Building new pc
 

Hi all i wonder if any1 can help me out i built a computer at college last year and now my uncle and antie are asking me to build a computer for them.I have been doing some reasurch on compontes and i wonder if you could tell me wot u think of this and if any else has and suggestions then please say i have between £250 - £350 to spend and no need for a OS.
All the compents are found on ebuyer

(case) Antler Pc-146 Atx Midi Tower Blue 350w P4 Psu Front Usb
(MoBo)PcChips M848ALU SKT A SIS 748 400 DDR AGPx8 ATA133 6CH Sound/lAN/USB 2.0 Upto a 3.2+ CPU Motherboard in Retail Box
(ram)Crucial 512 DDR333 PC2700 DIMM
(HDD)Excelstor 60Gb 7200rpm ATA100
(CPU)AMD Athlon XP2500 333FSB 512 L2 Cache Barton Retail Boxed Inc Heatsink & Fan with 3year Warranty


Total: £213.35

Thanks for any suggestions made

iain

Re: Building new pc
 

Everything looks fine apart from the board. IMO pc chips boards are trouble. Try and get an Abit or Asus board !

Re: Building new pc
 

depending what they're going to use it for you could save a few £'s on a 40gb hdu
Buy the ram in 2x 256 if you want 512mb
Where's your graphics card?

Re: Building new pc
 

onboard gfx on that mobo

Re: Building new pc
 

Missed that one! :banghead:

Re: Building new pc
 

well they will be doing alot of images on there and their daughter will most probly be playing her games on it (the sims lol)

Re: Building new pc
 

I think if you have a look on Dabs (I wish I could remember where) they have some discounted motherboards, when I last looked there was a Gigabyte 7VAXP going for £35 inc. vat. I'd probably avoid anything made by PC Chips too, you don't want the hassle of having to return it to Ebuyer (which is a whole other chore in itself), you could probably spend a tenner of so extra and get something different.

Re: Building new pc
 

Yup..and another good reason not to go near PC Chips mobos !!
(Not a Micro ATX by any chance...onboard gfx usually only come on Micros ??)
:p

Re: Building new pc
 

hi wot about a AOpen SoA nForce 2 ATX A V L AK79G-1394 i have one of these in my pc right now after haveing my other which was built at college called back due to alot of probs with mem and now have the aopen 1 which runs like a dream

Re: Building new pc
 

Aopen make some nice boards, I'd say with the crucial memory you've bought it should work fine.

Re: Building new pc
 

so if i just change the mobo with the apoen one do u think that is a good system then

Re: Building new pc
 

If the Aopen comes with the onboard graphics chip (which some NF and NF2 boards don't) then yeah, for that price it's pretty good.

Re: Building new pc
 

yeah it does cos i have the same board

Re: Building new pc
 

Just jumping in hope no one minds? just saw e buyer and wanted to ask if any one has had any problems with deliverys from them? there service seems to leave a lot to be desired as of late. There are quite a lot of people around having problems with ebuyer at the mo. unlike aria.co.uk super fast delivery i ordered the parts for a complete pc at 6pm and they all arrived at 11 am the next morning, well impressed prices are very reasonable as well

Re: Building new pc
 

Just wait for Bifta to respond :D :D

I've had problems with them in the past, where they sent me the wrong Mobo twice in a row. They're awful to deal with when things go wrong.

Re: Building new pc
 

:D:D:D:D:D:D

Re: Building new pc
 

hi i have ordered of them b4 and had no probs just that the things i ordered come in 2 dirrent boxes at diff time thats all

Re: Building new pc
 

Buy 2x 512MB sticks of ram to total 1024MB

Re: Building new pc
 

I buy from e-buyer almost every week and have never had any problems. :)

Re: Building new pc
 

I'll attempt to make some mature comments about Ebuyer, IF you get your items on time, IF they're the right items, IF you don't have to return them and IF you don't live in Northern Ireland (huge delivery fee) then Ebuyer are the cheapest place to buy bits from, however, in my experience, if you do get any problems with the above then you're in for a bumpy ride, and pem, if you're ordering every week, you've too much money and should lend me some. :D

Re: Building new pc
 

I used to use ebuyer in the past and deiliveries can be a pain the arse. I did start to have my parcls delivered to work, but people at work started to get nosey.

So I use Dabs instead now.

Re: Building new pc
 

Is that no problems as in 'I never had to return items', or as in 'When I need to return something their staff are helpful, courteous, and very swift in solving the problem'.

If it's the first, you are probably very lucky. It it's the second, it looks like you may be getting preferential treatment because you order so often. ;)

Re: Building new pc
 

I have only had to return one item in the last 12 months - and that was a resonably painless operation as I recall. I should point out that I am a both an ebuyer@work customer and an ebuyer@home customer and I have found no difference using either account.

Re: Building new pc
 

If you live in the Nottingham and surrounding are, don't use any supplier that uses Initial City Link as the Courier, they lose goods, say that you were not in when they attemted delievery when you were, make you drive all the way to Ilkeston(their depot) and then tell you they can't find you parcel, and they don't answer their phones either.

Sorry for OT rant, but felt it needed to be said.

Jon

edit: Oh, and forgot to mention, last two deliveries(very late) from City Link have been battered around to the point of the protective packaging not existing in places.

Re: Building new pc
 

That does sound like good service. I suppose I'm a bit biased because they managed to s***w up twice on one order, which meant I had to wait close to a month to have my new pc built. Having said that, I have ordered from them since without problems.

Re: Building new pc
 

I've an ASUS A7v8X in my PC most reliable.

Re: Building new pc
 

Staff? At Ebuyer? Have you ever tried to raise them on the phone, I swear there's one person in customer service with a really sh*te attitude .. a mr or mr's "E note" :D

Re: Building new pc
 

LOL!!!! Yes, the e-note system is horrible. Raise an e-note and wait for three days to get an answer ('No, we will not reimburse for the postage you had to pay because we sent you the incorrect item. At present we are considering charging you for returning an item.')

I have actually managed to speak to someone on the phone, and that person was helpful, but the e-note system is a joke...

Re: Building new pc
 

ehhhh? 3 day's you say? I've never had a single response to an e-note :D

Re: Building new pc
 

You must have been really pleased with their 'you cannot raise a new e-note until your previous one has been answered' policy... If we ignore our disgruntled customers long enough they may just disappear in a puff of smoke, and not ask for their money back... I'd much rather deal with NTL ;)

Re: Building new pc
 

To be honest, I'd go with this rig.. (Dont know if you want a decent G card or not?

Anyway;

AMD Athlon "Barton" XP2500+ 333FSB (Socket A) CPU - OEM (CP-039-AM) £61.69

Abit NF7 v2.0 nForce2 (Socket A) Motherboard (MB-035-AB) £49.94

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB 7200RPM ATA100 - OEM (HD-001-SE) £46.94

TwinMOS 512MB (2x256MB) DDR PC3200 Dual Channel Kit (MY-006-TM) £58.69

Coolermaster Aero 7 Lite (Socket A) (HS-007-CM) £15.86

That totals £233 inc VAT from here

Doesnt include the case you picked.. as I dont know how it much it costs.. about £20-£30?

So thats about £260.. leaving you £90 or so for a G card. Depending what type of performance your after, You could go for a 9600XT (Which'l handle all current games) for just over £100.. or go for a low end 9600, about £80-90.. or maybe just a bog standard GF ti440 or something. Deffo stay away from PC chips.

Re: Building new pc
 

Any Antec case would be a good buy. I have used them in my last 2 pc builds. Very impressed with their build quality. But note that not all of their cases have PSU's fitted! Overclockers stock them as well.

Re: Building new pc
 

Ive never had a problem with Ebuyer, Even when having to return stuff. They arnt the best to deal with but Ive had worse (Aria for one) I dont think ive ever ordered from aria without at least one thing beeing DOA, except once and that died about a week later :eek:
Though I will admit that the whole RMA process to aria was done via email and quite quickly, they actually had to wait for me to post the item for a few weeks as I didnt have the money available, It was a WD caviar 60gb 5,400 RPM wich they didnt stock anymore by the time I returned it, they sent me back an IBM 60gb 7,200 RPM instead wich was worth £15 more, Wich was nice :eek:

To summarise allthough aria seem to treat RMAs better, the frequencey they occor more than makes up for it.

as for your system I would reccomend any Nforce2 mobo (Preferably ASUS)
and an Antec, Chieftec or Thermaltake case (All pretty much the same case anyway)