Build or buy

[Aragon]

My Pentium needs updating. its Windows XP, 3.2ghz processor and 100Gb hardrive are presumably fine but I cannot play modern games on it and it takes an age to load software. I presume the problems are down to my 1gb of Ram and the outdated 256mb graphics Card.

Once I have checked compatability, I reckon I could buy more Ram and a decent graphics card for about £170.

Or alternatively,

 

A: I could spend £500 on the Fusion Javelin, Intel's Core 2 Duo E8500 processor at 3.16GHz, 4GB of RAM, Geforce 9800GT graphics, a 320GB hard disk and other quality components by Asrock. with Windows Vista Home Premium 32bit as standard.

 

or B, go to tesco and get a £500 meridian base unit (I already have a monitor etc) which would give me nvidia geforce 9300, 1000 gb hardrive, 3gb of ram, intel core 2 quad 2.4ghz..

 

What would people recomend.... I dont want to spend £500 if I dont need to but I dont want to spend £170 on upgrades and then have to spend £500 anyway...

 

If I go for the upgrade, any tips on what to buy to make sure it is compatible with any future machine.

 

THANKS!

[Dalo Harkin]

BUY

you could build an extremely good spec for £500 - I know as I recently did one for a friend you would be looking at MOBO, Q6600, 2GB RAM, 9800GT or equivalent and then obviously a case and PSU etc.

 

This is obviously bearing in mind that you would have to use your old monitor, keyboard and speakers etc.

[Aragon]

BUY

you could build an extremely good spec for £500 - I know as I recently did one for a friend you would be looking at MOBO, Q6600, 2GB RAM, 9800GT or equivalent and then obviously a case and PSU etc.

 

This is obviously bearing in mind that you would have to use your old monitor, keyboard and speakers etc.

 

 

Is that an offer! Being computer illiterate I cant understand half of the above but it sounds great.. more seriously, it is difficult to find someone reliable who will build one for cheaper than the cost of a manufactured one..

 

if I do upgrade for £170 as above, will this add to performance, all things being equal?

[Dalo Harkin]

If you are computer illiterate then I suggest that you change your profile from Elite PC Guru as we do phrase things slightly difference depending on PC competency :D

have a look at my sig and that will give you a brief idea -

£170 will give you a temporary upgrade but again you will need to upgrade again in the not too distant future - its better to have a decent budget £500 + so that you can build a system that is somewhat futureproof.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

I agree with Dalo on his initial paragraph.

 

It may well be Aragon that people may ask you technical questions that you are not qualified to answer.

 

Please change your experience rating.

[Aragon]

Apologies Wolfey! perhaps then if a build is the way forward, any suggestions as to exactly what I should ask for for my £500. And where. Edited October 7, 2008 by Aragon

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Go into your User Control Panel (User CP) and click Edit your details, here is where you can change your experience level.

 

Then Save the changes

 

If you have difficulty doing so then let me know and I will change it for you.

 

Post Edit:

 

Thank you Aragon.

[Dalo Harkin]

Ok - so on a £500 budget just for a tower yes -

I will price this up later for you and post back with links -

but in the meantime if I were you I would research building this yourself - you can always ask here for help if you get stuck or look at my sig, it really is worthwhile trying it as its just like a big jigsaw puzzle :)

[Dalo Harkin]

Right - the list :D

Case - Antec twelve hundred £105.74 from ebuyer.co.uk

Antec three hundred £35.07 from aria.co.uk

Mobo - Biostar TPowerI45 £100.63

Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L £41.47 from scan.co.uk

CPU - Q6600 £113.21 from aria.co.uk

RAM - OCZ PC2 -8500 £41.13 from advancetek.co.uk

GPU - Sapphire Radeon HD4870 £180.89 from aria.co.uk

CPU cooler - Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 pro £12.91 from advancetek.co.uk

 

Now obviously you can chop and change any parts depending on what you are using the PC for - the ones that have multiple entries like the Mobo are based on what you need really in terms of future upgrades - The Biostar is far superior to the Gigabyte but is £60 more and with the saving of the £60 you could put that toward the better case or RAM etc -

hope this helps.

and obviously you WILL need a PSU to be added to the equation too - so that would be up to you in terms of the power requirements when you decide the final setup :D

[Aragon]

Thank-you so much for your help!!!

The thought of building one myself is tooo scary though but I will take your spec to a specialist and look at getting one built!

Thank-you!

[Dalo Harkin]

Your welcome - post a pic when its all sorted :)

and if you used my sig - you will be fine