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Author Topic: New PC builds.  (Read 44558 times)

kitz

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Re: New PC builds.
« Reply #15 on: June 05, 2012, 07:42:23 PM »

That's the trouble these days, there's just so much to choose from.

Maybe you need to sit down and think about it for a bit, in particular what you really want it to be able to do. Whatever you decide on will be fine, I'm sure.

I'm not really helping much, am I ? ;)

haha I think Im now in head spin.   I may ring up Novatech and see if they would upgrade the RAM, as all their barebones only seem to be 4GB.

Not sure when I'll get chance to do that as Im out all day for each of the next 3 days for various things :/
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tonyappuk

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Re: New PC builds.
« Reply #16 on: June 05, 2012, 11:03:14 PM »

I would endorse the recommendation for Novatech. I bought a bare bones from them in 2008 which I was very pleased with. Due to my hamfistedness I b*******ed the motherboard/processor whilst changing drives and got a motherboard bundle from Novatech in late 2009. Just 10 days ago my latest motherboard/processor expired ( the silly with the maintain 5v supply and the onboard LAN I described a few weeks back was really a warning!) and I had to buy another M/B bundle from (you guessed it) Novatech. I have now reinstalled XP (I'm an old fogy) and am almost back to normal. Like many others I suspect, I struggled to transfer all my data from 2 of my drives which were IDE and the new board has only SATA. Got there in the end but a bit of a wind up. But just to repeat, Kitz, I have been very pleased with Novatech and they are always very helpful on the phone and the bare bones just work.
Tony
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kitz

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Re: New PC builds.
« Reply #17 on: June 06, 2012, 05:10:44 PM »

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Update:-
Not had chance to do much today, but I have just rang Novatech, who dont currently do any barebones systems with >4GB of RAM.
There is an option for them to change configuration of anything...  but believe it or not they charge £60, so in that case it would be cheaper to buy new memory and bin the old.   What I did find out however that this £60 fee is for any changes more or less regardless of what they are.. so in fact for £60 they would put together and build a system of your choice.

Erics comment about graphics cards started to make me think about something last night too..  and that is I need a graphics card that will support dual monitors...  believe it or not after having a quick look around not all do, and even some of the newer cards are 1 DVI and 1 HDMI..  This area is something of importance to me.. so I started looking at graphic card specs about 10 mins ago.. and ended up at SCAN when checking out some specs....  which has now led me on to my latest discovery............

Scan will configure/put together any package you want (I didnt previously know about http://3xs.scan.co.uk) and whilst browsing I noticed something very interesting..   a choice when it comes to the O/S including a refund if you dont want them to install the Windows 7 Home OEM..  So Ive just rang them up..   They will install Windows Home/Pro/Enterprise, but if I use my own registration key for Windows 7 pro..  then they will give me an immediate refund of £59-70 deducted from the final bill.

Like I say I havent got much further and am still plowing my way through the Novatech site trying to cost all the parts, but I thought it was definitely worth mentioning what SCAN offer, and I may have a play later if I get time to see what their custom builds come out like.

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tonyappuk

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Re: New PC builds.
« Reply #18 on: June 06, 2012, 08:01:02 PM »

The best of British, Kitz. I now discover that the Gigabyte motherboard in my lovely new set up cannot see my Atheros built in Lan in Linux. Oh the joy of new builds!
Tony
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BritBrat

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Re: New PC builds.
« Reply #19 on: June 08, 2012, 08:55:41 AM »

Do  you have a local Novatech shop as they built one of mine to order and put the operating system on it that I gave them.

I bought all the parts from them and let them put it together and picked it up a few days later, I did knock down the build price but it was only about £50 and I thought that was worth it.

Why not build your own?

You do know Windows 7 DVD's have all the version on the disc and it depends what key is used as to what gets installed.
« Last Edit: June 08, 2012, 09:01:24 AM by BritBrat »
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guest

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Re: New PC builds.
« Reply #20 on: June 08, 2012, 07:41:04 PM »

Depending on what you want to do with the machine then take a look at www.tranquilpc.co.uk

I have one of their home servers, lovely piece of kit, especially with 8TB of deduped redundant storage. Uses maybe 80W maximum, more like 40W in normal usage.

Provided you're not a gamer you'll find something there thats nice, not cheap but very good build quality. They're quite happy to remove the OS - or if you ask nicely they'll put a Linux distro on for you.

My homebuilding days are over too - I can't justify it as I don't have any trade accounts active now. Even if I did the difference in price is quite often razor-thin for desktops. These days I use an Alienware lappie for personal use, expensive but I got 4 years next-day onsite warranty and I feel its not going to make it that far without a catastrophic failure ;)
« Last Edit: June 08, 2012, 07:44:22 PM by rizla »
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asbokid

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Re: New PC builds.
« Reply #21 on: June 08, 2012, 09:44:46 PM »

Are you set on a Core i5?  I'm out of date with things but the i7-2600k used to be the flagship CPU for discerning retail customers.  AMD's Bulldozer series have turned out disappointing so far.  On a point of principle, it's nice to back the underdog (AMD vs Intel,  Man Utd vs Liverpool, etc). But when it comes to CPUs, buying AMD feels like cutting off the nose to spite the face.
« Last Edit: June 09, 2012, 04:45:39 AM by asbokid »
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kitz

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Re: New PC builds.
« Reply #22 on: June 09, 2012, 11:45:34 AM »

Ive not had chance to get any further with this..  I think I said earlier in the thread that I had a lot of stuff on each of the past few days..  and indeed its been manic.  I didnt get home till late last night and Im shattered today and need to do some domestic stuff too :/

>> Do  you have a local Novatech shop as they built one of mine to order and put the operating system on it that I gave them.

Unfort no..  but I think the £60 fee mentioned earlier is any changes in config from changing the specs on the bare-bones up to a complete build.  They then do free shipping .

>> Why not build your own?

Many years ago I used to, but as rizla says the margin started to get thin.. especially when Aldi started doing the Medion specials which had specs cheaper than I could build for - despite having had a (now lapsed) account at SCAN.

The only thing that does concern me about own build systems is that I struggle with the CPU/heatsink clips and on my last build had to get someone else with stronger fingers to do that :/



>> take a look at www.tranquilpc.co.uk

Thanks will add that one to the list too.:)

>>Are you set on a Core i5?

No - that was minimum spec - I'd love an i7 but it depends on overall cost/budget, after speaking with 'the bank' a couple of days ago, I have a little bit more to play with...  but at the end of the day its got to be paid back so I cant go silly.

One of my other 'want' areas now is a solid state system drive.

From when I last had chance to look I got so far as putting stuff into a spreadsheet and Im now tweaking bits..  Theres not too much difference between the prices on Scan/Novatech... some cheaper at one and vice versa, normally speaking of pennies...
Aside from a case I like, which is cheaper at Novatech.

At this point, it looks like I may be doing a own configuration system at the likes of Novatech or SCAN.

The 2 areas which Im still umming and ahhing at are 1) the graphics card  2)The case.


Yeah believe it or not..  the girl in me is putting a lot of decision making into finding a case that I actually like, because so many of them are damn ugly and I want something 'nice' to look at on my desk. 

As regards case, I have to bear in mind that I keep my network switch on top of the PC.. and I have a cat that loves to sleep on top of the PC or router..  therefore a case which is open/grilled at the top would become a dust/fur magnet.

I like cases which look like this
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/cases/cases/rc-550-kkn1.html
but dunno yet if the budget will stretch that far.   
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kitz

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Re: New PC builds.
« Reply #23 on: June 09, 2012, 11:57:43 AM »

hmmm..  and on that note just rang up novatech to confirm the situation with own system requirements + regarding my own o/s..... and they were a bit more arssy about it than scan were... cause Im not purchasing it from them and implying that I should or not covered by warranty ??? 
Anyhow the bottom line is they do build and supply without o/s.
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tonyappuk

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Re: New PC builds.
« Reply #24 on: June 09, 2012, 01:50:49 PM »

Don't know whether it's just Novatech but looking at the motherboard bundle I bought on 28th. May for £149.99 I noticed it is now £159.98 so their prices are going up.
Tony
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BritBrat

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Re: New PC builds.
« Reply #25 on: June 09, 2012, 04:49:20 PM »

I like the Antec cases but I was thinking of getting a Factal Design.
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kitz

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Re: New PC builds.
« Reply #26 on: June 12, 2012, 05:57:01 PM »

I am hopefully (finally) getting somewhere with this..  its taken a lot longer than I thought, because Ive been doing a bit of digging and research and trying to make sure I get the right parts within my budget.  I think Im pretty happy now with what I want and the spec isnt too bad  ;D

This PC flipped again last night - I think its overheating despite having had additional fans and a Zalman CPU cooler.  It was the HDDs overheating and one of the drives being fried last year that caused problems with the system drive too.   Its been a good PC though for the past 4 years, but sadly I think its time has come :(

Scan and Novatech come out much of a muchness on price, but scan are currently doing a bundle on that case I like, so that looks like it may swing it for me, just rang up scan to confirm a few things and emailed in my wish list... so if this comes back at the agreed price with a bit of a discount then I think we are in business.

>>> I like the Antec cases but I was thinking of getting a Factal Design.

I like Antec too...  as to the Factal ones, I dont really like the mesh effect. 
Ive had to be a bit cautious of what I choose.  A lot of the cases have grills/vents on top, which is a bit of a no when its where Zigs like to sleep.  The mesh will also bit a bit of a fur magnet so Ive had to pass on anything that has anything other than a plain top.
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kitz

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Re: New PC builds.
« Reply #27 on: June 12, 2012, 06:15:56 PM »

PS.. decided to splash out on a SSD.  Still uming over a Cosair or whether to save a tenner and go for OCZ which seems to get good reviews too.

The prices seem to have come down now and SATA ones have increased slightly due to the floods last year.   I know the storage space on them isnt as much, but since my system drive atm only uses about 45GB..  and its the storage and back up drives that use most of the space...  I thought wth and may as well go for it with a SSD system drive and a 1TB storage drive...  which can be backed up to the 1TB drive in the NAS.
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asbokid

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Re: New PC builds.
« Reply #28 on: June 12, 2012, 11:38:48 PM »

I dont really like the mesh effect. 
Ive had to be a bit cautious of what I choose.  A lot of the cases have grills/vents on top, which is a bit of a no when its where Zigs like to sleep.  The mesh will also bit a bit of a fur magnet so Ive had to pass on anything that has anything other than a plain top.

What about pigeon spikes?

cheers, a
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kitz

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Re: New PC builds.
« Reply #29 on: June 12, 2012, 11:58:31 PM »

hahahaha  :lol:

Actually I like it when he sleeps there, because his alternative is the keyboard....  which makes it kinda hard to type :D
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