System Recommendations

subway_ie

Hey
I’m getting ready to build a new system after the leaving Cert (late June/early July) and I’m just looking around at some prices. I’ve already got case (Antec Sonata), monitor (ViewSonic VP171S), keyboard, mouse, speakers. It’s mainly just a replacement for my (oldish) Dell for when I move for college. Some picture editing/printing/scanning, DVD playback, TV, internet and word-processing. Nothing very intensive. So here’s what I was looking at:

Mainboard:
ASUS P4c800-e Deluxe €173.99
Processor:
Intel P4 S478 BOX 2800 MHz Prescott €176.36. Not too sure about this one. Any comments?
Memory:
Nothing really decided, any suggestions?
Hard Drive:
SATA 160GB Samsung SP1614C 8MB
Graphics Card:
No clue. Something mid-range, around the €150-€160 mark.

As well as that, NEC DVD-Writer, 2500A and DVD drive. Trying to keep the mainboard, processor, memory, hard disc, graphics card below €800. Can maybe stretch to €850/€900 though.

Any comments/suggestions?

tuxy

remember on jes-computer the price you see in silver is what you pay
do you need such an expensive motherboard?
make sure your not paying for features you will never use

Mutant_Fruit

i'm sure you can pick of a decent motherboard for half that price.. check around.

tuxy

i got some of the TwinMOS Twister memory recently and found it good

512mb
http://www.jes-computer.de/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=15351&osCsid=e929992db011a6952816710d5f9b9959

or if u think u need 1 gb
http://www.jes-computer.de/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=15351&osCsid=e929992db011a6952816710d5f9b9959

for grapgics
http://www.jes-computer.de/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=156_104&products_id=14943&osCsid=e929992db011a6952816710d5f9b9959
thats a decent enough card in your price range

but i would recoment this
http://www.jes-computer.de/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=156_104&products_id=14064&osCsid=e929992db011a6952816710d5f9b9959
if you are planning on gaming alot

subway_ie

Originally posted by tuxx
remember on jes-computer the price you see in silver is what you pay

Are you sure about the price in silver thing? From my Junior-Cert German, doesn't "Versandpreis" mean "Mail-order price" and "Ladenpreis" mean "Retail Price"?

do you need such an expensive motherboard?

Not really, it just seemed like a good option. I'd like decent on-board sound, SATS,plenty of USB2, LAN and firewire would be nice. Something with a good brandname and reputation. I'm not 100% set on Intel, but right now it would be my first choice. If AMD was to give me similar performance, with a big decrease in cost, then I'd definetly consider it. Any suggestions?

PiE

Are Jes reliable? That site seems awfully insecure.

But I've just added up the totals of an SN45GV2 Shuttle, Athlon XP2800, NEC 2500 DVD Writer and a 160GB HDD and Jes came up about €65 cheaper than buying from Komplett + Gemma, incl VAT, delivery and conversion from £.

Komplett + Gemma total: €579.72
Jes-computer total: €516.16

:?

tuxy

Originally posted by subway_ie
Are you sure about the price in silver thing? From my Junior-Cert German, doesn't "Versandpreis" mean "Mail-order price" and "Ladenpreis" mean "Retail Price"?

oh right my mistake

tuxy

Originally posted by PiE
Are Jes reliable? That site seems awfully insecure.

But I've just added up the totals of an SN45GV2 Shuttle, Athlon XP2800, NEC 2500 DVD Writer and a 160GB HDD and Jes came up about €65 cheaper than buying from Komplett + Gemma, incl VAT, delivery and conversion from £.

Komplett + Gemma total: €579.72
Jes-computer total: €516.16

:?

well i made an order with themand had no problems even when i had to rma the item
only two things i dont like about them
you have to use paypal or bank transfer no credit card option
and you have to use gls for shipping

subway_ie

Well, my GLS depot (Knock) is great - always on time and delivered in good condition. I've never used Jes before, and the credit card option is a bit of a negative point, but their prices are a lot cheaper than Kompletts. I'm surprised the price difference was only €65 - usually its alot more for an order of that size. To be honest, I'd prefer to go with Komplett, they seem to have a better delivery-time reputation and their website/RMA/e-mails will all be in english, plus there's the forum support - but the price difference is just too big.

unkel

Originally posted by subway_ie
I'd prefer to go with Komplett, they seem to have a better delivery-time reputation

Only if you use DHL for delivery which is very expensive for large / heavy parcels

jesus_thats_gre

Would have replied earlier only I just seen your thread there...

I have pretty much the exact same spec PC as you are planning and must say I am very pleased!!

I ordered my whole kit from overclockers.co.uk.

Regarding the graphics card, I got a Saphire 9800 pro for just over 200 euro and its a beast!! It really does overclock very nicely!

For Ram, I bought some OCZ PC4000 Gold.. Overall its not the best performer, but it is very very flexible when it comes to overclocking and possible upgrades in the future..

I have the same board and have had no problems what so ever. From what I have read, the board is one of the best and considering you are going for high end components, the good foundation is always handy.

I have the 2.8 Prescott as well and have a decent Thermalrite heatsink bolted on, its currently running at 3.5 GHz.

I have an Antec Sonata case - really is very very quiet and quite sexy!

I have the same DVD drive.

I bought two 36.7 gig raptors that I have running in a raid 0 config, these give a nice performace boast for every day use.

Regarding overclockers.co.uk, they worked out marginally cheaper than Komplett. I ordered the system on a Wednesday evening and had it on Friday morning, all in one tidy bundle!

Mutant_Fruit

After having a bad experience with jes-computer regarding my delivery (which was nearly a month late due to their incompetance), which they never offered any kind of refund/credit for, i will never buy off them again.

Cowboys is what i say!

subway_ie

Originally posted by Mutant_Fruit
After having a bad experience with jes-computer regarding my delivery (which was nearly a month late due to their incompetance), which they never offered any kind of refund/credit for, i will never buy off them again.

Cowboys is what i say!

The only thing is, you've got to weigh up the cost difference with any time delays. €100+ is just too much for me.

---

Originally posted by subway_ie
I'd prefer to go with Komplett, they seem to have a better delivery-time reputation

---

Only if you use DHL for delivery which is very expensive for large / heavy parcels

Well I think the problem with GLS is in its Dublin depot/delivery system - I've never had a problem with them from the Knock depot - even from orders from abroad (Overclockers.co.uk did lie about dispatching something, but that was their fault as opposed to GLSs).

The very same Asus board is over €200 on Komplett. Out of this selection, which would you recommend (taking performance and price into consideration)? Maybe an AMD 64 or even an Athlon? I think AMD are changing their slot type soon, which probably isnt a very good thing re: upgradability.


[EDIT] When I actually go to check out with a basket of the same selection from JES and Komplett, it turns out there's €80 difference when shipping is included, which doesn't seem a huge amount given that there's probably better customer service from Komplett. Although, the lead times on nearly everything I had in the basket are between 10-30 days...[/EDIT]

ionapaul

Subway,

Just to back up what you said about GLS in the west of Ireland - only used Komplett once a few months ago, but there were no problems with the deliverly to Galway. I called the Knock Depot and got a customer service person immediately, who told me when to expect the package, called the delivery guy on his mobile to let him know when I'd be at home, and finally offered me the delivery guy's mobile number 'just in case'! Fantastic service really. Pity they let everyone in Dublin down with shoddy service, but in my case, the West coast really turns out the be the best coast!

zoro

Wow - I thought that GLS only had one depot in the country! (I'm in dublin, the other counties are "boggerland" )

If I order anything from gls I'll be sure to address it to my girlfriend in Sligo I think!

Mutant_Fruit

Komplett changed the delivery service they had with GLS a while ago. They moved to a more expensive service, which offered better reliability (guarenteed 4 day delivery...) and thats why people are now having very few problems with GLS.

The last 4 orders i made with komplett all arrived on the 3rd or 4th day, which is grand for me.

subway_ie

Right now, delivery isn't much of an issue (in fact, the longer the better, I'll probably just be tempted to go messing around with it if I order it soon, so probably owont be ordering it for about 2-3 weeks untill the LC is nearly over. I'm just looking for the best/cheapest components right now, getting them all together so I can order them all at once and have them arrive around the same time. I know some people on here had trouble with broken/incorrect parts that arrived and they couldn't test them or something because they didn't have the other required parts?

Col_Loki

I found GLS pretty good aswell TBH, never had any problems either from komplett or jes orders........ 4-7days roughly and if the guy had a problem finding me he would call. Also DHL are even better , 1-2days........Im in kildare btw.

subway_ie

So, any suggestions on a decent motherboard? I've been having a look around Komplett and the Abit ones seem to be a bit cheaper than the Asus. What are they like for performance?

Col_Loki

I would rate Abit higher than i would Asus. There fantastic boards, very stable and overclocker friendly. The IC7 is very nice, IS7 not bad also.......

jesus_thats_gre

Originally posted by subway_ie
So, any suggestions on a decent motherboard? I've been having a look around Komplett and the Abit ones seem to be a bit cheaper than the Asus. What are they like for performance?

The really good Abit board is not as good as a really good Asus board (in the same way one P4 may be better than the same model P4 at overclocking). Abit are more consistent and most over clock within 5% of each other say. The Asus on the other hand has a wider margin, with one board outperforming another by say 10%.. So if you get a good one, you are better off than with an Abit, but if you get a poorer one, the Abit will be better..

I hope I explained myself properly....

subway_ie

Originally posted by jesus_thats_gre So if you get a good one, you are better off than with an Abit, but if you get a poorer one, the Abit will be better..

I hope I explained myself properly.... [/B]

Hmmm. High end boards = Asus, Lower end boards = Abit, right?

jesus_thats_gre

Not really... The best Asus board is better than the best Abit board...

However, the worst Asus board is worse that the worst Abit board.

All Abit boards will perform within 5% of an everage rating. Asus boards perfrom within say 10% of an average performance rating.. The odds are higher basically, you couldm end up with a stonker of a board or just a good board.

With Abit you always get a very good board.

You get me?

subway_ie

Well, there doesn't seem to be a huge difference between the Abit IC7-G and the Asus P4C800 boards. Just a second serial ATA raid on the Abit, although I doubt I'd use it, and firewire (again, not much use for it). Both are around the same price on Komplett: €166.98 for the Asus P4C800, €163.28 for the Abit IC7-G. I'm looking for something that's a solid performer, maybe a bit of overclocking over the summer (not much). I probably won't be doing any major upgrading fro the next 2-3 years (motherboard, graphics card, etc) maybe just more RAM (can probably only afford 512MB right now, although 1024 would be nice). So, Asus/Abit. The Abit wins feature-wise (barely), so you think I should go with that?

jesus_thats_gre

To be honest, the difference between the two isnt even worth thinking about if you are not gonna be pushing it overclocking wise.

Go with the cheapest, even consider a different board if you are not interested in overclocking (freak )

subway_ie

Originally posted by jesus_thats_gre
Go with the cheapest, even consider a different board if you are not interested in overclocking (freak )

I'm not a freak, honest. I was thinking about overclocking, just nothing too major, and not straight away, maybe sometime during the summer. Just don't know enough about it yet. And I would consider another board, but I've put too much time/effort into looking through these Abit/Asus ones already.