System buying advice

lphchild

I am in need of a stable system, preferable as much bang for buck as possible I have up to €3000 to spend, it will be used for video encoding, and web/db development.

I am looking for quality parts (i.e. not factory built in the Dell sense), but I want the machine assembled.. don't want to build it myself, as I have no comeback if / when it ****s up.. does anyone know any reputable system builders or systems they can recommend.. I don't need anything other than the box..have all the peripherals , monitor etc.

Is something like this a good deal..?
Ultima AMD Athlon XP 2000+ System (FS-004-OC)/Ultima Pentium IV 'Northwood' 2.2A GHz System (FS-005-OC)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Full_Systems_43.html

Or is there better value elseware?

Cheers,
lph

Saruman

actually you have more comeback when you build it yourself.. each part has its own warranty and its always longer than a computer manufacturer gives.. hard drive 3 - 5 years for instance

Gaz

yes , much better idea building it your self, probably save yourself a fortune too.

Check out www.scan.co.uk , there "today only" deals are sometimes incredible only sh1tty thing is the conversion from sterling :mad:

flamegrill

give you money to gerry, tell him what you want and im sure he would build the pc for you, for a much cheaper price than any other builders.

Ask him to keep all warranties and recipts for you when he gets the gear or get the gearna dship it to him yourself.

Just make sure u ask him first

Regards,

Paul

lphchild

To be honest my concern is stability.. I need this thing to be rock solid as I'm sick of telling clients to wait while I reboot.

I have an irrational fear that a machine built by myself or others with a 'knowledge' i.e., in a hobbyist vein (as my current machine was), is inherantly less stable than one researched and built with complimentary parts by a 'professional' system bulider..(if that makes sense)..

I don't mean someone who builds machine doesn't know what they're doing just that they have nothing to lose if it doesn't live up to the promised stability, as opposed to someone who builds machines for a living and whose reputation is based on delivering quality parts which work as a whole, not just individually.

I'd prefer to pay the price for that kinda of piece of mind rather than save a couple of hundred quid and be left in the same rebooting/crashing hell I'm in at the mo'



Does that make sense??

lph

flamegrill

Ask Gerry.


Regards,

Paul

Gerry

Eh, cheers paul

Personally, I am a hobbyist, but I don't see the point in an unstable machine. I consider stability to be the top priority when building a pc. If it is overclocked, it is only overclocked to the point where it retains perfect stability. Yes, I know you are not looking for an overclocked machine. I cannot tolerate a machine which will crash occasionally, and I don't understand people who live with it. I leave my my machine on 24/7, and spent a lot of time getting it 100% stable. I've built many machines, I don't consider myself a professional system builder ( can you define this term, 99% of the people assembling pc's for decent sized companies are just following instructions.) However, I think that I have everything to lose if a machine is not stable, since I would not tolerate a machine which crashes either. I spend most of the time testing the machine for stability, and I don't hand it over until I'm happy that it is stable. As for complimentary parts, well plenty of pc companies seem to have problems researching this, I continuously do an awful lot of research in this area. If the parts for a pc do happen to have problems working together, I will work to get these resolved.

Judging from my past dealings with ocuk, I don't think they are going to spend very many hours testing your machine.
If you want a quote or whatever, pm me, I think my free plug quota is used up for this month