Am i missing something?

scott1102

scott1102

scott1102

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Sorry for the new thread, but it's a complete different question and i also think my old thread was locked?

Anyhoo.....

I was just wondering, Am i missing something regarding computer prices?

I have a budget of £800 which is fine and will get me a decent computer if i build it myself but its close to the 800 limit each time, no matter what i pick lol

I thought it was supposed to be tones cheaper building one yourself rather than buying one? I'v looked at computers in shops in the highstreet etc... Also even looked at a home catalogue (which we all know have ridiculous high prices and apr rates)

But even the computers in the catalogue are similar price to what im spending. There is a Q9550 quad core pc with 1TB hard drive and a 9800GT graphics card and 4GB of ram, WITH a monitor/keyboard/mouse for only £949.00

I'm spending roughly £760 on just the base unit with only a 500GB hard drive.


Sorry i dont get it? am i picking the wrong/too expensive parts?
 
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i despritly wanna build it myself honestly. The thought of getting all my parts in the post is gettin me all on edge with excitement seriously lol

It's just i feel rather silly blowing an entire £800 budget purely on the tower itself, then having to wait a month or so to buy a monitor and keyboard.

Maybe i didnt explain myself correctly in previous thread, I am a gamer but not extreme, i dont need a system what will play every single game on the planet on maximum settings. Just a run of the mill average to good pc built with gaming in mind
 
I just thought if the processor was a good one, i5 750. graphics card was good, ati 5770, ram of 4gb ddr3. The motherboard wudnt be so important aslong as it was compatible, psu wasnt important and so on
 
well at the moment i play pretty poor graphical games due to using a laptop. Samsung R20.

But i want to play games such as Command & Conquer 4, Call of duty Modern Warfare 2, Guild Wars 2. I do want to play all the mainstream popular games. But i dont mind if i have to lower a couple of settings on HUGELY demanding games such as Crysis and Crysis 2 when it comes out.

By all means i dont want a poor crappy computer, i want a good one which people like you fine folk will say "not a bad rig" But at the same time i dont need one which will make me breakfast and keep me warm at night with its 10million volt psu.

And sorry, dont have another computer for parts :(

Maybe im asking all this on the wrong website lol As i know you guys know your stuff with computers and are very addicted to high end machines and overclocking.

(i dont mean that as an insult by the way, more as a compliment)

Edit: Give me 5 mins to shop and ill post screenie :D
 
im so sorry its taken me so long to get screenie, there has to be a quicker way. had to go into photoshop and cut and crop 2 screenies cos wen i hit print screen it didnt get it all. anyways...

shopping.gif



I chose the blue ray drive trying to future proof myself because surely its not long until most, if not all games start coming out on blue ray.
 
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im happy with a 19inch, 22 inch monitor.

And i had no clue that i needed a cooler :(

But do u get what i mean, that entire basket has come too £776.71 and thats just for basics! nothing too fancy in there, one of the cheapest cases i could find, not a massive psu. Cheapest hard drive available.

Feels like this entire "Building it yourself is tones cheaper" rule is a myth lol

And OCUK is the best price's for parts iv seen no joke, iv checked competitors, so its not OCUK jacking the price up. Its just the parts themselves!

To Paradisiac;

sorry if i keep making you repeat yourself :) But i sincerely believe £800 isnt a "budget", £800 to me is an average price of an entire computer, including monitor. £1200 is the price i consider for a more powerful computer with monitor, £1500+ for a gaming rig with all perephials. So i thought £800 just purely for the base unit would be more than enough for an awesome computer
 
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sorry to keep referring to buying a pre-built system. i dont want a pre-built if possible. But again, i refer back to the Q9550 iv seen for £949.00 with a 22inch monitor,keyboard and mouse.

I know its not top end parts but does it seriously reduce the power it should be spitting out with lower branded parts?

And before you say it :P i know the Q9550 is old and a dead socket :D lol But still, if you look at that processor from an average joe's perspective its a hugely powerful processor capable of running all current and future games.

(im not sayin i want the q9550 by the way. just saying, i still cant believe im "squeezing" a decent spec'd computer out of 800 pounds when i could get similar spec with cheaper branded parts and a monitor for £149 extra)

sorry for ranting, i know you guys have patiently replied to my questions and have helped me a large amount. I just think maybe we have added expensive parts to the basket? or parts more expensive than i need maybe?
 
well im that nooby when it comes to computer parts, the way i know i have a good computer is by the Windows Experience test thingy lol

You know? the program you open up in control panel what rates your processor out of 10 and your graphics etc etc... I mean i once had a quad core 8200 i think it is? and i think that rated at 6.5 or something but i sent it back wanting a better processor.

So basically the branded name on the parts i buy dont really matter to me, aslong as the part i buy doesnt bottleneck the power i should be getting
 
well its from a home catalogue website, which means it doesnt mention any brand names. ill copy and paste EXACTLY what it says....

This blisteringly fast desktop PC is powered by the Intel Quad Core Q9550 processor.
includes all of the Windows Media Center capabilities to use your PC as an all-in-one home entertainment centre

store movies and music on mammoth 1TB hard drive.
watch movies and look at picture slide shows on 19in widescreen monitor.
52-in-1 memory card reader is compatible with practically every type of flash media on the market Useful info:

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
Powerful NVidia Inno3D GeForce 9800GT card – great for gaming
20x DVD-RW drive
SATA hard drive
4GB memory

i know which company build it for the catalogue but not allowed to say names am i.

(and sorry its 19inch not 22)
 
omg


Dude your a legend seriously! the only thing now i have to ask is, those parts i see are budget parts? will that bottleneck/reduce my power? or is it simply bragging rights? like having nike trainers and hi-tec trainers?lol both do the exact same its just the name

and i seriously cant thank you enough, uv got the system i want for cheaper than advertised!
 
ok i understand. which part of that setup would you say limits its gaming potential? because i know its not the q9550! lol Only reason i say that is because when i bought my 8200 or whatever it was i went onto the american version of this website who were obsessed with the q9550. and that was only roughly 6-7months ago.

They were constantly telling people to upgrade to it and overclocking it.

edit: i dont want to buy cheap honestly. but i dont want to buy expensive either. I dont want bottom of the bottom bargin bin stuff.

The only way i can describe this is by saying.

If there is 5 icecream cones... 1. the cheap single 2.single with a flake 3.double scoop 4.double scoop with flake 5.triple scoop!

Im happy with number 3. Average :D

(awesome comparison)
 
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thanks guys again for your commitment to helping me.

I'v just been speaking to the missus and have agreed to split the buying over 2 months resulting in more money to spend :)

So for this month i have £450. Id like to spend that entirely on the processor and graphics card.
 
hey guys what does this build look like please?

Core 2 Quad Q9550

Asus P5Q Pro Turbo P45 LGA775 CrossFire FSB1333 DDR2/800 Mainboard w/GbLAN, USB 2.0 & 7.1 Audio

Corsair Value 4GB PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel

Nvidia Geforce GTS 250 1GB 16X PCI Express

500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB

Sony Optiarc 22x DVD R/ RW + CD-R/ RW Dual Layer

CyberPower 500W
 
I agree i keep continueing with options but im just exploring every avenue and checking with you guys with each option.

Dont forget, i know nothing about this sort of thing and am relying on you to help me which i sincerely appreciate. But just because i dont know anything doesnt mean i should go with the first build someone tells me before checking everything else.

You wouldnt buy a car simply because you heard once that it had a certian feature, you would investigate other features and test drive, thats all im doing.

(but that doesnt mean im ignoring previous builds from people, im looking at them and working from them)

And i have been very apologetic and grateful with my posts and replys But i think your post is a little on the agressive side and if you do not want to help then please dont post. Your getting a little too worked up over an internet forum post.

And i know and have freely and embarrasingly admitted to everyone i know nothing about building a computer but there is one thing i do know which i have learnt from 2 seperate friends both studying some form of IT at college and university and i will quote what they both said to me...

"When computer guys and overclockers say something is ancient, it usually means its 10 days old"

I know the Q9550 is a good chip, i may not even get one of those. Im currently looking at both the q9550 and the i5 750.

(oh and sorry, the cyper power cpu isnt correct the build is acctually this)

Core 2 Quad Q9550

Asus P5Q Pro Turbo P45 LGA775 CrossFire FSB1333 DDR2/800 Mainboard w/GbLAN, USB 2.0 & 7.1 Audio

Corsair XMS2 w/Heat Spreader 4GB DDR2/800 Dual Channel

Nvidia Geforce GTS 250 1GB 16X PCI Express

500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB

Sony Optiarc 22x DVD R/ RW + CD-R/ RW Dual Layer

500W CoolerMaster RealPower
 
I apologise if i am coming across that i am not listening. I am ofcoarse i am.

Before posting on this forum i didnt even know what a compatible mobo was!

What im doing is getting builds from people then trying to replicate them myself, not necesserly to get the price down, iv said all along i have a budget of £800, even more now i can split it into 2 months.

So that isnt the reason i keep choosing the q9550, if you look at the price the i5 is cheaper overall than the q9550. The only reason i keep choosing it is because of what i said before, which paradisiac has confirmed! Guys who are very deep into the computer set up world and overclocking DO! consider things old and laughable just because its not the current processor.

If were being serious about things the q9550 is the processor before the current set of processors, hardly old.

I'm not even saying im going to get the q9550, i am leaning more to the i5 because as you people have said its newer technolodgy.

But just to put things into perspective, I am using a Samsung R20 laptop with an Ati Radeon Xpress 1200 series graphcis card and a Core 2 Duo T550 1.83GHz and i can play guild wars, black and white 2, championship manager 2010.

So i know i dont need a hugely spec'd chip to play games.

I will just have to continue to replicate peoples builds with my own twist on them.
 
I dont really want budget parts or to make it cheaper. To tell the truth, i do have an 800 budget but was hoping to only spend around 600-650 for the computer itself.

As i said before im not an extreme computer person, but i would like to have a computer which allows me to walk into a shop and buy nearly any game i want without having to worry about "will my computer run it!"

I dont mean this as an insult honestly i dont, i just think im having difficultys changing peoples mindsets on here from looking at this from an overclockers perspective, to looking at it from an average joes perspective.

If i pick an i5 750 and a gts 250 but then pick a not so good psu suddenly its stupid lol i dont get it.

I'v heard that the game Crysis is a hugely demanding game on high settings, but this is the official recommended settings, not minimum.

OS - Windows XP / Vista
Processor - Intel Core 2 DUO @ 2.2GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
Memory - 2.0 GB RAM
GPU - NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS/640 or similar

So a Q9550 would obliterate that, so would an i5 750 with a cheaper psu.
 
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thats a really good set up :) uv managed to get everything i need.

Maybe its me whats not been clear so far? if it is i realy apologise for that.

The angle im coming from is, you see people every day buying pre-built systems from shops and home catalogues for there sons/daughters/younger people, who are going to be gaming on them and they seem to manage just fine. And as you guys have told me, places like that will be using budget parts everywere.

Obviously i dont want budget parts i just dont seem to understand this fire in some peoples stomachs which makes them so obsessed with high branded parts
 
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