New gaming machine advice - Komplett

drand

I'm looking to buy a complete new system in the near future and although I don't think I've got the skill/patience to build it myself, I would like a bit more choice/value than Dell or a prebuilt major manufacturer's machine.

I had a look on Komplett.ie and came up with this build (I'm assuming they assemble it for you):



Article number: 318627
NZXT ALPHA Black w/Window side panel, CASE
Corsair Powersupply 550W Bulk, black, PSU
Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS4, P35, S-775, ATX, MOTHERBOARD
Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 2.33GHz 1333Mhz CPU
Corsair TWIN2X 6400 DDR2, 4096MB CL5, RAM
PowerColor Radeon HD 3850 "PCS" 512MB, GFX
Western Digital Caviar GP 1TB SATA2 HD
Sony NEC Optiarc DVD±RW burner AD-7203A, DVD
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Eng OS
PC box
Card reader 51-in-1 black, 3½ internal CARD READER
Western Digital Elements 500GB EXTERNAL HD
Logitech RX250 Optical Premium Wheel MOUSE
Logitech® UltraX Premium Keyboard, KEYBOARD
Acer 19" Wide V193Wb, 1440x900, MONITOR
Creative I-Trigue 3000i, 2.1 Speakerset, SPEAKERS
ABIT AirPace PCIe 54 Mbps 802.11g, WIRELESS NIC




PRICE: 1286.11 EURO

I'm looking for general advice and opinions on this - is this a good overall build for general gaming?

Has anyone used Komplett and what are they like for price/service?

I've included stuff like mouse, keyboard, monitor, speakers just to give myself an idea of the price - I'll need to buy these but I'm happy to get them elsewhere or listen to any recommendations anyone might have.

The main purpose will be for playing games (without spending insane amounts of money on gear). I'd also like to use this machine as a base for my music collection (hence the external drive). I've haven't included a soundcard - do I need one?

Thanks in advance for your help.

BadCharlie

I would also try these
www.dell.ie
www.Dabs.ie
and i saved best to last
http://www.ankermann-pc.com/ ok i think they are german but my friend got a machine off them it was top spec at the time and came a-lot cheaper then other wed sites.

pogcica

that graphic card HD3850 is not the best card you could get for gaming considering the rest of your spec, the 3870 is a very good card and would be perfect for that 19" screen,I have seen it mentioned that any intel dual core from 2.4GHz is plenty for gaming so you could get the E4600 for example and put the difference to a better graphic card.
I have that motherboard almost(its the GA-P35-DS4,doesn't have the power saving thingy the one you speced has) and its a great board for overclocking but might be a bit overkill for your needs.
many around here have reccomended the ASUS P5K and thats about 70 yoyos i think.
All the other bits seem pretty good to me,

good luck

D

jonny72

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ci.aspx?sku=10378

is much faster



3850 is entry level for games now
and the 2.33 processor is quite old



Just read reviews of processors and graphics cards
You should be able to afford a very good quadcore proc, 4870 graphics card, 1tb storage, 22 inch monitor, 4 gig ram, etc, etc easily for that money.

Anti

BadCharlie wrote: »

I would also try these
www.dell.ie
www.Dabs.ie
and i saved best to last
http://www.ankermann-pc.com/ ok i think they are german but my friend got a machine off them it was top spec at the time and came a-lot cheaper then other wed sites.

I think you mean www.hardwareversand.de Ankermann... Well i wouldnt touch them with a bargepole.

BadCharlie

Manties wrote: »

I think you mean www.hardwareversand.de Ankermann... Well i wouldnt touch them with a bargepole.

Are they that bad ?
My friend used them and it went fine. He got a super machine for very little and its still working a year and a half later.

Maybe other people have had bad experience with them.

Anti

Check the thread out from dkane in here. He had a horrible experience, and sing checking on various search engines alot of other people have had similar issues too.

drand

Thanks to everyone for all of your advice. It's been a few years since I was up to date with what's happening in the world of hardware. I'm shocked at how powerful everything is!

Based on your recommendations I've redone my build:


Antec Nine Hundred black miditower, CASE
AXP Powersupply ATX 630W Retail SLI, PSU
MSI P35 NEO-F, P35, Socket-775, DDR2, MAINBOARD
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz CPU
Crucial DDR2 PC5300 4096MB CL5, RAM
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3, GFX
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA2 HD
Sony NEC Optiarc DVD±RW burner AD-7203A, DVD
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Eng OS
Card reader 51-in-1 black, 3½ internal CARD READER
Western Digital Elements 500GB EXTERNAL HD
ABIT AirPace PCIe 54 Mbps 802.11g, WIFI

Price: 906.03 EURO

I've checked for something similar on hardwareversand and although it's about 100 quid cheaper altogether I'm not sure that the saving is worth it if I have to spend a month emailing/phoning them trying to get it right and pay for delivery.

I've thrown in a couple of extras on this build - external HD, card reader and wifi card just in case.

I'll still need to get a monitor, speakers, mouse and keyboard. In fact, I saw this monitor: http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/970844/art/philips/190cw8fw-19-wide-format-t.html

19 inch wide, 2ms - seems nice.

BadCharlie

Im not going to comment on the parts you picked. I let the IT people do that . Just wanted to say the case you picked i love. Have one my self and its by far the best case i have bought.

Find it very quite & its keeps things so cool in side. Love the 200mm Fan blowing from the top.

Anti

All looks okay to me apart form a few parts.

Ram: its just to slow. You need a minimum of 6400
PSU: Get a decent brand like corsair, enermax etc etc
Mobo: Not a great board, and MSI are known of late to make some shoddy products. Go with a asus or abit or similar.

jonny72

On komplett.. just a suggestion..

pc-kit intel core2duo

with the 8400 core2duo processor (3 ghz, v good for gaming)
clud3d 4870 (top graphics card)
4 gig 6400 ram
gigabyte p35 board
corsair 650w psu
coolermaster case
1 tb samsung drive
cardreader, optical drive, vista, etc

Will be faster than that spec and will play any game you throw at it

Comes to 880 euro

PogMoThoin

Manties wrote: »

Mobo: Not a great board, and MSI are known of late to make some shoddy products. Go with a asus or abit or similar.

Abit are no more, they've stopped making boards so support might dwindle.
+1 for Asus boards tho

drand

Thanks a lot guys - very helpful advice from all corners.

I really like the Antec 900 case also. It looks really cool and has loads of fans so I'm definetly going to get that part anyway!

Looks like the "build it yourself" kit works out a small bit cheaper. It has the E8400 dual core processor @3GHZ rather than the Q6660 quad core @2.4 that is in the ready made machine. From what I've read the quad core is the faster of the two in general, although there are some games where the dual is faster.

I can choose the HD4870 in the "build your own" but only the HD4850 in the pre-built. I'm partially thinking that the HD4850 would be good enough given the price difference and that both will probably be dinosaurs in 18 months anyway.

I didn't realise the difference in RAM speeds - I will certainly get 4GBs of 4600 in that case. Also, a better brand PSU and mainboard are on the cards.

I'm still leaning to the "pre-built" machine as I'm not sure I've got what it takes to assemble a whole PC from scratch! I can just imagine crawling through the BIOS for hours setting RAM voltages.


So with all that said, I've done (another!) revamp and this is what I am left with now:

Komplett Intel Gamer

Antec Nine Hundred black miditower,
Corsair Powersupply 550W Bulk, black,
Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3L, P35, Socket-775,
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz
Corsair TWIN2X 6400 DDR2, 4096MB CL5,
Gainward Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3,
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA2
NEC DVD±RW burner AD-7200S, 20x, SATA,
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Eng
Card reader 51-in-1 black, 3½ internal
ABIT AirPace PCIe 54 Mbps 802.11g,

Price: 878.51


has a 550w PSU got enough juice for this? I've just got a 500gb HD as I'm also going to get another 500gb external.

BadCharlie

550 PSU is more then enough to run that system. I have 4850 in CF with an overclocked CPU with 4 Harddrive's ect... and my 500Watt PSU works fine.