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PC BUILD ADVICE?


neo-ninja

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Hi All,

 

Around 4 years ago i bought a refurb dell Dimension e521 that is still running strong. (Dual Core, 2.5ghz, 2gb ram, ati silent gfx card)

However i am now thinking its time to upgrade and buy a new one.

 

My dilema is do I go dell refurb again ( i have been very happy) but know i am paying prob around £80 too much.

 

Or do i buy second hand on ebay, and save myself around £120

 

Or do i build myself one?

 

I have around £300-400 to spend and dont want a mega beast, but ideally want it to last the same time and be able to run for the first few years some decent games on decent spec. But also i dont want it to be mega loud so ideally will need to buy a decent brand power supply.

 

Spec i can get on ebay are around, i5 first gen, good gaming card, 500gb+ storage, 8gb ram. Occasionally people pick up a bargain with an i7 or ssd drive.

 

From dell refurb i was looking at this:

XPS Dimension 630, Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66GHz, 4g ram, 1tb hdd, 1gb GeForce 9800 GX2.

 

If i build one, im prob looking at close to the top £400 mark and would be looking at a spec around, i5, 8gb ram, my old hdd, my old dvdrom, new gfx card.

 

Your combined advice in this would be fantastic!

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At that budget, its just a case of how much hassle you want. I guess the £80 extra at Dell is covering some kind of limited warranty? Certainly more appealing that an ebay special, although there are loads of small time shops offering re-furbed PCs that will also give you a warranty.

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The extra £80 for a referb from Dell is not such a bad thing, as AK says you will get some sort of warranty.

 

If your happy with your other components then a motherboard bundle is also a viable option. Have a look here for motherboard bundles and bare bone systems......

 

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/motherboardbundles/mbb-i5240a.html

 

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/barebones/bb-23204a.html

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I say build one, if you have some basic know how. Just do your research to ensure the parts like each other. It's satisfying when it all works (it's a lot easier these days) and you will have a better spec machine at the end of it - in addition to having a better understanding to fix things if they go wrong.

I spent £600 5 or 6 years ago and ended up with a machine which would have cost around £1K already built.

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You could spec up the hardware in an eBay machine and see if the sum of parts is cheaper and then.self build.

 

Therein lies the problem as you seem to save around £100-150 which on a £300-£400 is alot.

 

IE heres one that sold not long ago and i would say this went for around £30 too much by my current watching standards i didnt bid as I am really looking for an i5 or i7

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200713680593? ... 1423.l2649

 

But in terms of spec, i reckon if you price it up its around £400

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The trouble im finding, is that from Novatech and elsewhere were the pcs are already built they cant compete in price, for example an I5 2400 barebones system from Novatech is £300 but for that price on ebay you get the same pc with drives, hdd, ssd, more ram and a gfx card.

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The trouble im finding, is that from Novatech and elsewhere were the pcs are already built they cant compete in price, for example an I5 2400 barebones system from Novatech is £300 but for that price on ebay you get the same pc with drives, hdd, ssd, more ram and a gfx card.

 

Buy it cheap, buy it twice...

 

At the end of the day it is your money, but if you go for the cheapest option with no backup then you take a risk :shrug:

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My preference is building one, but then I would go for a higher budget if you want a half decent rig that can play games for the next couple of years.

It also depends what else you expect it to do and how well it does it.

Decent power supply is a must in my opinion.

 

BM I used to be all into my pc's awhile back. To let you know how far back the best graphics cards was an ati x1900 now amd. Ebuyer used to be the cheapest. I know some people hate Ebuyer but they always been fine. Even when I've had a problem they sorted it. Don't use ocuk as I don't like the owner. Scan and dabs seen to be more expensive.

 

So what's the cheapest place for pc stuff? Components I mean not built ones.

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Buy it cheap, buy it twice...

 

At the end of the day it is your money, but if you go for the cheapest option with no backup then you take a risk :shrug:

 

:thumbs::thumbs:

 

Yeah damn I guess your right, its just the allure of getting a much better pc.

 

I guess on that note i should look at dell refurbs again, so the specs i have are below, and are all around the same price £340inc tax.

 

Model.................... Dimension XPS 630

Case Type.............. Tower

CPU...................... Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66GHz

Memory (MB)........... 4096

Hard Disk (GB).......... 2x 640

Optical Drive/s.......... DVD-RW

Video .................... 1gb GeForce 9800 GX2

Soundcard............... Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer

USB Ports................ 8

 

or

 

Model.................... Studio XPS 7100

Case Type.............. Tower Sliver Case

CPU...................... AMD Phenom II x6 1045T 2.7GHz

Memory (MB)........... 6144

Hard Disk (GB).......... 750

Optical Drive/s.......... DVD-RW

Video .................... 1gb Radeon HD 5770

Soundcard............... Onboard

USB Ports................ 8

 

Model.................... Studio XPS 7100

Case Type.............. Tower Sliver Case

CPU...................... AMD Phenom II x6 1055T 2.8GHz

Memory (MB)........... 4096

Hard Disk (GB).......... 1500

Optical Drive/s.......... DVD-RW

Video .................... 1gb Radeon HD 5770

Soundcard............... SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Music

USB Ports................ 8

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I would personally go for something with a slightly better processor like an i5...

 

Can you not use any components from your old system to keep the costs down?

 

A £300ish bare bones with a decent motherboard/processor/ram with your old HD / DVD / Graphics card etc will almost certainly be better than an all new £300ish system like those you mentioned.... :surrender:

 

Remember if you get a decent core then upgrades will give it fresh life, if you start with a poor core you can spend £100's and it will still be poor... :blackeye:

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I got this bundle just before christmas and put it in my existing case with existing optical drive, power supply & graphics card.... my old system was similar to those you mention and believe me this combo is like night and day B)

 

Yoyotech Warbird Carbon Bundle - P8Z68-V LX Motherboard / Intel i5-2500K CPU / Overclocked @ 4.4Ghz/ Freezer Heatpipe Cooler / 8Gb DDR3 Memory / Built & Tested

 

http://yoyotech.co.uk/item-detail.php?products_id=4376325

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I would personally go for something with a slightly better processor like an i5...

 

 

I was led to believe that the AMD X6 processors were 6 cores and therefore better then the i5 standard, not sure about overclocking as really want the system to live for around 4 years.

 

The other trouble i have is the case i have now for my dell is just a bog standard case but is quite small so cant fit in larger newer gfx cards etc.. (Although in ventilation terms its the best case i have ever owned :( )

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More cores doesn't mean quicker in every area ;)

 

An unclocked Intel Core i5 2500K - 3.3GHz - 1MB L2 - 6MB L3 will outperform a AMD Phenom II X6 1055T - 2.8GHz - 3MB L2 - 6MB L3 in almost every area, particularly 3d gaming if that's your thing...

 

Anyway none of those Dell systems will be pants it's just you are paying quite a bit for some pretty ordinary parts i.e. the graphics cards :thumbdown:

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I got this bundle just before christmas and put it in my existing case with existing optical drive, power supply & graphics card.... my old system was similar to those you mention and believe me this combo is like night and day B)

 

Yoyotech Warbird Carbon Bundle - P8Z68-V LX Motherboard / Intel i5-2500K CPU / Overclocked @ 4.4Ghz/ Freezer Heatpipe Cooler / 8Gb DDR3 Memory / Built & Tested

 

http://yoyotech.co.uk/item-detail.php?products_id=4376325

 

Build your own :thumbs:

 

 

Just built my new rig, but cost a lot more than £400 :surrender::blush:

 

i72600k@4.4ghz

16gb Kingston ram

Asus P8Z68 Deluxe mothernoard

2x1gb Hard drives

1 256gb Crucial SSD

Asus GTX480 graphics card

Corsair 850 Watt PSU

 

Going to water cool the cpu shortly though.

 

DSC_0160-1.jpg

 

DSC_0157.jpg

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Lol so now im falling back into the Ebay boat i think.

 

I guess my real question is for £300-£400 what should i be doing?

 

My PC case is not big enough to use so i would need to buy a new one if i went down that route, my hdd is 350gb so i could use that although not sure how much longer it will last, my dvd drives etc i could use fine. (barely use them anyway) GFX is a no go as its useless.

 

I need to have a complete system that is working for the £300-£400 i will sort windows myself so dont need to worry about that.

As i said i want to be able to play some games, for a couple of years and then after that the pc will be a internet movie media center pc.

 

I reckon my old pc could go for around £50-70 on ebay, so if i strip it down i need to be saving that much.

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