Which of these two systems? Scan or Chillblast

[staffsMike]

They help us a lot so it's nice to return the favour

YoYotech are good too

[Noxvayl]

If you have any questions about setting up the hardware I know I'd be glad to help and I'm sure I could say the same of most the guys here at hexus. We are all willing to help and I can assure you its easier than you think. Its also very helpful having put together your computer yourself. The extra knowledge gained from building your own machine is invaluable so I'd recommend doing it

[Terria]

Thanks everyone for your replys. I have decided to go with Scan as recommended.

I have thought about building but the only thing i have ever done is install extra RAM so i have zero experience.It does really interest me, besides being a money saver it would be great to learn..I am in no rush to buy right now and i do have spare time over the summer to give it a go.Obvious reasons for not doing it are "i might make a balls of it". and i don't have much of an idea of what components are compatible and suited best to my needs.

The 3XS pre-built does look very nice and i guess having it built by someone that knows what they are doing is a huge bonus.

Can i ask what type of money can be saved by building it yourself or what improvements can be had on the 3XS spec for the same cost?

Many thanks once again.

[Lucio]

I have thought about building but the only thing i have ever done is install extra RAM so i have zero experience.It does really interest me, besides being a money saver it would be great to learn..I am in no rush to buy right now and i do have spare time over the summer to give it a go..

To give you an idea, I built my first PC earlier this year, with about the same level of experience. My biggest worry was installing the CPU, but as it turns out Intel LGA775 CPU's are a breeze to install if you read the instructions and the cooler I used was likewise straight forward, again by following the instructions. Then again, I'd spent a few months reading everyone's posts about their problems, and following the answers until I was confident I knew the most common issues (like RAM voltages, BIOS incompatabilities, not plugging in the extra 4/8 pin power lead and so on)

The biggest reason not to do a self build, IMO, would be if you aren't prepared for it to go wrong and to put the time in solving why it's not working.

[vmong]

well £858 is quite expensive and a top system could cost possible £600 for you since you want mainly gaming. so even if you did pre built it im guessing you could return parts if they are damaged OR with the surplus cash you could probably buy the parts again since you are saving so much.
but the satisfaction you get from hearing your own computer go onto th ewindows screen is great cos YOU MADE IT HAPPEN

[vmong]

plus the GFX card GeForce 8500 is OLD!!!! and for tha tprice they are ripping you off you need a 8800 at least to somewhat get up to date.

[Terria]

Vmong i think you may have mis-read my post, i do not wish to game.

[Terria]

Ooops

[Noxvayl]

You could either save yourself a considerable amount of money, normally like £100-£250 depending on your needs for components, or like I prefer to do is choose better quality components that should last longer and perform better in your system.

Like for example you could get yourself Corsair Dominator(micron D9 widely accepted as the best memory chips) PC8500 1066Mhz memory as opposed to Corsair XMS2 PC6400 800Mhz normally given in pre-built systems. Also you could choose a motherboard which has extra features you might like to use or you could choose one with less features you don't require but still keep the good quality and performance.

In every component there are loads of pros and cons to be decided and each individual can possibly save loads building themselves by being more specific to there needs. A pre-built system has limits to how customisable it can be and often for me doesn't have what I want.

As for your experience you have more experience than I had my first build and I managed to get it right All you need to do is ask people in the know what you need to know. Just ask away and I'm sure someone here at hexus will be able to answer your questions. If your still uncomfortable you can take my MSN address and I can talk you through what needs to be done(someone has done this before on hexus so I'm sure others are more than happy to do the same).

We are here to help you and you can rest assured the techies here are very knowledgeable.