OT: New PC build from scan.co.uk

jamesco

thelawnet wrote:

Have a look at this Dell:
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstor ... 736b4dc71d
Six cores Phenom (+ level 3 cache), 5870 graphics card, 2*1TB raid array. Unfortunately the 10% off on these xps systems expired at midnight, but there'll probably be another code soon....

Ordered one of these and it arrived yesterday. Haven't played with it much, but it's very quiet (for such a powerful PC) and looks remarkably good. It'll handle editing etc. with no problem and the graphics card is top of the line - no problem playing any game. I'll install an SSD boot drive soon as that makes a big difference to the snappiness of a PC.

It would be hard to build a machine to this spec. at the same price - I looked around before ordering and the numbers didn't add up, plus this comes with a warranty and no hassle. Dell has been very good in my experience - only one monitor which went bad, and they just came around with a replacement with no argument.

DonDaddyD

Personally I thought my novatech build is good value....

jamesco

DonDaddyD wrote:

Personally I thought my novatech build is good value....

Yup. For comparison, the 7100 cost £750 and gets:

- 6 core processor
- 6GB RAM
- 5870 graphics card
- 2nd HD
- Win 7
- Keyboard & a rubbish mouse

The 5870 is about £300 retail. The only things the standard 7100 is lacking are a SSD and Blu-Ray drive as these were expensive options (from Dell), but both're easy to put in later.

asprilla

The problem I gfind with most of these online configs is that they only give you the option of two drives. My home quad core build currently has 6tb storage for video, music and images since I use it to stream all my media to other devices around the house.

jamesco

Asprilla wrote:

The problem I gfind with most of these online configs is that they only give you the option of two drives. My home quad core build currently has 6tb storage for video, music and images since I use it to stream all my media to other devices around the house.

If the PC has an eSata connection then a bunch of external drives (or an enclosure of them) can easily be connected using a port-multiplier. A DNLA-capable NAS is the best storage solution for capacity, noise, power-consumption & ease of use, but none of the good ones are cheap, unfortunately.

asprilla

jamesco wrote:

Asprilla wrote:

The problem I gfind with most of these online configs is that they only give you the option of two drives. My home quad core build currently has 6tb storage for video, music and images since I use it to stream all my media to other devices around the house.

A DNLA-capable NAS is the best storage solution for capacity, noise, power-consumption & ease of use, but none of the good ones are cheap, unfortunately.

Yup, also I wanted to be able to use it as a PC for editing images and transcoding video, and I couldn't splash out for both.

essex-commuter

dhope wrote:

Apps do load near instantly

That's because they were designed to run on a phone.

iPete

One last questions! I've specced up idential systems using https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk

Intel vs AMD. Its Intel® Core™i5-760 Quad Core (2.80GHz, 8MB Cache) + Turbo Boost
vs
AMD PHENOM II X6 1090T (3.20GHz/9MB CACHE/AM3/) - BLACK EDITION
(with ASUS® M4A87TD/USB3: DUAL DDR3,SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0 mobo)

Case:COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU): Intel® Core™i5-760 Quad Core (2.80GHz, 8MB Cache) + Turbo Boost
Motherboard: ASUS® P7P55D-E: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ SUPPORT
Memory (RAM): 4GB KINGSTON HYPER-X BLU DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 2GB KIT)
Graphics Card: 1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX465 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk: 640GB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD6400AARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
2nd Hard Disk: 1TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive: 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM


Memory Card Reader:INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)
Power Supply & Case Cooling:600W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)
Processor Cooling: INTEL SOCKET LGA1156 STANDARD CPU COOLER
Sound Card: ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities: ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB Options: 2 PORT USB 3.0 INTERNAL PCI EXPRESS CARD
Operating System: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Speakers: LOGITECH S220 2.1 SILVER/BLACK SPEAKER SYSTEM (£16)
Warranty: 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

I'll be fitting the wireless card from my current PC.

£907.00

OR

AMD PHENOM II X4 965 (3.40GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3) - BLACK EDITION

This comes to £828.00, which is a significant drop over the other two.

jamesco

Of those three, all would be more than adequate, but the X6 is clearly the quickest:

[Name] [Mark] [Rank]
Intel i5 760 @ 2.80GHz 4514 59
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T 6067 24
AMD Phenom II X4 965 4263 65

(from here)

A good SSD boot & app drive will make more difference to how fast the PC feels than getting the X6/i5 over the X4.

vinnym1980@hotmail.co.uk

i bought this system at http://www.buildyourbox.co.uk/

AMD Phenom II X6 1055T
Gigabyte GA-M52LT-D3 nForce 520LE
4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600MHz dual channel RAM
ATi Radeon HD 5770 1GB
1TB sata II 7200RPM hard drive
500 watt 80+ effeciency PSU
DVD Rewriter
Antec 300 Ultimate Gaming Case
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

£769 and its the bet PC ive bought (needed a wireless card should of added it to the pc build)

Maxticate

Ebuyers customer service is second to none. I have two no quibble returns by courier and I try to buy my pc parts from there.

I also had to fight Scan to get a credit back onto a credit card. In the end it took a month and I swore then I'd never use them again. That was over 5 years ago now. Still haven't been back to them.

jeremyrundle

thelawnet wrote:

Have a look at this Dell:
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstor ... 736b4dc71d
Six cores Phenom (+ level 3 cache), 5870 graphics card, 2*1TB raid array. Unfortunately the 10% off on these xps systems expired at midnight, but there'll probably be another code soon....

Better still check out

http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/dfo/df. ... d=df&s=dfo

Sorry I never use credit so can not advise, with cash you can barter. If I couldn't afford to pay cash then I couldn't afford it in the first place.

itboffin

I'm confused why no recommendations for a top of the range apple macbook pro?

does not compute ................................

Apple do et!!!!!

tx14

itboffin wrote:

I'm confused why no recommendations for a top of the range apple macbook pro?

does not compute ................................

Apple do et!!!!!

low performance/price.

jrduquemin

MonkeyMonster wrote:

I wouldn't go with Dell tbh. The kit just never lasts brilliant after their warrany period. If you can put it together yourself I'd do that otherwise use overclockers.co.uk.
I've had rumbles in the past with scan, overclockers, dell, ebuyer, dabs etc.
The worse service overall was with ebuyer with regards to cs and returns. dell makes good monitors and okay business systems but not gaming rigs unless you go quite far into the xps range but even then they can be flakey and need replaced (under warranty) within 2 years. Overclockers do somethings very cheaply and have a good rep for cs. Dabs and scan can be good sometimes, awful the next.

£800 quid could get you a very good gaming rig which by proxy will do all your video editing easily. I'd suggest building it yourself though. Intel chipsets (the i series) will be mroe powerful but for more money. I'd suggest getting an AMD phenom quad core, 4 gb memory, AMD 5 series HD card, couple of big disks, 600W psu and a dvd drive. The motherboard you get to go with that make sure its got a 16x pci-e slot and on board sound.

What about SLI/Crossfire? Surely if he's going to spend £800 on a self-build, an SLI compatible motherboard would ensure he's future-proofing his build. Might as well go for an 800w PSU whilst he's at it ;-)

jrduquemin

tx14 wrote:

itboffin wrote:

I'm confused why no recommendations for a top of the range apple macbook pro?

does not compute ................................

Apple do et!!!!!

low performance/price.

Apple MACs are gay :-D

Initialised

Not to blow my own trumpet too hard but I designed/specced and overclocked all these award winning PCs:

http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/awards/

Best value around £800: http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/syste ... hilles_XT/ i5 760 @ 4GHz or http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/system/Ultra_SCYLLA/ for a 6-core 1055T @ 3.5GHz, slightly better for video work.

Feel free to PM me on here or join our forums.

iPete

jrduquemin wrote:

MonkeyMonster wrote:

I wouldn't go with Dell tbh. The kit just never lasts brilliant after their warrany period. If you can put it together yourself I'd do that otherwise use overclockers.co.uk.
I've had rumbles in the past with scan, overclockers, dell, ebuyer, dabs etc.
The worse service overall was with ebuyer with regards to cs and returns. dell makes good monitors and okay business systems but not gaming rigs unless you go quite far into the xps range but even then they can be flakey and need replaced (under warranty) within 2 years. Overclockers do somethings very cheaply and have a good rep for cs. Dabs and scan can be good sometimes, awful the next.

£800 quid could get you a very good gaming rig which by proxy will do all your video editing easily. I'd suggest building it yourself though. Intel chipsets (the i series) will be mroe powerful but for more money. I'd suggest getting an AMD phenom quad core, 4 gb memory, AMD 5 series HD card, couple of big disks, 600W psu and a dvd drive. The motherboard you get to go with that make sure its got a 16x pci-e slot and on board sound.

What about SLI/Crossfire? Surely if he's going to spend £800 on a self-build, an SLI compatible motherboard would ensure he's future-proofing his build. Might as well go for an 800w PSU whilst he's at it ;-)

This thread is old now, lets just say, I have a GTX470 mounted on an SLI ready board with 850 Watts of SLI certified power ready and waiting for another card

Initialised

If you have a cheap'n'nasty PSU it'll probably blow if you load up the CPU & GPUs at the same time. If you have a decent PSU 850W should be fine assuming you haven't overclocked the GPUs.