Looking for a nice desktop

mistermojo · August 10, 2012

Seeing as you guys helped out alot a couple of years ago with my laptop, hopefully I can get some opinions on here as I'm fairly out of touch with modern specs and I'm finding my laptop can't really cut it at uni as I'm having to do a fair amount of rendering and high detail 3D modelling (plus I have so many games I can't play, assuming I get time in my final year...!)

So far I've found this, but I've only ever used Intel and Nvidia so I'm wary of changing (not a fanboy, just very stubborn :p) but ati/amd is looking a fair bit cheaper. Here's a slightly cheaper Intel system I found on another decent custom builds site.

The only extras I need are a keyboard and monitor so we're looking at just over £900 for the Matrix desktop above, definitely not used to spending that kind of money so I don't want to go much higher if at all.

Thanks in advance for any opinions/help :D

Ozzmcom · August 10, 2012

ditch the amd, and always try to use msi.

iNotACactus · August 10, 2012

Have you looked at getting a dock for your laptop and putting the necessary parts in that? Will definitely be cheaper than a proper desktop but you'll still likely need a monitor.

Camel · August 10, 2012

How comfortable would you be in building your own computer? It's fairly easy for most people, even if you've never done it before.

ScoobSTi · August 10, 2012

How comfortable would you be in building your own computer? It's fairly easy for most people, even if you've never done it before.

This. I think building your own computer is somewhat cheaper (only at certain places) and easier. Plus, you can obviously customize it.

mistermojo · August 10, 2012

Have you looked at getting a dock for your laptop and putting the necessary parts in that? Will definitely be cheaper than a proper desktop but you'll still likely need a monitor.

Didn't even know you could do that to be honest :p

How comfortable would you be in building your own computer? It's fairly easy for most people, even if you've never done it before.

I'd be ok with it, I wouldn't know what to do myself but I know a few people that might be willing to help. I'm not sure how much money I'd save though, I know the parts for the first computer only come out at £30 cheaper than on the custom build website.

August 10, 2012

That 30 pounds could be put towards more ram if you're doing lots of rendering and 3D modelling

Camel · August 10, 2012

Could easily build the DinoPC one for £700 saving £75 as shipping is £25 from there.

That's be enough to get you more/faster RAM and a more powerful GPU.

Does your university give you a free MSDN Academic membership? That could save you another £50 too as they offer Windows 7 Pro for free.

mistermojo · August 11, 2012

That 30 pounds could be put towards more ram if you're doing lots of rendering and 3D modelling

Could easily build the DinoPC one for £700 saving £75 as shipping is £25 from there.

That's be enough to get you more/faster RAM and a more powerful GPU.

Does your university give you a free MSDN Academic membership? That could save you another £50 too as they offer Windows 7 Pro for free.

I'm not sure about the MSDN thing, I can't find anything about it on google apart from this, it seems Microsoft still do a similar thing but it's only for development software now. Maybe I need to contact my uni directly, unfortunately they're pretty useless so I don't expect a reply anytime soon.

I've found a pretty good example of what I'm now after: Elite 3770K. With the monitor it's over £1000.

I've put all the components into Ebuyer and it's come at just over £900 :D Not sure whether everything is compatible but I tried to match everything as closely as possible. Might've missed something out, would I need extra cables or anything?

GTAMADDOG · August 12, 2012

If you choose to build your own and you need help then you know where me and/or Adam are :p

It's up to you whether you buy pre-built or make your own though. I'd always build my own, but I like building it and then seeing what I've made running at the end, even if I usually do find one or two problems along the way because I get pee'd off with all the cables and have blonde moments even though I'm not blonde :p

mistermojo · August 12, 2012

If you choose to build your own and you need help then you know where me and/or Adam are :p

It's up to you whether you buy pre-built or make your own though. I'd always build my own, but I like building it and then seeing what I've made running at the end, even if I usually do find one or two problems along the way because I get pee'd off with all the cables and have blonde moments even though I'm not blonde :p

Adam's said he's fine with giving me a hand, you can come round too and we can have a PC-building party :p

Also found out my uni does do MSDN, so I might be able to save £80, unfortunately I think all the accounts are disabled over summer so I can't register until I'm at uni, bit of a pain cos I want to use it now :P

Current Build:

Intel Core i7 3770K 3.5GHz Socket 1155 8MB Cache.. | Ebuyer.com

Crucial 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz Ballistix Sport.. | Ebuyer.com

XFX HD 7850 2GB DDR5 DVI HDMI Dual Mini DisplayPort.. | Ebuyer.com

Seagate 1TB Barracuda 3.5 SATA-III Hard Drive.. | Ebuyer.com

Samsung SH-S222AB 22x DVD RAM SATA.. | Ebuyer.com

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium w/SP1 | Ebuyer.com

LG E2242C-BN LED LCD 21.5 VGA Monitor | Ebuyer.com

CM Storm Enforcer Case with Coolermaster 650W GX PSU | Ebuyer.com

Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H Socket 1155 VGA DVI HDMI 8 Channel.. | Ebuyer.com

Camel · August 12, 2012

Adam's said he's fine with giving me a hand, you can come round too and we can have a PC-building party :p

Also found out my uni does do MSDN, so I might be able to save £80, unfortunately I think all the accounts are disabled over summer so I can't register until I'm at uni, bit of a pain cos I want to use it now :P

Current Build:

Intel Core i7 3770K 3.5GHz Socket 1155 8MB Cache.. | Ebuyer.com

Crucial 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz Ballistix Sport.. | Ebuyer.com

XFX HD 7850 2GB DDR5 DVI HDMI Dual Mini DisplayPort.. | Ebuyer.com

Seagate 1TB Barracuda 3.5 SATA-III Hard Drive.. | Ebuyer.com

Samsung SH-S222AB 22x DVD RAM SATA.. | Ebuyer.com

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium w/SP1 | Ebuyer.com

LG E2242C-BN LED LCD 21.5 VGA Monitor | Ebuyer.com

CM Storm Enforcer Case with Coolermaster 650W GX PSU | Ebuyer.com

Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H Socket 1155 VGA DVI HDMI 8 Channel.. | Ebuyer.com

Might be worth a shot emailing your faculty or the sciences/computing one about it. Mine are open all summer for most things.

mistermojo · August 13, 2012

Might be worth a shot emailing your faculty or the sciences/computing one about it. Mine are open all summer for most things.

Great minds think alike :p Emailed support yesterday, apparently when Microsoft went from MSDN to their Dreamspark system some accounts didn't get re-added but I've had an account made so can save myself £80 :D I also knocked of another £20 buy buying most of the components from Scan as they have a few offers on at the moment.

Total cost for the above is now £807.04, £200 less than the pre-built version; so thanks for letting me know about the MSDN thing :thumbsup:

Camel · August 13, 2012

No worries. I'll wait for the £80 to appear in my paypal account. :cheeky:

mistermojo · August 14, 2012

No worries. I'll wait for the £80 to appear in my paypal account. :cheeky:

Errmmm, yeah about that... the cheque is in the post ;)

mistermojo · August 18, 2012

So I thought I might aswell update this thread because I have nothing better to do and who knows, someone might be interested :p

Had a bit of a problem to start with as my bank decided to lock my account because they though someone had got access to it due to me spending a fair bit of money on 3 separate websites...five phonecalls later and it was sorted. Got my first few components from Scan on thursday, the rest should be here on monday :)

Boring photos of graphics card:

http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp117/mistermojo28/DSCF2785.jpg

http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp117/mistermojo28/DSCF2786.jpg

Not getting the card out of the packet just yet, so here's a google picture:

Even more boring photos of the RAM:

http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp117/mistermojo28/DSCF2787.jpg

http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp117/mistermojo28/DSCF2788.jpg

And the hard drive is too boring to show :p Can't wait to get it all set up :D