Is it worth building a new PC?

I built my last PC a few years ago and it has served me very well. However, it's getting a bit long in the tooth now and i'm concerned about the amount of power it uses (it's switched on for at least 15 hours a day). I'm looking to keep my monitor, keyboard and mouse but want to replace the PC base unit. I've looked at a Mac Mini and nettop computers. The Mac Mini with a decent spec is quite expensive and i'd have to buy new software. However, it's low power consumption, relatively good performance and form factor appeals greatly. Nettops are too underpowered.

So, is it worth building a PC these days or is it more economical to just buy a ready-made one?

It depends on your what you want to use the pc for really Taz. And a number of factors will affect up the power usage.

Intel i3 based systems seem to be more power efficient compared to AMD systems though. I'm sure many will pop along and answer your question in more depth though!

What will you use it for? The latest core i CPUs have everything integrated and AMD APUs are also really good as they also have IGPUs. These are all being made to reduce their power requirements and some will even off a pretty decent gaming experience but a lot will depend on what you want to do with the PC.

Buying a good 80 silver or gold rated psu will also cut your power usage.

What are your main uses for it?

Also remember that a mini mac is still just a pc inside, or more correctly it's a laptop without a screen and keyboard.

My main uses for a PC are:

1. Skype (voice and video);

2. Web browsing;

3. Basic photo processing (Photshop Elements 8);

4. Microsoft Office (mainly Word and Excel);

5. Email.

Somthing like this would do you

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...d=2038&subcat=

or a amd liano equivilant

amd A6 £86 WITH A £10 CASHBACK TAKES IT TO £76
MSI A75MA micro atx mb £44
corsair xms3 2*2gb pc3-1600 2000mhz £30 (fast ram really helps the onboard GPU)
OCUK Imp m-atx case with 500 wat psu £30

Total £196 - rebate and a hard drive, dvd drive and maybe extra fans if needed.

The A6-3670K can be had for around £59 delivered from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/AMD-A-Series...3827710&sr=8-1

You will also get £10 cashback from AMD if you buy the CPU before the end of August:

https://www.amd-promotions.com/processors/uk/index.asp

Amazon is on the retailers list(link might not work in Firefox).

So for under £50 delivered it is excellent value and you also get Nectar points on Amazon purchases.

Here is my review of the A6-3670K with benchmarks:

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-reader...ew-thread.html

I have a Core i3 2100 too.

Does the computer still meet your computing requirements?
If so have you checked its power usage with a power meter?

If the computer still meets your needs, then its likely that the cost of upgrade will easily outweigh any powersaving benefits.

An SSD would give a noticeable performance boost on your rig.

If it's just basic usage you're looking at I can highly reocmmend the Dell Optiplex range. My manager has just had one delivered, very nice build quality, small form factor, decent performance and a respectable price (think it was around £300 for the base unit, it was the budget end of the range).