Should I build or buy a pre built system

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thanks to scan's deals of the day I know have the following problem

intel core 2 quad q9550 & 4gb (2x2gb) corsair twinx xms2 cas 5-5-5-18 £224.24
which seems a good price.

Does anyone have this cpu and how does it perform?

I am thinking of this or the amd x4 940 and combo that cat-the-fifth suggested.
If scan had dropped that processor mobo combo I would have been all over it.

I think with the adding a mobo on the intel build I can get that at about £20-40 more than the amd set up.

You can get the Phenom II X4 955BE for under £200 too:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=1003114

This is very competitive with the Q9550 and is the fastest desktop processor AMD make.

Some reviews of the Phenom II X4 955BE:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/16796

http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-ph...r-review-test/

The Phenom II X3 720 is also very good value for money too!!

Here is an overclocking review:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpu...ii-x3-720-be/1

Remember to get a decent PSU too!!

[TheChamp1000]

You can get the Phenom II X4 955BE for under £200 too:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=1003114

This is very competitive with the Q9550 and is the fastest desktop processor AMD make.

Some reviews of the Phenom II X4 955BE:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/16796

http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-ph...r-review-test/

The Phenom II X3 720 is also very good value for money too!!

Here is an overclocking review:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpu...ii-x3-720-be/1

Remember to get a decent PSU too!!

Thanks cat, I was thinking of the x4 955be but thought I would go for the cheapest I could do for good performance. (the x4 955be is good value dont get me wrong)

I started looking at the x3 720 then thought but the x4 940 is only £40 (cpu prices) more and with the mobo & ddr 2 vs ddr 3 making up that difference I would rather have an x4 940.

I would rather have the quad with ddr 2 than tri with ddr 3 for the same price.
Scan threw a spanner in the works with the q9550 + ram at only £10 quid dearer than an x4 940 + ram.

I have not had an intel processor since a compaq presario p2 266mhz!!! and that was around £1500+++!!!!+!+!+!+!+!




For a psu I got the tagan 680w superock that I posted in the deals section which was about £60 with postage included. I have a tagan in my current system and it has worked well for years so I had no worries with buying that.


Nobody told me when building your own pc that you turn into a stockbroker checking the latest prices at shop x & y every day scouring the place for deals!!

That should be the first warning, the second should be you will read reviews and tech spec sheets until all you see is blaaah blah. Informative no doubt but do try reading review after review on psu's after 10 it does not get any more interesting. There are no twists in the tale, no suprises etc. (Unless you read about the cheap ones that go up in flames!! )
I digress.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would rather have the quad with ddr 2 than tri with ddr 3 for the same price.
Scan threw a spanner in the works with the q9550 + ram at only £10 quid dearer than an x4 940 + ram.

I would say that the price difference is larger!

The Phenom II X4 940 and 4gb of 1066mhz DDR2 RAM comes to £202:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-P...Hz-125W-Retail

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-(...S-5-5-5-15-EPP

Anyway either the AMD Phenom II X4 940 and 955 or the Intel Core2 Quad 9550 will do the job well.

[jim]

Nobody told me when building your own pc that you turn into a stockbroker checking the latest prices at shop x & y every day scouring the place for deals!!

True, but it's worth buying all the parts from the same shop if it's for the sake of a few quid.

If you get all your PC parts from Scan, and the PC just refuses to start up properly, you whack them all back in the box, send it back to Scan. Then they replace the faulty component, and send you it all back fully working (if you're lucky).

If you buy them from two different retailers, you send the whole lot back, one of them finds a fault and sends the parts plus replacement back to you, the other one finds no fault, so you've paid £5-10 to post it to them, and then they hit you with a £35 fee to cover the "not-found-faulty" charge and delivery back to you again.

[TheChamp1000]

True, but it's worth buying all the parts from the same shop if it's for the sake of a few quid.

If you get all your PC parts from Scan, and the PC just refuses to start up properly, you whack them all back in the box, send it back to Scan. Then they replace the faulty component, and send you it all back fully working (if you're lucky).

If you buy them from two different retailers, you send the whole lot back, one of them finds a fault and sends the parts plus replacement back to you, the other one finds no fault, so you've paid £5-10 to post it to them, and then they hit you with a £35 fee to cover the "not-found-faulty" charge and delivery back to you again.

Yes I think I will do that for the main parts, I already have my psu from overclockers.co.uk but I have since heard people have problems returning goods. So I will probably go with scan/ebuyer or cclonline for the cpu/mboard/ram etc.

[Darlo]

Nice to see you chose to build your own
Overclockers are great when it comes to returns, whenever ive had a problem with them you can just drop them a webnote and they reply fast (usually 24h) there's always someone who doesnt get a return done properly with any company though.

[TheChamp1000]

I would say that the price difference is larger!

The Phenom II X4 940 and 4gb of 1066mhz DDR2 RAM comes to £202:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-P...Hz-125W-Retail

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-(...S-5-5-5-15-EPP

Anyway either the AMD Phenom II X4 940 and 955 or the Intel Core2 Quad 9550 will do the job well.

Just a quick update.

I have gone for the above Cat.
Both were in scan's deal of the day!
I was hoping to get the cpu mobo combo if scan had it but alas not. The above was more than enough

The phenom II x940 £143.74
4gb Corsair twinx 1066 ram £43.64
£187.38 Inc vat

too good to pass up!!
I also got the Biostar mobo for £72.32

£257.70 in total

I have a Coolermaster 690 and an akasa nero cpu cooler also on order.

Thanks to everyone for all the help so far. Buckle up because I still need to build it and will undoubtedly be looking for help if I get stuck! (Although I may rope a friend into helping me )

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Scan have an HD4870 1gb for £135 too on Today Only. I hope everything goes fine when you do the build!

The most important things to do during a build are:
1.)Make sure you take things slowly.
2.)Make sure you read the installation manuals for components like the motherboard and case properly.Also read any guides on assembling computers beforehand. It is useful to have a notebook to hand so you can refer any guides during assebly.
3.)Take appopriate precautions to minimise the risk of static discharges.
4.)Make sure you have the appropriate tools to the hand.
5.)Have a clear space to work on. I would make sure the surface is not carpet.
6.)Make sure you take things slowly.
7.)Make sure you take things slowly.
8.)Make sure you take things slowly.

[Gibbo]

The last prebuilt machine I had was a 486 which I was given by work.

I have built every machine I've owned since 1997.
I have never had a part DOA.
My machines have all worked as they should (apart from when I briefly flirted with WinME but then nobody's machine worked with that OS did it?)

I knew nothing about computers when I built my 1st (AMD K6-200 64Mb RAM)

Since then I've gone K6-200 / Celeron533 / XP2100+ / P4 3.2 / E6600 / Q9550



My Dad is still happily running my XP2100+ machine all these years later!!!

[TheChamp1000]

Scan have an HD4870 1gb for £135 too on Today Only. I hope everything goes fine when you do the build!

The most important things to do during a build are:
1.)Make sure you take things slowly.
2.)Make sure you read the installation manuals for components like the motherboard and case properly.Also read any guides on assembling computers beforehand. It is useful to have a notebook to hand so you can refer any guides during assebly.
3.)Take appopriate precautions to minimise the risk of static discharges.
4.)Make sure you have the appropriate tools to the hand.
5.)Have a clear space to work on. I would make sure the surface is not carpet.
6.)Make sure you take things slowly.
7.)Make sure you take things slowly.
8.)Make sure you take things slowly.

for no.3 an anti static wrist strap or mat would suffice?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

for no.3 an anti static wrist strap or mat would suffice?

They should both do the job but TBH I have never used either.

I just take the following precautions:
1.)I make sure that I do wear any clothes that generate static easily.
2.)I earth myself using something like the radiator.
3.)I assemble the computer on a wooden table or on the floor if it is wooden.
4.)I always handle all components by the edges and do not ever touch the PCB or any contacts directly if possible.
5.)I keep all items in their anti-static bags until I need to use them.

These links should help:

http://www.build-your-own-cheap-comp...ectricity.html

http://www.pcworld.com/article/82184...o_your_pc.html

http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/...002/static.asp

[TheChamp1000]

They should both do the job but TBH I have never used either.

I just take the following precautions:
1.)I make sure that I do wear any clothes that generate static easily.
2.)I earth myself using something like the radiator.
3.)I assemble the computer on a wooden table or on the floor if it is wooden.
4.)I always handle all components by the edges and do not ever touch the PCB or any contacts directly if possible.
5.)I keep all items in their anti-static bags until I need to use them.

These links should help:

http://www.build-your-own-cheap-comp...ectricity.html

http://www.pcworld.com/article/82184...o_your_pc.html

http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/...002/static.asp

Thanks for the linkage, I usually earth myself using the radiator and follow the steps above after.

[scaryjim]

I have an anti-static mat and wrist-strap, but I only rarely use the second (generally when I'm building PCs for proper clients that I'll have to replace out of my own pocket if anything goes wrong!). The mat I use quite often because it is non-slip on both sides so it holds everything in place well during the build. But I've built several machines without either and have yet to fry anything with ESD.

it's worth noting, however, that some people seem to naturally generate more static than others, so if you have a tendancy towards receiving static shocks it may well be worth getting a wrist strap to earth yourself, just in case. As CAT says, you also need to wear clothes that won't generate static: generally this means avoid manmade fibres. Cotton is your friend

[dfour]

I have built all my machines since my first K6-2 350 64 meg of ram machine and will continue to build my own (and my family and friends) for the foreseeable future.

You have the basis of a good build there as I run 940BE stable as a rock at 3.5gig all day. Have fun with the rest and cats advice is very good

[TheChamp1000]

I have built all my machines since my first K6-2 350 64 meg of ram machine and will continue to build my own (and my family and friends) for the foreseeable future.

You have the basis of a good build there as I run 940BE stable as a rock at 3.5gig all day. Have fun with the rest and cats advice is very good

Thank you, I have just taken delivery of the order, have an antistatic wrist strap and some good tips to get me started with the build.
The thing to this point that I am happy with is the fact that I am deciding which parts to put in the pc.
With some online configurations they give you some options but they are limited, also the cost so far has been very good.
I did not expect to get the 940be motherboard and 4gb of 1066 for £260ish.
Add into this the case + psu and its around £380 without gfx( i have onboard just now until i decide )
and no o/s which I already have.

[TheChamp1000]

Just a quick update on my build.

Disaster struck immediately with my build when assembling. Powered on the system but nothing.

I removed the heatsink and cpu to check if it was aligned correctly and the pins on my cpu are bent!

I returned the CPU & Mobo to scan (they told me to return the mobo as well and they would test it for me. I had scansure which I will be taking out with any future builds!!)

Got the parts back yesterday and I have got the system up and running late last night.

I will post again on the case cpu temps etc just incase anyone is looking for a similar system.

I am going to do some benchmarking to see if all is running well later on in the weekend.

I am currently running xp 32 bit so I am only registering 3.3gigs (ish) of ram I may move up to 64 bit depending on how I find it.

Where would I get the most accurate results for cpu temps when I am running at loads etc?