Budget Rig

[amjedm]

The HDD has been changed to a 200GB Seagate, just to be safe. That said, I really believe HDD buying is a black art-- reliability seems to have universally decreased as the cost of drives has dropped, and your chances of a random failure or DOA unit are the same whichever brand is chosen(Unless, of course, you had a DeathStar!)

Agree with what you say but, I would rather have a Seagate fail on me in year 2 (as it has a 5 year warranty) than a Maxtor (only one year warranty)!

I've just replaced a Maxtor drive for a relative and his Dell PC was just over 20 months old

[DragonStar]

i take it you didnt like the parts i specced for ya then as for psu's that come with the case, the PSU in the system i built about 3 years ago is still going strong and it has more components than your putting in, save the money on the psu and put it towards a 7600

[v0x]

Agree with what you say but, I would rather have a Seagate fail on me in year 2 (as it has a 5 year warranty) than a Maxtor (only one year warranty)!

I've just replaced a Maxtor drive for a relative and his Dell PC was just over 20 months old

Very sound point Probably worth my while factoring warranty stuff in to future purchases, for whatever reason, its not something i'm in the habit of doing.

i take it you didnt like the parts i specced for ya then as for psu's that come with the case, the PSU in the system i built about 3 years ago is still going strong and it has more components than your putting in, save the money on the psu and put it towards a 7600

Well, I gave it some pretty serious consideration -- but there were a few factors that swung me the other way.

The big one was indeed the PSU, while I can see and agree with what your saying, the general group think seems to be oem psu=bad.

A big benefit to building a system for him rather than buying a prebuild like dell is that I have the ability to control exactly what goes in to it, including the psu-- and I would rather hedge the reliability bets by paying extra for a trusted brand.

Had the machine been for myself, I would've probably gone for the cheaper option, because I can cope with a single system going down. However, the brief for this system puts reliability above performance, because if a part does fail-- and takes stuff with it-- the money won't necessarily be there to fix the problem . Its a tricky balance!

Thankyou for the suggestions!

Edit: I can see how my logic is on shakey ground though, is there any evidence to suggest better built power supplies only benefit higher-end systems?

[DragonStar]

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=136410 <-- well what about that for the case then? someone else suggested it and said they use rebranded fsp PSU's, and FSP are a major brand, the FSP PSU i have in my SLi rig cost over &#163;100 and was highly rated in all the reviews i read, i dunno what the 300w one is like, but for the system ur putting together that will be plenty

[amjedm]

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=136410 <-- well what about that for the case then? someone else suggested it and said they use rebranded fsp PSU's, and FSP are a major brand, the FSP PSU i have in my SLi rig cost over £100 and was highly rated in all the reviews i read, i dunno what the 300w one is like, but for the system ur putting together that will be plenty

Okayish review in CustomPC. Can't link to it - best to do a search for AOpen H500B. Have just checked it.