Which PC is better (Dell vs Chillblast £589.99)

Kate.W_3

I'm still trying to sort out a new desktop PC. I've started other threads which I've learnt a lot from, so thank you for that.

I think I've narrowed it down to two machines but I'm not sure which is best. Just to recap, I don't play games on my machine but I do a lot of graphic and some video processing. I've been told before that an i7 is overkill but I do want longevity out of the machine, and I also need it to run a lot of simultaneous processes at once.

Dell XPS 8700
i7-4770 (8M Cache, up to 3.9 GHz)
8 GIG DDR (2 x 4Gb (1600mhz))
1.0 TB Hard Drive (7200RPM)
1 GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 635
Windows 8.1 Home
Card reader, optical drive, keyboard & mouse

Link: eBay item number:351044083299


Chillblast Fusion Quasar Haswell PC
Intel Core i5 4670K Processor overclocked to up to 4.3GHz
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler
Gigabyte Z87-HD3 Motherboard
AMD Radeon R7 260X 2GB Graphics Card
8GB PC3-12800 DDR3 Memory
1000GB SATA SSHD 7200rpm Hybrid Drive
600watt FSP PSU

Link: chillblast.com/Chillblast-Fusion-Quasar-Haswell-Gaming-PC.html

I already have a spare Windows 7 retail key and a spare optical drive which I can put into the Chillblast machine.

I wish I felt more confident about building one myself but I do think a pre-built one is the way to go.

Cycrow

What do you actually need the PC for ?

Im assuming you plan to do gaming on them, as they both had dedicated GPU's

If so, then it'll be better to go for the one with the better GPU, which would be the 2nd one (chillblast).

The difference between the i7 and i5 is not massive, and you only really get any benefit from it in specific applications. But the overclocked i5 would make up for that.

if you dont plan to do any gaming, then both of them would be overkill

abibee

The chillblast has an SSHD which should be faster for the operating system/software.

RumRat

Chillblast...That one has a five year warranty I believe and the set up will be best for graphics work. There is plenty of room in the case for expansion if you want and it's easy to upgrade.
Anyway, I'd take them over a Dell anytime.;)

f1charlie

You could also take a look at PCSpecialist and play around with their configurator - you can put in the equivalent spec and see how their price compares. As you are not planning on gaming you could probably do away with the dedicated graphics card. Perhaps look at an SSD and separate hard drive for data storage.
A Chillblast or PCSpecialist machine will probably be easier to work on if you want to upgrade anything in the future.

Kate.W_3

Thanks for the replies.

When I spoke to Chillblast on the phone they said that the separate graphics card would be used by Photoshop and would speed up the way that it processed the image files. I was planning on removing that from the configuration but they advised against it, even knowing that I don't plan to use it for games.

I'll have a look at PCSpecialist.

f1charlie

Having Googled a bit more, a graphics card will improve some functions in Photoshop. Perhaps the way to go is buy a PC without the graphics card and if the performance is not good enough for your editing needs, buy a graphics card and plug it in yourself. As you are intending to put your own optical drive in you are obviously not scared of getting inside the case! It will probably work out slightly cheaper that way too.

f1charlie

From Adobe website:

http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-cs6-gpu-faq1.html#cs6_features

GPU-enhanced features added in Photoshop CC


The Blur Gallery (Iris Blur, Field Blur, and Tilt-Shift) is enhanced by OpenCL.
Smart Sharpen uses OpenCL for Noise Reduction only.

Maddy25

Hi Kate

I bought a Chillblast PC last year, good thing was you could haggle the price down. I was able to get a more or less identical spec for a much cheaper price at Dino PC, asked Chillblast if they'd price match and they said yeah.

Customer Service is amazing, had a few issues they resolved them without any hassle.

Here's the spec I got last Easter:

CPU: Ivy Bridge Intel Core i5 3470
CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
Operating System: No Operating System Required
Motherboard: Asus P8B75-M LX
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1333mhz (2x4GB)
Hard Drive: 1000GB TB S-ATAIII 6.0Gb/s
Optical Drive: 24x DVD±RW DL S-ATA
Graphics card: Onboard Intel
Sound card: Onboard 7.1 Audio
Internet: Wireless 802.11N 300Mbps MIMO PCI card
Keyboard & Mouse: Generic Wired Keyboard and Mouse
Speakers: Logitech S220
Monitor: No Monitor
Case: CIT Shadow ATX Case with mesh front
PSU: 500W Xigmatek

£400 delivered.

I didn't get a graphics card, but I do use editing software and use programs such as Adobe Premiere Elements, PS, Nero and some Programming languages. Also, I multitask very heavily, I have not once needed to use the Ctrl+Alt+Del combo as it's never frozen!

I'm hoping to add a SSD drive soon to make it faster!

Cisco001

Chillblast better.

However, for your use, assuming you are just doing home video editing, You probably don't need i5-4670K with R7 260x.
FX8320, 8GB RAM with GT640/ GTX650 would probably enough. You would be looking at £500

abibee

The thing with lower specs is that she wants longevity from the computer aswell, so a little higher-spec will last longer into the future. I think.