same amount of money, you will get higher quality components, have it _exactly_ the way you want it, AND it will grant you the opportunity to learn the inner workings of your PC.
That being said, for a complete newbie trying to get into PC gaming, pre-builts are still a decent option provided they give you hassle-free tech support and warranty coverage.
That really sucks, welp raise hell, get that refund, I would loose my shit if I were in your shoes, however you look at it it's a lesson learned....
I've bought pre-built for years because I don't really trust myself to not fuck up a build and don't want the hassle that comes with research/assembly. Never had a problem.
I normally buy them from small mom and pop stores operating on ebay where they'll sell it like £100 cheaper without Windows.
I normally buy them from small mom and pop stores operating on ebay where they'll sell it like £100 cheaper without Windows.
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yeah I'm actually pretty well versed and I customized my build a bit off a prebuilt template (swapped out the motherboard, the nvme drive, the gpu, case, etc) it's just the nightmare of RMA's, being called a liar now, mansplained too, and refused a refund that is the problem.
Oh if anybody is curious, the build is :
deepcool matrexx 55 rgb atx mid tower
Ryzen 7 3700
RTX 2070 super
ASUS Prime X570
16GB ddr4
800w PSU
1 TB m2. nvme SSD (don't have the specs off hand but I spent extra to get the fastest one, from recommendations in the ERA pc builder thread)
5 years is my target for pc. 5 for tv. 3 for iPad (almost there!).
I have had friends who bought from Cyber power have horror stories like that too. Problem with them is they use crap PSU or some crap mother board with bad cooling. I helped one of them out Atleast with building his own.
I will always recommend building your own though Because of price BUT if you do want a prebuilt or someone to build it for you, choose a company that will let you pick out the parts. I would recommend NZXT or Digital Foundry. Both have excellent options on their website to pick and choose every component.
Edit: or you you live next to a Microcenter you can go there, pick your parts and have them build it for you for like $100 or so.
I will always recommend building your own though Because of price BUT if you do want a prebuilt or someone to build it for you, choose a company that will let you pick out the parts. I would recommend NZXT or Digital Foundry. Both have excellent options on their website to pick and choose every component.
Edit: or you you live next to a Microcenter you can go there, pick your parts and have them build it for you for like $100 or so.
Yep, that's a pretty good setup.
As a last-ditch effort, have you thought of reformatting and reinstalling windows to start from a clean slate? Just to weed out any potential conflicts at a software/OS level...
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Windows was reinstalled when they replaced the motherboard and ram on the second RMA
Maybe it's something simple like they forgot to use standoffs or the io shield in not properly installed.
Just out of curiosity, when did you have this built?
Just out of curiosity, when did you have this built?
Oof...well that is rough. Sorry to hear about that.
My next go-to would be the PSU. If you have another desktop PC with a known good PSU, try Frankensteining it into the suspect PC and see if that fixes the issue. If that doesn't solve it, I suspect it's the motherboard.
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OMG that's the worst part. After the second RMA I'm like fuck...ok well it will come. It showed up on Friday still broken and it's like, first world problems I know, I have a PS4 and a switch so I can play games. But this machine was bought in december SPECIFICALLY to play Doom Eternal and Resident Evil 3, I don't think I'm even gonna have the chance to purchase the latter for a while now at this point. I can play Doom on my old 980 machine but it's upstairs in my recording studio and I want to play it on the OLED with surround sound blastin. Same for RE3, I need lights off, sound turned up, HDR, etc. Huge RE fan so this has been a bright point to look forward to in this abyss of shit we're all wading through, and now everything just sucks.
Yeah, PSU was first thing I thought of. Surprised they didn't swap that upon first return, just to be safe.
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for sure. Building is pretty simple, it was my mistake 100%. I can build a PC, but honestly I just didn't want to deal with the cable management, and installing the liquid cooler on the CPU which I've never done. I'm very busy in life right now and just wanted something to show up hassle free, as was promised. Jokes on me I guess! I feel like I've been very understanding after 4 months of RMA's. I'm a pretty laid back person, but realizing I'm stuck with a borked machine as is has put me to my breaking point tbh,
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yo, that has been the most bizarre part about dealing with their support. Any time I mention it might be the PSU, they get defensive and say "no no no, it couldn't possible be the PSU" but like, the GPU got fried within two days of initially receiving the machine, then these electrical issues, they replaced the motherboard and ram and sent it back, like, it can't cost them more than $30 to swap a PSU, certainly way less than the price of shipping and RMAing a machine 3 times.
I bought from Cyberpower back in 2017 and I've been happy with mine. A weird issue developed with one of the fans or something making a sound when I boot up but it goes away after being on for a bit.. I didn't feel like having to deal with tech support, so I never bothered, but I think my warranty had 1-year of in-home and 3-years of some other sort.. I would imagine if the thing is only a few months old it can get resolved eventually?
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you would think so right? they pretty much told me to go fuck myself. I said "sooo, can I just pay to ship it back to you and initiate a chargeback from my bank?" and this dude Eddie was like "well..if you feel like that's something you need to do" the way he said it implied that they would fight me on it. Like, I'm not a monster, I just want a working machine that I paid $1700 for after 4 months.
Sorry man this all sucks. If they keep giving you the run-around fuck em, do a charge back.
As a repair tech, Cyberpower and iBuyPower are the two worse brands. They use the cheapest bottom of the barrel parts, and they basically swindle you for what you're paying. Like id sooner recommend a Dell pre built and I despise dell.
Really strange.. maybe tweet at them? Any time you bring customer service onto Twitter, it seems to help frankly. What a huge bummer though, I'm sorry it's been such a mess.
Buy a 50 foot long USB cable, plug one end into one of your spare USB ports, then run the other end out the window and plug it into the ground. Boom, no slippers required.
But seriously, sorry to hear about the issues. That sucks.
But seriously, sorry to hear about the issues. That sucks.
I purchased a prebuilt around 2013 and once that computer was outdated, I built one last year and it was one of the most stressful, frustrating and annoying experiences I've ever had technically.
I get the benefits and i get why people go this route but me with my horrible luck and lack of expertise, it took me a couple of weeks of constant troubleshooting, replacing stuff, OS issues, adjusting components just to get the PC working halfway decently. Right now, my computer is working flawlessly but I don't ever want to go through that experience ever again. If I ever get another gaming PC and don't just switch to consoles in a couple of years, I think i'm gonna go with a prebuilt again. Didn't have nearly as many issues last time.
I get the benefits and i get why people go this route but me with my horrible luck and lack of expertise, it took me a couple of weeks of constant troubleshooting, replacing stuff, OS issues, adjusting components just to get the PC working halfway decently. Right now, my computer is working flawlessly but I don't ever want to go through that experience ever again. If I ever get another gaming PC and don't just switch to consoles in a couple of years, I think i'm gonna go with a prebuilt again. Didn't have nearly as many issues last time.
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This has been done, I went so far as to manually reset the cmos before I sent it in for the second RMA. Then they replaced the entire motherboard so it doesn't seem like this is the issue. I truly appreciate your help/time though.
I would hunt out the company's information and find out who the CEO is, and message them on LinkedIn or social media. Usually a pretty effective way to get things done.
Man that's fucked of Cyberpower not to warranty their shit properly. Reading the thread the only last thing I can think of is maybe somehow a bad power supply is causing this. Good luck OP, I hope they eventually come through and refund your money!
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Yo this might have to happen. I'll wait to hear back from the support email I sent (its basically this thread, with the video since they dont believe me apparently). Like I said, I don't want anybody to get in trouble or fired or anything, we all have bad days. I just want a PC that works properly.
Hmm, I am stumped here as well. Have you tried maybe plugging the peripherals into a powered USB hub and then plugging that into the PC?
Or like.... putting blue tape entirely over all the metal on the motherboard mounting plate.
Or like.... putting blue tape entirely over all the metal on the motherboard mounting plate.
have you tried:
-unplugging all USB devices except the mouse?
-different USB ports with only the mouse plugged in on both the motherboard and case?
-checking device manager and windows error reporting to see if windows is flagging any bad hardware errors?
-running a benchmarks like prime95 and furmark to see if the spike in power crashes the pc due to weak psu?
-unplugging all USB devices except the mouse?
-different USB ports with only the mouse plugged in on both the motherboard and case?
-checking device manager and windows error reporting to see if windows is flagging any bad hardware errors?
-running a benchmarks like prime95 and furmark to see if the spike in power crashes the pc due to weak psu?
I bought a prebuilt ASUS with a 1070 back when GPUs were sold out and sold at double the price due to mining.
after 2 years the GPU died and ASUS p much told me to go fuck myself.
stripped all the parts out and replaced pretty much everything except the mobo because the damn thing had LAPTOP RAM.
Never again.
after 2 years the GPU died and ASUS p much told me to go fuck myself.
stripped all the parts out and replaced pretty much everything except the mobo because the damn thing had LAPTOP RAM.
Never again.
Companies like nzxt give you otc prices and show the exact price of each component you pick in your cart, they also let you pick your parts entirely, they essentially just build the computer and from personal experience it comes out super clean, my temps are great on my i9 and my 2070s is perfect, the warranty is also all in one with them, so if there's an issue with a component they replace it straight up
My last computer was customized and built for me as well by ibuypower and lasted 6 years and is still going today, would never buy a closed box advertised PC, I only get builds where I choose the high quality parts
Not for nothing but even 6 years ago when I was first looking to pick up a machine I literally only heard horrible things from cyberpower as a
company, never a good story
I am capable of building a system and was prepared to but when it was time to upgrade this year the pandemic happened and this was my best option in terms of price, I paid 50$ more than I would have straight up due to price increases and that was the shipping
My last computer was customized and built for me as well by ibuypower and lasted 6 years and is still going today, would never buy a closed box advertised PC, I only get builds where I choose the high quality parts
Not for nothing but even 6 years ago when I was first looking to pick up a machine I literally only heard horrible things from cyberpower as a
company, never a good story
I am capable of building a system and was prepared to but when it was time to upgrade this year the pandemic happened and this was my best option in terms of price, I paid 50$ more than I would have straight up due to price increases and that was the shipping
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It sounds like good advice, but remember, if you build your own PC, you are the support person for the system. If something doesn't work, it's up to you to figure it out. Buying pre-builts for ease of use or warranty and support is probably worth it to a lot of people.
I work tech support. A lot of people are all kinds of dumb. This may have been a bad experience with one vendor, but there's more out there.
I work tech support. A lot of people are all kinds of dumb. This may have been a bad experience with one vendor, but there's more out there.
I honestly wish we could get a team of electricians, solid state engineers, physicists, and the software engineers who made the various specific drivers etc to research specific user issues like this until they have conclusively identified every part of the problem and give a full presentation with absolute graphic detail of why this is happening. Like I want to see a graph of the voltage going to the mouse, a timeline of OS operations, etc.
Yep could be power supply. 800w is a strange wattage as well. Most decent power supplies in that range are either 750's or 850's.
800's are Apevia's or Raidmax's (shit power supplies). I know that cyber/ibuy power cheap out on power supplies, so it wouldn't surprise if that's the issue.
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Right, but in my case I bought prebuilt for ease of use and warranty, and they are telling me to go fuck myself after 4 months of RMAs on a $1700 machine.
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It IS an Apevia. That's why every time I have called I have suggested it could be the PSU, but they always act like they're offended when I suggest that. "oH, theres no WAY it's the PSU."
Or have ecollegepc build it for you if you're not comfortable handling components. They do a good job. I ordered a few over the years for people too lazy to build their own.
i got a cyberpowerpc because I needed to move to a laptop and i've had a decent enough time with it, but laptops are a different thing
Oh god no. Those are trash. My buddy got a 2k PC a couple years ago and I immediately forced him to swap out the crap power supply in it before it killed everything. PC has been fine ever since.
Not if their PSUs are tip top shape/ beefier. Some PSUs are afaik better than others at digesting slightly out of norm current.
And that is if you have made sure not to use the same power strip and power cable just to eliminate that from the equation.
I have seen/ heard of weird electrical wiring do insane stuff in installations, that didn't seem to make any sense.
Do you live in an older house/ appartment by any chance?
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Yes, the house is old, but I can replicate the issue even on the outlets in the renovated kitchen that has all new wiring. New electric box too, all outlets are grounded. I pulled off outlet covers and tested outlets with a meter and everything trying to solve this.
