New PC, £800 to spend.

[Tender]

I'm not too knowledgeable on the whole PC front so I thought i'd come to you guys for help - I've no idea where to start looking. I'm looking for the best PC (already built) for around £800, needed to play some games and just general PCness.

Thanks!

 

[triplea4uk]

Is it complete PC you want with keyboard monitor that sort of stuff?

 

[madzo2006]

Im also after a PC for this price, especially one that can handle HD Playback

 

[Tender]

Is it complete PC you want with keyboard monitor that sort of stuff?

Yeah please, could go higher.

 

[triplea4uk]

Well it's worth trying to build a system yourself or if you know someone get them to build it for you £800 is a nice budget to build one.

 

[Tender]

Is overclockers a good site or a bit pricey?

 

[nicktrex]

Overclockers is fantastic and ebuyer are alright, personally i'd use Overclockers because i have had much better experiences with them than ebuyer.

 

[Baron Von Doom]

Is overclockers a good site or a bit pricey?

personally i would avoid Overclockers and use Ebuyer due to experience

 

[badbob]

Is overclockers a good site or a bit pricey?

Since my overclockers username is the same, if I give my opinion I'd get perma banned on overclockers forum. Yes they're that petty and immature.

Buy from ebuyer instead, excellent service.

 

[Golliwogg]

how abt novatech computers? good retailers?

 

[nitram_tpr]

What sort of games you after playing?

You could try Dell, I have bought a few PC's from them and never had any problems.

They have an outlet for cheaper prices HERE

Another refurb palace is Euro PC

Personally I would avoid Overclockers, too pricey.

 

[jazzert100]

Is overclockers a good site or a bit pricey?

here's my experience of overclockers!

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=755274

 

[nicktrex]

Well i know of quite a few people who haven't got on well with ebuyer, but then it also seems that quite a few people on here havent had good experiences with overclockers. Never used Scan but they seem to be quite good and Novatech are good but thought their prices were slightly too high in comparison to other places.

 

[Deleted member 209349]

try www.cclonline.com order the parts from them and they build it for you for £70 and you get 1 year warranty.

budget spec:
Q6600 £145
512mb 8800gt £125
Asus P5k-SE £60
500GB Samsung HD £45
2 GB Corsair 800mhz ram £30
Pioneer CD/DVD £17
520W Corsair modular PSU £68
Vista 64-bit £60
Case - Antec 300 £35

Cost so far £585

22" monitor ~ £150
keyboard/ mouse £10
cost to build £70

Total cost £815

or if want to spend bit extra for better performance and overclock:

Q6600 OEM £135
Scythe Ninja Plus CPU cooler £30
512mb 8800gt £125
Asus P5K-E £90
500GB Samsung HD £45
4 GB Corsair 800mhz ram £55
Pioneer CD/DVD £17
520W Corsair modular PSU £68
Vista 64-bit £60
Case - Antec 900 £65

Cost so far £690

same accessories:

total cost £920

 

[Gow87]

Future tech has a good spec there

However 64 bit vista i would say is not needed at all and would likely cause more problems then its worth bothering with. Reason being if you arent too sure about building one then any problems that vista 64 throws up you might struggle with. Not to mention that some games and apps coded for 32 bit run a bit slower because of the added compatibility layer in there to make it work. The benefits of 64-bit don't add up to the average punter unless the programs they use actually are 64-bit (most of which aren't). Yes it can address more RAM but the 3.2 that vista 32 bit can see is ample. and to be fair I'm still not convinced on vista. I have ran it for a year on my laptop but recently rolled back to XP after vista threw a wobbler and wouldnt detect a mouse. I've built one for my parents which recently did updates and screwed itself over. For now I don't think vista is ready. XP is more stable and runs smoother. yes they are stopping the sale of XP soon but it is still a superior OS... for now.

pretty much everything else is spot on!

keyboard and mouse is worth a larger investment than £10 especially if you want to play games.

If you wanted to mix and match, 2 gb under xp would be enough and the money saved could go towards a nicer case. Nicer case = quieter and usually better cooling/looking

The HDD is a good choice, but if you order this make sure it is one of the new "F1" drives i believe the model is 523 or 503lj its something like that anyway. they are much faster than the previous models.

EDIT: 501IJ is the new F1 series drive

thats my 2p anyway

 

[EndlessWaves]

For keyboard and mouse you could get a Cherry Cymotion Expert for £15 and a Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 for £15.

20" and 22" monitors have the same resolution, so 20" is better if you'll be viewing it close up an 22" is better if it's going to be futher away.