i7 - custom build vs dell xps 8700 - surprising

joun

joun

joun

Associate
Joined
17 Jan 2010
Posts
19
Location
sw london
I'm trying to put together a pc for 3D rendering and video editing. Thinking I'll get better components for less money by building it myself, I specced this:

i7-4770k £260
ST2000DM001 2tb hd £65
case £20
psu £50
gtx 670 2gb £190
asus z87 deluxe £200
16gb ram £100
firewire pci card £10
Total £895 (excluding random bits like extra coolers and windows license)

Versus a pre-built dell XPS 8700 with the following:
i7-4770
2tb hd
12gb ram
GTX 645 1gb

for £700 (after dell's £80 discount)

The custom build has better components but is £200 more, and is more time and hassle for me to build.. which one would you go for?
 
Last edited:
Ask your self which will perform better, better second hand value, which will last longer as Dell is secretly owned by Trotter Independent Traders.:eek:
 
How about something like this? including an SSD on this kinda of rig to me is kinda a no brainer as its can be used for your appilcations, windows and kinda like a scratch disc.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £275.99
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 660 Black Knight 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £103.99
1 x Kingston 120GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/120G) £76.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £68.99
2 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual CHannel Kit (PV38G213C1K) £65.99 (£131.98)
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £39.95
1 x NZXT Source 210 Elite Midi Tower Case - Black £39.95
Total : £887.82 (includes shipping : FREE).

 
Ethermaster - that looks like a good build. is the 430w psu enough for a gtx660/670? In terms of GPU performance, would the gtx660/670 run circles around gtx645? decisions, decisions

btw if I leave this on 24/7 as a home server, how much power do new GTX's use when idling?
 
no radeons i'm afraid, i need nvidia for the 3d work (vrayRT)

Do the GTX cards have the optimus tech (ie the i7 hd iGPU gets used for normal tasks, and the GPU only kicks in when more muscle is required?
 
yeah they should support lucid virtu it used to be a bit flakey I don't know how well it works on haswell?

or if its supported still on haswell? but should be
 
None of the desktop gpus have Optimus, as it's mainly a power saving feature. Not really required for desktops but a handy feature for laptops
 
645 specs
The 660 that Ethermaster suggests definitely poo poos over the 645 card offered by Dell. I'd personally opt for a self built system, Ethermaster and the guys have put up some nice examples of what you can get for the cash. It is up to you whether the Dell on site warranty and convenience of it being ready on delivery is worth the trade off against performance.
 
As others have mentioned the graphics card is MUCH worse on the dell. It has less RAM - do dell tell you the frequency & timings? Probably not as good. Also 12GB is an odd number, so perhaps an odd mismatch (I've seen a few pre-built machines with 3 ram sticks in a dual-channel board. Ugh. Check the details if you can!)
Lastly the mobo will be budget & likely voltage locked. Not at all comparable with a high-end board like you selected.

You're comparing a good PC with a noticeably worse one.
 
The Dell will have a cheap nasty motherboard and an even cheaper PSU. These are key components you don't want to skimp on if the build is expected to last many years.
 
Also dell are known for being abit sneaky in the form factors so changing things later can be a pain go for a much better self build that can grow as you need it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom