UPDATE 2014: All of the cheap parts in this piece of garbage went bad, one by one. I ended up stripping down the remaining working parts and selling them. Recouped all but $100 of the cost. Then I buckled down and started doing a ton of research... and I custom-built my own gaming PC for around $1200 last year. No more liquid cooling, I just don't know enough about them to be 100% certain I wanted to use it; I went the safe route. I'm superbly happy and proud of the new PC I built, and happy I don't have to deal with a third-party like Cyberpower if any of the parts go bad (though it's been more than a year now and everything still runs like a dream).
If you are considering getting a mid- to higher-end PC, I highly recommend hunkering down and doing your own research... build your own PC, instead of going through third-party builders like CyberPower PC and IBuyPower.
From 2011:
Just so everyone is aware of WHY I am so pissed off... And yes, I realize that I shouldn't have bought from them now, hindsight et all. I bought this PC for $800 on 3/7/11. When it arrived, it had a hairline crack in the temperature gauge. Not a big deal, clearly a manufacturer defect. I contacted CyberPower and they made me email pictures of the crack, along with pictures of the outside and inside of the box in which it was shipped to prove it wasn't damaged in shipment, before they would send me another. It took 3 weeks for a new front panel to arrive.
Almost exactly 2 months after purchasing this computer (April 14 to be exact), my ATI Radeon 5770 melted. The fan stopped working, the card temp spiked to about 120 degrees, and the PC crashed. This was definitely not my doing, since the moment it arrived I kept it in immaculate condition. Not a spec of dust on this baby.
So I called CyberPower again, and they told me that everything was fine, they had 10 more video cards in stock like mine, and to just ship it back. As soon as they received it, they would overnight me a new one. I had to ship it back AT MY OWN EXPENSE, mind you. Once they received my epic video card, I was told an entirely different story. Suddenly they were on backorder of my video card, it would take 3 weeks for another one to arrive at the warehouse, and then 5 business days after that to ship.
COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE. I work from home, any time without this computer is time I have to drive into the office to work, and I lose pay per hour for it. So I asked if they could send me a comparable video card that they had in stock. They informed me that they could send me one that was slightly better, but *I* would have to pay the difference. The next one up was a $14 difference, lo and behold they're on backorder for those too. The next one is a $57 price difference. Um... I am not dropping another sixty freakin dollars for a video card that it is not my fault in the first place that it broke.
It took from April 14-May 13 to get my video card back. ONE MONTH. If I had known from the start that it would have taken that long, I would have bought another one retail and had them refund my video card cost. I put a temporary piece of shit video card in the PC so that it would keep running and I could continue working from home.
ONE WEEK before I got my blessed new video card back... this noise started happening. And this is nothing compared to the high pitched squeal it makes intermittently for no gorram reason. I know it's a bad fan. I've heard fans go bad before. However, this is the first PC I've bought that has liquid cooling, and I've never heard that kind of high pitched squeal before, so I assume it is coming from there. Since installing my new video card, the noise is still happening, so I it's from somewhere else.
SO. Now you know why I'm so pissed. CyberPower has not returned any of my calls now, they always say they have to have someone else call me back whenever I get through to support and then no one ever calls. I filed a complaint with the BBB. Suck it, CyberPower.
