Do I Buy Off the Shelf PC or Build a Set Up?? Help

[Lez]

I'm now faced with purchasing a PC set up for my daughter (total budget £600).

I'd like the machine to double up on certain factors like: TV, DVD Player, Music Player, Gaming so I suppose it will be classed as an entertainment system. The screen size would need to be between 19 to 22" wide screen.

A package machine I started to look at was this but would have to add a TV card:

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/st...hfkcflgceggdhhmdfhn.0&page=Product&sku=489227

I've been looking around the net & I get the feeling that some of these high production machines are poor spec & not worth the money.

My other option would be to custom build one which I like the idea of doing, however after looking what's out there I suddenly feel I could be opening a can worms which I know nothing about.

If I were to follow the custom build route, bearing in mind the total budget in mind any suggestions please?

 

[Anon_F]

Hi Lez & Welcome to PCReview.
Well have a look Here or you could go for one of These and add the rest yourself.
Would this be your first build your doing?

 

[V_R]

Welcome Lez,

Personally i wouldn't buy that PC for PC World.

You got a few choices, build it yourself, buy off the shelf or spec one on a website and get them to build it.

If you build it your self you will need to buy all the components fit them install the OS and troubleshoot it if it don't work first time.

If you buy off the shelf you wont have much if any choice as to the quality of components.

If you spec one from say PCSpecialist or Cyberpowersystem then you get the choice of what you want with the bonus of someone building and installing everything. But you may spend slightly more if you do this, but you will have a pc thats ready to go out the box.

Aside from the above also have a look at...

3BSystems - I have bought a pc from them before, the spec isn't set in stone so you could add/takeaway components to suit your needs. best bet is to give them a ring.

Hope that helps.

 

[w.bishop]

Hi Lez and welcome. I am 70 years young and I have just built my fourth computor and I found it to be a dodle. I have had problems in the past but with the help of this marvellous pcreview crew all of my problems were quickly overcome. You will get a great deal of satisfaction if you do build it yourself you get what you want and like me you could save a lot of money. Where is your location?

 

[Lez]

Dear all


Big thanks for all your initial responses I'll have a good look on Sunday at some of the suggested Web sites.

I had a quick look at Cyperpower & when you start adding all the extra's that look good, the price quickly builds up & that's without a monitor, but I suppose it's a case of you get what you pay for. Think I have to decide what limits the machine will need to cater for, it's not worth me looking at higher spec machines that will never be appreciated for what it was designed for.

I've not built a machine before, have done some minor up grades i.e memory & graphics boards but that was a long time ago. The thought of building one hasn't put me off just yet.

My location is near to Peterborough.

 

[Anon_F]

I've not built a machine before, have done some minor up grades i.e memory & graphics boards but that was a long time ago. The thought of building one hasn't put me off just yet.

Well the barebone system from Novatech could be for you then.
You would of course need to check if the motherboard comes with on-board sound & graphics?
You would then need just to put in a few bits such as Hard Drive, DVD RW & Floppy etc & you have a new PC!