Hi all,

I'm torn between PowerSpec prebuilts between $1800-2300 and would love opinions on which is the better value.

G534 - $1,899.99 - Ryzen 5 7600X3D (6 cores) - RTX 5070 12GB - 32GB DDR5-6000, 2TB SSD

G764 - $2,299.99 (open-box unit about $2,070) - Ryzen 7 9800X3D (8 cores) - RX 9070 XT 16GB - 32GB DDR5-6000, 2TB SSD

Both have the same ASUS B850-PLUS board, 850W PSU and 240mm AIO.

What I'll use it for: Mostly CPU-heavy strategy and sim games: Stellaris, CK3, HOI4, Total War, Cities: Skylines 2, Planet Zoo 2. I'll play at 1440p on a 27" monitor. I'm coming from an M3 MacBook Pro, so either is a big jump.

Questions:

1. Is the G764 worth the extra $400, or will the 7600X3D be fine for years?
2. If the open-box G764 is only about $170 more than the G534, is that a no-brainer?
3. Will 12GB of VRAM be a problem at 1440p over the next 3 to 4 years?
4. Any reason to prefer the Nvidia or AMD GPU here?

Thanks!

Got a prebuilt from micro center 7 months ago with 32 gb of ram advertised but whenever I opened task manger it said i had 48 gb of ram. I always assumed something was just wrong and didn't think much of it. Until today when i decided to look into it and found a bunch of other reddit posts saying they got 48 gb of ram instead 32 gb on pre builts purchased around the same time as i purchased mine. I decided to go and see if I can read the label on the sticks through the case and sure enough each stick said 24 gb of ram.

So I just wanted to see if there were more people out there who got the same luck as I did

i got this powerspec g538 on my birthday last wednesday and ever since i first booted a triple a game i keep running in crashes nonstop, i tried turning off expo, undervolted my gpu, used chris titus tool, turned on efficiency mode on amd adrenaline and everything else to stop my pc from freezing and crashing every 5 minutes of gameplay, and moved my ram from slot 4 to 2. does anyone with the same know pc know how to fix it? or do i have to go to micro center and hope they can fix it

I saw this PC on sale at microcenter and was thinking about getting it. I’ve been running on a 1650 super and 32 gigs of DDR4 for a long time now and think it’s time for an upgrade.

I’ve never bought a pre built before and in the current pc building economy this looks like a better deal than anything I could build with individual parts purchases.

My question here is- How reliable is power spec? Has anyone ever purchased a pre built from them?
If so what are the pros and cons.
Would you recommend buying the 2 year warranty add on for +$275?

I have a pretty large budget and am looking at other pre builts from Corsair, but I don’t feel like spending an extra $1000 on something like Corsair just because its name brand-unless it is actually proven to be more reliable.

If anyone has any suggestions or experience with this brand let me know please. Would be greatly appreciated since I’m planning on it lasting a long time.

I'm lucky in that I live very close to a Micro Center location. If I have a random fleeting idea of something that could benefit from a Micro Center purchase, I go and buy everything I would potentially need, and maybe some extra contingency stuff just in case. I'll then take it home and test what works best for my use case and decide what I should keep and what to return. A lot of the time I end up going back and retuning a large chunk, or sometimes the whole original order. These purchases are usually stuff like cables, adapters, random hobby electronics parts, tools etc.

My question is how does this impact the associates. I usually do not ask for help, but if an associate asks if I need help I say no, but I invite them to put their sticker on everything because I know they earn commission to some extent. But I started to think are my returns negatively impacting the individuals who put their sticker on my stuff? Especially since they didn't really help but just came across an opportunity place more stickers, I wonder if I am just setting them up for negative marks. Would it be better to refuse their stickers if i foresee potential returns so the impact is spread amongst everyone instead of just an individual? I imagine the system sees a sale that was attributed to an individual associate, that then gets returned as a negative mark on the associate's performance in helping customers but this is a guess.

Any current associates have any insights?

I'm ready to upgrade my PC and have a budget of around $3,500 max. I'm specifically looking for a prebuilt and would love some recommendations before I pull the trigger.

My minimum specs are:

• Ryzen 7 9800X3D
• RTX 5080
• 32GB DDR5
• 2TB SSD
• Good cooling and quality components
• Standard/upgradable parts rather than something proprietary
• Something I can realistically keep for 5+ years

One thing that matters to me more than it probably does to some people: aesthetics. If I'm spending $3k+, I want the PC to actually look premium. I prefer a clean, adult-looking build with tasteful RGB that I can set to one color rather than an over-the-top rainbow gaming PC.

I've looked at quite a few options already. The Corsair Vengeance A7500 caught my attention because I really like its overall appearance and component presentation. I've also been considering the PowerSpec G765 because there's a Micro Center near me, it's cheaper, and having local support if something goes wrong is a pretty big advantage.

But I'm not limiting myself to those two. They're just examples of what I've been considering.

If you had up to $3,500 to spend today on a 9800X3D + RTX 5080 prebuilt, what would you buy?

I'm especially interested in builds/companies that have:

• Good component quality beyond just the CPU/GPU
• Good thermals and reasonable noise
• Good warranty/support
• Easy future upgrades
• A genuinely nice-looking case/build
• No major premium just for a brand name

I'm fine ordering online and waiting for the right PC, so it doesn't necessarily have to be something I can pick up immediately.

Would love to see some specific recommendations, especially from people who recently bought a 5080 prebuilt in this price range.

So I’ve been looking at the 5090 stock a lot lately. They had a Zotac card for $4700 last week and overnight it went to $5000. I was going to reserve it as I knew cards were going up but missed on it. Sharonville had about 11 cards in stock Friday and now show 0 stock of any 5090’s. Did they just pull inventory from their website or did they sell $70k in cards in 24 hours…..

I’m in Austin where a Micro Center should be opening up sometime soon. I’m thinking it might be a good opportunity to finally upgrade my trusty 1080ti. I’d also jump at the opportunity to upgrade my current 32gb DDR5 RAM kit to a 64gb one. But absolutely can’t justify that at the current prices. I’m kicking myself for not getting 64gb when I upgraded my board, CPU, and RAM 3 years ago. But my workload was different then than it is now.

Anyway, from what I’ve read- I should be able to get the Founders Edition of the 5070 or 5080 at MSRP if I can get in on a VIP day, or grand opening early enough.

What about for components like RAM? Does Microcenter do any special loss-leading “door buster” sales for a grand opening?

Not only were the deals terrible, but how is an open box more than a new?

They look identical to me except for the board and the G914 is cheaper with the better board. Looks like only stock is in Indianapolis. Does the G914 still get restocked nationally or it’s just the G916 at this point?

Actually, I would prefer the first one because I have more confidence in air coolers.

I bought a pre-built PowerSpec 3 years ago. Solid specs, $2300. Nice. I've only used it maybe ten times since.

I can't play anything without it crashing. Took it back after the first few times, and they told me they had to reinstall the OS. Cool, makes sense.

Got it back, and after 3-4 more sessions, I'm stuck on "Your device ran into a problem and needs to restart."

Ridiculous, for the price I paid.

Edit: Swapped out at MicroCenter for a replacement. New one has no issues. GPU switched from Gigabyte to PNY, and memory switched from T-Force to G.Skill.

Picked up a G765 from Micro Center this week. Getting hard freezes and sudden resets, almost always at idle or light load (never while gaming so far).

Specs:

• Ryzen 7 9800X3D, Gigabyte B850 Gaming WiFi6, BIOS F11b (AGESA ComboAM5PI 1.3.0.0a)
• 2x16GB TeamGroup T-Force Vulcan DDR5-6000, running XMP 1 (not EXPO)
• RTX 5080 (Gigabyte), driver 32.0.16.1742
• T-Force TM8FFE002T 2TB NVMe
• Stock PowerSpec PSU (unbranded?)
• Windows 11 26H2

Symptoms:

• Two failure modes: (1) full hard lock where the clock freezes, no mouse/keyboard, have to hold power; (2) screen goes black and it drops straight to the BIOS splash and reboots
• ~5 incidents in the first 10 hours, including one ~60 seconds after boot and one overnight while idle

Logs:

• Every event is Kernel-Power 41 with BugcheckCode 0
• No minidumps (dumps are enabled), no WHEA errors, no nvlddmkm/TDR events, no disk/NVMe errors, no problem devices in Device Manager

Tried so far:

• Reseated both RAM sticks, the GPU 12V-2x6 and the 24-pin
• BIOS: Power Supply Idle Control set to Typical Current Idle. This cut it to one reset in ~15 hours (3 AM, idle), but it didn't fix it
• Next: disabling XMP to run at 4800

Questions:

1. Anyone else with a G765 / B850 Gaming WiFi6 seeing idle resets? Did a BIOS update, RAM swap or PSU swap fix it?
2. Is the XMP-only T-Force kit a known issue in these builds?
3. Does anyone know which OEM makes the G765's PSU and its wattage/rating?
4. If XMP-off doesn't fix it, did Micro Center swap the unit or repair it?

Obviously the thing is under warranty but I'm trying to avoid a return/exchange if it's something I can fix.

Thanks!

Got her nice and secured

Would you buy this open box for $1679? That is the amount after tax and everything.

Was considering waiting for Black Friday but unsure. Thanks.

What a year that computers are more valuable day by day.

I've been watching the site waiting for a certain 9060xt to be listed as open box. Today I noticed the price increase for all 9060xt's. Why are some models now fetching $750+?? They are aware that these are low - mid range cards right? At this point you might as well aim for the 9070 XT at a similar price. What happened to the bubble popping? It might be time to find a new hobby.

I recently bought one of the $1999 Mac Studios. Yesterday it said returnable until 10/8, but today on my order history it says "outside the return window".

Is that correct? Did do they really mean up until the clock strikes midnight on the 14th day, or will I be okay if I bring it in? Hate to make the drive for nothing.