Custom built PC?

silkcutblue

Cougar PC.

I am using the one I got from them abotu 1.5years ago. I just got two more for work, and they are GREAT.

http://www.cougar-extreme.co.uk/

domestic_goddess

Try Alienware... excellent service and my oh loves his computer from there.

andredenito

My brother use eclipse (due to the warrenty only being £4.95), and i would post a hesitation to them. They told him the computer would be 7 days, after 2 weeks he finally got an email saying there was a uk shortage of the CPU (which turned out to be true) so they offered hima free upgrade. Was a nice offer but still took 3 weeks to deliver, and they hadn't plugged by dvdrw in so we had to void the warrenty to hook it up. Eclipse did apologise about it and said they would not only honour the warrenty but they;d also increase it from 1 to 3 years. SO they do have some issues, but they do resolve them nicely when they happen.

The cheapest way though is to buy the parts yourself and build it yourself. It may seem like a daunting idea, but trust me, its really really easy. There are plenty of 'how to's' out there that will show you step by step. My computer I'm on right now would have been £750 with Dell and it cost me a little over £500 building it myself.
https://www.ebuyer.com
https://www.scan.co.uk
https://www.aria.co.uk
are all good for prices on parts and computers

beesman wrote: »

Thanks for your reply Rachael.

I have taken a look at Dell, & their Jan offers aren't too bad, but they don't allow customisation without a monitor & some other core components. However, I've found Eclipse Computers, who seem to have been rated well by others, & they do allow this level of customisation. May give them a whirl!

maniac886

This Dell one from Tesco's is a bargain here. It is not in stock at the moment but if you can wait I would personally go for this one. Add a decent graphics card and your laughing.

There is plenty of room as well to upgrade.

Not bad for £299.

Fishmeister

Eclipse computers is very cheap and provide excellent base computers (eg http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/product.aspx?code=SYS-ST-AD5000)

I highly recommend purchasing a Tower like this, either from a company like this which you can specify. Then I would buy a CRT monitor, you can pick up a 22 - 24 inch CRT off Ebay for as little as 10 pounds! (usually collection only).

The picture quality of CRT monitors is better than TFT, the only drawback is they are larger and use a little more electricity but you will save a couple of hundred pounds by not buying a TFT.

I use mine for my photography for the picture quality and would never buy a TFT.

darich

Fishmeister wrote: »

Eclipse computers is very cheap and provide excellent base computers (eg http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/product.aspx?code=SYS-ST-AD5000)

I highly recommend purchasing a Tower like this, either from a company like this which you can specify. Then I would buy a CRT monitor, you can pick up a 22 - 24 inch CRT off Ebay for as little as 10 pounds! (usually collection only).

The picture quality of CRT monitors is better than TFT, the only drawback is they are larger and use a little more electricity but you will save a couple of hundred pounds by not buying a TFT.

I use mine for my photography for the picture quality and would never buy a TFT.

how can a crt be better than a tft???
the resolution is no better than around 720 x 576 compared to a typical tft of af around 1400 x 900 if it's widescreen, or 1024 x 1028 if it's 4:3.
You can see the red green and blue dots of a crt - effectively they're the pixels but you'll never see the pixels on a tft - they're too small and close together.

Have you ever seen a CRT on a PS3? it's as if someone has smeared a layer of vaseline over the screen. Everything is blurry and fine lines and details are lost because of the CRT's inability to display them.

If CRT's are better how come I've never seen a high definition one?
If they're better, what is the point of higher resolution in a TFT?
How come CRTs don't have HDMI sockets (high bandwidth) but have scart sockets(lower bandwtidh)
How can you possibly judge your photos on a CRT, unless of course yor camera resolution is around 720 x 576 and better than mine which has around 4200 x 3400??

CRT better than TFT?
Absolute nonsense!

PS I don't want this to degenerate into an arguement over which is better since it's off topic. But thought I had to post in case anyone bought a CRT thinking they were better.

Fishmeister

As a response to the last post, I suggest you do your research before you post. Also, seeing as this is a money saving site, my original post didn't go into the full details of crt vs tft, just stating that you could save a ton of money by not going for the tft because they are thinner. As a photographer I know for a fact that CRT monitors produce a far better picture, any serious photographer knows this!. if you want some facts, here you go..

CRT monitors have much much faster response times than TFT monitors. Response time is the time interval taken by a pixel on the screen to transit from the on state to the off state or reverse.

CRT monitors tend to have much better color responses than TFT monitors. In other words CRT monitors display colors much better than TFT monitors.

If you are a graphics artist and you require close to realistic representation of colors you will have to go for a CRT monitor irrespective of any other factors.

If you are a gamer then depending on the type of games you play you will have to choose between CRT and TFT monitors. If you play very fast moving games then response times of the monitors comes into play and you might end up having to buy a CRT monitor to get a smooth gaming experience. If however you play more strategy games than action or racing games then depending your other usage patterns you can decide between either a TFT or a CRT.


Everything is explained on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathode_ray_tube

Look for the heading 'The Future Of CRT Technology' about half way down the page to find everything explained, especially why photographers use them.

darich

Given that photographs don't move, repsonse times are irrelevant for photography. For gaming it can be but with response times of around 3ms available in some monitors it's not exactly "lag" is it?

Since all major manufacturers are either stepping down their production or have stopped altogether, then points to them being not as good as TFTs are or will be.

My LCD never has any issues playing my fast moving PS3 games so I've not had any issues with it.

I, and most people in the UK, will stick with TFT even if, as you claim, CRTs are better.

Jakg

skintlass wrote: »

Can I ask why you want to customise the pc so much?

Because most PC's are sold with rubbish unbranded memory / hdd's / mobo's and have rubbish GFX cards with rubbish PSU's being unable to upgrade.

I am a geek who builds his own PC's and trust me it's not hard - but if you got all the bits then I don't see why I wouldn't do it for a few beers (that's not an offer - but i'm sure someone where you live could help you...)

exup

darich wrote: »

Given that photographs don't move, repsonse times are irrelevant for photography. For gaming it can be but with response times of around 3ms available in some monitors it's not exactly "lag" is it?

Since all major manufacturers are either stepping down their production or have stopped altogether, then points to them being not as good as TFTs are or will be.

My LCD never has any issues playing my fast moving PS3 games so I've not had any issues with it.

I, and most people in the UK, will stick with TFT even if, as you claim, CRTs are better.

manufacturers stepping down production has nothing to do with tft being better - but cheaper to produce.
(Think back to VHS vs Betamax - Betamax was the better format but lost out .
and there are some people that are saying the HD-DVD is better than Blu -Ray - but again HD-DVD has lost out).
The public are going to prefer tft and plasma over crt because they are thinner and lighter then a bulking great monitor.
tft (and plasma) responses are always improving - but they still cannot match the response of a good crt with respect to motion. a tft will blur slightly for instance, when watching a film which has fast action in it, but if you have only used tft or have got used to it - it isn't a problem. but as a comparison was drawn - then yes crt is better in this respect.

As for bits for the PC custom build - if you are in west yorkshire then I would always recommend CCL