Help me create a build

[Webby]

The is no point getting the memory from ebuyer unless you are going to be buying something else to get the free delivery may I suggest you go for the Powercolor 4850 PCS+ from eBuyer £129 but the extra £10 buys you a quieter, cooler running and pre-overclocked card and qualifies the order for free delivery If the extra £10 is too much of a stretch then the Play edition form Powercolor is also quiet and cool but not overclocked comes in at £123.

[Mit321]

Might it be worth going for this and spending a little more now if it lasts me longer:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512MB...VI-I-HDTV-HDCP

[Mit321]

Sorry to change my mind but surely I should maybe scarp this idea and go for this?

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-right2...m-699-a-2.html

Is it possible to upgrade the GPU at a later date or am I stuck with the 4850, (which is the one I would choose)

[staffsMike]

It's £750 for that model now but it is a good deal. The Power supply I seem to remember was strained so yes you can upgrade the graphics put not really in terms of power requirement.

Stuck with 1 year warranty (without paying more) and a few proprietory parts..

It is a very good deal if you don't want to build yourself but I would say it's far from perfect. In my mind the better option is a custom AMD build with phenom II but each to their own.

[Mit321]

Will GPUs get more power hungry or will it be possible to upgrade in the future to something better? + will Dell Bios stop me?

[staffsMike]

Well yes and no. They will always push the the limits of what a chip can take etc.. but midrange cards should get better or stay the same.

the bios won't stop you.

[Mit321]

ok so do you think since i'm not very expert in computer building this would be my best option for now. I was looking foward to the challenge of building a comp but it seems like this deal is too good to be missed.

[staffsMike]

Since you can save £200 odd on your own build and quite possibly won't see much real world difference.. value for money comes down to your own opinion.

I wouldn't buy the dell personally. I'll have their laptops any day but I'd rather know what was in my PC and know I can replace anything when I want with what I want.

[Mit321]

Yea your right , I don't know what to do now. Seems like such a good deal and no hassle involved. The only thing was is worse in the Dell is the PSU and the mobo (even though it is an alot newer chipset)

[Pob255]

Problems with that dell

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dells...=D01SX01&s=dhs
Base cost £629
Spec
Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 920 (2.66GHz, 8MB cache, 4.8GT/sec)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1 64Bit - English
1Yr XPS Premium Warranty Support - Priority Call In and Onsite Support
Microsoft® Works 9 - English
Display Not Included
2048MB (2x1024) 1067MHz DDR3 Tri Channel
500GB Serial ATA (7200RPM) Hard Drive
256MB ATI® Radeon™ HD 3450 graphics card
16X DVD+/- RW Optical Drive (DVD & CD read and write)
Dell Multimedia USB Keyboard Black - UK
Dell Laser Mouse USB (6 buttons scroll) Black

Upgrades
4850 512mb = +£150
3x1024mb = +£30.01 or better 6x1024mb = +£99.99

Total £880 Not quite such a good deal

EDIT: On the good side, they now use standard mATX cases so the PSU can be swaped for any standard ATX unit.
The BIOS shouldn't hold you back from upgradeing/replaceing the graphics card, what the BIOS will probably do is not allow you to overclock in any way, there simply will not be the option in the BIOS.
There will be a bit of "free software" ie crud you'll need to uninstall. but on the plus side Dells come with a hidden partition on the hard drive that has a very nice and comprehensive hardware tester on it.

[Mit321]

No i'm getting the £749 one which has 4GB with it plus the 4850 512MB so surely that is a very good deal, better than I could do myself?

[Mit321]

Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 920 (2.66GHz, 8MB cache, 4.8GT/sec)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1 64Bit - English
512MB ATI® Radeon® 4850 Graphics card (It doesn't actually tell you much about the card do you think it'll be any good?)
4096MB (4x1024) 1067MHz DDR3 Tri Channel
750GB Serial ATA (7200RPM) Hard Drive
16X DVD+/- RW Optical Drive (DVD & CD read and write)
1Yr XPS Premium Warranty Support - Priority Call In and Onsite Support

£749 incl VAT and Delivery + I can get a G5 Mouse lobbed in for an extra wooping 3.49!!!!!!

[Pob255]

4096MB (4x1024) 1067MHz DDR3 Tri Channel

4 memory stick in tri channel

It's a good job dell don't do an overclocking service with maths like that.

[Mit321]

Is that a mistake? Or is that really bad or something? Don't they just mean DDR 3 when they say Tri-Channel.

Me confused

[Pob255]

it would be in tri channel mode if it was useing 3 or 6 sticks of memory
with 4 sticks it'll be running in dual channel (or even single channel not sure if the i7 can run dual channel)
It'll be a very small performance lose, and as the motherboard has 6 memory slots you could always get another two sticks later

[Mit321]

So it won't make a difference to me if I'm not overclocking? How do you know the motherboard has 6 slots?