For Home : Buy prebuilt?

[fiza]

Time for me to upgrade my old core 2 duo e6600 machine at home. I built it myself about 5 years ago.

 

Is it more economical to get a pre-built machine such as a Dell or is it still worth buying components and doing it myself?

 

I want something quite beefy for video/photo editing

Edited March 30, 2012 by fiza

[Steve21]

Think it mainly depends how custom you want it. If you're after a generic workhorse but don't care about SLI, SSD, how many pink LEDs you have flashing etc then a prebuilt is fine.

 

Yes you'll always save a bit doing it yourself, but personally if it's just a more "work" based pc, not always worth the hassle building one

 

Steve

[benjie]

Hey,

 

You will be able to buy a pre-built computer, for what you want. It depends on your budget and what you are after.

 

I built my latest computer and I love it!

[fiza]

I am happy to spend about £600. I dont need a high end gaming machine or anything like that. I want value for money - dont mind the hassle of building it myself, i find it quite enjoyable.

I can still use my current DVD drive, 2x 2TB hard drives and TV Card.

[fiza]

@benjie

What spec is your PC and if you dont mind how much did you spend?

 

Just seen this which sounds ok

 

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-104-OE

 

What do you think?

Edited March 30, 2012 by fiza

[benjie]

My spec:

I5 2500K

8GB RAM

Gigabyte GA-PH67-UD3

PowerColor HD 5750 V3 Edition 1GB GDDR5 DVI VGA HDMI PCI-E Graphics Card

OCZ 60GB Vertex 2E SSD 2.5" SATA-II Read = 285MB/s, Write = 275MB/s 50,000 IOPS(£72.49)

Western Digital WD10EARS 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 5400rpm 64MB Cache - OEM Caviar Green(£35.82)

Plus case and PSU

 

All in all £595. I didn'y buy an OS with that.

 

Just seen this which sounds ok

 

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=BU-104-OE

 

What do you think?

 

That is a pretty good deal. You will need to add an graphics card I would say mine cost £68.32 at time of purchase(April 2011).

Bloody hell that year has flown past! Only seems like two minutes ago that I set this PC up.

 

edit:

 

Just went and looked at the spec of the motherboard and to be fair , you will probably manage with the onboard graphics.

Edited March 30, 2012 by benjie

[jedmondson]

When i get the money i am thinking of getting the and fitting the parts myself.

 

question for those who build pcs all the time. I have a £500 budget to spend for a pc for a retiring Vicar main use is the office suite. he also needs a 21" + monitor in the price. is this doable ?

[tigerstar]

I self-build and have done for years. It's not really a case of saving money (not any more, at least), I just enjoy tinkering and upgrading bits and pieces as I go. I still have the 3.5" floppy drive from my first self-build in my current PC - not because I need it, but just because it's been a constant throughout the years when every other part has been replaced!

 

question for those who build pcs all the time. I have a £500 budget to spend for a pc for a retiring Vicar main use is the office suite. he also needs a 21" + monitor in the price. is this doable ?

 

Heck, yes. You can comfortably buy a decent i3-based prebuilt with a 21" monitor within that budget. If there's one thing going prebuilt saves you money on, it's the cost of the Windows license.

[Miscbrah]

If you don't mind going half way get the PSU, case and hdd from another machine and just buy a pre-assembled motherboard/CPU/RAM bundle. Can get some severe looking i7 bundles for £350 that way. Your old OS *might* even just take to the transplant anyway!

[fiza]

If you don't mind going half way get the PSU, case and hdd from another machine and just buy a pre-assembled motherboard/CPU/RAM bundle. Can get some severe looking i7 bundles for £350 that way. Your old OS *might* even just take to the transplant anyway!

 

Any suggestions where a good deal can be had for bundles? I have looked at ;

Computer hardware, components & gaming PC retailer Overclockers UK

Computer Components, PC, Laptop, PC Monitors and Computer, PC Components Specialists - CCL Computers - CCL Computers

RL Supplies Watford - Laptop PC & Computer Repairs & Sales - RL Supplies

[cneilson6]

Don't know if you'll have seen this before but heres somewhere i always look for my bits LambdaTek Computing

[localzuk]

You can get a lot for £600 to be honest.

 

Intel Core i5 2500K

G.Skill 8GB DDR3 RAM

Asus P8Z68-V-LE Motherboard

700W Modular Mushkin or similar power supply

Coolermaster 430U Midi Case

Asus Radeon 6850 DirectCU Graphics card

Corsair 120GB SSD

 

Comes to about £598 from Aria.

 

Probably could get it cheaper by looking around too.

 

That'd be a very nice machine too.

[fiza]

I'm going to the Gadget Show next week. Do you think there will be any bargains to be had there? I've never been before so don't know what to expect. Might wait til after incase i can pick something up there.

[MatthewL]

I find it just as cheap to get a cheap machine from Overclockers, too much hassle I think these days building.

[sonofsanta]

scan.co.uk are good for bundles as well, FWIW.

 

TBH I always prefer home-built rather than pre-built for one big reason - the quality of the PSU. Too many big-brands will give you the lowest wattage PSU they can, limiting your upgrades in the future (although this is only really relevant for big GPUs) and too many websites (eBuyer etc.) use cheap&crappy PSUs in their value builds to save money.

 

If you're reusing old hard drives, and don't need a high-end gaming machine, I don't think you even need to spend £600 tbh. The Intel i5 2500k is all the processor you will ever need, get a Z68 motherboard so you can overclock it, stick an SSD in (Samsung 830s are the best at the moment I believe, but the Crucial m4's are astonishingly good value for the performance by comparison) and gobs of RAM and you're well away. Might actually be worth you spending a big chunk on a decent case, because that will last you for years then - you can upgrade everything else inside it bit by bit.

 

If you're not gaming at all, the onboard graphics of the Core i5 will be fine, if you're planning on doing some but not bothered about FPS numbers, the 7750 seems a good bet at the moment - not too pricey, modern, low power requirements.

[tigerstar]

I'm going to the Gadget Show next week. Do you think there will be any bargains to be had there? I've never been before so don't know what to expect. Might wait til after incase i can pick something up there.

 

I've been to every Gadget Show Live, and it's always a blast, but it's not a good place for a shopping trip. There are plenty of commercial stands, sure, but the majority of stuff for sale there is gadgets, games and other relatively small purchases, not so much full computers and components. Scan Computers always has a stand there (they were doing liquid nitrogen-cooled overclocking one time!) but like most of the big tech companies the emphasis is on having a presence there rather than selling you stuff on the day. Keep your eyes peeled for a bargain, sure, but don't go there expecting to save a huge amount over buying stuff online.