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Whalefreezer

17 posts

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# 38920 5-Aug-2009 23:51

Hi all, long time listener, first time poster. For the last few months or so I have been looking for a new computer for myself. The reason for this is that my old 1.6Ghz laptop is no longer cutting it and I would like to be able to play my favorite games in their full glory Eg. HL2:Ep2, TF2, TimeShift, Garrys mod, Black Mesa Souce etc. I have been deliberating whether to go i7 or not, recently however my finances have picked up so I have decided to go ahead and I am hoping I can get someone’s professional opinion on the rig as I have never built a pc from scratch before. Most of what I have chosen here is the result of looking at many building guides and the "Hot Products Weekly" section of PConline. I have gone with PConline because on price spy they seem to always have the lowest price and generally is cheaper even with shipping included. However if anyone has a better idea for cheap parts in christchurch I'll be glad to hear them. Here's what I have go so far:

Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz $460.87
Antec Three Hundred ATX Tower Case $101.98
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R X58 CORE i7 ATX Motherboard $334.95
500W *SilverStone* ST50F 24pin Power Supply $95.72
Corsair TR3X6G1600C8 6GB (3x 2GB) PC-12800 (1600MHz) DDR3 $230.40
Western Digital 32M 500GB SATA 7200RPM Cache $96.80
Lite-On 20X LH-20A6L Lightscribe SATA DVDRW Drive $48.00
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 896MB DDR3 PCI-E Graphic Card $280.35
BENQ G2220HD 21.5" Full HD LCD Monitor $217.99
OZAKI 3300W 5.1 Speaker for Personal Home Theater $69.00

This all adds up to about $1,932 or $2,173 with gst. This is at the upper end of my budget and I would like to lower the costs without sacrificing too much performance. I am also interested in overclocking, howerver as this seems to be a dangerous I might just leave it until I understand it better. Any help appreciated.

Ragnor

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# 243324 6-Aug-2009 01:22

There's an expression that goes "you get what you pay for" going for the cheapest on pricespy (like pc online) gets you an online only shop with no retail store run by one guy out of his home.

Cheapest is good until you need to return something or have a problem or want any support.

barman09

38 posts

Geek

# 243339 6-Aug-2009 07:37

I recently did the exact same as you (first time builder) and bought all my parts off computerlounge.co.nz. They gave me a discount for buying all the parts at once, as well as I have 2-5 year warrents on everything. You should try there as well.

Whalefreezer

17 posts

Geek

# 243554 6-Aug-2009 16:38

All right, I understand the concern about reliability and buying them from a retail store but it does not seem to be any different in my situation as I am in Christchurch and unable to visit the store you suggested

.Anyway I checked it out and I have come up with the following:

COMBO DEAL: MB(8232): Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R Intel X58 LGA1366 , CPU(7487): Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz 8MB 13, RAM(7601): Corsair TR3X6G1333C9 (6GB) 3x2GB DDR3-13 $1,147.51
VAN-520C 520W ION2 Plus,135mm Silent Fan, nVIDIA SLI Ready

$119.00
Barracuda 500GB 7200.12 16MB SATA II

$115.00
iHAS220-33 20x Lightscribe DVD Writer

$65.00
nVidia Geforce GTX260+ Core 216 896MB DDR3 PCI-E

$359.00
W2243T 21.5" Full HD 5ms 30000:1 LCD Monitor

$309.00
Three Hundred Gamer Case

$139.00
Logitech R-20 2.1 Speakers $41.00

This all adds up to about $2,294 which is $120 more expensive than the previous system. However it does have free shipping which probably balances it out. I do not see a mention of the warranty on the site but that's properly just me

. Can anyone verify that these pieces would fit together and/or that I might be able to get a better deal by using different parts/stores. The help is appreciated.

garvani

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# 243564 6-Aug-2009 16:48

not a big fan of liteon dvd drives, im a bit suspect about them, id go for something more like sony, asus, lg etc etc, and i personaly wouldnt touch a seagate hard drive, western digital all the way! (lot of issues with seagates here at work), And id go for a 640gb drive which is $20 more expensive than the seagate youve listed.
Other than that, all good choices! i looked at getting that screen myself but ended up with the viewsonic fullhd 22".

Whalefreezer

17 posts

Geek

# 243584 6-Aug-2009 17:28

Ok, These two any better?

Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB 32MB Cache SATAII $142.11
Samsung SH-S223F 22X Speed Black DVD Writer OEM $69.00

The reason why I went for the Seagate hdd is because it was the cheapest 7200rpm drive. Would the difference be noticeable?

munkieboy

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# 243592 6-Aug-2009 17:46

I agree, i have had so many failed seagate HDD through the workshop im running out of space to store them. Western Digital all good.

Whalefreezer

17 posts

Geek

# 243625 6-Aug-2009 18:49

So it seems that I am going with Western Digital. Anyone got any reason to use Computer Lounge over PConline as the latter seems to be about $100 cheaper (including shipping/gst) and has slightly higher specs (hdd, ram).

tomgeeknz

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# 243640 6-Aug-2009 19:19

I would go with the one with better service and definantly get the western digital and samsung drives dvd to the quality and also like the other poster see if there is a discount available for buying lots of parts

Ragnor

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# 243721 6-Aug-2009 22:58

You might want to send them an email or post on their forums, they should be able to offer you a discounted price for buying a whole bunch of parts (over the listed price for each part individually).

Examples:
http://www.computerlounge.co.nz/forum/Default.aspx?g=topics&f=36

Also check out this thread on the gameplanet forums for user reviews/ratings of NZ computer stores.
http://www.gpforums.co.nz/thread/297771/

Whalefreezer

17 posts

Geek

# 243722 6-Aug-2009 23:02

Ragnor:
Also check out this thread on the gameplanet forums for user reviews/ratings of NZ computer stores.
http://www.gpforums.co.nz/thread/297771/

Thanks for that, never would have guessed PConline would score so lowly and Computer Lounge so highly. I guess I'd better take this thread to Computer Lounge as I now am going with them and they seem to be more knowledgeable in this particular department.

Ragnor

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# 243723 6-Aug-2009 23:04

Another gameplanet forums thread for what to parts to buy in which price ranges:
http://www.gpforums.co.nz/thread/302905/

Whalefreezer

17 posts

Geek

# 243736 6-Aug-2009 23:39

Ragnor: Another gameplanet forums thread for what to parts to buy in which price ranges:
http://www.gpforums.co.nz/thread/302905/

Excellent info

, I think I will just simply copy their $2000 rig.

Ragnor

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# 243923 7-Aug-2009 13:13

One thing to note is their lists don't include monitor, keyboard and mouse that may be a factor you want to consider if you're not re-using existing stuff for those bits.