New computer - PC Specialist?

[Charlotte.O]

Hi all


I am new to the forums, but have just spent a good couple of hours reading them and as there is a really good level of knowledge and help here, I would like to ask some advice. I just have to say first that I am really useless with computers! I can play on them and do your average everyday work on them, but fixing one? Not a chance. Building one? Unfortunately I doubt that that will ever be a skill I'll pick up.
I am looking to buy a new machine, and sadly it will have to be prebuilt, as I don't know anyone who could build one for me (anyone know any reputable people in Boston, Lincs who could do so at a reasonable price? No, didn't think so, you have to be in a non agricultural county to get something technical done!)

I have found that PCSpecialist seems to be the only site to allow me to build what I want. Every other company I have tried seems to have 1-2 components which just don't offer near what I would like, they're just too limited in stock, or too restrictive in letting you use things together. Maybe that's because they won't actually be compatible, but like I said, I am clueless about that sort of thing!

So the computer I would like is as follows, for a price tag of £1046 (I really don't want to spend any more than that)

CPU

AMD® ATHLON® 64BIT X2 4600 2 x 512K L2 Cache (939 pin)

Memory

2048 MB CORSAIR DDR400 PC3200 - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x1GB)

Motherboard

ASUS® A8N32-SLI DELUXE: DUAL DDR, S-ATA, 2 x x16 VGA, 3 PCI

USB Options

4 PORT USB 2.O CARD (TOTAL: 8+ USB 2.0 PORTS!)

Hard Drive

SATA II 320 GB HARD DISK @ 7200rpm 8mb cache

Second Hard Drive

NONE

RAID

NONE

DVD ROM/Combi Drive

16x +/- DVD WRITER (8x +/- Dual Lyr) (5x DVD-RAM) (40x CD-RW) (£23)

CD/DVD Writer

16x +/- DVD WRITER (8x +/- Dual Lyr) (Lightscribe) (40x CD-RW) (£23)

Graphics Card 1

512MB GEFORCE 7900GTX PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT

Graphics Card 2

NONE

Sound Card

HIGH END ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL SOUND (RECOMMENDED)

Modem

NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND

Network Facilities

2 x 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORTS (1 PORT ON A8N-SLI SE)

Floppy Drive/Card Reader

INTERNAL 23 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD FORMAT) (NO FLOPPY)

Case

Stylish Silver/Black Sigma case + 2 front USB

Power Supply & Cooling

500W (Peak) Super Quiet Dual Rail PSU + 120mm fan & CPU Cooler (£39)

Operating System required

NONE

Firewire & Video Editing

1 x FIREWIRE PORT ONBOARD (A8N-SLI DELUXE ONLY)

I have read a few good things about pcspecialist in these forums, which is promising. I know I shouldn't really go looking, as I probably won't like what I find, but has anyone had a bad experience with them? Does this price seem reasonable? Can I get pretty much the same system elsewhere for less, bearing in mind I would still like good customer service. warranty, experiences etc (I know, I don't ask for much!)


Awaiting a response eagerly!

Thanks in advance

Charlotte

 

[chelseafc2005]

Hi i can only tell if it is a good price if you show the individual price of ll the components. Those are some great parts for the sytem but do you reaqlly need two dvd burners? i have one and i find that enough to do the job. Also i would definately get a better psu with a system like that. You do not want to cut a corner with the psu as that can r uin your whole system. I would look at a hyper type r series 580w psu that is what i use and it does the job . so overall that is an excellent system that would do anything that you throw at it but i cant comment on the price as i do not know the individual prices


edit:i think you could get it cheaper if you built it yourself, you say you probably cant d o it but we would be able to provide alot of help. So if you need to save money building it yourself is definately one way

 

[arbour]

What will you be doing with this pc?
Looks a good spec are you a gamer or doing highend CAD?
Is a monitor included?
Also try www.novatech.co.uk

 

[Charlotte.O]

Thank you for the very speedy responses. Unfortunately I can't include individual prices, as the site does not liste them (very frustrating as a user!) The overall price tag seems very good when I check out prices of indivudual parts on pricerunner/ciao and add them all up, especially considering it's prebuilt and includes warranty.

I will primariliy be gaming on this machine, but as you can guess from the two DVD writers, I do back up a lot on disc. I definitely need two DVD drives as I like to move info directly from one disc to another, and for an extra £23 only, I may as well have the ability to write as well. (Just in case one dies too, I write a lot so life expectancy for writers on my machine will probably be less than the norm)

I really appreciate the offer of help on building a machine, but for someone who has absolutely zero base knowledge and no one who can be here physically to help, I have to admit I would be very very nervous about that!

I just had a look at the novatech link. Is there the ability to build your own pc on that site? There are some attractive machines there, but not exactly what I want, and also a little more expensive. I'd like an AMD machine, for around £1000 tops, and that site only seems to have an intel machine at that price bracket. I am probably being a complete blonde and just totally missing it. Feel free to call me blind!

 

[Charlotte.O]

Oh, forgot to thank you for the advice on the PSU. I must admit I hadn't even thought about the implications there. The only other PSU available is:


Power Supply & Cooling

600W Super Quiet Quad Rail PSU + 120mm fan & CPU Cooler (£79)


If I only get one DVD writer, then the price including this PSU is £1068. Why do you always end up having the price creep higher despite your intentions?! But seeing as it is very important, I would be willing to stretch for it. I would rather not lose the 2nd DVD writer, but I can live with it. I do have a good 8 month old Pioneer DVD writer in my current machine that I would dearly love to move into the new machine, but it has a beige fascia, and the new machine would be silver. I have the option of a beige case, but it does not have an extreme gaming raiting, only moderate. The silver machine is suitable for extreme gaming. How important is the case? Also, is it possible to somehow change the fascia for my current DVD writer to be silver? (Daft question I know, but I like everything to match, and I just don't think I could stomach a beige component showing out of a swish new silver case! Don't say anything!) The link to the cases is:

https://www.secure.pcspecialist.co.uk/index.php?page=images

I currently have the stigma (silver) in my quote, but my current DVD writer has a beige fascia.

 

[arbour]

It does depend on what you want, you may want to see what warranty they offer you.
May be worth looking at some others as well, try www.evesham.com
As for not having any pc knowledge, up to 5 years ago i knew nothing
So if i can learn so can you, dont put yourself down

In my test pc i have a multi coloured amount of different cd/dvd & dvd-rw facia, it's only a colour, it does not bother me, i much prefer to have a pc that works well!

 

[arbour]

No Operating System or Monitor for £1k + Why?

 

[Charlotte.O]

And another bit I forgot! This quote does not include a monitor, but I do have a fairly new Acer AL1913 19" so I should have plenty more life left in this one!


And I can use my operating system so I don't need that installed (although they do say they test the machine for a few days before they send it out. Do they do this without an OS installed generally? Or do they install one then remove it before sending it out?)

So I don't mind that these two aren't included.

 

[chelseafc2005]

the only way to change the fascia of your dvd drive is to either get another case to match the dvd drive colour or to spray paint the frront of it ( by taking off the front pat spray paint that and put it back on) quite straight forward

 

[chelseafc2005]

And another bit I forgot! This quote does not include a monitor, but I do have a fairly new Acer AL1913 19" so I should have plenty more life left in this one!


And I can use my operating system so I don't need that installed (although they do say they test the machine for a few days before they send it out. Do they do this without an OS installed generally? Or do they install one then remove it before sending it out?)

So I don't mind that these two aren't included.

noramlly if you are using windows if you get a new pc you need to get a new liscense number which means buying a new os. Now im not 100% sure on that so you should double check but that is w hat i think microsoft say. and for 1k i would definately expecct for xp the be bundeled into the system even if you dont need it

 

[Charlotte.O]

You know, I honestly didin't realise a new PC meant you had to buy a new copy of windows. That's a bit of a con! I will look around and see if that is the case, but it makes sense for a business to ensure that they keep squeezing money out of people!

Ok, I just tried to work out how much the components on their own would cost:

CPU

AMD® ATHLON® 64BIT X2 4600 2 x 512K L2 Cache (939 pin)


http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=309863&cks=ASS&assoc=5A39DAA7-10EA-4BCF-889D-E46501023430 £165.95 inc delivery (Dabs.com slightly cheaper but OOS) Speaking of this price, is this right? Am I looking at the right product? Some places are selling it at around £450. Why is it so cheap here?


Memory

2048 MB CORSAIR DDR400 PC3200 - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x1GB)



http://www.cclonline.com/product-info-pc.asp?id=4978&pc=pricerunner
about £145 inc delivery for 2 x 1GB. I might possibly find cheaper if I search a lot longer, not sure!


Hard Drive

SATA II 320 GB HARD DISK @ 7200rpm 8mb cache

http://www.it247.com/s.nl/it.A/id.62342/.f £69.54 inc delivery

DVD ROM/Combi Drive

16x +/- DVD WRITER (8x +/- Dual Lyr) (5x DVD-RAM) (40x CD-RW) (£23)



I could get one at roughly the same price, though if I were to get a PC built I'd probably spend a little more on a good writer.

Graphics Card 1

512MB GEFORCE 7900GTX PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT



http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=13853&source=PriceRunner £329.57 inc delivery

Motherboard

ASUS® A8N32-SLI DELUXE: DUAL DDR, S-ATA, 2 x x16 VGA, 3 PCI


http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=11551&source=PriceRunner £117.43 inc delivery

So far it totals around about £850, and that's if I got the CPU price correct. I haven't worked out the cost of the case as I really have no idea how much to pay for one. £50-100? I haven't added in the PSU, fans, cooling, the card reader or anything else that I may have forgotten, then on top of all that there is the new OS. Obviously PCspeciailist will get a lot better prices than me, but for my non bulk buying prices, just over £1000 ready built with a warranty seems very good. Have I just not found very good prices for the components? I have to say that the fact that the PC would be prebuilt is very valuable to me as well, because buying components to have them just lying around (I am still not convinced I could build one!) would be a lot of money for a useless group of parts!

If I could get the parts significantly cheaper, and be sure that I had a list of exactly what to get (I know that you need a motherboard, CPU, graphics card, memory, hard drive, case and PSU, but what else do you absolutely need to make a computer work? Wires? Fans? There must be some parts that I am just not thinking of, but are necessary to build a computer) then I would consider building it myself, or asking colleagues etc to see if anyone could help.

Thanks for all the help so far guys, you have provided some real gems of information and have helped me more than you can know!

 

[Me__2001]

for what you're getting i think the price is fairly reasonable

 

[PotGuy]

I would tend to agree I think that is actually a pretty nice deal. A few months ago that would have been the best part of 2 grand I would imagine.

 

[arbour]

You know, I honestly didin't realise a new PC meant you had to buy a new copy of windows.

Oh yes, how otherwise do you think Bill got so rich

 

[muckshifter]

Can I just clarify the Operating System can / cannot do

99% shop bought PCs come pre-installed with an OS ... that OS is termed OEM ... under MS's licence it is "tied" to the MB and is not transferable. If you scrap the PC, you are supposed to scrap the OS too ... poppycock.

Buy a "retail" boxed version of XP, which costs more but there is no difference whatsoever in the CD, and you can install ONE copy on any PC you have now, later, or in the next millennium.

Buy and OEM copy of Windows, and you should need to buy a qualifying piece of hardware, not necessary a MB, and that OS should be tied to the hardware ... we, as "people in the street, don't usually care what MS think we should do with their licencing agreements and, if we can, will install OUR CD on any of OUR PC's

Did that clear anything up ... probably not, but if you have a Win CD, not a restore CD, do what you like with it. But you can only install ONE OS on one PC.

What we are "supposed to do, and what we actually do do, are not necessary the same.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I've only just looked at this thread and my personal point of view is that the system looks good and if the supplier is assembling it, the price is fair.

Good choice of components, too

Only a couple of things bother me - what make are the optical drives?

And, more importantly, what make is the power supply?

If it's a reputable and reliable brand such as Hyper; OCZ; Enermax and Tagan, I think 500W is actually fine for that system. If it's some dodgy cheapo brand, then it's power rating will be at the best optimistic and at worst erroneous.

Yes, you could save money building your own or even paying a friend around fifty quid to build it for you, but what you have lined up is overall really very good.

But DO find out what make the power supply is.

Oh, and I have absolutely no idea how reputable that supplier is.

 

[Charlotte.O]

Well so far I feel like it would be a good deal from all your comments. I found on the website something about the optical drives:

Our optical drives are currently manufactured by Lite-on (www.liteon.com)

I have never heard of them, does anyone have any comments?

It doesn't list the brand of PSU, I will ask them. I did come across this in their FAQ:
"Q. I think I need a really powerful power supply, and I have seen a 600W or above model for around £20 - £30 in the shops. Why are your power supplies more expensive?

A. There are no rules that are set in stone governing how you can rate the wattage of a power supply, and naturally people think that more power is better. The rated wattage of power supplies we sell are the true, constant power output and not the peak output. (Peak output is that power that a power supply can output for a few seconds.) Not naming any brands, if you search the high street, you can purchase what apparently appear to be 600W or even 700W power supplies for around £20, but be warned - these are likely to be power supplies that have been rated on their peak output and not their constant output. Some power supplies do not even give their stated output at peak. For a 600W or above power supply with a true constant output using reliable components, you should be looking at paying anything from £50 upwards.

Our high end power supplies (even though they may only be 400W - 500W) are tried and tested to give your computer a constant supply of quality power. Component manufacturers, such as graphics card manufacturers often over label the power supply requirements of their cards to cover for PSU manufacturers who have labeled power supplies as peak output and not constant output. "

This indicates that perhaps the PSU is quite good if it's more expensive, but then, that's what they would want me to believe!

Also, in my post listing prices for all the components, the link I provided for the motherboard takes you to quite a cheap component. Some places are selling it for around £450 so I am wondering if there are two versions and is one way better than the other? If that is the case I need to query that also.

Thanks once again

 

[floppybootstomp]

Do try and find out the make of the power supply but if the supplier has gone to pains to point out their power supplies are correctly rated, I'd be inclined to believe they're telling the truth. Can't be a hundred per cent sure of course, but it's not often a supplier will point out something like that if they're just trying to sell you a shoddy system.

The link to the motherboard works ok for me, it shows it about £111.00, corect?

But don't ever buy anything from Microdirect, they are not to be trusted, we've had a slew of complaints about them on this forum in the past.

 

[muckshifter]

Why are your power supplies more expensive?

It could be because thay are half decent ... anything £20-30 is err, gonna be junk.

600-700 watt PSU sounds good but is not what you need to look for ... nothing in this 'game' is easy.

Lite-on

In my book are fine, cheap & cheerfully, I have had one for 3 years ... however, I know FBS will eat it for breakfast.

We all trust Pioneer ... and if you is gonna do an enormous amout of copying then we certainly Highly recommend Plextor ...

We can spend even more of your money if you like.

 

[Charlotte.O]

Haha, it is so easy to just keep adding a few pounds for a slightly better component here, tweak it and add a few more there, isn't it? I was initially looking to spend £800, and it's now nearly £1100!


floppybootstomp, yes, you are right it is about £111, but I meant the CPU (why did I say motherboard? I really don't know!) The CPU I linked is about £165. And yet, here it is at £410 http://www.microwarehouse.co.uk/cat...e=pricerunner&utm_medium=pcc&lead=pricerunner
Why is there such a huge difference in price? They are both for the 2.4Ghz version. I have also found a 2.2Ghz version, where the price is £173 (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=224363&source=pr1), which is more than the cheapest 2.4Ghz version was (which I linked in that post where I linked all the different components). Why are prices all over the place for this product? And with such a price range for the (seemingly) same product, I have to assume that the cheapest version is the one which will be included in my machine. I wonder which version that would be, and what the difference would be. Why are PCs so complicated?!

What is the difference between the 2.2Ghz and the 2.4Ghz anyway?