I'm no expert either but, 400Gb? Double layer dvd writer? *Faints*
n/a
Pete Nattress Cheesy Bits img src/uploads/sccheesegif
Registered 23/09/2002
Points 4811
6th February, 2005 at 09:30:22 -
I've been reading up on the "Nvidia PCX 5300" and it appears that nvidia PCX cards are really just AGP with some form of bridge on them. That's slightly offputting. But then again, there's always the PCX interface which I could buy a decent card for in a couple of years' time. Hmmm...
Well it doesn't look too bad but I would recommend building your own system. I built a top end machine for about £300. You save money for two reasons: Firstly do you really need a 56k modem, firewire port, 400gb (!) hard drive etc? You can save money by not buying them. Secondly since you assemble it yourself (which isn't hard, I figured it out on my own without any help) you save a lot of money on the assembly cost. Plus by the end of it you have a computer which has exactly what you want and does exactly what you want. Oh, and you can salvage bits and pieces like hard drives and sound cards from older PCs and save paying for them.
I'd recommend dabs.com for buying PC parts. Never had any probs with them and good prices too.
- Tigerworks
Pete Nattress Cheesy Bits img src/uploads/sccheesegif
Registered 23/09/2002
Points 4811
6th February, 2005 at 09:53:20 -
true, tigs, true... i was planning on making my own; i didn't realise that a self build could be that cheap though. what spec is the one you made?
I also saved a lot building my own, I kept the monitor, case and DVD/CD-R drives and upgraded the rest. I hate buying pre-built PCs, they're always bad for upgrading.
Well I got an Athlon XP 3200+ with 512mb RAM all 400MHz FSB, Asus motherboard, 400W case, and 40gb hard drive, total about £260 I think. I kept the monitor, another hard drive, sound card, speakers, keyboard, mouse and graphics card. Later I bought a £30 Sound Blaster Live 24-bit for the extra sound quality (it really makes a difference).
In retrospect getting an Athlon XP was a pretty bad idea, since they aren't making them any more and the socket type is no longer used by newer processors. I didn't know about that at the time though, but I still got a top-of-the-range processor at a good price, and theres still room to upgrade elsewhere (GeForce 2 64mb, haha). Should still last me a few years.
# Processor - Athlon 64 3500+ (Socket 939) = £185 (3400+ Socket 754 = £140)
# Operating System - Microsoft® Windows XP Home = £60
# Memory - 1024MB DDR RAM (2x 512MB) = £100 (matched pair)
# Hard Disk - 400GB (2x200) 7200 RPM Serial ATA Drive = £140 (£70 x 2)
# Optical 1 - Double Layer 16x Multiformat (+/-) DVD-Rewiter Drive = £44
# Optical 2 - 16x DVD-ROM Drive = £15 (why would you need one, though?)
# Graphics - 128Mb GeForce PCX 5300 Graphics with TV-Out = around £50, but you can get better ones for not much more
# PC-TV System - PC-TV System, Media Software, FM Radio and Remote Control = £50
# Modem - Dedicated high speed Supanet optimised 56K modem = £10
# Network - 10/100 Ethernet Port for Home Networking = built into your motherboard
# Firewire - 1394 Firewire Port = same
# Card Reader - Multi-Format Card Reader & Writer = £7
# Sound - 6 Channel Sound Onboard
# Keyboard etc. - Multimedia Keyboard & Optical Mouse = £10-20
# Ports etc. - 1.44MB Floppy Drive = £5
# USB2.0 Ports x4, Parallel & Standard Ports = onboard
# Case - Full ATX Tower Case with Upgrade Capacity (7 Drive Bays) = £15 for basic case, prices increase with asthetics/features
# Motherboard - Microstar MS7093 Micro ATX Motherboard = I can't find much about this, I'd estimate around £80 but there's very little information and you can't buy it. Better but available PCI-Express motherboards are from £110 and also have SLI + overclocking abilities etc.
The total if you were building this yourself, then, is just under £800, so it's not a bad deal - especially considering it's a socket 939 system. The only concerns I'd have are with the comparitively weak graphics card and upgrade potential of the motherboard, and whether they've used any dodgy components to bring the price down Seriously though, buying s939 components separately is more expensive than it should be IMO. That's the main reason why it will cost more to do it yourself, although when you do it yourself you can decide what bits you want and don't want (e.g. the tuner card, modem, smaller disks, better graphics etc.)
As a PC builder I recommend you build it yourself, its incredibly easy there are loads of guides in magazines and on the net that tell you how to do it step by step. All components come with a warranty from the manufacturer. For example retail boxed processors come with a 3 year warranty, if you buy RAM from Crucial you get a lifetime warranty, most hard drive manufacturers give you a 5 year warranty, and you usually get a 3 year warranty on a monitor. If anything goes wrong you dont have to piss about with Tiny's annoying staff, you just ring up the manufacturer and get them to replace it without any fuss usually.
PCI Express isn't needed at all, it has way more bandwidth than needed, in fact AGP4x has enough bandwidth for most games right now. That card will be obselete before you need to start worrying about not having enough bandwidth with AGP8x.
Pete Nattress Cheesy Bits img src/uploads/sccheesegif
Registered 23/09/2002
Points 4811
6th February, 2005 at 14:55:21 -
Brilliant guys, thanks for your help. I've decided that I won't buy this PC - I don't need half the crap on it, to be honest, and I'm not into impulse buying, which is what it would be. Also reading the feedback for Tiny is very offputting, thanks for that heads up Alex. I didn't realise they were the same as Time Computers; when we got a PC from them we had nothing but bullshit for 2 years. Expect me back here asking stupid questions about self-builds in a few months!
Advertisement
Post Reply
Edited by the Author.
Seriously though, buying s939 components separately is more expensive than it should be IMO. That's the main reason why it will cost more to do it yourself, although when you do it yourself you can decide what bits you want and don't want (e.g. the tuner card, modem, smaller disks, better graphics etc.)
