Pre-Build or Home Built?

Almostmini

Almostmini

Almostmini

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4 Mar 2010
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I am in desperate need of a total overhaul of my pc. I am going for a new gaming rig.

I hope to get started before Christmas but the number of options open to me are bewildering.

First off, i am happy with my mouse, keyboard, screen and OS at the moment so no need to worry about that stuff, also i will be transfering everything from this hard drive into the new pc anyway.

So the question is, with a realistic budget of £700 should i build my own gaming pc and recycle the screen, mouse (and so on) or should i buy a whole new system with the case, all the parts all installed just waiting for me to stick my memory on it and again recycle the old additions?
From some research it looks like i will get better value out of building my own, however less hastle and less power from a pre-built system? (for that money)

Thanks
Sam
 
If you can build it (or are willing to learn) then definitely build it.

It is a bit of hassle - but once you know the procedure the actual build will only take an hour or two (being careful) and add in another couple of hours installing the OS/applications. As you say, for the same money you will get a faster system (compared to a pre-build) and you can tailor the machine exactly to your uses.

May I ask what the OS you currently have is and what kind of license does it have (retail full version, OEM, upgrade)?

Also, would you be able to give details of your current HDD?

Is gaming going to be the main thing you will be doing with the system, or there other resource-intensive applications you will be running?
 
Gaming mostly, ofcause there is general internet use emails, facebook and such but thats about it.

Currently running XP.

I am willing to learn and have a good knowledge of pcs already, i have installed new RAM and GFX cards into this machine already, just the processor and MB are choking it down so much i need a whole new PC.

What do you mean by HDD? Hard drive?
 
If you have the time and the willingness to learn then home building is definitely recommended. :)

In most cases you can build a better spec'd pc for the same money as a pre-built and have the added peace of mind of knowing exactly what's inside the pc.
 
no hard drive is the storage device you use to install all your files in or the OS, cpu is the proccesor(the brain of the computer). psu is the power supply. :D
 
Sorry, yes - HDD - Hard Disk Drive (of your interested I did a sticky that covers most of the acronyms we use a lot).

Ah yes, XP - you might want to consider jumping over to Windows 7 when you spend your £700, it is a really nice OS and supports DirectX 10 and 11.

How does this spec look?

706x4.png


The graphics card is really just a placeholder - although it is a good card I strongly suggest you wait to see how the new HD 6850 card performs, when it is released later this week. It seems like it will cost about what the above MSI card currently costs.

The above spec assumes you reuse you current HDD. If you need a new one, then this is great.
 
That looks lovely, hope you dont expect a finders fee ;)

I currently have a Nvidia 9800GT in here which i think would be ample for the time being?

HDD i can't the specs for it in CPU-Z

I am pretty sure its only about 40G though, i currently only have about 10G left so i do need a bigger one.

Will files transfer accross OS's? What about drivers, stuff like that? Won't it all have to be replaced?

Would it help if i said the games i wa slooking at purchasing to play on it were Arma II and Battle of Britain - Storm of War? The new Il2 title.
 
Ah, if you are using a 40GB drive then it is most likely very old. As such I strongly suggest you upgrade the hard disk too - the Samsung F3 drive I linked to would be much faster, you can afford it by removing the Titan Fenrir cooler. This will mean you won't be able to overclock initially - but that CPU is plenty fast enough at stock speeds for playing modern games.

If you plug in your old HDD into a new system and use it as a the primary drive - then it most likely won't work - as it is a completely different motherboard. However, if you install it as a secondary drive (another drive- like the F3 running the OS) then you can take all your files off it without issue - it will act as a big memory stick.

As for your game choice - I know that ARMA II makes good use of quad cores - so the X4 specified above will do well. IL2 will be no issue. As for Battle of Britain, do you know what the minimum/recommended PC requirements are? (that said, I am pretty confident that the above system can play it).

The 9800GT is a good GPU and will certainly tide you over - but I would suggest you look to an upgrade as £160 worth of modern graphics card will give you a pretty large boost in gaming performance. May I ask what resolution you are currently playing at (and if at all possible your existing monitor make/model)?
 
Current monitor is a 21" Hanns-G HU196D

There are no requirements out atm for SoW but there is a thread about it in the Gaming section with some screenies, looks fairly intensive but hopefully as you say this sytem will run it.

My 9800 control panel says i am running at 1280x1024

I also don't really have an interest in overclocking, i just want a good pc that works, haha.
 
I was in a bit of a rush to do this but here's what I'd recommend, presuming you don't require a CD/DVD drive and HDD...

(And about what cmndr_andi said, you may want to wait for AMD's new HD 6000 serires.

ff55cf2e0b.jpg
 
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Build build build! Fun, educational and satisfying :).

Crikey if you have a 40GB HDD it is probably an old IDE dinosaur! It will hold your whole new rig back. £30-ish for a 500GB sammy F3 must be spent!
 
The 970 makes sense if the OP reeeeeeeally doesn't want to overclock. But you're right - the correct answer is the 955 and the OP ought to learn to overclock :). It's easy.
 
Almostmini said:
Current monitor is a 21" Hanns-G HU196D
...
My 9800 control panel says i am running at 1280x1024
Click to expand...

Ah, yea that is the native resolution of that monitor. However, isn't it a 19in?

In that case I will do a bit of a respec. How does this look:

718x4.png


Again, I assumed you have a DVD drive- is that the case?
 
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