Build a new desktop base or buy ????

northernstar074

northernstar074

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Name
Anthony
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Hi All

Having now decided that my pentium desktop base is becoming too slow for the things that I need it for I am torn between buying a new base from the likes of PC World etc or is it far better to buy the components over a period of time and build a high spec unit ?

I basically use the desktop for photo editing (ps CS4, Lightroom etc.), MS Office, browsing, printing etc.

If I am going to build a new base what would the techies on here recommend as a reasonably high spec base ?

Thanks for any advice !!!
Ant
 
If you know what you are doing, custom build.

If you dont want the hassle, or cant buy everything in one go/dont have patience to wait to get each part. go into a shop and buy.

All down to personal preference and expertise.
 
Personally,i would always go with self built over the likes of PC World etc..
Get a lot more for your money,and without having to put up with cheap components they tend to use.
Places such as Ebuyer offer great prices,and fast delivery-Well worth checking out.
Quad core/i7 CPU,4Gb to 8GB of RAM,with a video card of your choice wont be too costly.
Motherboard-providing you avoid the likes of foxconn/ECS etc you will do ok-I personally like ASUS boards..
Make sure the PSU you buy has plenty of oomph-And dont buy the cheapest you can find. (Tends to be a bad investment)
DVD writers etc are dirt cheap these days...Hard drives same.. (Have a look at the Samsung F1's-Great little drives!)
Just dont go paying PC world waaay too much for an inferior machine..
 
If you have the know how, build one
You can chose the best compenents for your money and its almost always cheaper

Ebuyer :)
 
Self build because you can get the components you want. It will be a better investment in the long run.
 
Dell - cheap reliable and customizable with good support that you'll never get with a home build and probably only a few quid more for the same spec. 8-9 yrs ago i would have said self build - just not worth it now.
 
Thanks for the replies. I am quite happy to build my own so thats not a problem and buying the case, motherboard etc over a couple of months isnt a problem either as there is no absolute desperate hurry lol.

What would you recommend in the way of cpu's, motherboards, gfx cards etc.
With regards to ram I think I will look at over 4gb as I am currently running windows 7 64bit and will just do a clean install.

Budget wise I am probably looking at 500-600 quid. Would a blu-ray writer be a good addition ?
 
for that sort of budget i think youd be better off looking at core2 quads. 4gb would be a good starting point too on that budget, over that and ram tends to shoot in price. just remember to have expansion on your motherboard for more (you WILL want more sooner or later).

for photo editing it doesnt really matter what graphics card you have, only CS4 can utilise graphics processors at the moment and even thats limited.
 
northernstar074 said:
With regards to ram I think I will look at over 4gb
Click to expand...

Im running 64bit Windows 7 on 2gb RAM and Photoshop and Lighroom run faultlessly

Unless you are doing video editing, you do not need more than 4gb of RAM regardless of what anybody tells you

Invest your money in the best processor you can buy, a decent spec board with 4gb of fast RAM

Check the ebuyer website and read reviews from actual people, then google the models and read some online reviews
 
can cs5 use more gpu power Neil?

I wouldn't bother with the blue ray burner tbh, hard drives are a cheap enough backup material these days and only going to get cheaper

something to factor into custom building is how neat and tidy/coordinated you are. I went delving into my antec p182 the other day and its still shockingly messy even with not much stuff at all in there
 
noneforit said:
Im running 64bit Windows 7 on 2gb RAM and Photoshop and Lighroom run faultlessly

Unless you are doing video editing, you do not need more than 4gb of RAM regardless of what anybody tells you

Invest your money in the best processor you can buy, a decent spec board with 4gb of fast RAM

Check the ebuyer website and read reviews from actual people, then google the models and read some online reviews
Click to expand...

crap id better sell my extra 4gb then..
 
noneforit said:
Im running 64bit Windows 7 on 2gb RAM and Photoshop and Lighroom run faultlessly

Unless you are doing video editing, you do not need more than 4gb of RAM regardless of what anybody tells you

Invest your money in the best processor you can buy, a decent spec board with 4gb of fast RAM

Check the ebuyer website and read reviews from actual people, then google the models and read some online reviews
Click to expand...

lightroom fills 2gb on mine quick and eats into a fairly sedate 2.5" hdd which is why I need an upgrade. Something to consider is catalog and RAW file sizes
 
Have a look at the Dell inspiron 560 -

Components
Intel® Core™ 2 Quad-Core Q8300 Processor (2.50GHz, 4MB cache, 1333MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit - English
Microsoft® Works 9.0 / English - (Does not include Microsoft® Word)
1 year of coverage included with your PC
McAfee® Security Centre - 15 Month Protection - English
Display Not Included
4096MB Dual Channel DDR3 1066MHz [4x1024] Memory
1TB (7200rpm) SATA Hard Drive
ATI Radeon™ HD 5450 1GB DDR3 graphics
DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD) with DVD Burn software
Dell™ USB Entry Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY)
Dell 2 Button USB Scroll Optical Mouse - Black
Integrated 7.1 channel audio
19-in-1 Media Card reader
No Modem
Piano Black colour
Accessories
DataSafe Online Backup 2GB 1 year
Also Includes
No Accidental Damage Support
D035627
Inspiron Desktop 560 Minitower Order - UK
Inspiron Desktop 560 Resource DVD (Diagnostic & Drivers)
1 year of coverage included with your PC
Datasafe Local 2.0 Basic
English Documentation
No Speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system)
2 Meter Power Cord - UK
One free Dell Expert call to help with your PC queries within 60 days of purchaseCompatibility Alert
Recalculating Price £479.00
 
neil_g said:
crap id better sell my extra 4gb then..
Click to expand...

Photoshop and Lightroom run fine on my Vaio laptop with 2gb of RAM

Everyone is entitled to thier own opinion, more than 4gb is a waste of money in my opinion. Put the cash into a better processor

The minimum spec for lightroom is 1gb of RAM so if yours is using more than 4gb then I would be worried
 
noneforit said:
Photoshop and Lightroom run fine on my Vaio laptop with 2gb of RAM
Click to expand...

theres running fine and theres running nice and fast.

with less memory youre running the chance of your system having to write to the pagefile which will slow things down. then youve got things like Operating System memory usage on top of any apps (vista isnt worth running on anything less than 2gb for example and even then it drags its heels). if your laptop shares system memory then thats another overhead that will decrease your memory performance etc etc etc.

you have to remember that a softwares minimum hardware requirement is just that an absolute minimum, sure itll run and it might run reasonably well but its never going to set the world on fire.

but it will also depend what youre running simultaniously, i often have LR2.5 and PSCS3 and FastStone and FileZilla and IE and.... etc open. sure it might not be using anywhere near the 8GB thats installed but i dont want my system bogging out and/or crashing if i open 1 more thing.

depends whats important to you and how you use your system i guess.
 
Build your own and use 1/3rd of the money to buy the best case and PSU you can.

Pretty much everything else will be good for a few years, but a decent case and a quality (quiet) PSU should be good for 20 and 10 years repsectively.

Of course, the PSU could fail, but if it doesn't, there's not reason why a really good unit will need replacing within that timescale.
 
Build your own, you'll get more for your money. If your just looking to replace the internals how about:

2TB Samsung HD203WI Spinpoint F3EG, EcoGreen, SATA 3Gb/s, 32MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ, OEM - £118.97

Asus P6T, Intel X58, S1366, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), Triple DDR3 2000(OC), SATA 3Gb/s, SATA RAID, ATX
+ Intel i7 930, S1366, Bloomfield, 2.8 GHz, QPI 4.8GT/s, 8MB Cache, 20x Ratio, 130W, Retail - £381.86

6GB (3x2GB) Corsair XMS3, DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600) Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.65V - £123.36

Total
£632.41 inc VAT and Delivery from Scan.co.uk
(The prices are calculated from the Today Only section, they will usually be higher).

:D
 
If you custom build your own machine then you get the exact specs that you want, not something that ticks the boxes in some aspects but doesn't in others.
Plus building a system is not as hard as some would lead you to believe. Common sense, patience and an earthing cable and your sorted!
 
CraigyBoy86 said:
Build your own, you'll get more for your money. If your just looking to replace the internals how about:

2TB Samsung HD203WI Spinpoint F3EG, EcoGreen, SATA 3Gb/s, 32MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ, OEM - £118.97

Asus P6T, Intel X58, S1366, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), Triple DDR3 2000(OC), SATA 3Gb/s, SATA RAID, ATX
+ Intel i7 930, S1366, Bloomfield, 2.8 GHz, QPI 4.8GT/s, 8MB Cache, 20x Ratio, 130W, Retail - £381.86

6GB (3x2GB) Corsair XMS3, DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600) Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.65V - £123.36

Total
£632.41 inc VAT and Delivery from Scan.co.uk
(The prices are calculated from the Today Only section, they will usually be higher).

:D
Click to expand...

For less money than the cost of the OS you would need to buy you can get the following ready built and supported. £749.00

Components
PROCESSOR StudioXPS 8100 - Intel Core i7 Processor 860 (2.80GHz, 8MB) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit- English edit
OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft® Works 9 - English edit
SERVICES AND SUPPORT 1 year of coverage included with your PC edit
PROTECT YOUR NEW PC McAfee® Security Centre 15 Month Protection edit
MONITOR Display Not Included edit
MEMORY 6144MB (2x2GB) (2x1GB)1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel Memory edit
HARD DRIVE 2TB Dual Hard Drive Raid 0 "Stripe" (2x1TB - 7200rpm) edit
GRAPHICS CARD Graphics Card - Single 1GB Nvidia GeForce GTS 240 edit
OPTICAL DRIVE DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD) with Roxio Easy CD and DVD Burn software edit
KEYBOARD Dell Multimedia USB Keyboard Dual Tone - UK/Irish edit
MOUSE Dell Optical Scroll USB (2 buttons scroll) DUAL TONE Mouse edit
Accessories
SPEAKERS No Speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system) edit
SOUND SOFTWARE Integrated HDA 7.1 Dolby Digital Audio edit
Services & Software
PROTECT YOUR DATA DataSafe Online Backup 2GB 1 year edit
Also included with your system
ACCIDENTAL DAMAGE SUPPORT No Accidental Damage Support
Shipping Documents English - Documentation with UK/Ire Power cord
Gedis Bundle Reference D03X8104
Order Information Studio XPS 8100 DT Order - UK
DataSafe Datasafe Local 2.0 Basic
Standard Warranty 1 year of coverage included with your PC
Thermal Cooling 95W Processor Heatsink
Call Dell Experts One free Dell Expert call to help with your PC queries within 60 days of purchase
DELL SYSTEM MEDIA KIT Studio XPS 8100 Resource DVD
 
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