Computer buying/building help

A

alasdairsim

New Member
Hey all

As my laptop has packed it in i've decided to purchase a new desktop PC. It'll be used for the following purposes:


  • Surfing
    Listening to music
    Playing some games (Football manager, Civilization IV)

I want a motherboard that is quite upgradeably, i.e. RAM, Graphics Cards etc etc...

What is the best option to take: buy one or build my own?

I've found the following on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/5200-Dual-Cor...34.c0.m14.l1262&_trkparms=|301:0|293:1|294:30

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PC-Desktop-Co...34.c0.m14.l1262&_trkparms=|301:0|293:1|294:30

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BLADE-PC-AMD-...3|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50

This is in and around my budget, about £250 after I get a wireless card etc...

Any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks.
 
Regarding the first two: ASRock is not a good motherboard manufacturer.
And the third: A dual core processor does NOT have twice the power of the equivalent single core, so where it says 2.6+2.6=5.2, they are bending the truth slightly. That said those processors will be OK for your uses, I am sure.

Just bear in mind that these computers will have been made with the cheapest components.

From ebuyer:

http://www.ebuyer.com/bundle/4J9F96QY1 - Mobo/CPU bundle - £75
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152505 - Power Supply - £35
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142399 - 2GB Ram - £19
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159691 - HDD - £35
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161335 - Video Card - £34

+ DVDRW - £15 + Case - £25

Total £240ish. Slightly more expensive but you have got brand names, most importantly with the power supply. That isn't a good list at all, just gives you an idea of prices - you will get cheaper deals if you shop around a bit.

But the main bit of advice - avoid ebay shops like that! Doug.
 
 
dug987654 said:
Regarding the first two: ASRock is not a good motherboard manufacturer. And the third: A dual core processor does NOT have twice the power of the equivalent single core, so where it says 2.6+2.6=5.2, they are bending the truth slightly. That said those processors will be OK for your uses, I am sure.

Just bear in mind that these computers will have been made with the cheapest components.

From ebuyer:

http://www.ebuyer.com/bundle/4J9F96QY1 - Mobo/CPU bundle - £75
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152505 - Power Supply - £35
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142399 - 2GB Ram - £19
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159691 - HDD - £35
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161335 - Video Card - £34

+ DVDRW - £15 + Case - £25

Total £240ish. Slightly more expensive but you have got brand names, most importantly with the power supply. That isn't a good list at all, just gives you an idea of prices - you will get cheaper deals if you shop around a bit.

But the main bit of advice - avoid ebay shops like that! Doug.
Click to expand...

One- Asrock is a subsidiary of asus, the boards are fine from the experience ive had with them, and newegg reviews seem to back that up

Two- Techincally it has dual the power as its two cpu's running at the same speed, but its not equilivent to a 5.6Ghz cpu, but in terms of FLOPS they are twice as fast or so.

alasdairsim said:
what about this:

Case - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146271 - £19.99

PSU - http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-PSU550 - £18.39

MOBO/RAM/Processor - http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?MBB-446V2G £109.95

HDD - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124228 - £42.45

DVDRW - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/126226 - £15.29

Graphics - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161335 - £33.85

Wireless - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/50127 - £19.99

Key/Mouse - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132140 - £14.99



= £274.90

ex. Delivery.
Click to expand...

That all looks good, but i would make a few changes:

DVD Burner, SATA is better:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151999

PSU:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/135159

Mobo:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-336-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=805

Cpu:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-234-AM&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=803

Memory:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/119738

GPU:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/153214
or
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-191-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1274
 
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Final spec (hopefully).

Basically:

2.7ghz
2gb Ram
500GB HDD
9400GT 512 mb Graphics Card
DVD+RW
Wireless PCI
Wireless Keyboard & Mouse
 
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