Wherever you search for prebuilt gaming computers, you will likely come across these two brands of gaming PCs – iBUYPOWER and CyberPowerPC. Although they are very popular in most of North America, they are not so widespread in rest of the world. Besides their websites, Amazon and Newegg, you can even find them at Best Buy or Walmart. Both companies have wide range of prebuilt gaming desktops from cheap sub-$500 gaming PCs to models that cost over $3000. For very high end custom builds you would need to use configurators on either of the sites, where you can customize everything. In addition to desktop computers there are iBUYPOWER and CyberPowerPC gaming laptops too, but these are not as popular as their towers.
Configurator
CyberPowerPC and iBUYPOWER have very similar custom configurators on their sites. There you can customize pretty much every part of your gaming PC and buy everything related PCs. The two offer some discounted gaming gear in their configurators (for example a $5 gaming mouse, keyboard, headset or mousepad and even discounted gaming chairs). Customized desktops usually cost more than prebuilts.
Cases
Both companies offer wide range of cases with different sizes, colors and shapes. Cases are categorized by liquid cooling compatibility. There is also possibility of lazer engravings on case side panels. You can customize your case with RGB lighting strips with remote or software control. Both brands offer optional professional wiring and colorful motherboard power cable extensions. Also, for extra price you can get noise reduction (sound absorbing foam) from either brand to make computer quieter.
Components
You can choose from wide range of CPUs, Intel processors from Core i3 to Core i9 and Ryzen 3 to high end Threadripper processors from AMD. There are also many, mostly overclockable motherboards from different brands to choose from. Besides that, both companies offer all kinds of RAM from simple memory sticks to high capacity ones with RGB lighting. There are power supplies for all tastes, from 350W to over 1000W PSUs. Hard drives range from 1TB to 10 TB. Largest SSD on iBUYPOWER site is 2TB, on CyberPowerPC it is 4TB.
Cooling
Both brands have different types of processor cooling from air cooling to AIO liquid cooling and even couple custom CPU cooling options. With the latter you can choose the coolant color. Processor liquid cooling must match with the case, there must be enough room for the radiators. Besides choosing the CPU cooler, you can also choose from different case fans with or without RGB lighting.
Extras
If you have the money, then you can spend hundreds or even thousands on tons of different extras. Some examples: HTC VIVE VR headset, video capture cards, monitors, gaming peripherals (mice, keyboards, headsets), sound cards, wireless cards, USB expansion. CyberPowerPC even offers projectors.
Overclocking
If you don’t want to or don’t know how, then you can pay either company to overclock the processor.
Places to get
In the US, iBUYPOWER and CyberPowerPC are offered pretty much everywhere. You can find lots of their prebuilt systems on Amazon and Newegg, many are bestsellers there. Walmart and Bestbuy offer some of their gaming PCs for pretty good prices. However the cheapest models are usually outdated, these have old AMD FX processors and slow Radeon R7 240 or GeForce GT 730 graphics cards.
Worldwide availability
CyberPowerPC is also based in UK, but iBUYPOWER and CyberPowerPC are still not very known in Europe. Interestingly both are available on Japanese Amazon.
Warranty and customer support
For desktops bought on US CyberPowerPC or iBUYPOWER sites, both offer three years warranty for labor and one year for parts. Their notebooks have shorter warranty, one year labor and one year parts.
Customer & technical support hours of operation differ a bit:
For iBUYPOWER it is:
Technical support
Mon – Fri: 8:30am – 5:00pm PST
Customer service
Mon – Fri: 8:30am – 5:30pm PST
For CyberPowerPC it is:
Customer & technical support:
Mon – Fri: 8:00 am – 7:00 pm PST
Sat: 9:30 am – 3:00 pm PST
Which is better?
There is not much difference which one you get. You can build a monster PC on either site. For prebuilts, it also depends on the model, there are good deals available from both CyberPowerPC and iBUYPOWER. However each of the two have some models that are not recommended because of the bad value for money.