Want a premium PC but Dell's prices are OTT

Kashkai

I currently have a DELL Dimension 8300 which I've upgraded over the past three years with a Radeon X800XT video card and 2 GB of Ram. However, I plan on handing this rig over to the kids as their own play/education pc.

I wanted to get a "best of the best" PC that will not only do the everyday mundane home office work but will satisfy my gaming requirements. I want to get CRYSIS when its released and as this game has set new benchmarks in graphics, the nvidia 8800 will have to be included. Now I've been looking at DELL's website and the rigs I've been "building" are coming in at €5,000+ which is a little extreme. So would any of you guys recommend anyone else as my next port of call?

Basically the requirements are a pc for work use but also video playback, photo editing, gaming etc. I need the following:

premium graphics card
4GB ram (2GB would do but hell why not get it all done now)
premium sound card
2 hard drives
card reader
MOBO and PSU to handle these

I have a 26in LCD monitor so thats not a requirement.

Advice appreciated in advance

TerrorFirmer

If you want a serious gaming PC, forget Dell, they are fine for mid-range and occassional offers but not for what you're looking for.

komplett.ie are pretty good, just casually browsing there you could get:

Tagan 600w psu
8800gtx
E6600
4gb corsair ram

For 2300 euro....

quazzy

Yeah as Havoc suggests you can get a lot more bang for your buck in komplett.ie

Check the link below and customise to your hearts content
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ci.asp?sku=10249


Regards

Q

Kashkai

Thats less than half the price DELL were quoting me:eek:

I've never bought gear off Komplett. Are they reliable and are their pc's up to scratch? I'd still hate to spend 2 1/2 grand for a pc that would die on me. Guess its the fear of not buying off an established "name" not that the DELL back up service has proved to be worth the money I paid for it.

Finally, if there are any other suggestions for "must haves" that I should include in the pc, such as cooling, let me know.

Thanks guys.

8T8

I'd start with the Komplett Intel gamer as the base system you get the better selection of components when you click the the Customise with expert options & Buy link.

Go pretty much with what the others have said though you may or may not want to wait because Crysis is still a ways off the ATI R600 will be launching sometime around April and there will also be price cuts for Intel CPU's.

Still if from the list this is what I would go for;
Case - leave as is unless you dont like the look

PSU - Seasonic M12 700W or Tagan Easycon 600W (Tagan has modular cables)

Mainboards - MSI P965 Platinum

Processors - Core 2 Duo E6700

Memory - leave as is

Graphics card - Club3D 8800GTX

Hard drive - Western Digital SE16 320GB

Optical drive - Samsung SH-S183A SATA

Sound card - optional or add this to the cart <- not available in the picks

Operating system - XP comes with it or select no OS & get Windows Vista which is required for DX10 support.

Mouse - Personally I like the MS laser 6000 gaming mouse with click scroll wheel though Logitech are also popular.

Display - add this 20" Samsung widescreen to the cart -< again this is not available in the picks. That display isnt in stock but would be worth waiting for as you would want to get the latest gen display when it is only 2 or so weeks away from release.

Total price should be around €2500.

youcancallmeal

If I were you I'd check out this PC for sale in the adverts section. Its a monster :eek:
Just wish I had the cash to make an offer

Anti

IF you relaly have the money to spend, forget buying your own. Sure it nmight be a bit cheaper, but you wont get the profesional look as what you would from a company like www.scan.co.uk or www.vadim.co.uk

They can be a bit expensive. But you will be over the moon with it.

If you are gonna build your own, hold on afor a little longer. As huge price cuts are comming. Same with tined down versions of the 8800gtx/gts. Same identical cards, just with half the ram. And intel price cuts will be very soon now.

Col_Loki

Since you have a decent budget you might consider a Raptor (10k RPM HD) as your main Hard Disk for the OS, and then maybe two storage drives.

It makes things nice and responsive in windows, added to that the Core2 & 4gb of Ram and you'll be flying!! Alot of people here would deal with Komplett btw, infact id say the majority do. I have personally spend a few shiny pennies over the years and i find them great to be honest.

I definetly would not waste my money on a Dell, especially when its so much more expensive.

cregser

I recommend Komplett too. My only bad dealings with them were down to GLS and not Komplett.

I researched and bought all the parts seperate from them and asembled my PC myself, so I can't vouch for their assembly. But I've bought plenty of bits'n'bobs off them since because I like'em and trust them.

Anybody know anywhere else though?

As for storage hard disks, I've got one of theose Western Digital external 500GB HDDs. It can take about 5seconds to spin up after inactivity but 500GB!!!

Saruman

Was going to order from Komplett... still might.. but i read on boards a few people using http://www.ankermann-pc.com/en/ and their prices are a bit cheaper.
What i can get for about €1500 on komplett i can get for about €200 less with Ankermann.
I have not used them yet... going to order very soon. Im waiting for a nice cheque

DemonOfTheFall

Komplett are pretty good, but as far as I can see OCuK have been a good bit cheaper than them for quite a long time. People just seem to think that komplett have a branch in Ireland or something because they're VAT registered here... The amount of people I've talked to who've been shocked to find out that their stuff isnt being shipped from Ballycoolin :rolleyes:

youcancallmeal

Re: Ankermann

Friend of mine ordered a PC of them last September but when it arrived the motherboard was broken because they had "Forced" it into one of those Mac cases including bending the PCI slots out of place. Twas a pretty horrendous job :eek: Anyway he sent the motherboard back to be replaced. A week later he didn’t hear anything so he rang them and they said their "Engineers" were looking into it. And so began a four month long ordeal where everytime he rang Ankermann he got a different story, one time they even accused him of "overclocking" with the motherboard and said they would not replace it. So anyway he made his weekly call yesterday and for some reason they finally figured out that they had mailed the replacement motherboard to another person with the same second name who had apparently bought a PC with them around the same time my friend did. Luckily the guy is here Dublin and had the decency to ring Ankermann(4 weeks ago) and explain that he had received a motherboard that wasn't his. So 4 months after my friend bought his PC he 'May' finally get it to work today. This whole saga may not be entirely indicative of Ankermann but does highlight they are not perfect. It’s sad though that he's got his Motherboard finally, I can't take the p*ss anymore telling him his PC is devaluing by the day.