Hi all

I am looking at getting a new desktop and looking for some advice. All I am after is a pre built desktop and OS. I know it is cheaper to buy the parts but unless there is a big difference I don't mind paying the extra. I have looked at some of the PC's on the usual sites (PC world, novatech, dell etc.) Something like this or this but I am looking to see if anyone has a better suggestion for a pc.

PC use will be normal office use, photoshop, rbr and lfs with a budget of about £800 preferably but can go higher if something worthwhile.

Thanks for your help, Greboth.

You can usually get a pre-built £800 Computer for about £550 - £700 if you build it yourself. Just depends how bothered you are on spending more

Quote from Seb66 :

You can usually get a pre-built £800 Computer for about £550 - £700 if you build it yourself. Just depends how bothered you are on spending more

I don't have a set rule on it, but if it was £500 Vz £800 I would build it, £700 Vz £800 I would buy it. The last PC i bought built, cost me IIRC about £70 compared to the parts so it was worth it. I am open to all ideas but I am just trying to get the best possible PC for my budget.

Quote from Greboth :

I don't have a set rule on it, but if it was £500 Vz £800 I would build it, £700 Vz £800 I would buy it. The last PC i bought built, cost me IIRC about £70 compared to the parts so it was worth it. I am open to all ideas but I am just trying to get the best possible PC for my budget.

I've bought quite a few PC's from http://www.meshcomputers.com/

Quote from Greboth :

Hi all

I am looking at getting a new desktop and looking for some advice. All I am after is a pre built desktop and OS. I know it is cheaper to buy the parts but unless there is a big difference I don't mind paying the extra. I have looked at some of the PC's on the usual sites (PC world, novatech, dell etc.) Something like this or this but I am looking to see if anyone has a better suggestion for a pc.

PC use will be normal office use, photoshop, rbr and lfs with a budget of about £800 preferably but can go higher if something worthwhile.

Thanks for your help, Greboth.

given the choice, i would go for the irush gaming pc. pcworld is overpriced and they give you less where is matters. less cpu power and less gpu power. but you do get 2gb more ram. but 2gb ram is still less (performance wise) than the irush with 4gb. the irush also give you the option to crossfire (in the future).
i've found that pcworld don't give you enough info to make a really fair comparison. for example, they only tell you that the system you linked to had 6gb of ram. is that low-mid-high end ddr2 or ddr3? is it cheap ram or branded ram? same with the hard drive.
the only thing that irush made me think about was it's motherbaord is micro atx.

EDIT: if you already have an operating system you could buy this http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ ... duct.php?prodid=FS-020-OP and install your own OS or add £70 to the price and get it with an OS. but ask them to swap out the hard drive for something that doesn't say "green edition" on it.

Thanks for the advice so far

Quote from dadge :

if you already have an operating system you could buy this http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ ... duct.php?prodid=FS-020-OP and install your own OS or add £70 to the price and get it with an OS. but ask them to swap out the hard drive for something that doesn't say "green edition" on it.

I don't have an OS yet, though adding it to that one comes to £814 so right on my budget. I will have to have look around some more though that overclockers one does look good. Roll on tax rebate so I can order it lol.

what spec is your current system? i know you said you din't want to build but, you could save quite a bit by upgrading your current machine. for example, you don't need to buy a chasis, hard drive or optical drives. this will free up more money for a better cpu, better gpu and more ram (bigger psu too). weigh up the options and see what you can get if you were to only upgrade rather than buying a complete system from new.

My current system from memory as I can't check at the moment is: Winfast motherboard, 3Ghz AMD Athlon, 2gb ram, 100gb hdd and 128mb nvida gfx and stretching my memory a random brand 600w psu. It was original my pc but has become the family pc now so my idea is leave it as it is and get a new machine for me.

I understand your point of view regarding optical drives and hdd etc but I was planning on taking my dvd drive and nearly all my personal documents are on my external hdd anyway but its almost full so I don't mind more storage.

In terms of building a pc I have no problem putting one together but I am a complete newb when it comes to parts. If I was building it, the minimum I could get away with would be: Case, PSU, Motherboard, CPU, GFX card, Sound card, Network card, CPU cooler, Fan(s), thermal compound and hdd. Taking my dvd drive would do and I could always pick up another in the future. I think that is everything I would need though but as for what actual combo of parts to get in my budget I have to admit I have no idea.

Quote from Greboth :

My current system from memory as I can't check at the moment is: Winfast motherboard, 3Ghz AMD Athlon, 2gb ram, 100gb hdd and 128mb nvida gfx and stretching my memory a random brand 600w psu. It was original my pc but has become the family pc now so my idea is leave it as it is and get a new machine for me.

I understand your point of view regarding optical drives and hdd etc but I was planning on taking my dvd drive and nearly all my personal documents are on my external hdd anyway but its almost full so I don't mind more storage.

In terms of building a pc I have no problem putting one together but I am a complete newb when it comes to parts. If I was building it, the minimum I could get away with would be: Case, PSU, Motherboard, CPU, GFX card, Sound card, Network card, CPU cooler, Fan(s), thermal compound and hdd. Taking my dvd drive would do and I could always pick up another in the future. I think that is everything I would need though but as for what actual combo of parts to get in my budget I have to admit I have no idea.

you missed ram but everything else was spot on. what i do is check youtube for user reviews. this is also a good place to find users who have not had a good experience with a certain product. also check the numbers on benchmarks. and then compare the prices.
you say you have an AMD system. is your current motherboard socket AM2 or AM2+? i ask because you can drop a socket am3 (new phenoms) into an AM2+ board. so with your current system, you could drop a phenom 6 core into your motherboard and hook it up to a higher end ATI or Nvidia (and new psu).

lets say your board is AM2+ and there is a bois update to support the AM3 chips. this is what you could then get for your 800 green queens;
phenom hex core £232.23

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler £16.99

XFX ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB £284.98

Patriot Signature 4GB (2x2GB) ... l-Channel Kit X2 £119.96

OCZ StealthXStream 2 700W £79.99

and incase your motherboard is not AM2+;
Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD3P AMD 790X (Socket AM3/AM2+) £89.99

the grand total (with the motherboard) is £832.91 delivered. you already have the hard drives and dvd drives and chasis.

i currently have a phenom 550 (duel core) on a socket AM2+ board. this meant i could spend more money on ram (8GB) and cpu (Nvidia GTX470).
the phenom 550 is a quad core chip with two disabled. on some motherboards, you can unlock the two cores giving you a quad core cpu for less than £80.
i can run any game i own (GTA IV, Arma2 Arrowhead, Dirt2 and so on)at max settings and this system just keeps on trucking.

EDIT: this hard drive should do the trick for you: Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM £57.99

Quote from dadge :

Patriot Signature 4GB (2x2GB) ... l-Channel Kit X2 £119.96

Seriously? 120 GBP for 800 MHz DDR2? I'd take these instead.

Haha how could I forget the RAM. Thanks for the help so far You have definately given me something to think about in updating the PC I have. As I haven't decided which to do, for a complete system what you recommend? The reason I ask is adding a case, psu etc to your above list goes way way over budget.

Thank you so much for your help though dadge.

Quote from E.Reiljans :

Seriously? 120 GBP for 800 MHz DDR2? I'd take these instead.

120 for 8gb he said. (and you REALLY don't need 8gb of ram, dadge, unless you're doing CAD work or similar)

If I were him, I would get a 955, 4gb of ddr2/3, a GTX 460 1GB once available (is photoshop more CPU intensive or GPU? Think the 5830 should be good either way) and spend the money saved on an SSD and a good storage 1TB drive

i do alot of rendering on vegas. also 8gb (for me) is noticable when i am using more than one program. the reason i got 8gb to begin with was that ocuk had a xmas sale and they were selling 4gb of OCZ gold for £33. so it was £66 for 8GB or DDR2 ram. price was way too low to ignore.
but yeah, my list includes a psu so all is needed is a case and an OS. your current system has an operating system, which one is it? you could use it too on the new system.
to make room for the price of a chasis, lose one set of ram leaving you with 4GB. put that in with your current ram (if they are of the same spec) and your rocking with 6GB. giving you a saving of £59.98
if you stick to AMD and you luck out on already having an AM2+ board then you've also saved £88.99 on a new motherboard. i went for gigabyte because of its features. the board is very durable. but you can get cheaper boards.

the trick is trying to find a good balance of performance throughout the whole system.
for me, the difference between good DDR2 ram and affordable DDR3 ram is not enough to warrant the price difference.

about the graphics cards. this is where you need to do some serious number crunching. compare benchmarks.

with the cpu you have good options. you could drop the 1090T processor and go for the 955. this will save you about £100 but you lose 2 cores. now, with that saving, i would then opt for the 965. still a quad core but it's AMDs best quad. and it's only £20 more than the 955. also the 1055T chip is only £30 more than the 955 mentioned. but you're back on 6 cores. the only down side would be that it's not a black edition which means it would be harder to overclock. if you don't do overclocking, go for the 1055T. if you overclock, go for the 965quad. both chips will save you from £80-100 from the list i provided.

with only 4GB of ram in that list, no motherboard and the CPU changed (1055T), and a 1TB hard drive added, your total comes in at £676.26 (delivered) leaving you the change (~£120) to buy your chasis and bits.

Quote from dadge :

but yeah, my list includes a psu so all is needed is a case and an OS. your current system has an operating system, which one is it? you could use it too on the new system

Sorry, was tired and didn't notice about the psu. That makes the price increase to a complete new pc cheaper. At the moment I am running XP 32bit. I was thinking about updated to 7 but I not fully looked into 7 to see what is like.

Quote :

to make room for the price of a chasis, lose one set of ram leaving you with 4GB. put that in with your current ram (if they are of the same spec) and your rocking with 6GB. giving you a saving of £59.98
if you stick to AMD and you luck out on already having an AM2+ board then you've also saved £88.99 on a new motherboard. i went for gigabyte because of its features. the board is very durable. but you can get cheaper boards.

I don't need 8gb of ram so I could get by with 4 and with ram so easily upgradable I could upgrade in a few months with another 4gb. Unfortunately I don't luck on the motherboard so I will have to get a new one.

Quote :

With the cpu you have good options. you could drop the 1090T processor and go for the 955. this will save you about £100 but you lose 2 cores. now, with that saving, i would then opt for the 965. still a quad core but it's AMDs best quad. and it's only £20 more than the 955. also the 1055T chip is only £30 more than the 955 mentioned. but you're back on 6 cores. the only down side would be that it's not a black edition which means it would be harder to overclock. if you don't do overclocking, go for the 1055T. if you overclock, go for the 965quad. both chips will save you from £80-100 from the list i provided.

I have run an overclocked system before, but was a while back. From looking at some reviews the CPU you suggested can easily be overclocked so I am now thinking if it has got the possibility to then why not. With the CPU though I notice you listed a CPU heatsink / fan but reading the description to the Phenom II it comes with one already so it necessary to buy another one? or it is a case fo the standard one isn't that good?

Can anyone suggest a decent priced case too? Having had a look at the ones on overclockers it seems that they come with only 2 usb whereas mine current machine has 6 which are all used

the usb is on the motherboard. most new chasis have two at the front and the rest can be accessed via the back of the chasis. most motherboards also come with a usb riser which will also add two more usb ports at the back.
the reason i put an after market heatsync and fan is because although the stock one does the job, an after market can keep your chip cooler which in terms of overclocking, is a must have.
win7 64bit(for me) is a must have. i have been running it since its release and i have not found any problems with it.
but yeah, start by finding the motherboard you want. then check it's supported ram list and purchase. most ram works with most boards. but certain ram works better with certain boards. for example; my OCZ gold is not in the supported list for my board but still works. to get it to work, i had to increase the voltages a bit. but now it's tweeked it runs mint.
about buying a case. leave that til last. once you've got you shopping basket ready to purchase, find a case that fits the change from the rest of the parts. you should pick up a nice one for £40

Ah ok so the 2 ports they list are going to be the ones at the front more than likely. I see, well the cooler the better anyway and for £17 it isn't really an expensive item and saves having to change it at a later date.

If my maths is correct, without delivery it comes to a grand total of £889.93 which is at the top of my budget but seems to be worth it.

Thank you so much dadge It is times like this I wish this forum had a rep points system.

Now comes the horrible period of waiting for my tax rebate to come through so I can order it all

Quote from Greboth :

It is times like this I wish this forum had a rep points system.

There once was but it got abused and was quickly gotten rid of again.

Quote from Greboth :

Now comes the horrible period of waiting for my tax rebate to come through so I can order it all

i got mine a few weeks ago. the bank didn't even have time to count it lol. i got £866. £450 went on my pc and the rest went on to my DJ setup . who said being raped by the tax man doesn't pay eh hehehe.
let me know your final spec list bud.

Quote from Greboth :

Thank you so much dadge It is times like this I wish this forum had a rep points system.

you're very welcome dude.
now time for me to go to sleep. 24hour stints are not good.

Quote from dadge :

i got mine a few weeks ago. the bank didn't even have time to count it lol. i got £866. £450 went on my pc and the rest went on to my DJ setup . who said being raped by the tax man doesn't pay eh hehehe.
let me know your final spec list bud.

I am not sure how much I am owed in total but its over 1k so I am happy

The spec will be pretty much what you posted Dadge I am looking around at RAM and HDD's so they might change but the rest will be as you posted

nice one.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/app ... =6529633&Sku=B69-0221

Its not pre-built, but it comes with all the parts minus OS. And you save hundreds.

Quote from Sueycide_FD :

http://www.tigerdirect.com/app ... =6529633&Sku=B69-0221

Its not pre-built, but it comes with all the parts minus OS. And you save hundreds.

he lives in the UK. that cpu is also a phenom I. which uses more power and is slower.

Ok, still haven't got this, still a couple weeks until I get my tax (assuming they are on time.) But does anyone know of anywhere I can get a 230mmx230mmx20mm case fan? As I can find a couple of sites in USA but that seems about it.

i think coolermaster do 230mm fans. they have one on their HAF X chasis.