New Computer.....self built? Mac? Dell?

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

Caporegime
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Wish i was in a Ramen Shop Counter
First of all, I haven't bought a new PC in about 8 years and not upgraded the CPU for 4/5 years. Well apart from getting a new GFX (ATI X800 XTPE 4 years ago) and upgraded to a Widescreen TFT around the same time, with a new PSU and more ram. It is still the same as P4 3.2Ghz, 2G DDR RAM (not even DDR2) as before.

It is time to get a new rig now, I am open to anything.

Options:-

1 - Get a iMac 20" or 24". Reason being that these days i don't use CAD (i did when i had the last machine), and these days its all Web, Photoshop and Lightroom. So I thought i would give Mac a chance.

2 - Get an pre-built tower unit, just base unit as i already have 2 monitors i can use it with...which also means they are a waste if i get an imac and i think a mac mini is not enough.

3 - Self Built PC....could do but i have no idea how to install the mobo and vaguely knows how to install the CPU and heat sink.

Obviously the imac is the most expensive but i think the price can be justified. A base unit from Mr Michael D often can be a bargain as it comes with an OS pre-installed and legit with warranty on the entire unit. Self built is cheapest and i can use windows 7 for the next 7 months at least.

I want something with at least 4G of ram, Quad Core if possible, low spec GFX would be fine, just enough to run HD res. HD wise, i am just going to get external from now on i think, with 1TB drives like £60, its easy just to fill up, and then back up and put it in the cupboard or something.

I guess the question is, i don't know what spec is good, what can one get for £600 PC wise? I know why imacs are as they spec are fixed on the apple site. But with PC i am very lost, which DDR are good?

Can someone spec me something for say £500 to £600? including case, and PSU.
 
Here is a spec:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail £149
Asus P5Q Pro Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £111.54
Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX (2x2GB) £37.94
Asus ATI Radeon HD 4670 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £68.99
Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB SATA-II 32MB Cache £62.09
Corsair TX 650W ATX2.2 SLi Compliant PSU £83.94
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black (No PSU) £52.89

£579.51 inc VAT

Not top of the range by any means and does not include an OS. However, hardware wise it should be fine and will run the most modern applications as well as games at medium settings (change graphics card if you want to improve things there). Hope this helps :)
 
Or have a look at this, includes the quad core you want, and you would benefit from it due to your editing uses, PSU not as powerful but will be fine for the system, if you take out the delivery cost, which you wouldnt have to pay, comes in just a shade over 600, the case is personal choice if you dont like this one have a look at others, but its a solid case with good cooling

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Note the RAM is on this week only offer
 
Build your own Ray! It's the only way to go!

I would like a Mac but they are just so expensive to a like for like PC. Id never touch a Dell, just dont like them.
 
Unless you're playing games, then an iMac is the best for hassle free operation.

To be honest, I really do not see the point of building a PC & maintaining it just for some Photoshop. If hardware is not something that interests you much then why self-build?

EDIT: just read about the monitors. Yeah, PC is probably best then.
 
You are right, i have no interest in hardware, i just want it to work and watch some videos, music and use photoshop and lightroom and the net, emails and the occasional letter.

I have installed Graphic Cards, RAM, PSU, DVD-Rom, NIC...etc in the past, everything but a new mobo and new CPU. So i know a bit about putting a PC together, but it was more out of necessity than interest.
 
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Raymond Lin said:
You are right, i have no interest in hardware, i just want it to work and watch some videos, music and use photoshop and lightroom and the net, emails and the occasional letter.

I have installed Graphic Cards, RAM, PSU, DVD-Rom, NIC...etc in the past, everything but a new mobo and new CPU. So i know a but about putting a PC together, but it was more out of necessity than interest.
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Tbh, its not the difficultly of building a PC that is the annoyance, its the time involved (OS install, software setup, maintainance), not to mention the hassle of something going wrong.

I think people paint too much of an idealised picture of self-building on these forums. I've wasted hours and hours of my life fixing minor things and screwing around with pointless stuff.
 
if you spend the same money on a custom machine that you would with say a dell or mac im sure you would get a much better custom machine that you would be pround of as you built it yourself. Another good thing is you dont get any of the bloatware that they love to shove onto your system so it should run faster :)
 
Chimerical said:
Tbh, its not the difficultly of building a PC that is the annoyance, its the time involved (OS install, software setup, maintainance), not to mention the hassle of something going wrong.

I think people paint too much of an idealised picture of self-building on these forums. I've wasted hours and hours of my life fixing minor things and screwing around with pointless stuff.
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agree 100%

All of my builds i have had to rebuild a couple of times before they have been considered done. And when things go wrong they really do go wrong! Still though, it saves you a bundle of cash assuming you have the time

Re mac minis check out how expensive those little things are, why would one even consider it?
 
I not really sure how people are managing to actually save money assembling PCs themselves.

I recently spec'd a machine for my Sister from one of the major box builders that included a quad core processor, 3GB of memory, Vista, ATI video of some description, 20 inch LCD and a proper 12 month warranty for £499 delivered. I just had a quick check and I couldn't buy the components for much under £600.

For various reasons I do build the occasional machine for myself but the last thing on my mind is saving any money.
 
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relax said:
agree 100%

All of my builds i have had to rebuild a couple of times before they have been considered done. And when things go wrong they really do go wrong! Still though, it saves you a bundle of cash assuming you have the time
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Yeah, exactly.

Its even debatable whether or not time is worth the money saved. Work some overtime or extra shifts and you could make that money back easily I guess.

Beats having to worry about a PC all the time.
 
bremen1874 said:
I not really sure how people are managing to actually save money assembling PCs themselves.

I recently spec'd a machine for my Sister from one of the major box builders that included a quad core processor, 3GB of memory, Vista, ATI video of some description, 20 inch LCD and a proper 12 month warranty for £499 delivered. I just had a quick check and I couldn't buy the components for much under £600.

For various reasons I do build the occasional machine for myself but the last thing on my mind is saving any money.
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If you're looking at a budget set up then yeah you're right you struggle to match a pre built system, but thats because they can include the OS for free and they use no name brand comonenents, Dell still use 667MHz RAM ffs. However if you want a decent system thats where building your own comes to the fore, you know youre putting in only quality components which means you know you end up with a quality system. so basically imo, if youre on a budget then stick to prebuilt, if youre looking at mid to high end then build yourself
 
Build it yourself that way you only buy and install what you need,maybe spend a little more on components you think speed up your daily tasks I found it fairly easy following the instruction Manuel that came with my motherboard step by step sort of gives you a feel for the software and how it works which is good for problem solving later on,still puts a smile on my face when i switch it on even today :):cool:
 
Chimerical said:
Yeah, exactly.

Its even debatable whether or not time is worth the money saved. Work some overtime or extra shifts and you could make that money back easily I guess.

Beats having to worry about a PC all the time.
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My last 3 custom builds have all been plugged in and worked (And are still working with numerous friends) without hassle. The only time I ran into a slight hiccup was installing 16GB of ram into this P5Q, and that didn't take much longer than 20 minutes to sort.

I think most problems exist when you try to tamper with things. Overclocking is something that can take up a lot of time if you let it, for example. Stick with main brand hardware too and you decrease your chances of it screwing up.

I recently sold my iMac and have gone back to my box, because whilst it was nice for a day-to-day user, press power button, check emails, calendar, msn, shutdown.. I needed more spec for my work, and the only way I could do that was to sell the whole machine!

Another major point is when something has gone wrong in a PC, i've been able to replace it quickly and work doesnt have to suffer.. If something ever went wrong in the Mac it was a trip to the Mac store, drop it in the genius bar, see what was wrong with it, get a phonecall, go back to collect it after an indefinite number of days later.. etc etc.
 
Adrianr said:
My last 3 custom builds have all been plugged in and worked (And are still working with numerous friends) without hassle.
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All of my self assembled PCs (going back to the 80386 days) have also been basically trouble free. There are however an amazing number of threads on this forum from people that either can't get machines to POST or have other issues that would have been avoided by buying a pre-assembled PC.
 
Build it yourself, I can not in good conscience recommend any other avenue on a pc enthusiast community forum, well not for home use anyway.

As a couple of people already demonstrated you can do much better with a pc than a mac, the only way you are going to get a Mac to hold a candle to a self built performance pc is a Power Mac, which I have to admit are rather nice, but ....they sure do cost, and when you start adding options ...ouch.
 
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