CyberPowerPC Review! Is it worth having them build your computer?

[jameyscott]

As with all of my reviews, I will do both a written and a video!  I think the new lights have helped a lot, but I plan on adding more to get rid of the harsh shadows and be able to change my camera settings further.

 

 

 

What is CyberPowerPC?

CyberPowerPC is a computer buildling company with a configurator online to help you get the most for your money.  Make no mistake though, it will still be cheaper building your own rig, but if you don’t feel comfortable doing that, you can pay a small premium and get an awesome rig for the money.  

 

Why do I have this rig?

As someone who builds their own rigs, I would never purchase a custom built PC online.  I would purchase a laptop from such a company, since I can’t exactly build my own laptop.

This is my friend’s computer that he wanted me to diagnose so he brought it over.  He told me within 5 minutes of playing any games or trying to watch videos on youtube.  This should have directed me to a graphics card problem, but I thought it was the power supply considering how crappy of one it was. I’ll talk more about that later, though.

 

What are the specs of the rig?

This is where CyberPowerPC honestly surprised me.  When my friend told me that he bought a custom rig online, I automatically assumed that he paid a huge price premium and maybe got a 800 dollar rig for the 1400 dollar price tag he paid. I was honestly surprised that what he paid is basically what he got. It’s honestly a great set up for the price.

 

Here are the specs:

Gigabyte UD3 990FX motherboard

AMD FX9370 processor

Asetek 550LC cooling

PowerColor R9 290 TurboDuo graphics card

8GB of G.skill Ripjaws 1866mhz memory

128GB Sandisk U110 SSD

1TB Western Digital Blue HDD

“CyberPowerPC” GMC V1000 Phantom Case

Stock cooling fans

HighPower 800w 80+ PSU

 

This is a PC Part Picker list for what I could find and some small adjustments such as the case.  I did not include the PSU because I couldn’t find anything that crappy.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/X8Gpzy

 

What’s with the price premium?

They are a company.  They obviously have to make money to pay employees, website upkeep, advertising, etc etc. Without the price premium the only money they would make would be from the discount they are given for buying in bulk.  Say they buy 400 EVGA 770 SC. Those cost about 350 a piece, but since they are buying 400 they buy them at 320 at a piece.  

The major thing to me about this price premium though, is that they offer a warranty for the whole computer and technical support. That’s absolutely awesome. I do not have first experience with their technical support or their warranty, so I can’t really say whether it is worth the extra money or not.

 

My major complaint…

Overall this is an awesome rig.  For the price he paid, it was definitely worth it for someone who does not want to build their own rig. The problem is the power supply.  It’s a HighPower 800w PSU. No.  Not HighPower as in 800w is a lot of power, HighPower is in the brand.  What? Have you heard of them?  I certainly haven’t.  

Now, if it was a much cheaper PC, I could understand using a lower quality power supply but we are talking about a 1400 dollar rig.  It should have at least a 80+ Gold rated PSU at this price.  It’s absolutely ridiculous that is an option on their website, especially for someone who is spending 1400 dollars on a rig. What’s even worse? IT’S THE DEFAULT OPTION!? Really?  

Honestly, that level of quality is not acceptable.  It’s something that should not even be on their website.  They do have other options, so I can’t fully blame them.  My friend did have other options. Think of who they are marketing towards though. They are marketing towards someone who is not willing to build their own rig. They aren’t going to be thinking about how good their power supply is.  They are going to be thinking about getting the best graphics cards and CPU they can for their money.

 

I do have others…

The case is not great.  If you were building your own rig there would be  a lot better options.  Don’t get me wrong, he could have chosen another case as well, just as he could have with the power supply.. My friend wanted this case for it’s looks.  He did not buy it for its cooling potential, expandability, or features. That is not inherently a bad thing.  It is a pretty awesome looking case, but again I feel options like this should not be on their website.

Another is their testing phase.  It doesn’t seem that this rig went under any testing besides making sure Windows installed properly.  Within a week of him owning the computer it started BSODing. Seems to be a graphics card issue because when you try to install AMD drivers, it ends up BSODing automatically. I’ll update this thread accordingly when he sends it off for RMA.

A single 120mm AIO water cooler in my opinon isn’t enough for the likes of the 9370.

 

Conclusion

Overall it’s a kick ass product for the price, but it could be so much better.  Like said before, the power supply is garbage and that should not be in a system like this.  The case is okay, but again should be better at this price, and the cooler is not something I would personally use for the processor in this system, but works okay for what it is.  I also do not feel like the motherboard is up to the task for years to come with this processor. The UD3 is a fantastic motherboard, but I feel that a 9370 should at least be using a UD5 if not a UD7, Extreme 11, or Crosshair.

The last thing I have to say about the product is that they need to be doing more stress on their systems.  Having it not work after a week of ownership is proof of that.  The graphics card is failing and will definitely have to be replaced.  Let’s hope CyberPowerPC will fix this for him, otherwise it will become an even more costly computer as I will have to replace the graphics card myself.

 

EDIT: It seems as though HighPower does have a bigger name over in Europe and I am glad to see that CyberPowerPC is not just getting no name brand parts, but the fact of the matter is... This should not be in a rig of this caliber.  80+ in a 1400 rig is laughable at best.  It does not even name the brand on their website for this selection it just says. 800 Watts - Standard 80 Plus Certified Power Supply - SLI/CrossFireX Ready Doesn't even bother to mention the name brand like they do for all of their other products.

[Luke]

Is it worth having them build your computer? No. I'll read/watch your review anyway though.

[Clyne]

Wow 1200 build, should a got a i5 4670k not a 9370.

[jameyscott]

Maybe not to you, but for some people for the small price premium it could be worth it.  Would I ever have them build one for me? Nope. I'm seriously interested in their laptops though, since there aren't really any options of building a laptop yourself that are actually cost effective. That being said, with the way this computer was built, I wouldn't buy a laptop from them unless it was at an extremely discounted rated.  I'd rather check out the likes of DigitalStormOnline for a laptop.

[jameyscott]

Wow 1200 build, should a got a i5 4670k not a 9370.

That was without including the power supply and it was almost 1300. Including the PSU, it would have been very similarly priced.

[ShadowCaptain]

snip

 

I have heard of HighPower before, they are quite common in the UK on pc component websites. They are actually an OEM for other companies

 

http://www.highpower-tech.com/eng/see_page.php?need_id=20121207120342

 

They have quite a few 80+ Gold models and even a 700w platinum model!

 

They actually have a gaming series with special care taken into the 12v rail so it might not be THAT bad of a PSU

[jameyscott]

I have heard of HighPower before, they are quite common in the UK on pc component websites.

 

http://www.highpower-tech.com/eng/see_page.php?need_id=20121207120342

 

They have quite a few 80+ Gold models and even a 700w platinum model!

 

This is what I found of them. http://www.highpowersupply.com/

[ShadowCaptain]

This is what I found of them. http://www.highpowersupply.com/

 

Hmm 2 companies called HighPower, I guess you can look up the model on each website

 

EDIT: the one I linked to has some good reviews from techpowerup

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HighPower/AGD-750/11.html

[Clyne]

That was without including the power supply and it was almost 1300. Including the PSU, it would have been very similarly priced.

That psu that you reviewed in the video is not good, only 80 plus , get a evga g2 850w. It's fully modular and 80 plus gold.

[jameyscott]

Hmm 2 companies called HighPower, I guess you can look up the model on each website

 

EDIT: the one I linked to has some good reviews from techpowerup

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HighPower/AGD-750/11.html

 

Huh, well it seems to be from them. The only problem is I think it is an OEM model, so I am not able to find it on their website.  Either way, 80+ in a 1400 dollar system is silly, and shouldn't be something that happens. So, I might have been wrong about it being no name and not worth anything.  I still feel like it shouldn't be an option in this price bracket though.

[jameyscott]

That psu that you reviewed in the video is not good, only 80 plus , get a evga g2 850w. It's fully modular and 80 plus gold.

 

 

I go over that.  I was going to set him up with a EVGA 750w G2 when I thought the PSU was causing the BSODs, but then I actually got a BSOD code and found it his graphics card was failing. =/

[FizzyFantom]

Having read the written review it would seem your experience was different from mine. I have a friend who wanted a new desktop, so his parents bought one from CyberPowerPC.
My main issue with the build was not the large amount of money they took from the build budget (£1000 worth of hardware for £1600), but the fact that they "upgraded" to LED fans. Poorly performing cheap LED fans to be exact. This combined with the cheap AIO water cooler ("£32 to replace") and the poor choice of case (Elite 310) caused massive overheating problems.
As it turns out the CPU was defective when I came to look at it (two cores crashing and system freezing after only a few minutes of Prime95), but I suspect this was caused by the CPU always running too hot, because of the poor fans. The CPU is AMD FX 8350 (overclocked) and the GPU is GTX 660 (yes for £1600!).
Strangely the case is gone, but the fan "upgrade" is still there.

We bought a new CPU, cooler, fans and case (meaning he has spent over £1800 on less than £1100 of hardware), but it works very well now.

I consider myself lucky that they bought a decent Cooler Master PSU.

[jameyscott]

Having read the written review it would seem your experience was different from mine. I have a friend who wanted a new desktop, so his parents bought one from CyberPowerPC.

My main issue with the build was not the large amount of money they took from the build budget (£1000 worth of hardware for £1600), but the fact that they "upgraded" to LED fans. Poorly performing cheap LED fans to be exact. This combined with the cheap AIO water cooler ("£32 to replace") and the poor choice of case (Elite 310) caused massive overheating problems.

As it turns out the CPU was defective when I came to look at it (two cores crashing and system freezing after only a few minutes of Prime95), but I suspect this was caused by the CPU always running too hot, because of the poor fans. The CPU is AMD FX 8350 (overclocked) and the GPU is GTX 660 (yes for £1600!).

Strangely the case is gone, but the fan "upgrade" is still there.

We bought a new CPU, cooler, fans and case (meaning he has spent over £1800 on less than £1100 of hardware), but it works very well now.

I consider myself lucky that they bought a decent Cooler Master PSU.

I'm sorry to hear that.  I guess he got the best of a worst case scenario even though it seems that his R9 290 is failing.   I wouldn't say our experiences were too different, I mean right now he can't even use his system because of its problems.  I'm going to update the OP accordingly if they end up fixing the system and exactly what they will do about it.  To me, the biggest thing is warranty and warranty service.  If they fix this free of charge and don't try to blame him for whatever BS they feel like making up.  I'd be a bit more confident in buying a laptop from them, or even suggesting them to my friends who don't want me to build them a computer. Only time will tell though.

 

 

I have also updated the OP to reflect the newer information on the PSU.

 

EDIT:  Also, what do you guys think of the video quality over all?  The lighting will be improved in the near future, because I know the harsh shadows can be distracting, but I think my editing quality has improved at least... 

[FizzyFantom]

I have also updated the OP to reflect the newer information on the PSU.

It would appear that High Power uses Sirtec as an OEM. I don't know anything about either brand, but I'm sure you can find some info about them.

 

EDIT: I found this post on OC.net about High Power/Sirtec:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1412433/highpower-sirtec-power-supplies-information-thread

Antec, Be Quiet, Cooler Master, Corsair and Cougar don't use Sirtec, whereas OCZ and Rosewill have. Make of that what you will.

[jameyscott]

It would appear that High Power uses Sirtec as an OEM. I don't know anything about either brand, but I'm sure you can find some info about them.

 

 

I'll look into it a bit more and see what kind of quality it is, but if they are like any other re-branding company, they source from multiple OEMs so it might be difficult to find this exact model.

[xxnextenxx]

The PSU thing sucks and the cpu choice is odd for that price to say the least, companies always seem to find a way to skimp on something in my experience with pre-built high performance machines. It's the main reason I went to building my own (which I enjoy even if it involves spending six hours working out why windows lost its boot file ) My friend recently got a £900 pc from pc world, all pretty standard I7 cpu normal hdd 8GB RAM but only a gt series gpu!

[The Gaige]

Just my IMO but if you build it yourself you can learn how your rig comes together & if you need to repair it you will have a better understanding of what need to be repaired!

[The Gaige]

BTW, building PCs is awesome!

[Luke]

If you could trust CyberPowerPC to put together a well thought-out computer and sell it at a reasonable price every time i would have no problems recommending them. The problem is they have proven time after time that they are not capable of doing that. Their main goal here is to make money and they show that in almost every build one way or the other.

[CowsGoRoar]

They always have issues with their build. Either they're missing a screw or they ship it in late. That's what the reviews say on their page. The other 5 stars are just fakes.

 

I only custom, or else I would go with DigitalStorm or Xidax. If you're in UK, Chillblast and this other one that I forgot.

[jameyscott]

Just my IMO but if you build it yourself you can learn how your rig comes together & if you need to repair it you will have a better understanding of what need to be repaired!

Well yeah, and that's what I do. I was trying to avoid discussion like this since that's what most of us will do. Some don't want to learn and just want an awesome gaming rig.

Oh, and cyberpowerpc retweeted my review. Makes me wonder if they actually watched it...

[jameyscott]

They always have issues with their build. Either they're missing a screw or they ship it in late. That's what the reviews say on their page. The other 5 stars are just fakes.

I only custom, or else I would go with DigitalStorm or Xidax. If you're in UK, Chillblast and this other one that I forgot.

I plan on getting a custom laptop in the future from DS. I'll be sure and do a review of it as well.

[Akolyte]

No, Go to Digital Storm, NCIX or your local computer store and get a custom built one that is by someone you trust.  I don't trust CyberPower PC, to me they seem like the ones who would put some kind of hidden rootkit in Windows that allows them to track what your doing...

 

Nice review though

[jameyscott]

Look above. I said DS. (Digital Storm)

Oh, and the local computer stores around here are pitiful. The best graphics card they have is a 550ti....

Don't think they make custom laptops. I am eyeing one from sager that is built with an x79 chipset so I can plop a 4930k in it. Because you know... why not?

[jameyscott]

Good news everyone!  CyberPowerPC will be RMAing his graphics card.  Let's hope this one work.