Idiot guide to buying gaming PC?

McNulty737

I'm looking to buy a pre built gaming pc, as i dont have a clue what the best graphics card etc are at the moment, and absolutely no clue how to assemble all the parts.

Had a look at Dell alienware, but it seems over priced.

Have around 1-1.5k to spend, any advice appreciated!

kirving

Alienware are very overpriced. To be perfectly honest, building your own PC will required a bit lof learning and decisions on what you want, and may be difficult if you haven't got a clue abotu what's out there.

However, it's noting too difficult and once you check(on here) that everying is compatible and suits your needs it's very doable.

Although I worked on PC's and building one would be no problem to me, I actually found that Dell's top XPS machine represented the best value for me, and I struggled to build a comparable system for less, by the time I threw in a card reader, Blu-Ray player and OS. This won't always be the case though, and XPS's are frowned upon in this forum I'm sure. (€1200 with no extras, Feb 2010)

Buying from Dell, or the like does come with it's own problems though, such as the fact that it will be more difficult to upgrade in the future, specifications for some parts aren't always available, and there are less options available to you. The limited upgrade potential is something which you really should be aware of, as it could very well cost you more as soon as you want to upgrade. I was aware of this, and decided that I could canabalise the Dell if I needed a serious upgrade.

That said, 1.5k will buy you a great PC.

Does the budget include all the peripherals like the screen, printer, keyboard?
Do you plan to do anything else suck as Video Editing or CAD on it?

Asmodean

Id recommend going with a build your own option too. The lads on here are dead on and will offer any assistance they can. Only about 3 weeks ago i decided to get a build together myself. Took a bit of research and asking around on here but you can learn it very quickly. Im saving up for mine now. Putting about 1.2k into it with os, peripherals etc. Your budget will get you a beast of a machine if you decide to build.
I went to the dell custom site and matched it with the specs of my machine. Costed me a good extra 7 or 8 hundred for an identical build! The graphics card alone was 200 quid extra with dell.

If you order from a site like hardwareversand.de, you can pay an extra 20 for them to put it together for you, which is what i am doing as im not confident enough to actually put it together myself for my first attempt. If you knoiw anyone who has an idea about pcs they will be a great help too.

Hope this has helped out in some capacity

Sephiroth_dude

Asmodean wrote: »

If you order from a site like hardwareversand.de,

Where are these guys based?

Trevor451

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

Where are these guys based?

Germany. But they do deliver to Ireland for €30 (flat rate)

Sephiroth_dude

Trevor451 wrote: »

Germany. But they do deliver to Ireland for €30 (flat rate)

are they reliable?and you pick the parts and they build the computer for you
:-)?

Fluffy88

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

are they reliable?and you pick the parts and they build the computer for you
:-)?

Alot of people on here buy from them, so I would say they are fairly reliable. Although I have no personal experience with them. One thing about HWVS is they only accept Bank transfer as payment, they don't simply accept a Credit Card payment so that might be an issue for some people.
And you can get them to build the computer for a little extra

Sephiroth_dude

Fluffy88 wrote: »

Alot of people on here buy from them, so I would say they are fairly reliable. Although I have no personal experience with them. One thing about HWVS is they only accept Bank transfer as payment, they don't simply accept a Credit Card payment so that might be an issue for some people.
And you can get them to build the computer for a little extra

Bank transfer as in paypal?

Fluffy88

Like I say, I haven't had any personal experience with them, but I don't believe you can use Paypal, I think you can use online banking if your bank supports that or visit your local branch and organise the transfer that way.

Trevor451

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

are they reliable?and you pick the parts and they build the computer for you
:-)?

They charge €20 extra if you want them to build the computer for you. I ordered off them myself and had no problems with them. (payed by credit card through paypal)

Monotype

Dell are fine if you need a cheap computer that just works and you look out for good deals. Their gaming systems are usually overpriced. Very overpriced.

Hardwareversand have been used by a lot of members here and have a pretty good track record. They'll deliver for a fixed rate of €30 and will build for another €20. They won't install the heavy CPU fan and graphics cards (if I recall correctly) since they can damage the motherboard in transit. They will install windows for more again, but this is a huge waste.
I would recommend that you build it yourself. It takes a little bit of research and care but it's not overly complicated and taking a beginner, casual pace, you should have it done in a day. Plus it's fun and you learn something.

HWV only take bank transfers and sometimes take paypal if they're in the mood for an extra 3%. If you don't like this, I'd recommend scan.co.uk. I've ordered from them a few times and they've been pretty fast. Depending on your items and exchange rates, either place can be better. HWV usually has the edge with most components but I've noticed that monitors and some peripherals can be dearer. Also, don't buy a German layout keyboard from HWV.

Do you need a keyboard/mouse/speakers/monitor?

Skerries

all good advice there from Monotype
for that kind of money you would be looking at an enthusiast level of pc with plenty of head for overclocking
if you aren't going to be doing any or aren't comfortable doing it then you could have a cheaper pc built with no loss in quality as you could get cheaper motherboard, memory, cpu and use stock cooling