[Archived] Desktop Pc

[rock steady]

i'd like some peoples opinions as to whether this offers good value for money. i dont think the price includes a monitor, keyboard, mouse or speakers.

[tcj_jones]

It's been about 2 years since I built my last pc but those specs look very good and the price seems good as well.

Don't rely only on me though!

[Eddie]

Looks decent but I think by building your own or having it built for you, you could get it for less.

[tchocky]

That depends entirely on whether you have useable parts. Buying a new PC part by part is in no way the cheapest option. Think about it. There's no bulk discount for anything.

[Eddie]

True. Though all of my last 3 pc's I've either built or had built for me and I think I've managed to do it at a fraction of the cost I would have had to have spent had they been factory built.

Probably more down to having a few good part suppliers more than anything, but it's not something I would stop doing.

[Parasyte]

Athlon 64, 300GB HDD, a hefty graphics card, and lots of space taken up by three drives - all in a midi-tower? It sounds decent value, so long as you are aware it could have some serious heat issues with future upgrades. Midi-towers are nice to look at, but theres a reason they arnt the standard... and there is no mention of the PSU if my scan-reading is right. Theres a lot of nice kit there - my random guestimate that to run that at full whack and be just reasonably okay for upgrades would be a 450-500 watt PSU. Which, unless things have changed since I last made a PC (about a year), are not cheap.

[LeChuck]

That depends entirely on whether you have useable parts. Buying a new PC part by part is in no way the cheapest option. Think about it. There's no bulk discount for anything.

387964[/snapback]

Hmmmm...

But you're also paying for assembly when you buy complete systems. I've always done the comparison of factory built cars to kit cars...saving on labour costs. Whether that's true or not, I don't know...but I've never heard of a factory built system to have cost less than the equivalent home built system.

[Biddy]

Hmmmm...

But you're also paying for assembly when you buy complete systems.  I've always done the comparison of factory built cars to kit cars...saving on labour costs.  Whether that's true or not, I don't know...but I've never heard of a factory built system to have cost less than the equivalent home built system.

388196[/snapback]

It all depends on what individual components you want to put into a machine. Take for example the Dell Dimension 1100. It is currently selling for £279 and there is no way I could put together a full system for that price. Breaking down all the parts (from ebuyer going for the cheapest in stock item):-

Case - £20.12

PSU (unspecified - Guess at 300W) - £10.57

Motherboard (Unspecified Socket 478 onboard graphics) - £35.00

CPU (Celeron 325) - £49.99 (retail with Heatsink)

Memory (256MB PC3200) - £12.50

HDD (80GB) - £34.02

DVD/CDRW - £20.57

Keyboard - £2.92

Mouse - £2.34

Monitor (17" CRT)- £58.74

Windows XP (OEM) - £58.74

Total = £305.51

So, Dell can build it cheaper and I certainly wouldn't choose most of these cheap options. Also, the Dell would include a warranty whereas you'd have to RMA the individual parts in a built machine depending on whether you can troubleshoot which part is faulty.

On the flip side, I always build my own machine as you get exactally what you want, no cheap parts. You can re-use items (HDD, Memory, Monitors, Keyboard, Mouse, Graphics Card, DVD Writer etc) therefore you can upgrade at a fraction of the cost, assuming technology hasn't changed too much. I'm still pretty sure that over time, all of my upgrades have costed more that if I'd bought a pre-built machine.

[Driftpeasant]

It's a little high. I built a system with the same proc (and probably the same motherboard) with 2 200gig 7200 RPM SATA drives, an x1600, 2 gigs of RAM, a full tower, a better cooling solution, for about 1200 USD. Part it out yourself and you should save some money.

Plus, I never trust small computer manufacturers. If you want a warranty or someone you can go after, buy a Dell. If you want to save cash, build it yourself.

By the by, I can build you the ULTIMATE GAMING COMPY O' DOOM for about 12600 USD. It's an impressive system, to be sure, and that's only 10% over cost.

[rock steady]

It's a little high.  I built a system with the same proc (and probably the same motherboard) with 2 200gig 7200 RPM SATA drives, an x1600, 2 gigs of RAM, a full tower, a better cooling solution, for about 1200 USD.  Part it out yourself and you should save some money.

Plus, I never trust small computer manufacturers.  If you want a warranty or someone you can go after, buy a Dell.  If you want to save cash, build it yourself.

By the by, I can build you the ULTIMATE GAMING COMPY O' DOOM for about 12600 USD.  It's an impressive system, to be sure, and that's only 10% over cost.

388382[/snapback]

twelve thousand dollars eh? if i had that kind of ca$h i wouldnt be using my pc alot.

[Eddie]

Did you add an extra 0 on there? You could make yourself a fantastic computer for 5000-8000USD let alone 12600.

[Driftpeasant]

Did you add an extra 0 on there? You could make yourself a fantastic computer for 5000-8000USD let alone 12600.

388565[/snapback]

Nope.

Specs:

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 FX60 Toledo 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Dual Core Processor

Motherboard: ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce SPP 100 ATX AMD Motherboard

RAM: Patriot 4GB (4 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered System Memory

Cooling System: Custom Built Zalman Water Cooling System

Case: CODEGEN S-201-CA Black Steel Server Case

Power Supplies: TWO PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW EPS12V 1000W Power Supplies

Video Cards: TWO ASUS EN7800GT DUAL/2DHTV/512M Dual Geforce 7800GT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card

Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card

System HDs: FOUR Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drives

System RAID Controller: Onboard nForce RAID on Motherboard

Data HDs: NINE Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3500641AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drives

Data RAID Controller: Areca ARC-1230 PCI Express SATA II Controller Card

Data HD coolers: NINE VANTEC VTX-C01-BK VORTEX Hard Disk Drive Coolers with crossflow blowers

Optical Drives: TWO PLEXTOR Black IDE DVD Burner Model PX-716A/SW

Monitor: ViewSonic VX922 Black/Silver 19" 2ms LCD Monitor

Mouse: Logitech G5 Laser 931376-0403 2-Tone 6 Buttons 1x Wheel USB Laser Mouse

Keyboard: Logitech Ultra X 967353-0403 2-Tone PS/2 Wired Standard Keyboard

Headphones: SENNHEISER PC160 Binaural Headset

Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Professional X64 Edition

Among other things that includes a doublewide server case to handle the onboard 3.5TB RAID 6 array (each drive in its own cooler), dual DUAL 7800GT graphics cards, 4 gigs RAM, and 4 150gig Raptors in a Raid 10 for the system drive.

Yes you can build something very good for 5-8k. This was the most over the top (yet still not the most expensive) system we could spec and build.

That cost might go up because, from our research, we may have to up the watercooling system to handle the GPUs as well, and that'll cost a bit more. All these parts are available on Newegg, by the way, if you want to see the costs/what they look like.

[Flopsy]

yeah you just might be able to play sensible soccer on that

[roverich]

Buy from DELL!!! By far the cheapest option for PC's or laptop's - also a lot cheaper than building your own!