Help, looking to Build/Buy a PC

[Nodz86]

As it appears I am going down the self build route now heres a lsit of what I am deciding on getting (will get updated after I decide on each part)(Also I have to go through and make sure all this is compatable with each other):

 

Case:

Thermaltake VA3000BWA Tsunami Dream £62.99

 

PSU:

1000W Corsair HX Series PSU ATX £138.52

 

MoBo:

Asus P5Q Premium £163.80

 

Processor:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550, Yorkfield Core £211.37

 

CPU cooling:

ASUS Silent Square EVO £35.68

 

RAM:

4GB (2x2GB) Corsair Dominator DDR2 PC2-8500 £82.07

 

Graphics Card:

Sapphire HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card £184.40

 

HDD:

Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB Hard Drive SATAII *32MB Cache* £84.99

 

DVD RW Drive:

Optiarc (Sony/NEC) AD-7201S-0B £16.79

 

Floppy Drive:

Sony 3.5" Floppy Drive Black - OEM £3.59

 

OS:

Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit £112.96

 

Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 £63.88

 

Total: £1161.02

[Baldy]

Well i know from my woolies day's that medion's customer support is rubbish. And so is there build quality. We had laptop's which were less than a year old coming back, some had dead batteries, dead chargers, keyboard's falling out and one that had loads of red pixels on the screen. After trying for month's to source part's for them the task became impossible, and sadly the customer's had to take a replacement from another manufacturer. So i feel that buying this desktop would be a big mistake but of course it's your choice.

 

Here's some reviews on medion in general. http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/misc-systems/medion-uk/reviews/

[Iced_Bullet]

As baldy suggests (or kind of does in a way) I would go for named brands. Dell (Yes I personally have had no trouble with the in the past except when it comes to upgrading) for when it comes to buying a pre-built PC. Of course you are buying the badge, so maybe slightly ripped off but don't have the agro of different parts from different places. But if you wish to buy your own PC for #400 w/o a monitor you should get a fairly good deal if you wish to keep you current HDD and Sound Cards etc (If you have one).

[Nodz86]

I read that site Baldy and the reviews seem half and half.

 

I know what your saying Iced the trouble is the named brands with that sort of spec are about a £1000 and I can't justify spending that on a PC.

 

I may just be looking in the wrong place for them i.e. PC World and I would self build but then I'll just go stupid like when I spec cars on the net. plus anywhere that does sell named brands always do them with monitors and the like which is an expense I could do with out (plus I ain't got the room for one, not with my TV).

 

If anyone has any alternatives please suggest as I do want to get one as I'm getting bored of the 360 and I want to start modding games.

[Baldy]

I've shown this nodz, but what do you guys think? http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145784

[iBilo]

Vadim Computers are very good, a bit expensive but the pcs are custom built and done by hand, you can get so much good stuff with it though.

[Iced_Bullet]

I've shown this nodz, but what do you guys think? http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145784

 

 

• 52in1 Flash Card Reader
  

 

:eek::eek::eek::eek:

 

Looks a good system ... looks a good basis for being able to up the GPU in future if Nodz gets it :)

[Nodz86]

Never even heard of Zoostorm before, its also got a shorter warrenty and less stuff on it. Still not exactly sure what to do. I want to explore evry avenue even self build but not to sure.

 

I'm very tempted to save and get an alien but with them you are paying well over the odds for the name.

[Guest RB26DETT]

want to build your own? you can save some cash. :)

 

we can help pick out parts. ;)

 

if you want, i'll put out a list that'll fit in your budget. what's your budget? :p

[googlproxer]

I'd say custom build one to the specifications listed in the first post

that's a fairly good PC

It'll probably set you back $800AU (dunno what it is in pounds or euro)

but it'll still be cheaper than buying a brand new PC off the shelf

[HavockJoker]

Build your own. Its cheaper and you get want you want.

[Nodz86]

want to build your own? you can save some cash. :)

 

we can help pick out parts. ;)

 

if you want, i'll put out a list that'll fit in your budget. what's your budget? :p

 

Thanks RB, the thing is I don;t have a budget as such. Also your talking to the person who has to get the best theres is even though there is something cheaper that does the job just as good. i.e. my tomtom is the tt920t, I could have got the tt720t but that hasn't got a remote control nor does it have a map of the USA. Have/Will I ever use the remote control, no, will I ever use the map of the USA or take my tomtom when I go there, no, but its nice to know I have it just incase. This is also the reason why when I spec an area 51 comp on Alienware it comes out to £6000.

 

Anyways this is roughly what I'm after:

1. Vista Ultimate (again premium will probably do) also I was tlkain to mellors and theres 2 versions one will recognise something and the other one you need to play with the bios which I dont really want to do.
   
2. Quad core processor would be nice (pentium or AMD, I've only ever used pentium comps)
   
3. 4gb RAM, unless you can have more now
   
4. 500gb hdd (if you can get bigger fo not alot more then that'll be good, a terrabyte will never get used tho)
   
5. A very good graphics card with full HD output.
   
6. A very good DVD RW drive with good speeds (not bothered about HD-DVD or Blu Ray)
   
7. Card reader
   
8. lots of ports
   
9. and a good case with a huge fan (to keep it cool)
   
10. lots of LED lights
    

I don't want alot, lol. I'll post a pic of a case I like later as I know roughly what I want (use alien ones as a guide)

[Guest RB26DETT]

Erm, here's where I can help.

 

Processor:

 

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450, Yorkfield Core, S775, 2.66GHz, 1333MHz, 12MB Cache, Retail

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=743028

 

Motherboard:

 

EVGA 132-CK-NF79-A1, NF790i Ultra SLI, 3-way SLI, S 775, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR3 1066/1333/2000, ATX

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=778516

 

Video Card:

 

512MB Gigabyte HD4870, PCI-E 2.0(x16), 3600MHz GDDR5, GPU 750MHz, 800 Cores, 2x DL DVI-I/ HDTV, HDCP

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=838515

 

Sound Card:

 

Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Professional

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=503578

 

Hard Disk Drive:

 

500GB Western Digital Caviar Blue SATA300, 8Mb Cache, 7200rpm

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=850814

 

Power Supply:

 

1000W Corsair HX Series PSU ATX, EPS12V, PS/2, Modular Power Supply, UK Version, 5 Year Warranty

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=782927

[Neo-Tech]

Ask on JCXP.net, bthey can give you a very good info on what PC to get and why. Check it out

[Camel]

I take it you want to spend less than £500, so i'll take a look later on today when I get back home.

[Nodz86]

I take it you want to spend less than £500, so i'll take a look later on today when I get back home.

 

 

As I said above I have no idea to be honest, I'm trying to work out my finacial situation atm as I ain't getting the overtime anymore but am due a pay rise soon so once I've sorted that out I'd have a good idea.

 

But realistcally to get what I want probably about £750 tops, but as I say it all depends, but when you's are looking don't just look for self build as I want to explore all avenues.

 

Thanks RB, I'll have a proper look later one when I get some time to go through it properly.

[Guest RB26DETT]

EEK! I forgot about the RAM. (flaps) >.<

 

get these babies:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=782925

[Guest RB26DETT]

hmmm. changed the Motherboard since I picked a ATi card as best bang for the buck and the MoBo I initially picked out was a SLi mobo.

 

if you'll be crossfiring, check this one out. it's way cheaper too.

 

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=847363

[Nodz86]

Just had a look through all them bits RB and I'm suprised how cheap you can get things, just wondering a few things.

 

The first one is how good are them components in the grand scale of things?? are they budget, top end or in the middle. Because if I do go down the self build route, which looks likely now, I want to try and get as best I can for the money.

 

Also when building computers is it just simply plug the bits together or is there soldering involved?

[Guest RB26DETT]

the processor i chose is a very good one but not the best. probably somewhere above middle because the best ones are the core2extreme :)

 

motherboard = excellent, not the best but it's up there

 

video card = ONE OF THE BEST! the HD4870's performance is in between the new Nvidia GTX260 and GTX280 and those two cards are beasts!

 

sound card = middle but still good

 

hard drive = middle but still good

 

power supply = very good

 

RAM = BEST!

 

if you want to change stuff to make them better,tell me. i'm lacking an optical drive, i don't know what's a good one. :(

 

nodz, i've never built a rig.:( i have my rigs custom built from where i get my parts. (perks of not buying online) and they dont charge for labor. i'd ask the true builders here like kalniel. but afaik there's no soldering just plugging and connecting.

[Nodz86]

Just browsing through some stuff now. what I want to know is what brands to avoid, whats brands are the best and what brands you pay for the name.

 

Also the usual whats peoples prefernce Intel vs amd, nvidia vs ati, etc.

[Guest RB26DETT]

Processor = Intel

Video Card = Either

 

I don't know if the less known brands are a must avoid. Like in the case for Video Cards, people would rather buy eVGA, BFG and xFx over say Sparkle, Palit and Inno3D.

[googlproxer]

HIS make great video cards

XpertVision are another good one for video cards

ASUS for a mobo (not for video cards though)

OCZ or Corsair for RAM

OCZ or Thermaltake for power supply

Processor depends on whether you want AMD or Intel

AMD is cheaper and recommended for gaming PC's

Definitaly get a Western Digital HDD they are the best and have brilliant support

 

I hope that was a help for your choice of brands

[Guest RB26DETT]

HIS make great video cards

XpertVision are another good one for video cards

ASUS for a mobo (not for video cards though)

OCZ or Corsair for RAM

OCZ or Thermaltake for power supply

Processor depends on whether you want AMD or Intel

AMD is cheaper and recommended for gaming PC's

Definitaly get a Western Digital HDD they are the best and have brilliant support

 

I hope that was a help for your choice of brands

 

+1 on WD for the HDD.

 

Corsair for the PSU too

 

AMD is cheaper but Intel will still be better no matter what even though AMD CPU's are clocked higher.

 

 

 

oh, avoid foxconn. they got cheap ass motherboards that stink.

[Nodz86]

Thanks guys.

 

Well atm I've got it narrowed down to 3 cases, probably get the processor RB suggested, even tho the Extremes are good I can't justify the cost @ £650+.

 

The same as I was looking at some of the NVIDIA graphic cards and the were about the same but then they were the ones with water cooling systems.

 

Anyways these are the 3 cases I'm stuck between:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/107994

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=452012

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/108008