New Desktop Build(quote) - Good or bad deal?

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#1261383 18-Mar-2015 07:24

Okay, thanks for all your responses. I have came to the conclusion that this quote is not the best so I have declined. I have decided to upgrade some of the parts (as many of you suggested). I have also done more research myself.

So I will be getting atleast an i5 processor
With a cooler... I think I will go for water-cooled (because it appeals to me)
I'm happy with 8gb of memory
I'm happy with a 1tb hard drive
The graphics card is a tricky one because it can easily blow out my budget, but I think I will go for the Geforce 960. To upgrade this to a 970 or 980 is too expensive for me.
I'll go for the 240gb SSD, because it's not that expensive compared to a 120gb.
(remember that I am only a casual gamer)

By the time I get a motherboard/power supply/case/8.1 this will be a few hundred dollars over my budget - but I think it's worth the extra cash. With the building side, I have never built a PC before so I will still get a builder to do it (I have a good friend who should be able to do it for cheap, maybe I'll do it with him so I can learn).

If you see something wrong with what I've listed above please let me know and I can adjust.

Sean

timmmay

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#1261384 18-Mar-2015 07:35

I considered water cooling. Apparently the compressor can sound like a small fridge. A 2TB HDD is probably only a few dollars more than 1TB, and don't get a "green" drive as working - Seagate Barracuda, WD Blue/Black are better choices. Green drives go to sleep quickly which means they spin up often and wear out. Good for backups. i5 is fine for games, i7 won't give you much gain.

Putting together a computer isn't too difficult, but it is really fiddly. I just replaced my motherboard a couple of days ago, it took me about 4-5 hours, and that was with the drives, PSU, etc all in there. I've put together a half dozen computers, I think to build a machine from scratch would take me around 8 hours. Then you get weird problems like the power button on the case not working, which I diagnosed by shorting two pins on the motherboard. So paying someone to put it together (in probably 1/5 the time) isn't really a bad idea.

ubergeeknz

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Vocus

#1261432 18-Mar-2015 09:54

If you're on a budget, skip cooling IMO and spend the extra money on better CPU or GPU.

1101

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#1261522 18-Mar-2015 11:21

my 2c

Just get a comp shop to build it for you.
Save yourself alot (I mean months) of ongoing hassle if something isnt 100% .
If you or a mate build it, its up to you to fully diagnose any weird hardware issues that may pop up . If a shop supplies & builds it, its up to them
to sort out any issues.
If you do decide to build it yourself(with the help of a mate) , buy all the major parts from the one shop. Just in case something isnt 100%

Also forget about watercooling . Just adds another level of possible issues. Buy a small fishtank instead.
:-)

timmmay

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#1261523 18-Mar-2015 11:23

There are some detailed things you need to get right. For example my Noctua fans (all my fans actually) have 3 pin plugs, but my motherboard has 4 pin sockets for the fans. If you plug them in they run at full speed all the time, which is noisy. I happen to have a fan controller so no matter, but having automatic fan control would be nice to have.

reven

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#1261537 18-Mar-2015 11:46

how many of you guys had issues with faulty parts? I've been building my own computers for the last 18 years or so (when I was like 13). Ive built many a machine, currently have 5 in my house now that I built in the last year (so pretty high turn around).

I've never had an issue with a faulty part (well except the nightmare that was seagates hdds about 5 years ago), sure theres been some builds where it wouldn't turn on the first go, but pulling things out and slowly adding it back always fixed it.

It really isn't that hard to build a machine, basically "where does this 4 pin plug fit into, oh the 4 pin socket". Not saying you should build it, but this thread is making it sound a lot harder than it really is.

my advice for newbie builders, put the bare basics together outside of the case if you're not confident. power it on and see if it turns out. this just involves putting in the ram, putting in the cpu, connect the cases power button ( a two wire button, motherboard manual shows where to put this), connecting the power, and a monitor then turning it on.
With so many things on board these days, there very little that actually needs to be connected up before it will boot. even less if the motherboard has an integrated cpu and integrated power.

also +1 for i5 cpu

Oh and if you (or anyone reading this) want to learn how to build a system, buy a real cheapo second hand (like $50 or less) then pull it apart (slowly) and put it back together (slowly). figure out what goes where, what is for what etc. its a great skill to have and its something you can easily teach yourself.

richms

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#1261577 18-Mar-2015 12:28

Have had motherboard die soon after purchase of everything. PB were dicks and initially wanted to charge me some insane amount because I was bringing a case back to them with the mobo in it, and a CPU/Ram in the mobo. Backed down when I said I would go out to the car and pull the motherbaord out and bring just that back into the shop.

Richard rich.ms

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Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

timmmay

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#1261586 18-Mar-2015 12:36

reven: how many of you guys had issues with faulty parts? I've been building my own computers for the last 18 years or so (when I was like 13). Ive built many a machine, currently have 5 in my house now that I built in the last year (so pretty high turn around).

I've never had an issue with a faulty part (well except the nightmare that was seagates hdds about 5 years ago), sure theres been some builds where it wouldn't turn on the first go, but pulling things out and slowly adding it back always fixed it.

It really isn't that hard to build a machine, basically "where does this 4 pin plug fit into, oh the 4 pin socket". Not saying you should build it, but this thread is making it sound a lot harder than it really is.

my advice for newbie builders, put the bare basics together outside of the case if you're not confident. power it on and see if it turns out. this just involves putting in the ram, putting in the cpu, connect the cases power button ( a two wire button, motherboard manual shows where to put this), connecting the power, and a monitor then turning it on.
With so many things on board these days, there very little that actually needs to be connected up before it will boot. even less if the motherboard has an integrated cpu and integrated power.

I had a case (CoolerMaster 550) that had a faulty power button, as I suggested above. I just replaced a motherboard that had a faulty chipset, turns out it was recalled a few years back but I never heard. I had another motherboard fail a few years back too.

In general though it's not that difficult, and the parts are reasonably robust. I use an antistatic strap, though I forget to put it on for some steps. It is a really fiddly job though, getting tiny sockets onto tiny jumpers (why is there no standard connector?!), getting screws in and out of inaccesible places, routing cables where the case designer hasn't enough enough space - in the CM550 there's not really enough space for hard drive cables to plug in properly! Stupid stupid design. Plus my ultimate hated part of PC assembly, putting heatsinks on. They're way better than they used to be, and once you've done one or two it's not so bad, but the other day I had the Noctua heatsink on just slightly the wrong holes and it took me 20 minutes to get the heatsink and fans mounted onto the cpu/motherboard properly. Annoying, but I got it done in the end.

Then you have to install the OS (pretty easy) and perhaps change permissions on data disks.

All in all I would still prefer to buy my own parts and assemble myself, because it gives me value and flexibility.

richms

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#1261691 18-Mar-2015 13:51

I do self builds because the spec machines are never quite what I want, Sure, it takes time to do it but thats just a cost of having a PC that has the amount of ram you want (full) and no useless things like optical drives, in a case you like, etc.

Been caught out a few times. Didnt research the features of one board too well beyond what chipset and it has hopeless onboard lan that is barely functional (not a fault as the replacement mobo is exactly the same)

Got a case which does the inexcusable thing IMO of using the USB 3 header but only providing a single USB3 front port from it. So the other one is just wasted. - But that was a really cheap case.

Got a PSU whose P4 power cable is too short to route under the tray and come out and still plug into the board, so it has to run over the gfx card which is a bit ugly.

Richard rich.ms

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#1261707 18-Mar-2015 14:09

richms: Got a case which does the inexcusable thing IMO of using the USB 3 header but only providing a single USB3 front port from it. So the other one is just wasted. - But that was a really cheap case.

My CoolerMaster case has a front USB port but the cable to it doesn't teminate in a way that can go onto a header, it actually has a USB plug on it. To make it work I have to poke the USB cord out the back of the case and plug it into one of the two USB3 ports on the computer! Meanwhile I have a least one unused USB3 header - it is possible to use this header to add more rear USB3 ports?

richms

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#1261709 18-Mar-2015 14:16

timmmay:
richms: Got a case which does the inexcusable thing IMO of using the USB 3 header but only providing a single USB3 front port from it. So the other one is just wasted. - But that was a really cheap case.

My CoolerMaster case has a front USB port but the cable to it doesn't teminate in a way that can go onto a header, it actually has a USB plug on it. To make it work I have to poke the USB cord out the back of the case and plug it into one of the two USB3 ports on the computer! Meanwhile I have a least one unused USB3 header - it is possible to use this header to add more rear USB3 ports?

There are heaps of adapters between internal and external USB3.0.

I would just get a front bay USB port thing. But on this case it would be behind a door so annoying to use. Have to do something with the 4 5.25 and 1 or 2 3.5 bays that I am not using I guess but meh.

Really wish they would start to make decent but smaller cases without all the pointless drive bays. If I want an optical for some reason, I have a USB one. Just give me a SD card slot or 2 and a whole lot of USBs and I am happy ;) Room inside for a couple of SSD's and thats it.

Richard rich.ms

timmmay

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#1261722 18-Mar-2015 14:28

richms: There are heaps of adapters between internal and external USB3.0.

I would just get a front bay USB port thing. But on this case it would be behind a door so annoying to use. Have to do something with the 4 5.25 and 1 or 2 3.5 bays that I am not using I guess but meh.

Really wish they would start to make decent but smaller cases without all the pointless drive bays. If I want an optical for some reason, I have a USB one. Just give me a SD card slot or 2 and a whole lot of USBs and I am happy ;) Room inside for a couple of SSD's and thats it.

I found one - $25 for a rear panel one that gives you two ports. Seems expensive for what it does. Anyone know of a cheap option? Hard to find, "usb 3.0 adapter" gives too many search results.

I like drive bays - I have six drives in my PC, I'd put two more in but motherboards don't have enough SATA headers. I'll put in my 2xSATA PCI card some time - and I have plenty of bays for the drives.

richms

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#1261734 18-Mar-2015 14:41

http://www.dx.com/p/dual-20-pin-male-to-4-usb-3-0-female-port-rear-panel-bracket-for-motherboard-blue-157468#.VQjXI-F37eA

Cheap as. Just gotta wait.

Or this, cheaper

http://www.dx.com/p/panel-mount-motherboard-20-pin-to-dual-usb-3-0-female-adapter-cable-50cm-cable-186108

Richard rich.ms

Dolts

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#1261739 18-Mar-2015 14:47

I recently built a couple of budget gaming systems for mates (under $1200 with OS)

One was an i3 + gtx 750ti and the other was the Pentium g3258 + R9 270.

Both machines play WoW, GW2, Diablo 3, Path of Exile, Final Fantasy 14 with no issues.

Also LoL and Smite play fine.

So if you can find some spare funds for an i5 and better gpu, you will be perfectly fine.

Ragnor

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#1262408 19-Mar-2015 13:47

SeanoffShotgun: Okay, thanks for all your responses. I have came to the conclusion that this quote is not the best so I have declined.

By the time I get a motherboard/power supply/case/8.1 this will be a few hundred dollars over my budget - but I think it's worth the extra cash. With the building side, I have never built a PC before so I will still get a builder to do it (I have a good friend who should be able to do it for cheap, maybe I'll do it with him so I can learn).

If you are increasing your budget why don't you get them to re-quote for the new budget, they can likely fit an i5 in if you're spending a bit more more.

Sure you can fit an i5 in an under $1500 build if you are building it yourself and/or cut out the after market cooler but that's not what you asked them to quote for?

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