Hello. New computer but...

Alright. Thinking of building myself a new PC.

Lian liPC7 SE Plus midi tower.
processor AMD 64 X2 3800 Dual Core
motherboard Asus A8N SLI- Premium
memory Crucial PC3200 DIMM 1024Mb - for the other slots reusing my existing memory giving it about 2GB
graphics card Connect 3D Radeon X550 PCI-E 256Mb

Using my DVD-R and CD WR, 200 GB hard disks, floppy drive & USB card from my existing machine.
All set up for about £600

But, it brings the question is it worth me buyng all the bits and building it myself because its possible to pick up a Packard Bell:

# Intel Pentium 4 524 Processor
# 3.0GHz, 533MHz FSB, 1MB Cache
# 512MB DDR RAM
# 160GB Hard Disk Drive
# Multi-Format Dual Layer DVD-RW Drive
# 256MB nVidia GeForce 6200 SE Graphics
# Built-in TV Tuner + Remote Control
# 15" TFT Flat Panel Monitor

for £494.00

I thought that would be a very decent price but its not an AMD, its not got a dual core Intel. Its not got alot of memory but it does come with a TFT flat screen monitor but I already have a LCD monitor already - on a side note what is the life span of flatscreens?.

So, what would you guys do? The store bought Intel or the AMD self build.

I've got a feeling that the home built one would generally have better quality of parts but Im no expert.

 

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Build it yourself.

 

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the only thing you left out was the most important
what are you going to use it for?

word processor with dialup?

 

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gaming (alittle, not a big gamer), word processor, net related stuff, dvd playback, graphics editing among other stuff. maybe tv card aswell. I have 2 gig adsl.

cheers

 

If you're gaming, even a little, get 1GB of ram and a 6600/6800. You will be kicking yourself latar if you don't.

 

My personal thought on building a computer is first do a little research from the various technology websites on the internet and computer magazines.

The most important part of a Computer is the Motherboard, since Everything else can be upgraded or replaced, if you end up having to upgrade a Motherboard you might as well start creating a whole new box.

The best sort of motherboard to choose is one that has a decent amount of support and reputation behind it. For instance A-BIT motherboards usually are well documented and allow flashrom updating and modification which can inturn allow faster processing speeds through either more ergonomic programming or just plain old fashioned overclocking.

As for all the other components of a computer, you can purchase the parts that are Middle of the range quality and more importantly price. You can then based upon your own expendible income slowly upgrade component by component until they can't be upgraded any further. Simply you're motherboard is your limit on upgrading.

 

My current system is a P4 2.0Ghz with a GeForce II graphics card. I'm not sure what type of mother board it is. One day I decided to fit a USB expansion card and a network card, so I fitted them. When I switched on the computer everything appeared to be booting up as normal but without display, then three loud beeps. I opened up the computer once again and checked to see if the graphics card was in properly, I took it out cleaned the slot then put it back in, then I got the display back but now if the graphics card has to work eg the screen saver comes on then the computer crashes. Occasionally I lose display for like 5 secs then it comes back on again. If too many applets are opened then the computer crashes. It appears to me that the graphics card is knackered. So I thought it would be a good idea to just bite the bullet and instead of replacing the graphics card with another PCI one then I could just upgrade the system and get a PCI-E card.

This Asus motherboard appears to be a good one, LSI enabled with two x16 PCIe slots Using a nForce 4 chipset you dont need to open the computer up to switch LSI settings but can do it from the BIOs requiring only a reboot.

 

That ASUS board is a beauty - have used two already, with the AMD X2 Processors.

Do. Not. Buy. A. Packard. Bell.

 

Don't be cheap on a good power supply as I believe the PS is the most important part of the computer. I've read a lot of good things about Gigabyte MBs. An inexpensive no-frills Gigabyte MB will perform and be as good of quality as the top of the line.
Did you say 15" TFT monitor? Even laptops have bigger monitors nowadays. If you can't afford it, don't buy a monitor. Keep using your CRT until you can afford it. 19" prices are still coming down.

 

Actually you can be cheap on power supplies, however there are differences between the cheap PSU's and the more expensive ones, in the sense they can both give you the right amount of power needed but the more expensive one might have sophisticated fan systems which are "quieter".

Unfortunately with any computer component you don't get to "test before you buy" so it's difficult to gauge if the more expensive PSU is actually going to be quieter.

 

I don't think it's all about the amount of power and noise. The quality of the PS is very important. I remember reading an article stating that a bad (or low quality) PS is responsible for many component failures and system crashes. If it's not the most important component in a PC, do you agree that it's the most overlooked?

 

Power, quality, quietness and more tidy wiring all come with buying a good quality PSU. Not to mention power surge protection and over power protection prevents system damage which could stretch into the hundreds of pounds. Not to mention fancy lighting, bonus!!

 

i'll agree. get a quality supply

 

I don't like ASUS boards.

 

I think that the specification you suggested for self build is far superior to the PB machine. IF you like gaming you need a gig of RAM.

 

Don't get any motherboard in the ASUS A8N-SLI series!

I had an A8N-SLI board for about 7 months. I had used it in a gaming computer, yes. It worked beautifully at first. It later became buggy, and the stock chipset fan died out. I read on a few forums that all of the A8N boards have the same chipset fan problem. And as with every product, I've seen people have all kinds of problems with these boards.
I recently bought the Abit AN8 32X, and it's the greatest thing I've ever installed in one of my pc's.
However, ASUS released the A8N 32-SLI board. It's much like the Abit version, and doesn't use a fan on the chipset =) Hopefully this board's a big jump from the other A8N boards.

I love ASUS and always have, but I just want to save someone else from the crap put up with the A8N line.

 

The Asus A8N 32 -SLI motherboard was the one I had in mind, it doesnt utilise a fan but a passive heat sink for cooling.

 

Right, that's the same type of thing Abit has. But only because of my A8N-SLI problem, I decided to try and switch to Abit for now.

By the way, no problems whatsoever with it, either =)

 

I've built it and its running very well.

 

Excellent, good to hear.