January - New PC

Brando_ie

I am getting a new PC in January / February and am going to spend around 3k with the main prerequisite being dual 19-20" monitors. I had narrowed my main avenues down to either DELL (as my current PC is a DELL, but since then I have had problems with DELL CS and have no particular allegiance to them anymore) or a custom e-bay type one as I can hang onto my speakers and wireless keyboard for a start and get the monitors from komplett or similar.

I have been keeping an eye on this place over Christmas to get some tips and am wondering if there are any custom PC folks on boards so as to keep the business here rather than the UK. I briefly broached the topic of a self build with my partner who flipped at the prospect and although I am sure I am capable I have never bothered with the whole over clocking thing and would prefer to follow the lead of folks more familiar with the current components and their over clocking capabilities.

Any tips or alternate purchase routes would be welcome. Thanks

AlmightyCushion

You could just use the komplett pc builder thing on their site.

Stev_o

Brando_ie wrote: »

I am getting a new PC in January / February and am going to spend around 3k with the main prerequisite being dual 19-20" monitors. I had narrowed my main avenues down to either DELL (as my current PC is a DELL, but since then I have had problems with DELL CS and have no particular allegiance to them anymore) or a custom e-bay type one as I can hang onto my speakers and wireless keyboard for a start and get the monitors from komplett or similar.

I have been keeping an eye on this place over Christmas to get some tips and am wondering if there are any custom PC folks on boards so as to keep the business here rather than the UK. I briefly broached the topic of a self build with my partner who flipped at the prospect and although I am sure I am capable I have never bothered with the whole over clocking thing and would prefer to follow the lead of folks more familiar with the current components and their over clocking capabilities.

Any tips or alternate purchase routes would be welcome. Thanks

Dell is the Devil in most PC peoples thoughts and to be honest you ll save money going elsewhere with your money. E Buyer and all that does get good praise not a very loud one but decent all the less but you have to put alot of research into the product your selling to make sure your not being ripped and your having a decent warranty.


To be honest there isnt any half decent companies in Ireland that build great custom built PC's most people here go for the German sites. If your looking going to be spending that much money id say you might as well purchase it from the UK

www.overclockers.co.uk

wwww.pcspecialist.co.uk

Komplett is another choice but even though it has a IE. address they are based in Finland and are cowboys in disguise.

Brando_ie

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

You could just use the komplett pc builder thing on their site.

I had previously looked at the komplett builder but it only seems to have AMD based systems and I understand (although mainly from this place) that AMD has lost the inititive and folks should really be using intel chips at the moment? Should I be looking at AMD systems and if so what chips should I be on the look out for?

AlmightyCushion

Brando_ie wrote: »

I had previously looked at the komplett builder but it only seems to have AMD based systems and I understand (although mainly from this place) that AMD has lost the inititive and folks should really be using intel chips at the moment? Should I be looking at AMD systems and if so what chips should I be on the look out for?

http://www.komplett.ie/k/cl.aspx?bn=10310

The three at the bottom are intel machines. I'd be sticking with intel myself for now.

Lord Deco

What are you going to be using it for?

you can buy a hell of a rig for 3k...

Brando_ie

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

http://www.komplett.ie/k/cl.aspx?bn=10310

The three at the bottom are intel machines. I'd be sticking with intel myself for now.

Righto. Ill have a bit of a mooch around there and see what is available. As an aside, the 'Ultimate' system comes with both 4gb RAM and Vista Ultimate OEM 32-bit. Should that be 64bit or is my understanding that you need a 64bit OS to register 4gb of RAM?

AlmightyCushion

Brando_ie wrote: »

Righto. Ill have a bit of a mooch around there and see what is available. As an aside, the 'Ultimate' system comes with both 4gb RAM and Vista Ultimate OEM 32-bit. Should that be 64bit or is my understanding that you need a 64bit OS to register 4gb of RAM?

A 32bit os will only see around 3.5GBs of ram. You can get a 64bit version of vista. You might have to email them about it though.

Sqaull20

3k :eek:

You can get a good gaming/video editing or whatever pc for just over €500,like I did....

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E4500 Processor (2.20GHz,800MHz,2MB cache) edit 
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic - English edit 
HARDWARE SUPPORT  Base Warranty - 1 Year Business Hardware Support edit 
MONITOR Monitor Not included edit 
MEMORY 2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024] edit 
HARD DRIVE 320GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA/100 Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst™ cache edit 
GRAPHICS CARD Integrated Intel® Graphic Media Accelerator X3100 edit 
OPTICAL DRIVE 16x DVD +/- RW Drive edit 
KEYBOARD Dell™ Entry Quietkey USB Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY) edit 
MOUSE Dell 2 Button USB Optical Mouse

€277.09 delivered

Add a 8800gt

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=341737

You have a decent performer for a bargain,much better value than those komplett pc's which use cheap mobos/psu's/ram yet charge premium prices....and if you dont overclock

Oh yeah dont worry about the psu on the dell it can handle a 8800gt fine,plenty of guys on dell community forums have a inspirion/vostro with a 8800gt

AlmightyCushion

Sqaull20 wrote: »

You have a decent performer for a bargain,much better value than those komplett pc's which use cheap mobos/psu's/ram yet charge premium prices....and if you dont overclock

What? On komplett you select all the components so you can get top quality components. Dell are the ones that use crap components in their pcs.

Grim.

what he said^^^

Sqaull20

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

What? On komplett you select all the components so you can get top quality components. Dell are the ones that use crap components in their pcs.

They do,but they dont charge premium prices for them...Like where can you get a decent core 2 duo,2gigs ram,320gig hd,windows os etc for €270

Komplett charge through the roof.....

AlmightyCushion

Sqaull20 wrote: »

They do,but they dont charge premium prices for them...Like where can you get a decent core 2 duo,2gigs ram,320gig hd,windows os etc for €270

Komplett charge through the roof.....

That's because komplett use good components. Check the motherboards on all their pcs, it's always gigabyte, msi, abit or something like that. Same with the psu and ram. Whereas dell make their own motherboards and psus (or at least they did). The components used in a komplett pc will be of a higher quality that the components dell use so it isn't a fair comparison.

PogMoThoin

Sqaull20 wrote: »

much better value than those komplett pc's which use cheap mobos/psu's/ram yet charge premium prices....and if you dont overclock

So what mobo is in that Dell then? And is the ram better quality than whats in the Komplett, i dont think so. Its Dell who use cheap components m8. I've had a look at all the komplett systems and they're actually great value, 2 of the 3 systems have q6600's. There's nothin cheap about the mobo's they're using also, 680i and p35.

Edit: beaten to it

Edit 2: something else you not considered, you got a 1yr warranty on your Dell (unless you paid for longer), which is 1yr for everything in the case, with the komplett each component has a seperate warranty, some like the cpu have 3 yrs, hd's will have 5yrs, ram will have lifetime etc.

Sqaull20

Komplett Intel Extreme € 1,060.02

Gigabyte Triton, GZ-XX1CA-SNS Silver 
AXP Powersupply ATX 630W Retail SLI, 
EVGA nForce 680i SLI,Vers-A1, DDR2, ATX, 
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz 
OCZ Gold XTC DDR2 PC6400 4096MB KIT, 
Gigabyte GeForce 8400GS 256MB DDR2, 
Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 500GB SATA2 
NEC DVD±RW burner AD-7173 IDE Silver 
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate English 

Who in the right mind would pay that?

Its the most unbalanced pc you can think of,great cpu,****e graphics and so on....The choices of graphics cards is a disgrace too...no Ati 3850/3870,Nvidia 8800gt/8800gts 512mb,just the hella expensive 8800gtx and dated 8800gts 320mb/640mb

Sqaull20

PogMoThoin wrote: »

So what mobo is in that Dell then? And is the ram better quality than whats in the Komplett, i dont think so. Its Dell who use cheap components m8. I've had a look at all the komplett systems and they're actually great value, 2 of the 3 systems have q6600's. There's nothin cheap about the mobo's they're using also, 680i and p35.

The Dell costs €277

A Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 costs €119 alone...

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=338080

You get value for money with that dell pc,you dont with the komplett ones imo....

AlmightyCushion

Sqaull20 wrote: »

Komplett Intel Extreme € 1,060.02

Gigabyte Triton, GZ-XX1CA-SNS Silver 
AXP Powersupply ATX 630W Retail SLI, 
EVGA nForce 680i SLI,Vers-A1, DDR2, ATX, 
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz 
OCZ Gold XTC DDR2 PC6400 4096MB KIT, 
Gigabyte GeForce 8400GS 256MB DDR2, 
Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 500GB SATA2 
NEC DVD±RW burner AD-7173 IDE Silver 
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate English 

Who in the right mind would pay that?

Its the most unbalanced pc you can think of,great cpu,****e graphics and so on....The choices of graphics cards is a disgrace too...no Ati 3850/3870,Nvidia 8800gt/8800gts 512mb,just the hella expensive 8800gtx and dated 8800gts 320mb/640mb

Not everyone plays games on their pc. If you don't play games then you don't need a great graphics card. You can email them and add what ever card you like to the system. I did it before.

accensi0n

Sqaull20 wrote: »

3k :eek:

You can get a good gaming/video editing or whatever pc for just over €500,like I did....

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E4500 Processor (2.20GHz,800MHz,2MB cache) edit 
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic - English edit 
HARDWARE SUPPORT  Base Warranty - 1 Year Business Hardware Support edit 
MONITOR Monitor Not included edit 
MEMORY 2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024] edit 
HARD DRIVE 320GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA/100 Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst™ cache edit 
GRAPHICS CARD Integrated Intel® Graphic Media Accelerator X3100 edit 
OPTICAL DRIVE 16x DVD +/- RW Drive edit 
KEYBOARD Dell™ Entry Quietkey USB Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY) edit 
MOUSE Dell 2 Button USB Optical Mouse

€277.09 delivered

Is that a Vostro?

PogMoThoin

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Edit 2: something else you not considered, you got a 1yr warranty on your Dell (unless you paid for longer), which is 1yr for everything in the case, with the komplett each component has a seperate warranty, some like the cpu have 3 yrs, hd's will have 5yrs, ram will have lifetime etc.

:rolleyes: I edited my last post as you were typing. Dell buy manufacturers out of their warranty.

Sqaull20

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Not everyone plays games on their pc. If you don't play games then you don't need a great graphics card. You can email them and add what ever card you like to the system. I did it before.

So what will Brando get for his money with better quality components?

Considering he doesnt overclock,making ds3 mobos etc a bit of luxury....

Also by letting komplett build your pc you only get a 3 year warranty,not lifetime/5 year warranty etc when you build it yourself with the parts they sell...

Sqaull20

PogMoThoin wrote: »

:rolleyes: I edited my last post as you were typing. Dell buy manufacturers out of their warranty.

When you build it yourself yes,not when you let them build it...

Top of the range! This product is a fully built PC based on Intel. 
LCD monitor is optional. 
The PC is delivered to your door with an operating system and 3 years warranty, ready to be used from the box.

PogMoThoin

So what warranty did you get with that dell?

Sqaull20

accensi0n wrote: »

Is that a Vostro?

Yep....

E Value

305-D122003

I bought 2 of them before,sold one to a guy on here with a 7900gs when I got a xps710,put a x1950pro in the other one....Just recently changed that for a HD3850

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055139776

AlmightyCushion

Sqaull20 wrote: »

The Dell costs €277

A Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 costs €119 alone...

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=338080

You get value for money with that dell pc,you dont with the komplett ones imo....

That system from dell is one that was found on the thread in bargain alerts, right? It's hardly represents dells average pc and I bet they are losing money on it. Check this one out for €350. celeron processor, 1GB ram, 160GB hard drive. It hardly represents the same value for money as the system you bought.

Try building a system on dell for €2.5 grand and then build an equivalent system on komplett. The dell won't stack up favourably, I'd bet, even though it will still be using crap components.

Dell offer value for money in some of their ranges, same with komplett. Also komplett really don't cater to the lower end market.

Sqaull20

PogMoThoin wrote: »

So what warranty did you get with that dell?

1 Year

Common its only €277


You can get 3 year for €119,nut thats nearly 50% the price of the pc

Sqaull20

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

That system from dell is one that was found on the thread in bargain alerts, right? It's hardly represents dells average pc and I bet they are losing money on it. Check this one out for €350. celeron processor, 1GB ram, 160GB hard drive. It hardly represents the same value for money as the system you bought.

Try building a system on dell for €2.5 grand and then build an equivalent system on komplett. The dell won't stack up favourably, I'd bet, even though it will still be using crap components.

Dell offer value for money in some of their ranges, same with komplett. Also komplett really don't cater to the lower end market.

Agree...but the point is you dont have to spend 2.5k....

You can get a xps420 with 8800gt,quad core etc for €900,thats pretty high end.....

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/desktops_best?c=ie&cs=ieepp1&l=en&s=dhs

PogMoThoin

Sqaull20 wrote: »

You can get 3 year for €119,nut thats nearly 50% the price of the pc

Actually i read somewhere that Dell will contact You and offer you the extended warranty at a cheaper price after 11months if you dont take them up on the offer when initially purchasing

I think AlmightyCushion summed it up

Dell offer value for money in some of their ranges, same with komplett. Also komplett really don't cater to the lower end market.

But for a higher end pc, I'd not go to Dell as its not value for money

PogMoThoin

Sqaull20 wrote: »

You can get a xps420 with 8800gt,quad core etc for €900,thats pretty high end.....

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/desktops_best?c=ie&cs=ieepp1&l=en&s=dhs

Not really, they dont even tell you what mobo is in it, there's no chance of being able to upgrade the motherboard in the future, You can be sure Dell are using the cheapest components available, There's no chance of overclocking, And Dell cases usually have pathetic airflow. I wouldn't call it high end. Some of us like to pay extra for some of the comforts like these.

Sqaull20

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Actually i read somewhere that Dell will contact You and offer you the extended warranty at a cheaper price after 11months if you dont take them up on the offer when initially purchasing

I think AlmightyCushion summed it up


But for a higher end pc, I'd not go to Dell as its not value for money

I know where your both coming from and I agree highend Komplett are more competitive....Still Komplett cant match the below for €1413

Premium Chassis - Intel® 2 Quad-Core™ Processor Q6600 (2.40GHz, 1066MHz, 8MB cache)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English
Base Warranty - 1 Year XPS Premium Hardware Support (incl. Gaming and On-Site Support)
Monitor Not included
3072MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024/2x512]
1TB Dual Hard Drive Raid 0 Stripe (2x500GB - 7200rpm)
SINGLE 768MB nVidia® GeForce® 8800 GTX graphics card
TV Tuner and AVIO / Accellerator
4x Blu-Ray Disc Drive
Dell™ Enhanced USB Multimedia Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY)
Dell Optical Scroll Premium Mouse
Sound Blaster® X-Fi Xtreme Gamer PCI Soundcard
Dell™ A525 Speakers with Subwoofer
19-in-1 Bluetooth Media Card Reader
No Modem
Microsoft® Works 8.0 - English
Internal 802.11b/g Wireless PCI Card

Or Dual 8800gt sli without blu ray

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/xpsdt_720?c=ie&cs=ieepp1&l=en&s=dhs

Dont think you can get a 8800gtx,quad core,3gb ram,1tb hd,blu ray on komplett for 1400

Sqaull20

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Not really, they dont even tell you what mobo is in it, there's no chance of being able to upgrade the motherboard in the future, You can be sure Dell are using the cheapest components available, There's no chance of overclocking, And Dell cases usually have pathetic airflow. I wouldn't call it high end. Some of us like to pay extra for some of the comforts like these.

But Brando has no interest in overclocking,xps720 range are very upgradeable imo,good overclockers too

Conar

Sqaull20 wrote: »

Its the most unbalanced pc you can think of,great cpu,****e graphics and so on....The choices of graphics cards is a disgrace too...no Ati 3850/3870,Nvidia 8800gt/8800gts 512mb,just the hella expensive 8800gtx and dated 8800gts 320mb/640mb

The lack of selection of graphics cards has always been a bit of a pain alright.

Has anyone else noticed that Komplett has gotten very expensive recently though?
Nearly every part I have looked at recently has been considerably cheaper on DABS.ie

Akasa Fan controller €26.50 in Komplett yet only €11.34 in DABS not to mention that the postage is €5 on dabs for small items. You can buy 2 of these fan controllers plus postage on DABS for the price of one on Komplett excluding postage.

More examples:
Antec P182 is €142 on Komplett and only €123 on DABS

Corsair 650W PSU is €123 on Komplett and only €109 on DABS

Q6600 is 249 on Komplett and only €228.50 on DABS

OCZ Platinum memory is €66 on Komplett and only €48 on DABS

EVGA 8800GT 700/2000Mhz is €289 on Komplett and only €279 on DABS

Honestly, try it and you'll find it hard to find anything on Komplett.
Maybe they're just slow to react to the decline in strength of the sterling but either way I'd shop around before buying anything in Komplett at the moment.

By the way, I neither work for DABS nor did I select products that looked worse. These are all parts that I'm currently looking at or have recently bought. I have checked a lot more and it seems to be pretty much the same for every part.
Komplett are just extremely **** at the moment.