Buying a desktop the lazy way

friznit · Post by **friznit** » August 15th, 2008, 15:34

Hypothetically speaking, if I were to purchase a ready made top end gaming machine because I was too idle build another one myself, who would you recommend? I've had a Dell before, but they tend to be put together in a special Dell way which makes future upgrades of graphics cards etc a pain.

I've heard good things about Alienware. Anything else out there worth looking at? And is this a good time to be shopping or is the next biggest shiny thing about to hit the shelves in a week's time?

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » August 15th, 2008, 15:38

friznit wrote:words

It's usually a bad idea, crap hardware that costs too much, or alienware, where's it's good hardware that costs way too much.

Occasionally small companies offer good pre-built machines, But you'll usually end up paying more, and there's no guarantee they'll be around in 6 months.

And I wouldn't buy anything, nehalem is getting closer, and the GPU wars aren't quite settled yet (I'd guess at least next month for that to calm down)

friznit · Post by **friznit** » August 15th, 2008, 15:47

Coolio, thanks. I'm in no great hurry although I can foresee rage on the horizon when the likes of Fallout3 cause my current machine to divide by zero (Mass Effect already does, thankfully my laptop leapt to the rescue of humankind).

But I really am too lazy to spend a weekend building a machine when I'd rather use that precious non-work time playing a game instead. These companies exist to rip off shmucks like me after all. I guess the question is, how many days wages extra will I pay if I don't build my own?

OH FFS, IS IT NOT HOME TIME YET? For crying out loud what a load of shit...

amblin · Post by **amblin** » August 15th, 2008, 15:50

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » August 15th, 2008, 15:53

amblin wrote:Or I could build you one for a small fee plus component cost.

I'm sure any number of 5punkers will lob a machine together and test it for a few quid.

Post by **FatherJack** » August 15th, 2008, 16:00

friznit wrote:I guess the question is, how many days wages extra will I pay if I don't build my own?

It varies, you can get an Acer with 8800GT graphics for about £650, ticking every box on the Alienware site will exceed £6500.

amblin · Post by **amblin** » August 15th, 2008, 16:16

Post by **HereComesPete** » August 15th, 2008, 17:24

I put together an example spec on OCUK system builder for £2,037.19.

Antec Twelve Hundred Case
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66GHz Processor
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Heatsink
EVGA nForce 790i SLi DDR3 Motherboard
OCZ Platinum 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 Memory
2xNVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3
2xSamsung Spinpoint F1 1TB 7200RPM SATA-II 32MB Cache HDD
LG Blu-Ray Reader/HD-DVD ROM/DVD Lightscribe ReWriter
Sony Black Floppy Drive
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer 7.1 Sound Card
Enermax Galaxy 1000W Power Supply
Microsoft Windows Fista Home Premium 64-Bit
Saitek Eclipse 2 Gaming Keyboard
Logitech G5 Gaming Mouse
Dell Ultrasharp 2408WFP 24" TFT

To buy the exact same parts +postage from them and build it yourself would cost you £1910.61.

From ebuyer it's £1936.61 for the parts + two day postage.

That's just an example, some parts good others not so imo. But if you build it yourself/get a 5punker to do it you save enough money for a couple games or even more ram.

And like berk said, it's still better to wait and see.

Hehulk · Post by **Hehulk** » August 15th, 2008, 17:36

HereComesPete wrote:2xNVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3

While they're going to be cheap as sin now, wouldn't a 4870 be better? Diminishing returns on SLi and all that

*Is considering this exact upgrade next month

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » August 15th, 2008, 17:43

There's probably little reason to do either upgrade right now, 8800s are all still damn fine cards.

and I suspect pete was illustrating a point, rather than actually speccing a build, because that's a poor spec

Akiakaiu · Post by **Akiakaiu** » August 15th, 2008, 17:50

Stay away from Alienware, I know from experience. I needed a pc fast, so I just bought a pre-built "Cyber-pc" from Newegg for $600. This is the pc I have in the "your pc specs thread" if you want to see what I got for the $600. I've not had a single problem with it and it wasn't much more then if I bought and built it. Was well worth it for not having to go through the headache of building one myself.

Post by **HereComesPete** » August 15th, 2008, 18:01

It's an example using the system builder, it only allows certain things. My point was to make a pretty good spec with good peripherals and show amblin that he could save money by building it himself.

I thought that was obvious in the bit what I wrote

HereComesPete wrote:That's just an example, some parts good others not so imo.

As for the 4870 versus an 8800gt sli thing, If I had to buy one right now to continue to play gaems - 4870. The single card option has less chance of fuck up/less effort involved.

If you have an 8800gt already, then there really is no need to upgrade at all atm, if you really want moar power get another 8800gt, but it's not needed.

Hehulk · Post by **Hehulk** » August 15th, 2008, 18:02

Fair enough, but I'm running on that X1950 Pro you told me to buy last year Berk*, and I'm lead to believe I'll see a nice big improvement if I get a much better card in games like soup and teef. Not gona buy until the price wars are done in october though, even with how cheap the 4850 is now.

*I was on a really small budget

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » August 15th, 2008, 18:07

yeah, it'll be a decent upgrade then.

and I didn't tell you what to buy, just advised you what I'd probably buy in that situation.

48x0 will be a good upgrade, as would a GTX2x0, which is better VFM remains to be seen once the wars are done.

and pete is right, single card, single chip is best, then single card, multi chip, then multi card.

Post by **HereComesPete** » August 15th, 2008, 18:17

To upgrade right now (or soonish) would cost you when the card wars settle, but they are always going to drop in price normally soon after you've bought one as well.

If you're too impatient - go for a 4850 if your budget is super tight, but a 4870 can be had for not much moar.

Editz for errant 's'.

Hehulk · Post by **Hehulk** » August 15th, 2008, 18:25

Assuming that was aimed at me

Hehulk wrote:Not gona buy until the price wars are done in october though, even with how cheap the 4850 is now.

Also, fair enough Berk, although recomendation from you = I buy (hardware anyway)

Buying a desktop the lazy way

Buying a desktop the lazy way

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