Choosing a Prebuilt PC

[jonmiles]

Here's a likely contender from Scan Computers:

Casetek 1019SA Silver Aluminum Case
425W HiperPower HPU-3s425 3rd Gen Quiet Dual Fan Passive PFC
Abit IC7 Max3 i875P 800fsb DDDR400 Gbit Lan 4xSATA 6Ch (£315 base price)

3.4GHz Intel Pentium® 4 CPU "Northwood" (800FSB) HT 512k Cache (Add £164.34)
Corsair TwinX 1024 MB 3200 Low Latency ( 2 x 512MB PC3200 184 pin MATCHED PAIR DDR LLPT) (Add £209.00)
200Gb Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 Serial ATA (ATA-150) (7200rpm, 8MB Cache) 1yr (Add £71.89)
Sony Black CRX 320E Combo 52x32x52x16 CD-R/RW DVD (Add £23.31)

256MB Gainward GeForce 6800 ULTRA PP (6022) U/2600 (Add £333.95)
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy ZS 71 THX Retail (Add £59.25)
7 x Internal Case Fans 80mm (2 x Front, 2 x Side, 2 x Rear, 1 x Top) (Add £20.93)
MS Windows XP Home Edition OEM (Add £51.10)

19" Iiyama TFT PLE481S-S Silver Analogue, DVI, SXGA+Speakers (Add £339.00)
Logitech Cordless Desktop MX Optical (Mouse & Keyboard) (Add £61.89)
Creative Labs Megaworks 5.1 550D (Add £159.00)

pc cost: £1,825.41
VAT: £319.45
Total: £2,144.86


What do you think?
personally, the pros are that this has my ideal keyboard+mouse, sound card+speakers, my 2nd favorite case, 19" monitor, gainward 256mb 6800 ultra

my worries are with the processor mainly, i know all too well how the athlon 64 trounces these intel cpu's. Still, it should perform pretty awesome right? There are too many things wrong with the amd based pcs from scan, unfortunately.

Click here to play around:
http://systems.scan.co.uk/Systems/Co...SP?SystemID=19


_____________________________________________________


Here's a MESH pc

X-treme 64 - FX 53 Platinum 939
AMD Athlon™ 64 FX 53 Processor
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
Mainboard , GB LAN, IEEE 1394, SATA, RAID
1024MB DDR 400 RAM (PC3200) Registered Memory
500GB Serial ATA (150Mb/s) Hard Drive (2x250GB)
256MB nVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra - TV-Out & DVI
19" SONY TFT Flat Panel Monitor (Analogue/Digital)
SONY 16x Dual Layer DVD-RW (R/W all standard formats)*
SONY 52x CD RW & 16x DVD-ROM Drive (Combo)
Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS Platinum EX Professional
Creative Inspire T7700 - 7.1 Surround Speakers
X-treme3 Games Bundle (Joystick, Gamepad, 3 titles)
ASUS WiFi 54MBps IEEE 802.11g PCI Card
Internet Ready V.92 56Kbps data/fax/voice modem
Network Ready integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet
Logitech Cordless Keyboard and Mouse

Total cost £2099 inc vat

well, looks like it would perform better i guess...
any comments? i am so lost
i guess the mesh would go faster, would i be right?
any flaws or alternatives you can think of?

[MurphmanL]

I would personally choose the Mesh pc
Nice looking, slightly cheaper and should pack an almighty punch

[Aaron]

I'd go for the Mesh one too.

Gainward cards aren't all that amazing, tbh. My old GF4 Ti4600 didn't seem to clock any higher than any of the other brands, though it did have dual-DVI but all Ultras have that anyway.

The only slightly dodgy thing about the Mesh PC is that it comes with a Sony TFT. I'd much prefer the Iiyama.

[MurphmanL]

That Mesh pc certainly is a looker... if only I had £2000 lying around that I could throw away at a pc, I'd gladly buy that

[jonmiles]

thanks for your comments, you may just be swaying me towards the mesh

I'm surprised you guys like the style of it though, personally I think the Scan (top picture) looks stunning and the mesh looks so-so.

The only slightly dodgy thing about the Mesh PC is that it comes with a Sony TFT. I'd much prefer the Iiyama.

Yeah, normally I'd agree... Iiyama Vs Sony? Iiyama every time, baby!
But having seen both of these monitors in action very recently, i'd actually go with the sony. Most of their lcd's didn't really do it for me, despite the high prices, but this one was really spectacular, probably my favourite 19" in the whole of the Fry's Megastore (big american dept. store i visited when on holiday )

[Kumagoro]

Well i would have recommended mesh but after what just happened to someone I know I no longer do.

They bought a PC a couple of years ago from mesh and it came with a defective fujitsu drive (very famous and guarented to fail at some point)

They fail in two ways everything gets corrupted requiring a reinstall (you lose all info)
or they totally get borked and you need a new one.

This one failed within the warrenty but when they phoned up MESH wouldnt replace it
and said it was ok. I when i worked at a pc repair comapany i replaced over a 100 of these HDDs a week so i know they are all fooked.

Now the thing has gone tits up just two weeks out of warrenty, they refuse to replace it because its out of warrenty but they should have replaced it long before.

So now i dont recommend them as they try to squim out of replacing defective stuff.

[Lexeus]

Well I have that keyboard and the metal version of that case and I can say both are great !

But as much as I like scan I have always thought their prebuilt system were a little over priced, and I have heard some good things about mesh systems

[mike_w]

I'd go for the Mesh one, purely for the fact is has the Athlon 64. It should be better than the P4 in games, although I think that the P4 is better for number crunching. Of course, I'd choose to build my own, but I don't think you'll go far wrong with either of those, especially considering both have a 6800 Ultra.

[jonmiles]

after all this....

i'm thinking of building my own now
this comes from the fact that i called both manufacturers up and both would take 2 weeks to get it to me. I can learn how to put a pc together in that time! I've got a tentative spec together and i like the look of it very much

[mike_w]

after all this....

i'm thinking of building my own now
this comes from the fact that i called both manufacturers up and both would take 2 weeks to get it to me. I can learn how to put a pc together in that time! I've got a tentative spec together and i like the look of it very much

Good choice! What you thinking of building?

[jonmiles]

AMD Athlon 64 3500 (Socket 939) - Retail ----- £224.95
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (Socket 939) Motherboard ----- £81.50
2 X Crucial Ballistix PC-3200 512MB DDR ----- £159.90

Coolermaster Wave Master - Black (No PSU) ----- £97.50
Coolermaster Wavemaster/Praetorian Side Panel (SPB-T01-EKV) - Green ----- £19.95
Akasa AK-178-GR 12" Cold Cathode - Green ----- £7.50
OCZ PowerStream 470W Power Supply ----- £77.80

Leadtek WinFast A400TDH GeForce 6800 GT 256MB DDR3 TV-Out/DVI (AGP) - Retail ----- £259.95
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA 8MB Cache - OEM ----- £109.95
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 200GB SATA 8MB Cache - OEM ----- £74.95
NEC ND3500 16x DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM ----- £52.60
OcUK Value Floppy Drive - Black ----- £6.50

Viewsonic VX910 X Series 19" TFT Monitor - Black/Silver ----- £360.00
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS 7.1 THX - Retail ----- £59.95
Creative MegaWorks 5.1 550 THX® Speakers - Retail ----- £157.00
Logitech Cordless Desktop MX - Retail ----- 62.95
Steelpad 4S Alloy Mouse Pad ----- £22.50

Akasa Rounded Floppy Cable (0.45m) - Green ----- £1.75
2 X Akasa Serial ATA 45cm Green EL Data Cable ----- £20.00
Akasa Rounded Ultra ATA133/100/66 IDE Cable (0.45m) - Green ----- £3.50


Subtotal £1,860.70
VAT £325.63
Total £2,186.33

[Shogun]

Fyi this should have been put in Hexus Systems
I would go with the mesh too.

[bsodmike]

Mesh all the way. A nicer looking case would be in order tho But I guess you'll probably mod it

[pumbertot]

i recommend you build it yourself lazy ass.cheaper and better.

edit:didnt read that you were thinking of it.yes mate thats a nice spec you got there.do it!

without looking thru all the specs, if that 3500 is -vat then its much cheaper at dabs btw.

[pumbertot]

Qty Your Price Total
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2 GHz Socket 939, 512KB cache, BOXED

Article number: 300871
Stock status: 20-49 stocked 245 245

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MSI K8N NEO2 Platinum-54G Mainboard S939 nForce3 250Ultra,SATA,GbLAN,ATX,Dual-DDR

Article number: 300872

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cooler Master Wave Master Black Aluminium (Without PSU)

Article number: 300355

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MSI GeForce 6800GT 256MB GDDR3 AGP, NX6800GT-TD256, DVI/TV-Out, Retail

Article number: 300895

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spire Neon light "NeonBar II Blue" NEON BB Cold Cathode Blue

Article number: 119361

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crucial PC3200 BallistiX DDR 512MB CL2 Non-parity, 2.8V, 64Meg x 64, 184pin

Article number: 301858

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Western Digital Raptor 74GB S-ATA 8MB cache 10000RPM

Article number: 122429

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maxtor DiamondMax 10 200GB S-ATA 8MB cache 7200RPM

Article number: 302257

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NEC DVD recorder ND-3500A IDE Silver Bulk,DVD+R/+RW/DVD-R/-RW (Dual layer)

Article number: 301943
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sony Floppy Drive 3,5" 1,44MB MPF-920 Floppy Drive, Internal

Article number: 100727

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Samsung 19" LCD Syncmaster 910N TCO99 Monitor, Silver

Article number: 300908

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS PCI soundc. w/1394,THX, DD EX7.1, Retail

Article number: 120862
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Creative Megaworks 550THX, 5.1 (Sub,5 monitors,amplifier), Retail

Article number: 114355

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Logitech Cordless Desktop MX (English) USB/PS2,keyboard/mouse,retail

Article number: 121550

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Surcharges: 0
Your Ref: Total: 1875.3


at komplett.no uv cables, side panel for case or mouse pad but hell of a cheaper. some things a little different but mate prices much better than ocuk.oh and customer service too, no comparison.

[pumbertot]

infact better get all you can from http://www.lowestonweb.com (damn cheap!)
and the rest at komplett etc.