Prebuilt or built it yourself?

[Mauldor]

Originally Posted by Millay

ahh. if you are doing this for a business as I do, then get a trade account with a good pc retailer. or someone like ingram micro.

Building PC's for a living is not cost effective. spending a few hours putting PC's together is expensive and you will not be competitive if you want to make some serious money, and when things go wrong it really eats into your bottom line.

well thats how i worked it. my hourly rate is worth much morre than the time to build a PC leave it to people with bulk buying and build power

Nah not for business, purely for myself - what I meant by doing it for a living is Im a computer contractors and have done 1st-3rd line support plus all osrts of other stuff. Meaning basically any problems (apart from a hardware failure) I can pretty much fix.

Reason for me looking at Dell was the theory that price of machine was XXX and as its refurb it should be cheaper in theory...The more I look online, the more confused as to what path to follow (self Build)....

So lets stick with the Athlon 64 - now two to choose from here, Socket 754 or 939...from my online checking up, 3400 64 (socket 754) is as good as 3500 new one but its a hell of a lot cheaper. You can still buy AGP gfx cards and from what i can see apart from SLI mode, they are roughly the same anyhow. Now Im sure somebody will say what about future upgrades? picking a older socket means im going to be limited but I must add that I dont go and buy the latest and greatest just cos it saves me 3 seconds on something when the prices is 3x more expnsive.

Of cousre if money was no object then a A-64 4000 with GeForce 6800 Ultra Pro Uber nutter card would be excellent - but them two alone would set uou back at least a grand before even thinking of the rest of the system.

[The_real_dj]

The are a lot of pros and cons with self build and pre built.
The great thing about Dell is if you machine goes tits up you will have a engineer on site next day with whatever parts are required, so if it was for a business id defo say go for Dell.
If you build your own (especially gettin different parts from different stores) and somthing goes pare shaped you run the risk of one company blaming another company etc etc.
A good place ive found is www.ctidirect.co.uk they are cheap for components and you can choose the exact components you want in your pc and for £30 they'll put it all together for you, and from personal experiance they are good when you have to return things!!

EDIT - ooops for £35 they will put it together for you!!!

[AndrewJ]

Thanks for that site. have a rep.

[The_real_dj]

ooo ta!!! how many points you need for 2 green dots??

[AndrewJ]

Think its about 250.

Its on a thread somewhere will post back with it in a mo.


edit: http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...&highlight=rep

[The_real_dj]

tee hee, have a rep for that

[Mauldor]

Just as a Update - I asked this question on other forums (for the wide range i thought of replies) and also mates on email - every single person said the same thing - "Build it yourself".

At the mo Im waiting, cos i dont want to buy a 754 system, would rather have a 939 socket (for pci express etc) but Im not happy with the 939 a64 chips, half the cache, roughly the same speed as 3400 and a lot more dosh to buy (in the scheme of things).

God why do Intel and AMD keep giving me choices....suprised no-one said buy a apple yet

[AndrewJ]

I am in market for a gaming system with tft screen, but will be about June July now for me to buy, because moving first 1.4 of 2005, and then decorating.

[Mauldor]

I suppose it depends on how picky you are, I would hasten to add that a P4 3 GIG with Geforce 6600 AGP (or AMD Counterpart) would be plenty fast for not that much outlay, it should be able to run most if not all games out today.

For example, you can buy a case that looks just like a AlienWare thing for £30, Athlon 64 3400 Socket 754 for £140 and AGP Version of 6600 Nvidia card for £150, this in turn will be a bloddy fast machine. I suppose buying all the "new" stuff is not neccessery any faster but will cost more if you buy it now, the only good upside is you can upgrade easier (and cheaper).

I'm still pondering on which route to take, so i guess waiting is good.

[jamesclarke555]

Self Build = Better Components

[AndrewJ]

Yes well I checked a site out called www.overclockers.co.uk

and in there "full systems" they have one for about £900 which looks rather nice specificaton wise.

[Bifta]

Originally Posted by Mauldor

For example, you can buy a case that looks just like a AlienWare thing for £30

Where?

Originally Posted by jamesclarke555

Self Build = Better Components

Exactly