Buying a PC

[richieuk]

I've never relly been confident enough to make my own PC, so I've been looking at buying a Newbuild from MESH. I know a a fair share about computers but knowledge is bugger all in comparison to experience. Whihc is where you guys come in.

I'm looking to buy a rig that can run 3D-Studio Max *for Uni* like a dream, and game like a beast, all for around £1100. I was wondering if you guys could have a look at the following system, and let me know if you have an idea on whether its worth £1150 *thats with a discount* and if not, where you guys could suggest a better built system for cheaper.

Just so you guys can check it out its the Elite Q9300 Pro (PCA) *not A9300* from Mesh thats been tweaked a little.

Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q9450 Quad Core Processor(2.66GHz,12MB Cache,1333MHz) [upg £ 80.00]
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium Edition with SP 1
Aluminium ATX Midi Tower + 550W PSU [upg £ 30.00]
Performance Pack - OCZ Vendetta Heat pipe quiet cooling, Performance updates, specialist cabling [upg £ 59.00]
PCI-Express Mainboard - SLi nForce 750i SLi - Intel Core2Duo/Quad Core - ATX [upg £ 39.00]
4GB DDR2 800MHz Memory (2x 2GB)
500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive with 16MB Buffer
Blu-ray ROM Player Dual layer DVD Writer 24 x CD Writer
LightScribe Super Format 20x Dual Layer DVD Writer +R/-R/RW/RAM [upg £ 25.00]
512MB nVIDIA GeForce 9800GTX - Dual DVI, HDTV, TV-Out [upg £ 50.00]
22" Widescreen LCD TFT Digital Display (DVI, 5ms)
DVI connector Cable [upg £ 4.20]
Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Sound Card [upg £ 49.00]
Logitech S220 - 2.1 Speakers with Subwoofer *dont worry about this, I have 5.1 surround sound system w/ 5.1 headphones at home*
Logitech Cordless Keyboard & Cordless Optical Mouse
Free Microsoft® Works® 8.5 + Limited Microsoft Office Trial
Free Cyberlink Video Editing Suite - 7 titles (oem)
Assassin's Creed - Ubisoft, PC, DVD-ROM Game
Multi-format Memory Card Reader (ATX)
2 Year Hardware Warranty - Back to Base (UK Mainland only) [upg £ 48.99]

All help will be greatly appreciated and held in high regard as you have been reccommended as the best community to put this too.

[format]

Get a better PSU, CorsairHX620 or similar

[richieuk]

Cant, prebuild specifications limited to this or a 1000W in a new Tower...

If I could afford Corsair system, I would love to

[TAKTAK]

You could save a pretty penny by building it yourself, and nowadays, building a PC is rediculasly simple , most things are colour coded or only let you put them in the right way round...

the main thing i would be concerned about with that build is the quality of the PSU, as lots of companys skimp on them.... and TBH if a PSU goes it can take out your whole system (more likely with a cheap one)

also i would get an intel chipset rather than a nVidia one, but with it being prebuild, that may not be available to you.

and i would get a different SFX card

I would reccomend going the Build your own route though... as you would get alot of support on the forums if you needed it, and the experience that you gain may come in handy further down the line, plus the opportunity of saving a pretty penny....

TBH the hardest thing about building your own, is specing it up and most people on here would do that for you anyway....

[richieuk]

TBH the hardest thing about building your own, is specing it up

Any good sites (that give 2 year warranties and finance prefferably lol) that are cheapish for the parts? I've only ever used Misco before when upgrading old PCs

[TAKTAK]

Scan FTW

and you get free delivery on all orders over £20 just because you are now part of HEXUS

or if you DO want to go the prebuilt then scans 3xs systems are good and scan themselves have a support forum on HEXUS


oh.... and welcome to the community

[richieuk]

Why thank you

Ok then, SCAN it is (I've heard of them before when they were thinking of sponsoring iGUK) so I know they are reputable.

Going off the specification I got from Mesh, what parts would you, if you were building this PC for yourself swap out for better ones? I don't really know anything other than Corsair is generally the best brand to look for and relative specs.

[TAKTAK]

*this isn't a reccomendation, this is a straight up comparison*

Exactly the same spec (higher quality on some things such as PSU):

CPU HERE £199.74 Inc VAT
OS HERE £62.15 Inc VAT
Case HERE £66.85 Inc VAT
PSU HERE £64.38 Inc VAT
HSF HERE £25.84 Inc VAT
MOBO HERE £82.54 Inc VAT
RAM HERE £54.57 Inc VAT
HDD HERE £47.81 Inc VAT
Optical 1 HERE £78.60 Inc VAT
Optical 2 HERE £16.69 Inc VAT
GFX HERE £117.48 Inc VAT
Monitor HERE £132.76 Inc VAT
SFX HERE £28.07 Inc VAT

=£997.48 delivered...

and do you really need a bluray drive?

and regarding warranty, quite alot of hardware comes with a longer warranty than 2 years anyway... such as corsair PSU's having a 5 year warranty.... and lots of RAM is limetime...
i will post a reccomended spec later on

edit: one thing that is puzzleing me.... why did you post this in Graphics and Monitors?

[richieuk]

and do you really need a bluray drive?

edit: one thing that is puzzleing me.... why did you post this in Graphics and Monitors?

I was looking around in this part of the forum (from checking out a link on Google) and didnt realise there was that much more to Hexus. I, stupidly just posted in here thinking it was just one big general area lol without looking. Sorry!

And ha, what a question, do I need blu-ray? I pretty sure I can't even utilise it with the rest of the set-up as is, it was just standard on that particular prebuild.

And so far, thats freaking amazing! Cheers Taktak You're alot more professional and helpful than Mesh. (EDIT: Correction, than anyone else I have actually spoke to)

[NovaSphere]

You're alot more professional and helpful than Mesh. (EDIT: Correction, than anyone else I have actually spoke to)

His not a pro, his the Kung Fu Panda of Computers!

[TAKTAK]

Righty....

And novasphere... i think that you will find that would be Kung Fu Pandi

richieuk:

first off... i havn't added a SFX card as it's not personally my area of expertise...
secondly i havn't added a monitor...
and thirdly... the case choice is entirely individual (i have just picked out one that lots of people like and reccomend)

to the spec

this is where i personally feel the sweet spot is at the current moment in time.

also, i am usnig the Q6600 in the spec as it overclocks very well (i would say around 3ghz would be optimal for your usage) and very easily (you can get help in the forums regarding O/Cing )

CPU: Q6600 G0 stepping HERE £124.42 Inc VAT
MOBO: Abit IP35V HERE £54.51 Inc VAT (i'm a bit out of the loop mobo wise so it's a good idea to wait for someone (such as staffsMike/Blitzen) to tear this spec to pieces )
RAM: 4GB PC2 6400 HERE £54.57 Inc VAT
GFX: 9800GTX HERE £117.48 Inc VAT (may be worth waiting to see what prices do for a little longer/looking into the ATi 4870)
PSU: enermax modu82+ HERE £74.60 Inc VAT
HDD: 640GB AAKS HERE £57.21 Inc VAT
OS: Vista Home premium 64Bit HERE £62.15 Inc VAT
HSF: Xigmatek HDT-S1283 HERE £22.27 Inc VAT (cheaper than the TRUE and performs nearly as well )
Optical drive: HERE £15.51 Inc VAT
Case: Antec 900 HERE £66.85 Inc VAT

which comes to a grand total of *drumroll*...... £651.28 delivered

(you need to link your HEXUS account to your SCAN account to get free shipping , and if you want to make an order with SCAN that is under £20 then you need to phone the order through otherwise it will get cancelled [information on how to set it up is in the stickies in the SCAN section of the forums])

[richieuk]

I'm making a bit of a pricelist myslef and I'm looking at Mobos and im flabergasted... I really am... I'm wondering, what are the best motherboards to look at under £80, don't have to be SLI although might help for upgrading in future. Needs to be Skt 775.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=818511

That any good? Please sort me out hehe