Looking for new PC advice...

Floob · 25 Jun 2011 at 19:08

Hi,

Could someone point me in the right direction for an appropriate upgrade?
Between 1995 and 2003 I was always building my PC's from the individual components up, but then I started getting prebuilt systems from another supplier.

I'm in a position to upgrade now, and am wondering if I should just get another prebuilt - or is there something else I should consider?

My current spec is:
XP Pro SP3
Athlon 64 X2 4800+ / 2GB RAM
Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe
GeForce 8800GT

I mainly use it just for MS Office and web browsing.
I play WoW, Starcraft 2 and Team Fortress 2

I love the way my MacBook Air boots so quick, so am very tempted to get an SSD for the primary disk. Really not sure if I should go towards Intel or AMD though. A quiet machine is a priority. Physical size isnt that critical - although if you can get a PC looking like a iMac I'd be sorely tempted.

Would you suggest I'm best off going for a type of prebuilt - or is there something else I should check out.

Budget would probably be in the region of £1,500

Any input appreciated.

Floob.

95thrifles · 25 Jun 2011 at 20:22

Hi

Firstly youre should remove the competitor names

Secondly if you want to go down the prebuilt route, then something like the Titan Spinosaur would be a good starting point, you can customise it with an OCZ agility 3 SSD (size your choice) and decent gfx card such as a 570 for example and youre still comfortably within budget
If youd prefer to look at building yourself can also spec up something if required, E.G this, which uses a very good case for keeping it all quiet, the same SSD to boot, plus a larger drive for storage, and uses the Pre-OCd bundle to save you the trouble

"Radon Torosaur Z68" Intel Core i5 2500K 3.30GHz @ 4.40GHz Overclocked Bundle - Gigabyte £449.98
MSI GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card£269.99
Antec P183 Super Midi Tower Case - Gun Metal Black £112.99
XFX 750W Black Edition Modular Power Supply £99.98
OCZ Agility 3 60GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-60G) £90.98
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £40.99
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £30.98
Pioneer 24x Internal S19LBK DVD Rewriter including Labelflash SATA Retail £19.99
Sub Total : £929.91
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout)
Shipping : £13.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00%
VAT : £188.73
Total : £1,132.39

Reaper 392 · 25 Jun 2011 at 20:41

dont even bother with AMD at this price. intel is totally the way to go.

with £1500 you could very easily get a watercooling setup. if you do it right, it will be quieter than anything air cooled. however, i really dont know much about them so im sticking with air in my spec.

with a build this high spec, i was going to recommend the ~£220 silverstone case that i forget the name of, bit its either had a MASSIVE price change or been taken off the OcUK shelves

so any other reccomendations on a case for quietness are very much welcome

YOUR BASKET
2 x MSI GeForce GTX 570 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £279.98
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £183.98
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £161.99
1 x Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £130.00
1 x XFX 750W Black Edition Modular Power Supply £99.98
1 x Cooler Master CM-690 II Advanced Dominator Case - Black £79.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £59.99
1 x Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA775/AM2/AM3) £50.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £40.99
1 x LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £1,401.37 (includes shipping : £13.75).

Floob · 25 Jun 2011 at 22:50

Thanks very much for your input - I'll check that out.

olivier renault · 25 Jun 2011 at 22:59

Display? OS? mouse and keyboard? speakers?

If you go pre-build, you spend £150-£200 over self build. Not necessary a bad thing, if you don't fancy spending your time tweaking the system. £150-£200 gives you some nice peripherals (mechanical keyboard, gaming mouse, decent speakers / 5.1 gaming headset).

£1500 is a big budget for a tower, quite less with a IPS screen or dual display. So factoring those in budget would be useful.

Floob · 26 Jun 2011 at 00:25

I'm really looking pre-build now - the Titan spinosaur looks tempting.

I'll get the monitor (maybe a samsung 22" job), keyboard, mouse separately, and I'll get some standard speakers.

Floob · 3 Jul 2011 at 12:34

Does anyone know if overclockers give advice over the phone?
Could I call and create a custom machine on the phone?

I really want a quiet (probably not watercooled though) machine, I'm thinking with i7 and SSD, but the prebuilts dont seem to quite meet this.