Building a Windows PC

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Richard
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Afternoon all

My PC needs a upgrade and i am thinking of building myself one. Now before i go spending hours on the net looking at different components im asking everyone out there what they have and if anyone is able to recommend Website/Companies

Thanks for your help
 
Have a look here http://www.cclonline.com/
TBH I would not bother building one, they built me an I5 business machine with 250 gb SSD, 1TB HD 16gb DDR4 ram, optical drive, Win 10 and it came with 3 year warranty for just over £600 and the build quality is superb
 
I think it depends on what you have already and what you actually need to upgrade.
I tend to use amazon, ebuyer, scan , dabs etc for bits. Although, bizarrely, PC World appear amongst the cheapest for an SSD I am thinking of getting......
 
Its a long time since I built a PC from scratch and I am not sure for a fairly basic machine it is now cost effective, but it is very satisfying when it all works.

I have used Ebuyer, Dabs and Novatech for lots of components in the past, all with no problems.

Dave
 
I sourced most of the parts for the last PC I built from Amazon UK. My most recent purchase (i7 based) was a factory refurbished DELL OptiPlex from the DELL factory shop. It worked out cheaper than DIY and it came with a 3 year NBD warranty and Windows 8.1 Pro, now upgraded to Win10 Pro.
 
I've been tempted do this a couple of times, but never gone ahead with it for various reasons. There are several companies that will build the PC to your specifications, and I suspect that any additional cost would be offset by getting a warranty with the machine. If you build it, and something doesn't work, it's your problem. I'd rather it was someone else's responsibility to fix it.
 
Just out of interest please let us know what you decide to do
 
I've used ebuyer, Aria and Amazon for bits most recently.

What spec is being used any certain things better then the rest ?

What do you want to do with it? For simple browsing there's nothing special required. For photo work then you will probably want an i5 quad core processor with 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD + whatever you can afford as a storage disc, basic graphics card/onboard graphics.
 
I am on my 5th self-built system and usually source the new components from Amazon or eBay to build a pc to suit a specific purpose (Low Noise/Gaming etc etc).

The cases and monitors are used examples from eBay<10 miles search - lightly used examples are common and offer big savings over new.

Always go for good quality tried and tested stuff - I always use ASUS mobo's for example as I have found them very reliable as are AMD CPU's and make sure the PSU really is low noise!

The build is relatively straightforward if you get a well designed case - the only tricky bits are inserting the RAM, installing an expansion card (eg graphics card) (they both need a bit of force) and installing the cpu (you need to make sure it is seated correctly) but all of these are covered by youtube videos.
 
I agree.
Case - unless you are not fussy about noise and look/feel and decent case is worth it. Especially if you are changing bits and don't want cuts from sharp metal. 2nd hand is great though if you know what you are buying.
PSU. Cheap ones are generally noisy (if not to start with, later when the fan bearings go) and a poor quality PSU can cause all sorts of reliability problems that are almost impossible to diagnose. Personally I would not get 2nd hand here - too much chance it is being sold off because of issues.
The stock CPU fans are generally ok but not particularly quiet.
Processors, I have used both AMD and Intel. Not much in it although in the past I have found AMD gives you more bang per buck but Intel perhaps slightly better performance and lower power. This might have changed though.
Mobos- Never had a problem with any of the big names (eg asus, gigabyte, MSI, ASrock). Ditto memory, I tend to use crucial but have used Kingston, Corsair, HyperX with no problems.
Hard discs- the only problems I have had are with Seagate - I tend to go for WD nowadays (green for general desktop stuff, red for nas) as they are quiet and fast and I have never had a problem.
I have also used samsung SSDs a couple of times (the 850 evo) and they appear to perform well.
For graphics you will probably be fine with the on board adapter for general stuff (including photo editing) but I have used both radeon and Nvidia. I've had more problems with radeon but I suspect that is as much driver issues as the actual hardware.

Everyone will have their favorites though. Just avoid the generic stuff just because it will save you few pounds. This is where the likes of ccl etc have the advantage - they will have plenty of experience of where going cheap is a good idea and where it causes problems.
 
I would recommend SCAN for buying computer components.

They also offer an extra inexpensive insurance that means if you manage to bugger something up during the installation and damage something they will replace it.
 
Have a look here http://www.cclonline.com/
TBH I would not bother building one, they built me an I5 business machine with 250 gb SSD, 1TB HD 16gb DDR4 ram, optical drive, Win 10 and it came with 3 year warranty for just over £600 and the build quality is superb
When did you get that? I just had a quick look and can't see you getting that for under £770

Using one of their standard set ups

CCL Terra 100 CAD/Photoshop Workstation

  • Intel Core i5 6500 3.6GHz turbo CPU
  • 8GB DDR4 Memory
  • Nvidia Quadro K620
  • 1TB Hard Drive
  • DVD Drive
  • Microsoft Windows 10 Home
  • 3 Year On Site Warranty
 
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When did you get that? I just had a quick look and can't see you getting that for under £770

Using one of their standard set ups

CCL Terra 100 CAD/Photoshop Workstation

  • Intel Core i5 6500 3.6GHz turbo CPU
  • 8GB DDR4 Memory
  • Nvidia Quadro K620
  • 1TB Hard Drive
  • DVD Drive
  • Microsoft Windows 10 Home
  • 3 Year On Site Warranty

You have gone for a high spec setup with the Terra 100, a quick check got troutfisher's spec for about £550.

Regardless, by my reckoning you could build with the same components as the Terra 100 for about £600 without OS (and win 10 pro can be got elsewhere for about £25 atm). So that would be a saving of £145. Some would say that is worthwhile, others will say that is well worth spending for the peace of mind and 3 year on site warranty......
 
Just to clarify mine from CCLis specced as I said in my original post and was £648 inc a £15 credit card surcharge and included Win 10 OEM on disc
 
If self-building (from scratch), remember to factor in the price of Windows. It's possibly the only real benefit of buying an off-the-shelf solution in that they always ship with Windows, plus occasional useful stuff (usually a LOT of bloatware too though).

It's actually pretty easy to build a PC from scratch, and it can save you money too, as well as getting just what you want.
Where an off-the-shelf solution will be ready out the box, they tend to be shipped with mediocre monitors, bloatware, and cost-cutting bits often PSU and RAM (Of the same 'spec' of a good one, but usually below par - not all RAM is created equal!)
 
If self-building (from scratch), remember to factor in the price of Windows. It's possibly the only real benefit of buying an off-the-shelf solution in that they always ship with Windows, plus occasional useful stuff (usually a LOT of bloatware too though).
can be pretty cheap though. eg
https://softwaregeeks.co.uk/product/windows-10-pro/

It's actually pretty easy to build a PC from scratch, and it can save you money too, as well as getting just what you want.
I agree

Where an off-the-shelf solution will be ready out the box, they tend to be shipped with mediocre monitors, bloatware, and cost-cutting bits often PSU and RAM (Of the same 'spec' of a good one, but usually below par - not all RAM is created equal!)
Can be true but to be fair some companies will use very good spec parts although it can sometimes be difficult to find out if that is true or not.
 
I think nowadays the only real advantage you have through building your own, is that you can spec whats going into it. If of course you pick a company that tell you what boards they are using then your laughing, let them build it for you.
What you don't want is some Yin Tong Tiddle I Po motherboard with a Wack Nank graphics card. The reason there cheap is because they use Cheap components, and cheap = crap usually.
Been to fix these in the past for people and in some cases its impossible to find the Manufacturer or the drivers.... Oh and make sure they supply you with the OEM discs.
Theres normally very little price advantage nowadays
Just my 2d
 
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If buying 'bleeding edge' components for DIY build you also need to watch out for BIOS support for CPUs. It can get quite exciting trying to flash BIOS on a new board which doesn't support the latest CPU. I had this with an Asus board earlier this year with a 'latest version' low power Intel i3. If you have a spare older CPU it may not be a problem .

My philosophy when choosing PC components (or any electronic equipment) is to try and locate the manufacturers website to see what support they offer, such as BIOS updates, drivers etc. If they are not geared up to provide this level of support I usually shop elsewhere.
 
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