Desktop advice

pill

I am looking for a new desktop (current one runs xp and has too many outdated components).

I have been looking at 2 options - a fully customised via pc specialist or a Dell via vip club. I am after a quietish system with a simple stylish case that I can run for the next 5-8 years for around the £700 mark. I don't play games often and do occasional video editing, otherwise its mainly office and internet.

Can you have a look at the 2 specs below and tell me which you would prefer (or an alternative you might consider)?

PC Specialist:
i5 6600K
Gigabyte Z170XP-SLI
8GB DDR4 2133Mhz (2x4)
2GB AMD RADEON™ R7 240
250 GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD
Corsair 650W Modular 80 PLUS Gold Ultra Quiet PSU
Super quiet Titan DragonFly Cooler
Onboard sound
Wi-fi not included
No DVD
Win 10 Pro
1 year collect & return warrenty
£718.00 incl vat & delivery
Antec NSK4100 ATX Case £39.00 from amazon
Total £757.00
(Would use the dvd drive and wireless card from existing computer)

Dell
i7 6700
Motherboard ?
16GB DDR4 (2x8)
NV GTX 745 4G DDR
2TB 7.2k HDD + 32GB SSD cache
???
DW1801 802.11bgn + BT
DVD RW
Win 10 Home
1 year Collect & Return
XPS 8900 Black EPS Chassis:
Total £746.10 incl vat & delivery

enkoda

Personally, I wouldn't buy either - I'd buy my own components and self build, but.....

Given a choice between the two, the Dell machine wins hands down. Faster processor, double the memory, much better graphics card, DVD and Wi-Fi.

[Deleted User]

Both machines seem high spec, for "mainly office and internet".

It may help, if you state the games you don't play often.

Also, I notice the first one says "Wi-fi not included" and "No DVD".

Seriously, on a £750+ machine?

Fightsback

I personally think the i5-6600k doesn't justify the price/performance and the i5-6500 will be good enough (it's also lower watt) which can be had as an individual part for roughly 25% less, that's almost a £50 saving.

A critical point here is that you say you don't play games often but more to the point what kind of games do you play ? If you are playing modern demanding games then I would suggest a nvidia GTX 950 GPU as optimal (as an absolute minimum a gtx 750ti) as those graphics cards that come with those systems are not very good and you may regret it later.

To price up the individual parts, this site will give you a good idea of the self build cost:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/

esuhl

pill wrote: »

I have been looking at 2 options - a fully customised via pc specialist or a Dell via vip club. I am after a quietish system with a simple stylish case that I can run for the next 5-8 years for around the £700 mark. I don't play games often and do occasional video editing, otherwise its mainly office and internet.

With those requirements and your budget, I'd definitely consider building a PC yourself from components. Decide on the CPU first, then the motherboard, then everything else.

Tomshardware is a good place to start comparing component specs:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/

pill

Thank you for the replies.

I'd be tempted to build my own computer if the saving was above £100 - but I just don't see that sort of saving when I pick similar parts on pcpartpicker.

Most of the games I play are over 5-10years+ old, so probably wouldn't work on windows 10 anyway and won't be missed - so this isn't really for gaming - that will be an afterthought.

I want a machine that looks sleak (no lighting effects etc corsair 100R , Antec NSK4100 case etc) and is quiet (current pc makes a racket). Only things worth taking from my existing computer are 2 dvd-rw drives and a tp-link network card, rest is pretty much junk.

New computer has to run cad applications like solidworks, Rhino3d, video editing like powerdirector and then the usual office and web stuff.

Are there other companies like pcspecialist and box that do custom machines at competitive prices? I've looked at Chillblast but their prices are over the top.

Carrot007

pill wrote: »

Only things worth taking from my existing computer are 2 dvd-rw drives and a tp-link network card, rest is pretty much junk.

DVD-rw probably not sata so binned. network card probably pci so binned.

Desktop should be wired for speed anyway so use the onboard gigbit port.

Optical drives are cheap if you want them. Go for one that can at least read blurays. A BR Writer is very useful for a backup.

My main concern is your expectation to last for years. it probably will but most likely like your current XP machine has probably been a pain for half it's life.

Since your requirements are not large it would be much better to cut the price in half and get 2 machines over the same period.

chunter

No screen for 750?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zoostorm-7270-0021-i5-4440-3-2GHz-Windows/dp/B00K8TKVZM/ref=dp_ob_title_ce
£423 delivered.
Operating system: Windows 8.1
Processor: Intel Core i5-4460 (6 M Cache, 3.20 GHz)
Hard Disk: 1 TB SATA hard drive
Memory: 8 GB DDR3 1,600 MHz
Buy another 8gb memory and a 40 quid graphics card and spend the rest on Christmas presents.

(Similar spec to my own i5 which does video editing quite sufficiently for my needs.)

It's a zoostorm so buy yourself a power supply for Christmas.

[Deleted User]

My Medion, bought from Asda, cost me less than £340, and is so quiet, you wouldn't think it even had a fan. :cool:

esuhl

pill wrote: »

I'd be tempted to build my own computer if the saving was above £100 - but I just don't see that sort of saving when I pick similar parts on pcpartpicker.

I'm not sure that a self-build will save you money, as such; it's just that you get a wider range of components to choose from, and can pick the ones that are most suitable for your intended usage of the PC.

Also, PC retailers (particularly the likes of PC World, etc.) will often select components based on their "primary" specification, hoping that you won't see where they've trimmed off the cost. So they'll price up a PC with, say, 8GB RAM and a 2TB HDD, and will hope you don't ask what speed the memory runs at, or the size of the HDD cache. It makes the PC sound better than it is. If you buy the components yourself, it's easier to compare the cost of otherwise identical drives with 8MB or 16MB cache, etc., and compare the benchmarks to see if that's money well-spent.

But if you can get the components you want in a pre-built machine for the same money, then go for it.

pill wrote: »

Most of the games I play are over 5-10years+ old, so probably wouldn't work on windows 10 anyway and won't be missed - so this isn't really for gaming - that will be an afterthought.

I want a machine that looks sleak (no lighting effects etc corsair 100R , Antec NSK4100 case etc) and is quiet (current pc makes a racket). Only things worth taking from my existing computer are 2 dvd-rw drives and a tp-link network card, rest is pretty much junk.

New computer has to run cad applications like solidworks, Rhino3d, video editing like powerdirector and then the usual office and web stuff.

Cheaper PCs tend to be designed for "light office" work -- web browsing, word processing, etc. The more expensive ones tend to be designed for gaming, and often have all sorts of features (like colourful lights) and a highly-overclockable motherboard/CPU that could be a waste of money for your use.

If you look at benchmarks, video encoding will be particularly important, and you will possibly want a large(ish) amount of fast RAM and a decent (but not OTT) graphics card.

Also, if you're looking for a quiet PC, there are all sorts of sound-insulated cases, efficient fans and even passively-cooled PSUs that you could look at if you build from components.

If it were me, I'd design my "ideal PC" from components, and then look to see how it compares to various pre-built machines in terms of spec and price.

Cycrow

tbh the i7 6700 is not worth the money.

for the same price you can get a Haswell-E, which gives you more cores, more pci-e lanes and more memory. All the extra features of skylake are also available on Haswell-E.

either save money and go for the skylake i5, or go for the i7 5820 (Haswell-E)

both would be pretty much overkill thou