Noob needs help... Buying prebuilt or building own?

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Argon Intel Core i3 540 3.06GHz @ 4.00GHz Overclocked Bundle - Gigabyte £229.98
(£191.65) £229.98
(£191.65)
MSI ATI Radeon HD 5850 Twin FrozR II 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £134.99
(£112.49) £134.99
(£112.49)
BenQ G2222HDL 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £107.99
(£89.99) £107.99
(£89.99)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £81.98
(£68.32) £81.98
(£68.32)
Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXUK) £64.99
(£54.16) £64.99
(£54.16)
Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £44.99
(£37.49) £44.99
(£37.49)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500418AS) £30.98
(£25.82) £30.98
(£25.82)
Pioneer 24x Internal S19LBK DVD Rewriter including Labelflash SATA Retail £19.99
(£16.66) £19.99
(£16.66)
OcUK Value 300Mbps Wireless-N PCI Adapter £12.98
(£10.82) £12.98
(£10.82)
Sub Total : £607.40
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 : £124.23
Total : £745.38

I could, in theory push it up a bit as I got more money, but the missus was a bit annoyed/stern/womanish about this and I received a "that's not that bad" when I told her the price. :D
 
WARHURYEAH said:
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Argon Intel Core i3 540 3.06GHz @ 4.00GHz Overclocked Bundle - Gigabyte £229.98
(£191.65) £229.98
(£191.65)
MSI ATI Radeon HD 5850 Twin FrozR II 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £134.99
(£112.49) £134.99
(£112.49)
BenQ G2222HDL 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £107.99
(£89.99) £107.99
(£89.99)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £81.98
(£68.32) £81.98
(£68.32)
Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXUK) £64.99
(£54.16) £64.99
(£54.16)
Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £44.99
(£37.49) £44.99
(£37.49)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500418AS) £30.98
(£25.82) £30.98
(£25.82)
Pioneer 24x Internal S19LBK DVD Rewriter including Labelflash SATA Retail £19.99
(£16.66) £19.99
(£16.66)
OcUK Value 300Mbps Wireless-N PCI Adapter £12.98
(£10.82) £12.98
(£10.82)
Sub Total : £607.40
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 : £124.23
Total : £745.38

I could, in theory push it up a bit as I got more money, but the missus was a bit annoyed/stern/womanish about this and I received a "that's not that bad" when I told her the price. :D
Click to expand...

Why on earth are you getting an i3 for a £750 budget! :eek:

Phenom II X4 build would give better performance and be cheaper!
 
No idea, apparently they're better, + it's in a bundle and OC'd so I don't have to do some of the work that I'm not confident with.
 
I mean sheesh, £780 (you get free shipping) will get you a SB i5 2500k system - which can be overclock to at least 4.6GHz in 2 easy steps :p

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £177.98
(£148.32) £177.98
(£148.32)
MSI ATI Radeon HD 5850 Twin FrozR II 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £134.99
(£112.49) £134.99
(£112.49)
BenQ G2222HDL 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £107.99
(£89.99) £107.99
(£89.99)
Foxconn P67A-S Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £99.98
(£83.32) £99.98
(£83.32)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £81.98
(£68.32) £81.98
(£68.32)
Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £64.33
(£53.61) £64.33
(£53.61)
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Dual Channel (GVP34GB1600C9DC) £43.99
(£36.66) £43.99
(£36.66)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500418AS) £30.98
(£25.82) £30.98
(£25.82)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1155/ 1156 / 1366) £19.39
(£16.16) £19.39
(£16.16)
OcUK Value 300Mbps Wireless-N PCI Adapter £12.98
(£10.82) £12.98
(£10.82)
Sub Total : £645.51
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £131.60
Total : £777.11

Much much better, will easily last a good few years without need of upgrade.
 
This whole not confident thing bugs me WAR (also, I'm sure I used to play comp with you in TF2! When Mik and HH were around?), there are so many guides out there, and with a K or Phenom II series chip it really is so easy - there are even guildlines for certain clockspeeds telling you exactly what to do for them!

It's cheaper, gets you better stuff and performs better for longer.
 
I can understand about being a little wary on your first build but when you buy the bundle, in all likely hood it won't can assembled. You'll still be having to put the CPU into the socket and attach the cooler. So, really got ask yourself why still go for the bundle. Putting the thing together is the easy part in building any PC, it when it doesn't boot or work properly and trouble shooting is the difficult part. The advantage of getting a bundle is that it after troubleshooting (hopefully with some decent assistance from OcUK) it still doesn't work you can box the lot up and ship it back to them to investigate further. Also all of their bundles are supposedly stress tested to make sure the overclock is stable. Its up to you to decide what's more important but as Cookeh say, for that budget you could get a significant better machine.
 
As no one else has answered you thought I would :p

WARHURYEAH said:
There's also a list of questions I have before I order this shizzle (some of these will be hilariously retarded but I must put my mind at ease with this before I order anything):

1. Can someone link to me a really really simple PC building guide for the mentally challenged?

Theres one at the top of this forum written by greywolf

2. This is gonna sound stupid, but I guess the PSU comes with a power lead as well? :S

Yes it does

3. When installing a new Hard Drive, is there anything special I need to do or will it just read one?

Nothing special, as long as its all attached, power and data cables, it will just read it, on first boot just put in windows cd and away it goes

4. How do you install Network Cards? Is there a slot for one on the Mobo? I'd assume there is.

Yes, these slot into PCI slots of which your mobo should have several, though just checking, you mean wireless network right? cos your mobo comes with with a wired network connection anyway nowadays

5. Should I get cable tidy's so then my PC looks really neat?

I wouldnt bother at first, just adding more headaches to yourself, get it all up and running first, you can always go back later and tidy if you feel the need

6. Is this even a wise investment?

Yes :D of course

7. Does the case (Antec 100) give good air flow and will everything fit in it?

Yes and yes

9. Is the PSU powerful enough?

Yes, whats more important is that its a good make, which the XFX is

10. Have I forgotten anything?

Nope you should be good to go

11. Did you notice I missed out 8?

No :p
Click to expand...
 
I hate you guys, coming in with your convincingly better builds -_-

I might go for the SandBridge one, I would also build it very cautiously and make sure I have someone holding my hand on Steam, Skype and the forums here, I might as well go for the build Cookeh said, and yes cookeh, I do play TF2 and I did play with you :P


Also, some of the deals are this week only, if I don't have enough money in my bank account tomorrow (pending on cheques clearing), then I won't really.

Cookeh, add me on steam: WARHURYEAH
 
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WARHURYEAH said:
I hate you guys, coming in with your convincingly better builds -_-

I might go for the SandBridge one, I would also build it very cautiously and make sure I have someone holding my hand on Steam, Skype and the forums here, I might as well go for the build Cookeh said, and yes cookeh, I do play TF2 and I did play with you :P


Also, some of the deals are this week only, if I don't have enough money in my bank account tomorrow (pending on cheques clearing), then I won't really.

Cookeh, I will add you on steam.
Click to expand...

IrvingHurrell is steam addy :p New name is Cú Chulainn

Only thing on deal of the top of my head is the HD5850, and that's only a £10 cheaper than normal - if it is outside your budget, a GTX460 would do the job (admittedly not quite as well, peformance can be seen here)
 
Can buy this right now:

0rqNv.jpg


Anyone have any quarrels with this?
 
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Looking good that system will be blazing fast, have you got a DVD drive?

Note to remember that PSU isn't that powerful, should be fine for the spec but maybe not for future upgrades.
 
Aah, good shout, but that will take me over budget :/

cheapest dvd drive ocuk has? :D

And what;s the difference between OEM and Retail?
 
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You can not overclock with the standard chips, only the K version, also think you are looking at the i5 systems.

Just get the cheapest drive its only like £14, not worth losing the ability to overclock and will destory its resale value for a few quid.

Also OEM means 1 year warrenty no heatsink, retail is normally 3 years with crappy heatsink.
 
Is it better to get the one with or without the heatsink for now? Not sure if I'd be OC'ing it straight away but not sure if it's just better to do it now or what.
 
The OEM + Arctic cooling will be fine. Despite the hype, CPUs rarely fail; but when they do it's usually an immediate failure. In that case, 1 year warrenty is plenty.

As to overclocking - there are a few guides available for getting the best out of your 2500k; and it's really simple. My recommendation would be to build the system, get it working and settled in. If/when you need more power, overclock it!
 
I am in no rush anyway, the money I looked at on my online banking hasn't been cleared completely by the bank which is why I got so excited and decided to buy it :P

It will just give me more time to familiarise myself with the build process, might be able to put some more money into it as well.

I got the money as a gift from my 21st, I wasn't expecting a large sum so I was planning to take some money out of my savings that I have been sitting on for a while.

Only problem is convincing the missus :D But the only reason why it's so expensive in the first place is because I'm buying a OS + Screen and everything else for the first time.
Might be able to get some more deals over the coming days anyway.
 
WARHURYEAH said:
Only problem is convincing the missus :D But the only reason why it's so expensive in the first place is because I'm buying a OS + Screen and everything else for the first time.
Click to expand...

I know what you mean, mate! I have finally saved up the £1400 that I need for the system I want to build, but now I am having second thoughts about spending so much money on a computer, and I think my girlfriend shares those thoughts too :) But then again, this system will last for quite some time so in the end I hope it will be worth it.

Good luck with building and all!
 
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