By specialising in custom gaming PCs the value we can offer over other stores in terms of customisability, performance, price, service and quality is unrivalled. There are definitely some stores out there come close in some areas, but when it comes to a custom gaming PCs specifically, we can confidently claim to be Australia’s #1.
To highlight one of the biggest offenders we’ve picked out Harvey Norman’s ‘Pryron’ series of gaming PCs, particularly the one for sale now at the time of this post, the Storm Scout II. To compare and contrast we have put together a custom Valkyrie PC using the Evatech.com.au website, PC ID 64345 (link). This might seem a little harsh, but I’ll stick to the facts, break it down part by part and try to let you make your own decision.
CPU
Pryon : AMD FX 8350 Vishera
- Power Consuption : 125w
- Release Date : 10-2013 ( 2 Years Old )
- 32nm Processor
- 3D Mark Score Fire Strike Ultra : 14944 (with SLI GTX 980TI)
Valkyie : Intel i5 6600K Skylake
- Power Consumption : 95w = 30% More Efficient!
- Release Date : 09-2015 ( 1 Month Old )
- 14nm Processor
- 3D Mark Score Fire Strike Ultra : 21776 (with SLI GTX 980TI) 45% Higher!
Performance Data from Futuremark.com
RAM
PRYON : 16GB DDR3
- Release Date : 10-2008 ( 7 Years Old ) – Previous Gen
- Frequency : 1600MHz
VALKYIE : 16GB DDR4
- Release Date : 09-2014 ( 1 Year Old ) – Current Gen
- Frequency : 2133-2400MHz
GPU (Video Card)
PRYON : AMD R9 270x 2GB
- Release Date : 11-2013 ( 1.9 Years Old ) [Re-branded Gen 7800 Gen Card (3.2 Years Old]
- Battlefield 4 Ultra HD (2160p) Frame Rate : 36fps
VALKYIE : NVIDIA GTX 970 4GB
- Release Date : 09-2014 ( 1 Year Old ) – Current Gen
- Battlefield 4 Ultra HD (2160p) Frame Rate : 62fps 72% Higher!
Performance Data from Tomshardware.com
WiFi
PRYON : wireless n single band
- 150-300 Mbps Transfer Rate
VALKYIE : dual band wireless AC
- 1750 Mbps Transfer Rate >Up To 5x Faster!
Other Components
Power Supply
- PRYON : Unspecified ?
- VALKYIE : 600w 80+ Bronze Certified
CPU Cooler
- PRYON : Unspecified ?
- VALKYIE : 120mm Enclosed Loop Liquid Cooler by DeepCool
Case
- PRYON : CoolerMaster Storm Scout II in Black ( No Options )
- VALKYIE : CoolerMaster Storm Scout II in Black ( 24 other case options to choose from )
Motherboard
- PRYON : Not mentioned, sales guy didn’t know for sure, probably 990FX ?
- VALKYIE : Z170 Gaming Edition, SLI & Crossfire Ready, DDR4 up to 3200MHz, 7.1 Surround Audio, Gigabit Ethernet, USB3.1, SATA 3 Express.
Operating System
PRYON : Windows 8.1
VALKYIE : Windows 10 (Windows 8.1 optional)
Warranty Details
- PRYON STANDARD WARRANTY : 12 Months, Hardware Modifications Not Allowed.
- VALKYIE STANDARD WARRANTY : Per-component basis, minimum 12 months, up to 5 years (or sometimes lifetime) depending on component. Hardware modifications more than welcome. It’s your hardware!
PRYON : 3 Year ‘product care’
- $1099
- International
- Transferable
VALKYIE : 3 year on-site nws
- $165
- Australia Wide
- Transferable
That’s 6.66x cheaper! (Granted, not international for those of you taking desktop PCs overseas…)
Customisable ?
PRYON : on request, hard drive or video card upgrade, was quoted 2-3 weeks.
VALKYIE : yes, 100%, what ever you want, every component, with an easy click of a button through our website, ready to ship or collect in 2-5 business days.
Price
So with all the above considered, what’s the actual difference in price? How much more expensive is the 100% customisable, objectively significantly better performing system full of latest generation components compared to its competitor?
PRYON : $2,893.00
- Slower
- Older Hardware
- Shorter Warranty
- Un-customisable
VALKYIE : $2,440.00
- (MUCH) Faster
- Latest Hardware
- Longer Warranty
- 100% Customisable
No that’s not a typo, the Valkyrie is significantly cheaper, over $453 cheaper (at the time of this post, and that’s without any special sale or limited time discount).
But why stop there? Instead of absolutely blowing the competition out of the water, how much money could you save if we dialed it back to something that still matches if not beats the Pryon but doesn’t necessarily blow it out of the water?
The answer, a Custom Sirin Haswell Gaming PC (PCID 64387) Core i7 4790, with 16GB of DDR3, GTX 960 powered system that weighs in at just $1750.00, a massive $1143.00 cheaper! Madness.
