Grand to spend on a PC

Kold · 12-06-2008 10:41pm #1

I'm looking for a PC for multimedia purposes mainly but I also want it to be a beast for gaming. I've about a grand to spend on it and will need all the hardware. I'd definitely go with a desktop.
Not really savvy enough to build my own so does anyone know where I might get a decent machine built or any sites that do a good deal? The power of the Euro means that I don't mind getting it shipped over at all.

Actually, not all too sure this is the right place for this, feel free to move it mods.

gamer · 13-06-2008 12:23am

WELL try dell.ie or komplett.ie ,or jaguarcomputers dublin .I prefer 2buy in ireland ,any problem ,at least you can send it back.
MY advice get dual core cpu pc intel with 4gig ram ,i think winxp is faster than vista ,especially for gaming.
GET graphics card with tv out or hdmi out as well as dvi .
GET 2o inch widescreen monitor with 2 signal inputs.LOOK at building upgrading forum for posts re buying new pc.
THERES a sticky on page 1 this forum, where 2 buy hardware.GET 2 500 gig hardrives sata or ide.JUST get 1 fast graphics card,its cooler and quieter than 2 sli cards.
get at least 600watt power supply unit.

AlmightyCushion · 13-06-2008 12:28am

www.hardwareversand.de They have a pc builder on their site and they'll build the pc for €20. For a grand you should be able to get q6600, 4GBs ram, 8800gt, 20"/22" monitor, spinpoint f1 1TB drive. I'll probably mess about with it later and spec you something up.

gamer · 13-06-2008 1:36am

i d prefer 2 500hds, with a terabyte hd,if it fails you,ve lost all your data, with 2 hds you can use 1 as a backup drive.put winxp ,and all apps programs on drive c ,and most important data on drive d.if you get a virus ,itll prbly stay off drive d.

AlmightyCushion · 13-06-2008 1:47am

This'll come to about €1000 delivered. You'll have to get a keyboard (hardwareversand only have german keyboards) so just get a half decent one somewhere locally.

Kold · 13-06-2008 11:36am

Can't really compare the specs at the mo because I'm at work but this is what I was looking at last night from computerplanet.co.uk, comes in at about E1150:

NZXT - LEXA-BLACKLINE BLUE
AMD ATHLON 64 X2 6400+ 2MB SKT-AM2 (Black Edition)
ASUS SKT-AM2+ M3A78-EH S/L 5200MT/s
4GB DDR2 PC-6400 800 MHZ (4 x 1 GB 800)
ASUS 1GB RADEON HD 3850 SMART (Over Clocked)
HIPER POWER 580W Low Noise/SLI Ready
500 GB SATA HDD UDMA 300 7200 16MB
ASUS DVD±RW 20x DRW-2014L1T Black - LIGHTSCRIBE (SATA)
Creative Audigy SE 7.1
4 Port Firewire IEEE 1394 PCI Card + FREE CABLE
ASUS Wireless LAN 125Mbps PCI
10 X USB 2.0 Ports
Internal Card Reader 50-in-1
Speeze QuadroFlow VIII - Low Noise
Belkin 5 UK Outlet Surge Protector 1.7M Cable (£20,000 Warranty)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 32-BIT
CHIMEI LCD MONITOR 22" WIDE CMV 223D MM SIL DVI
OCTIGEN SLIM KEYBOARD PS/2 RET
Standard Black Optical Mouse - PS2
Logitech X 530 5.1 Speaker System 70W RMS

Is that a good deal? Am I missing anything important?

gamer · 13-06-2008 12:21pm

that looks good ,leave out the mouse and keyboard unless its free, get a 4 button wireless mouse.1 wonder how much a dell pc ,same specs would cost

Kold · 13-06-2008 12:31pm

Yep, free. Should I pay about 20 quid more to get Windows XP professional 32 bit?

AlmightyCushion · 13-06-2008 3:03pm

Kold wrote: »

Yep, free. Should I pay about 20 quid more to get Windows XP professional 32 bit?

No you have 4GBs of ram. The only way the computer will be able to use all this is if you have a 64bit os. You should be getting vista 64bit.

I hate to toot my own horn here but the one I specced is a better system. It's got a quad core processor, more hard drive space, better graphics card (the 3850 probably can't even use more than 512MB so having 1GB is useless), 2 sticks of ram (usually better for overlocking and makes it easier to upgrade), better mouse, 64-bit os.

Kold · 13-06-2008 3:18pm

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

No you have 4GBs of ram. The only way the computer will be able to use all this is if you have a 64bit os. You should be getting vista 64bit.

I hate to toot my own horn here but the one I specced is a better system. It's got a quad core processor, more hard drive space, better graphics card (the 3850 probably can't even use more than 512MB so having 1GB is useless), 2 sticks of ram (usually better for overlocking and makes it easier to upgrade), better mouse, 64-bit os.

I'll take your word for it so, I honestly don't know a lot about it.

AlmightyCushion · 13-06-2008 3:42pm

Moved from Comp and tech. The guys here will give you some very good advice, Kold. If you listen to them you'll get the best possible value for money you can get.

toco123 · 14-06-2008 1:19pm

NZXT - LEXA-BLACKLINE BLUE
AMD ATHLON 64 X2 6400+ 2MB SKT-AM2 (Black Edition)
ASUS SKT-AM2+ M3A78-EH S/L 5200MT/s
4GB DDR2 PC-6400 800 MHZ (4 x 1 GB 800)
ASUS 1GB RADEON HD 3850 SMART (Over Clocked)
HIPER POWER 580W Low Noise/SLI Ready
500 GB SATA HDD UDMA 300 7200 16MB
ASUS DVD±RW 20x DRW-2014L1T Black - LIGHTSCRIBE (SATA)
Creative Audigy SE 7.1
4 Port Firewire IEEE 1394 PCI Card + FREE CABLE
ASUS Wireless LAN 125Mbps PCI
10 X USB 2.0 Ports
Internal Card Reader 50-in-1
Speeze QuadroFlow VIII - Low Noise
Belkin 5 UK Outlet Surge Protector 1.7M Cable (£20,000 Warranty)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 32-BIT
CHIMEI LCD MONITOR 22" WIDE CMV 223D MM SIL DVI
OCTIGEN SLIM KEYBOARD PS/2 RET
Standard Black Optical Mouse - PS2
Logitech X 530 5.1 Speaker System 70W RMS

Unless you have a secret passion with AMD I would reccomend not spending your money on this.

Go to www.hardwareversand.de and buy:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Tray, 8192Kb, LGA775, 64bit, Kentsfield
ABIT FP-IN9 SLI, LGA775 NVIDIA 650i SLI, ATX, PCIe
4096MB DDR2 Corsair TwinX2 CL 5, PC6400/800
NZXT Lexa Blackline Blue, ATX,
ATX-Netzteil Corsair VX550W 550 Watt
XFX GeForce 9600GT 650M ,512MB DDR3, PCI-Express
XFX GeForce 9600GT 650M ,512MB DDR3, PCI-Express
Samsung HD753LJ 750GB S-ATA II, 32MB Cache
Samsung SyncMaster 2232BW, 22"
Logitech X-540
MS Windows Vista home premium 64bit Englisch

Comes to about the same price
Samsung SH-S203D bulk schwarz

Kold · 07-07-2008 5:38pm

Just a question, have any of you used this site before? I only ask because it won't take credit card but asks for a money transfer instead. I'd hate to be giving away €1200 so I thought I'd double check.

partyatmygaff · 07-07-2008 6:56pm

Thats how they operate and they ship via DHL, they (for some weird reason) only accept Bank Transfers, a lot of people here on boards.ie myself included have bought off these guys and theyre legitimate and pretty good actually, i reckon they only accept bank transfer to keep their costs down which means they are usually the cheapest since credit card fees are huge and make it all more expensive.

In short, yes they are legit!!

Phototoxin · 07-07-2008 7:20pm

Try neurocore. I have a computer that they assembled. Its quite good and they can tune/oc it too if you. They also did some computers for the local IT AFAIK so you could give them a whirl.

Dinner · 07-07-2008 7:31pm

Kold wrote: »

Just a question, have any of you used this site before? I only ask because it won't take credit card but asks for a money transfer instead. I'd hate to be giving away €1200 so I thought I'd double check.

Ordered from them a couple of weeks ago.

Ordered on the Sunday, payment went through on the Thursday, built by Thursday evening and arrived Monday or Tuesday, can't remember.

Sqaull20 · 07-07-2008 8:23pm

Phototoxin wrote: »

Try neurocore. I have a computer that they assembled. Its quite good and they can tune/oc it too if you. They also did some computers for the local IT AFAIK so you could give them a whirl.

If you want to be ripped off, they are great

@ Kold: what you gettin?

I have ordered loads of stuff off Hardwareversand.de, delivery is a little slow, language can be a problem when returning, but besides that its great.

Kold · 07-07-2008 8:43pm

4096MB DDR2 Corsair Twin2X CL 5, PC6400/800
NVIDIA 650i SLI, ATX, PCIe
Arctic Freezer 7 Pro Sockel 775
ATX-Netzteil Corsair VX550W 550 Watt
Creative SoundBlaster Audigy SE
Adapter Retail,32-Bit,10/100 Mbit NWay
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Tray, 8192Kb, LGA775, 64bit, Kentsfield
Logitech MX518 Gaming-Grade Optical refresh
Logitech X-530 5.1 System
Maxtor DiamondMax 22 500GB SATA II 32MB
NZXT Lexa Blackline Green, ATX, ohne Netzteil
Samsung HD321KJ 320GB Serial ATA-II, 7200 UPM, 16MB
Vista 64bit
Samsung SH-S203D bulk schwarz
Samsung SyncMaster 2232BW, 22"
XFX GeForce 8600GTS 675M ,512MB DDR3, PCI-Express
XFX GeForce 8600GTS 675M ,512MB DDR3, PCI-Express

Is what it's looking like at the moment. Just over €1100 So that's looking nice.

AlmightyCushion · 07-07-2008 8:45pm

Don't get 2 8600gts'. A single faster card (like the 8800gt) would be much better.

Sqaull20 · 07-07-2008 9:04pm

Looks ok.

You dont need 10/100 Ethernet adapter, all motherboards have this.

Agree with Almighty get a single card like HD4850 or HD4870.

This one is a bit over budget, but its lovely.

Class graphics, lovely motherboard, good psu, fast hard drives, full crossfire support etc.

Kold · 07-07-2008 9:11pm

Hmmm and if you were gonna snip that to be about €1200 what would you do?

PogMoThoin · 07-07-2008 9:20pm

Drop the x-fi and the 2nd hd, You can always add these again later, nice rig

You could also change the 750W psu to the corsair 620W.

BTW, I've dealt with hdv.de as well, actually i'm expecting a delivery from them at the moment, I highly recommend them. Much cheaper than Irish/Uk stores because of the 17% VAT rate. Will take 3-4 days for the money to transfer on the first order from them tho, but its worth it.

Sqaull20 · 07-07-2008 9:25pm

I would ditch the soundcard, on board is perfect these days, only a audio freak would notice the difference.

Downgrade to a non crossfire mobo like ( I wouldnt do it though )

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L ,Intel P35 €61

http://www4.hardwareversand.de/4VC3X3a0EJSYq_/articledetail.jsp?aid=18314&agid=659

Change case

http://www4.hardwareversand.de/4VC3X3a0EJSYq_/articledetail.jsp?aid=5461&agid=631

Downgrade psu to 550watt

I'd go with Pog and lose soundcard, hard drive and better value case like

http://www4.hardwareversand.de/4VC3X3a0EJSYq_/articledetail.jsp?aid=18538&agid=631

Should spare over €100 and you keep class motherboard, psu
http://www4.hardwareversand.de/4VC3X3a0EJSYq_/articledetail.jsp?aid=17793&agid=240

Kold · 28-07-2008 2:47pm

OK, was gonna order this today but now they have no monitors or speaker systems?

Anti · 28-07-2008 3:10pm

none at all? or just the ones you are looking for ?

Kold · 28-07-2008 3:12pm

When I get to displays it says none currently available and there's only one speaker system where it used to have loads.

Anti · 28-07-2008 3:49pm

I see loads.

Screens
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articlelist.jsp?agid=603

Speakers
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articlelist.jsp?agid=771

Kold · 28-07-2008 3:55pm

Anti wrote: »

I see loads.

Screens
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articlelist.jsp?agid=603

Speakers
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articlelist.jsp?agid=771

Yeah but try it when you're in the PC configurator.

Anti · 28-07-2008 3:57pm

Ahh, i see what you mean now. I would say ring them, but the chance that fritz will be able to speak english is pretty unlikely. Maybe fire off an email to them ?

Grand to spend on a PC

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