Building my own PC

Mista_C

I was a hardcore AMD fanboy not too many years ago but I personally find them to be over-rated these days. I only use Intel in my custom builds these days (unless specified otherwise by the customer).

It might be worth you checking out Novatech.co.uk I've always found their prices to be competitive for home builders. There's also kustompcs.co.uk not the cheapest but I've always had reliable products and service from them.

paddyrg

When you order a motherboard etc, you are eligible for OEM pricing for your Operating System, so it's worth considering.

rob7475

I'm sorry, but if you have to ask how the parts go together and if there's any fiddly bits, you should really reconsider whether you should build your own PC or not.

You've also got to bear in mind that if you build the PC yourself and the PC stops working, it's down to you to find which is the faulty part - you can't just take the whole PC back under warranty.

If you know what you're doing, you can save money by building your own PC. If you're not sure what you're doing do it may be worth getting one built for you. Have a look at PC Specialist and CCL Computers for prices of custom built PC's.

Also, it's worth trying to over spec the PC if you can so it doesn't become obsolete in a couple of years. a 500gb hard disk now may seem adequate, but will it still be in 3 years time? I've noticed that you've spec'd 4gb RAM - if you can afford to go to 8GB, do it. RAM is cheap at the moment and it's well worth putting as much RAM in as you can afford (Just make sure you get a motherboard that will take the amount of RAM you are putting in - some cheapo boards only take 4GB).

Hope this helps

Rob

rmg1

I'm confident in putting all the parts together, just a little unsure if there's any specific BIOS settings, etc that would need to be very specific. I don't intend to over-clock which takes out that part, so I would imagine everything would get picked automaticvally.
If that's the case, I'll be fine.

alexlyne

Based on my own personal experience, consider using a solid state drive rather than a platter drive - especially for the OS. Yes they are expensive for what they are, but they do make a huge difference. You can get 64gb for under £100, which sounds like a lot for not much space.. better to go for 128gb for around £175 if you can afford it - put the OS on that, and use a separate HDD for storage.
( I have 2x 30Gb ssds - enough for OS and all my software, they cost over £100 each when I got em! They are OCZ vertex drives, which perform very well for both reads and writes)

gonzo127

rob7475 wrote: »

I'm sorry, but if you have to ask how the parts go together and if there's any fiddly bits, you should really reconsider whether you should build your own PC or not.

You've also got to bear in mind that if you build the PC yourself and the PC stops working, it's down to you to find which is the faulty part - you can't just take the whole PC back under warranty.

If you know what you're doing, you can save money by building your own PC. If you're not sure what you're doing do it may be worth getting one built for you. Have a look at PC Specialist and CCL Computers for prices of custom built PC's.

Also, it's worth trying to over spec the PC if you can so it doesn't become obsolete in a couple of years. a 500gb hard disk now may seem adequate, but will it still be in 3 years time? I've noticed that you've spec'd 4gb RAM - if you can afford to go to 8GB, do it. RAM is cheap at the moment and it's well worth putting as much RAM in as you can afford (Just make sure you get a motherboard that will take the amount of RAM you are putting in - some cheapo boards only take 4GB).

Hope this helps

Rob

although you do raise some valid points i feel you need to put a little perspective onto this

for example self build worries/fiddly bits - most people will be and are worried about their first build, this is natural, however telling people who have a few worrys that if they dont know what they are doing exactly then they shouldnt try is just silly as how else are people going to learn that computers really are not THAT difficult

computers becoming obsolete - well that happens within 2-6 months no matter how much you want to try as there is always something new that comes out which will be better, however try to take into account the OP's current system is still using IDE hard drives :eek:, and the fact op has already stated they dont have that much information so 500gb might last them a decent while (although i specced up for 1tb) same with RAM 4gb isnt going to become obsolete for a while yet and if it does as you have pointed out it is generally cheap and it is a easy to do upgrade if it is needed

gdickin2

I have tried building the same configuration that Gonzo suggested on a number of the pre-built sites coming extremely close to spec, and were not then have been worse and I am struggling to get it below £600 anywhere. In fact a cyberpower Hercules with CM Elite 310 case comes in at £695. Therefore I think Gonzo has hit the mark. Unless anybody else wants to do some more searching (and save me the effort) to prove me wrong - which I will gladly accept if you get it below Gonzo's price.

gonzo127

gdickin2 - just wondering if you have actually taken into account that the spec i have looked at doesnt include windows as the op stated they have a 'extra' budget for that as a lot of prebuilt ones will come with winodws included costing roughly £75

gdickin2

gonzo, yes I did remove any OS, monitors, card readers, keyboards etc so just got back to the bare spec.

gdickin2

Looked like this:
CASE: CoolerMaster Elite 310 Mid Tower Gaming Case with see-thru side panel
Lights & Illumination: NONE
Extra Case Fan Upgrade: Default Case Fan
Cyberpower Noise Reduction Technology: None
CPU: Intel® Core™ i5 2400 Quad Core 3.1GHz 6MB cache LGA1155 + HD Graphics [-13]
Overclocking Service: No Overclocking
Cooling Fan: INTEL LGA1156 CERTIFIED CPU FAN & HEATSINK [-23]
MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte H67M-UD2H H67 DDR3 Intel LGA1155 micro ATX Mainboard w/ 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, Intel HD onboard Graphic, SATAIII USB2.0 [+9]
Internal Expansion: NONE
MEMORY: 4GB (2x2GB) PC10666 DDR3/1333mhz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Value Select or Major Brand)
VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX460 768MB 16X PCI Express [+64] (Major Brand Power by NVIDIA)
FREEBIES: None
DONGLES: NONE
VIDEO CARD 2: None, or On-Board Integrated Graphics
Video Card 3: None, or On-Board Integrated Graphics
Dedicated PhysX Card: None
Power Supply Upgrade: 500 Watts Power Supplies [+8] (CyberPowerPC 500W Quiet Power Supply)
Hard Drive: 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16M Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive [+5] (Single Hard Drive)
Data Hard Drive: NONE
Hard Drive Cooler: None
Optical Drive: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE (BLACK COLOR)
Optical Drive 2: NONE
SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
LCD Monitor: NONE [-96]
2nd Monitor: NONE
3rd Monitor: NONE
SPEAKERS: NONE [-15]
Network: ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT -- As standard on all PCs
MODEM: NONE
Keyboard: NONE [-5]
Mouse: NONE [-3]
Gaming Gear: None
Extra Thermal Display: NONE
Wireless 802.11B/G Network Card: NONE
Wireless 802.11B/G Access Point: NONE
Flash Media Reader/Writer: None
Cables: None
Video Camera: NONE
Power Surge Protection: None
IEEE Card: NONE
USB Port: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
USB Portable Drive: NONE
Floppy: NONE
Ultra Care Option: None
Operating System: NONE - FORMAT HARD DRIVE ONLY(NO OVERCLOCKING AVALIABLE) [-59]
Media Center Remote & TV Tuner: NONE
Software: None
FREEBIES: None
Games: None
Fast Track Service: NONE