prebuilt v new build

ally

ally

ally

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Hi,

I am speccing a pc for my bro, he has a laptop and likes playing the total war series, but its not powerful enough for serious gaming so he would now like a pc.

This looks rather good http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-252-OK with a 5770 as the gfx card it comes to £703.36 inc vat
+ sammy b2330h monitor total inc vat is £858.35

can i take the price down considerably changing things and building myself or should i just let him buy the predone exodus?

advice appreciated thanks :)
 
It's nearly always cheaper to build yourself.

If you buy prebuilt you pay a premium for having someone else put it together for you.

Add of the components on their own and compare to the package :)
 
well for £4 extra, u can get the GTX460, so i would go with that over the 5770.

what is your budget ?

for cheaper, u could consider the Krypt (AMD X4) , or the Xenomorph (i3)
both with the GTX460 as an option.

building yourself can save you abit of money, and u'll have more choise over the parts
 
budget inc monitor is around 900 but if i can lower it he'd be happy. Intend on installing windows etc myself and not worried about an overclock really i don't think hel go close to testing a quad core let alone an ovc one.
 
The other thing about prebuilds vs custom build is the warranty.

With a prebuild you get a warranty (for example 12 months collect and return from OCUK) where they take the PC and fix it for you within a set period.

However, with a custom build you get warranty with each individual part - so if something breaks you need to identify what is wrong and send it off via an "RMA" (you usually need to pay for the outbound postage). You will then receive a repaired or replacement part in a week or so (time varies greatly between manufacturers). However, this may seem worse than the pre-built offer - but the plus side is that usually the warranties for individual parts are longer - most motherboards have ~3 years of warranty, most RAM is lifetime warranty, CPUs are 3 years (retail version), graphics cards usually between 2 and 5 years, PSUs 5 years and HDDs 3-5 years.

Therefore you can keep your system running for longer without spending money for replacement parts if you go self-build than pre-build.

Also, its fun to do.
 
ah yeah iv built my own several times, i have an i5 750 h50 cooled 8gb build.
This is purely on a cost basis whether its worth building it or just ordering that for him all ready to go. i really don't mind building one for him just trying to keep the costs down and was thinking i probably cannot do it much cheaper than that anyway.
 
The pros and cons have been discussed but it if it is a cost budget decision then definately build it yourself simply because it is cheaper.
 
Deff build it yourself, much more enjoyable and satisfying and bang for buck than pre-built. Can't really go wrong either it is pretty simple stuff and if you have half a clue should be fine.
 
One advantage that a lot of people seem to forget is that when you buy a prebuilt system, you get a 12Month warranty.

When you build it yourself, a lot of the components get the full 3 years or even 5 years on some HDs
 
Greboth said:
The pros and cons have been discussed but it if it is a cost budget decision then definately build it yourself simply because it is cheaper.
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This is fine until things don't go according to plan. There's one thing building a PC, it's another being able to support it when things go wrong.

For example, a customer of mine last year decided to buy all the bits he needed for a new PC. He built it to the best of his knowledge but couldn't get it working. He rang me and it cost him 3 hours labour to put right plus all the fuss that went with it.
 
Admiral Huddy said:
This is fine until things don't go according to plan. There's one thing building a PC, it's another being able to support it when things go wrong.
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Completely agree though if you never try you will never learn. I hate (HATE!) troubleshooting PC's but I like not having to pay for it lol. As he said he has built PC's before I assume he is competent and also said its purely price then building yourself is the way to go in my opinion.

Disclaimer: If it all goes wrong don't blame me :p
 
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