buying a new PC

[Wild]

looking to buy a new PC but i aint to hot on building them even though i did it ok a few yrs ago.. im concerned about compatablity of components etc

question is .. were is best place to buy prebuilt PC ?

looked at OCuk and might go for one of their ones .. but id rly like to pick and chose what components i have in it .. then ofc they build it.

also is Vista stable now ? tbh i aint got a clue about it .. preium ? ultimate ? worth paying more for ?


any elp would be great ! :worthy::worthy:

 

[Aesgir]

I'm going for a no on Vista stability at the mo. It still has just too many niggly problems, and driver issues (although less of those now). I'd hold off on it til they actually do release SP1, or you REALLY need directx 10 so you can get ram hogging desktop fluff . I'd say home premium is the most you'd need unless you're a business user, so save the cash you'd shell out for ultimate.

 

[old.Whoodoo]

I usually build my own, but get sick of ordering it all only for 1 part to be borked and I have to wait till they send me another and so on. So I chose to get one done to my specs by someone else for a change. Did I mention Im also lazy?

PCSPECIALIST.CO.UK - Custom PCs, Custom Computers, Custom PC, Custom Built Computers, Gaming PC - very reasonable to be honest, and you can tailor it to your exact standards from the sublime to the downright daft. I just spent £850 on a machine with quadcore 2.4Ghz, 4Gb decent mem, 2 x SLI 8800GTS - all should perform well.

The big problem atm is the OS, Vista is proving a nightmare to most, bugs, drivers etc all causing problems, while XP doesnt support 64bit, unless you get XP64 which is shite and doesnt work properly at all.

Steer clear of Dell, their customer service sucks goats, unless you pay top dollar for a system. Go in PC world and you need to be shot. Go in Dixons and you need to be shot and hung. Buy one from Tescos and you wil be commited to an asylum as part of the warentee. Alienware are now part of Dell...nuff said!

 

[Reza]

If budget isnt much of an issue, and you want a prebuilt PC with great quality and service you cant go far wrong with Falcon Northwest.

And with the weak dollar they probably arent as major a hit to the wallet as they were when i last checked.

 

[Wild]

many thanks for the advise ppl !

i cant seem to find any maker who puts together the parts im after .

ive decided to build my own after all this (god elp me)


this is what im going for . if any1 can recommend i change anything for any reason please let me know . im sure ppl will say Solid state will be a waste of time but ive been reading loads and i think it is going to be the way froward for top end speced PC's next year.

btw is 620w PSU ok for this rig ?




Processor
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600"Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" (2.40GHz)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - OEM

+Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775)



Mobo
Asus P5KC Combo Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard (£67.99)
Asus P5KC Combo Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard


RAM
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC)

HDD--Primary
Samsung MCAQE32G5APP-0XA00 32GB 2.5" Solid State Hard Drive
Samsung MCAQE32G5APP-0XA00 32GB 2.5" Solid State Hard Drive
will use Startech 2.5" to 3.5" IDE Hard Drive Cable Adapter for this

HDD--secondary
Samsung SpinPoint T 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
Samsung SpinPoint T 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD501LJ)


GFX Card
Asus GeForce EN8800 GT TOP 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
Asus GeForce EN8800 GT TOP 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail


Sound Card
Razer Barracuda AC-1 Gaming 7.1 Sound Card -
Razer Barracuda AC-1 Gaming 7.1 Sound Card - Retail
(going for this because i have the barracuda headset that needs this)

PSU
Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-620HXUK)
Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-620HXUK)

OPTICAL DRIVE
Samsung SH-S203NRSMN 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter
Samsung SH-S203NRSMN 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter (Beige/Black/Silver) - Retail

CASE
Antec P182 Special Edition Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Mirror Finish) (£113.96)
Antec P182 Special Edition Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Mirror Finish)

Moniter
Samsung SM-225MD 22" HD Ready Widescreen LCD Monitor with Digital TV Tuner - Glossy Black
Samsung SM-225MD 22" HD Ready Widescreen LCD Monitor with Digital TV Tuner - Glossy Black

 

[Deepfried]

Hey Wild hows it going
hopes ya are well
deep

 

[Twist]

btw is 620w PSU ok for this rig ?

Yes

HDD--Primary
Samsung MCAQE32G5APP-0XA00 32GB 2.5" Solid State Hard Drive
Samsung MCAQE32G5APP-0XA00 32GB 2.5" Solid State Hard Drive
will use Startech 2.5" to 3.5" IDE Hard Drive Cable Adapter for this

Jesus christ - are you made of money??

 

[Wild]

Jesus christ - are you made of money??

Yes


erm no i aint paying :0 well sorta .. anyhoo my company is paying so no VAT and i gota budget sooo


Hi Deep !

 

[cHodAX]

Yes


erm no i aint paying :0 well sorta .. anyhoo my company is paying so no VAT and i gota budget sooo


Hi Deep !

Ditch the SSD's and get 2 of those Samsung drives, run them in RAID 0 for superb performance, low heat and whisper quiet drive access. You also want 4gb of memory and not 2gb trust me, in a year you will regret it if you don't. Do not get the Samsung DVD writer, you want a Pioneer SATA. Oh and ditch that crappy cooler you specced.

You want a Thermalright Ultra 120 with a Noctua 12cm 1200rpm silent fan if you plan to do the job properly. Nothing touches the Thermalright in it's class, every Quad system I build has one because it is that damn good. Anandtech.com and Hardocp.com agree with me as well!

 

[Wild]

was going to be to late to change as i had orderd it all .. BUT OcUk are a bunch of twats .. i pay for it tuesday morning and im told on the phone it will be going out wednesday and everything is in stock .. i then phone them on wednesday at about midday asking is it defo going to be sent today coz i will take a day off work tommorow so i can sign for it .,,. yes they say nps its geting sent and all is in stock..

1pm today phone em to see if it did get sent etc and im told .. sorry not all the items are in stock so we didnt ship any of it.. im like erm i paid £25 for an overnight delervery . also said was told twice everything was in stock .. sorry nothing they can do .. the items they are missing have no date to when their next shipment will be in and it "should" be before Xmas though not 100% sure ..


i canceled with the useless feks

any1 else recommend a component seller apart from overclocker feks :S

thx for advice chod ill look into that doing that .. am a total noob so pm me yr msn so i can bug u about how to setup raid 0 drives



oh and hi Deep !

 

[cHodAX]

was going to be to late to change as i had orderd it all .. BUT OcUk are a bunch of twats .. i pay for it tuesday morning and im told on the phone it will be going out wednesday and everything is in stock .. i then phone them on wednesday at about midday asking is it defo going to be sent today coz i will take a day off work tommorow so i can sign for it .,,. yes they say nps its geting sent and all is in stock..

1pm today phone em to see if it did get sent etc and im told .. sorry not all the items are in stock so we didnt ship any of it.. im like erm i paid £25 for an overnight delervery . also said was told twice everything was in stock .. sorry nothing they can do .. the items they are missing have no date to when their next shipment will be in and it "should" be before Xmas though not 100% sure ..


i canceled with the useless feks

any1 else recommend a component seller apart from overclocker feks :S

thx for advice chod ill look into that doing that .. am a total noob so pm me yr msn so i can bug u about how to setup raid 0 drives



oh and hi Deep !

Overclockers have done the same to me twice in the last 6 weeks, if they don't sort thier shit out soon I am changing suppliers.

 

[Reza]

The SSD, sounds great. You plan to partition it for system and major progs? Either way an SSD really will take out/reduce the most common bottleneck in most systems. I think its a great idea and even 5 raided raptors wouldnt touch it for speed. I reckon im even jealous ;-) .

The CPU fan you've choosen ive never really heard of. The fail safe option last time i was looking was the TuniqTower. The standard thermal paste option was Artic Silver 5, others swear on Zalmans thermal liquid, and the hardcore OCers go for Cool Labs Liquid Metal Pads Coollaboratory - the worldwide best liquid metal cooling solutions!

I know v little about the new P35 chipsets So no comment on mobo

On ram, abit like the cooling, depends on how much u plan to OC i guess. Timings seem great, and speed should be fine unless u plan crazy OC. On amount of ram i guess the OS u plan makes a difference, but eventually if u want to make the most of your 4 cores multitasking maybe ull want more than 2 gb ram.

The GFX card looks great and for a 22inch monitor its good u havent choose to go ott and SLI. Maybe consider BFG or EVGA instead of Asus for better warranty?

On the PSU, im not sure if it would be enough to drive everything youve choose or if the efficiency/ running costs of the corsair is any good ( ive heard they are good value for money). I normally opt for 750w+ etasis or p&c power PSUs.

Cool mirror finish on the case (reminds me of the sanding and buffing the CPU and cooler get if u want optimal thermal conductivity), very OCerish.

For alternative to OCers, try Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

Im guessing though this time of year all of the suppliers are going to have a harder time offering the fastest of services.

 

[cHodAX]

On the PSU, im not sure if it would be enough to drive everything youve choose or if the efficiency/ running costs of the corsair is any good ( ive heard they are good value for money). I normally opt for 750w+ etasis or p&c power PSUs.

.

I am running a pimped out quad system with an 8800GT, 4gb memory and 4 SATA hard drives. My OCZ 520w PSU doesn't even break a sweat with that, anything over 600w with a quality power supply is totally over the top unless you plan on going SLI with a pair of 8800GTX.

 

[Aesgir]

I am running a pimped out quad system with an 8800GT, 4gb memory and 4 SATA hard drives. My OCZ 520w PSU doesn't even break a sweat with that, anything over 600w with a quality power supply is totally over the top unless you plan on going SLI with a pair of 8800GTX.

Got the OCZ 700W, in the idea of eventually going SLI with 2 8800 GT's, but i agree, a lot of PSU's now are too over the top for what they need to be running. Still, better to have a PSU that runs it easily than struggles

 

[Reza]

Yeah guys on the face of it you're probably right in terms of that net power theoretically being enough. But you need to know what the PSU can really deliver and break it down over each rail. Test efficiency and reliabilty etc also. A bad PSU choice can cost u alot in running costs and hardware dmg.

I reckon PSUs are one the most overlooked components in terms of their importance. Just focusing on claimed max power output and price means alot of people make poor choices.

You want decent efficiency, and good performance under hi loads/temperatures, and you need to know what you're getting from each individual rail and compare that to your likely needs. So its very easy to end up with PSU "A" with claimed output of 550W being a much better choice than PSU "B" with claimed 650W.

A decent article explaining how to correctly evaluate PSUs Why 99% of Power Supply Reviews Are Wrong | Hardware Secrets

I normally use jonnyguru site for checking reviews on PSUs. The corsair wild is considering is here and they seem to like it:

jonnyGURU's Personal Website