How do these Dabs rigs compare with building?

JumpingNothing

Hi folks. I'm in the market for a decent mid-performance gaming tower for the first time in years. Trying to find any excuse to avoid having to build the rig myself, and scanning Dabs I found these two models that at least seem to talk the talk.

When compared with a custom setup, what do you guys think in terms of performance and value? Again, I'm aware a custom machine would do better for the money put in, but unless that margin is considerable I'd really rather not go there.

http://www.dabs.com/products/pc-specialist-fusion-maelstrom-amd-fx-4350-8gb-1tb-radeon-r7-250-1gb-win8-1-92YG.html?catid=15024&src=3

http://www.dabs.com/products/pc-specialist-infinity-pro-amd-a8-6500-8gb-1tb-radeon-hd-8000-win8-1-92YD.html?catid=15024&src=3

To provide some info on what I'm after, I don't really play a huge number of AAA games but I do need to be able to play Starcraft 2 on good settings for hours on end without the thing falling over. I set myself a budget of about €800, ideally including a monitor, but happy to use the telly for a while instead. I'd rather 8GB and RAM and have a superstitious preference for AMD GPUs.

Advice, input, gently reassurance all appreciated.

SterlingArcher

JumpingNothing wrote: »

Hi folks. I'm in the market for a decent mid-performance gaming tower for the first time in years. Trying to find any excuse to avoid having to build the rig myself, and scanning Dabs I found these two models that at least seem to talk the talk.

When compared with a custom setup, what do you guys think in terms of performance and value? Again, I'm aware a custom machine would do better for the money put in, but unless that margin is considerable I'd really rather not go there.

http://www.dabs.com/products/pc-specialist-fusion-maelstrom-amd-fx-4350-8gb-1tb-radeon-r7-250-1gb-win8-1-92YG.html?catid=15024&src=3

http://www.dabs.com/products/pc-specialist-infinity-pro-amd-a8-6500-8gb-1tb-radeon-hd-8000-win8-1-92YD.html?catid=15024&src=3

To provide some info on what I'm after, I don't really play a huge number of AAA games but I do need to be able to play Starcraft 2 on good settings for hours on end without the thing falling over. I set myself a budget of about €800, ideally including a monitor, but happy to use the telly for a while instead. I'd rather 8GB and RAM and have a superstitious preference for AMD GPUs.

Advice, input, gently reassurance all appreciated.

I can tell you straight off the bat. That graphics card is weak so very weak for that price. Definitely without a doubt DO NOT go with these options.

You will get more bang for your buck by cherry picking the parts with help here. And end up with a computer that will flip both of them upside and mop the place.

BloodBath

They are both awful for the price. You can get better value pre built machines or you can get the likes of hardwareversand to build for you.

A custom build for the same price would be miles better.

JumpingNothing

Well that's me told. Cheers guy.

You can get better value pre built machines or you can get the likes of hardwareversand to build for you.

Had a look at hardwareversand.de and couldn't find the custom building option you mentioned (unless I misunderstood). That kind of service would be ideal for me. Could you point me in the right direction?

Scirpt

JumpingNothing wrote: »

Well that's me told. Cheers guy.



Had a look at hardwareversand.de and couldn't find the custom building option you mentioned (unless I misunderstood). That kind of service would be ideal for me. Could you point me in the right direction?

Products > PC Configurator

JumpingNothing

Ah, I'm blind. Cheers! I'll use this thing to do my homework then.

Recurve360

JumpingNothing wrote: »

Well that's me told. Cheers guy.



Had a look at hardwareversand.de and couldn't find the custom building option you mentioned (unless I misunderstood). That kind of service would be ideal for me. Could you point me in the right direction?

If you click into the pc configurator under the service tab there is a option for pre built. Can get a much better spec for the kind of money your talking about. Fill up a form in a build thread and we will be happy to suggest a build for you

JumpingNothing

Hey again folks. After chatting to a few of my geekier friends I'm gonna go ahead and build my own machine.

Before I start putting together a build, I have one (probably unbelievably stupid) question to ask.

I need to be able to run two monitors out of this thing, but I can't find the component that governs the number of HDMI and USB outputs on a given machine. Doing A Google hasn't gotten me the answers I need either.

Any advice?

Morf

On-board graphics or the graphics card will determine HDMI/DVI/display port slots.

The motherboard/case with front USB ports/or a USB card will determine USB ports.

Simply put graphics card will determine HDMI ports. Will usually have one but you can use splitters or a variety or types of display out. So a HDMI and a DVI out too.

Motherboard will have a number of USB 2 ports and fewer USB 3 ports. Most cases will have USB ports on the front. Cheaper cases will have USB 2 and more expensive might have USB 3 or some of both.

JumpingNothing

Perfect, thanks!

JumpingNothing

Okay, put together a wee build. Starting with the basics (no SSD to start with, will upgrade later). Let me know what you think. Can't go much further than this because I may need to buy a new Windows 7 key (you guys might have some info on that, I'm gonna try and blag a student version from TCD but I have to investigate).

GPU: Gigabyte NVIDIA GTX660 2GB DDR5 PCI-E
CPU: AMD FX6300 Black Edition 6 Core (3.5/4.1GHz, 8MB Level 3 Cache, 6MB Level 2 Cache, Socket AM3+, 95W, Retail Boxed)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 Motherboard
RAM: Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600 Mhz CL9 XMP
PSU: Corsair CX750 Builder Series CX 750W ATX/EPS 80 PLUS Bronze PSU
Hard Drive: Western Digital 1TB internal Hard Drive - Caviar Blue (3.5 inch)
Case: Cooler Master NSE-300-KKN1 N-Series N300 USB 3.0 ATX Case
Optical Drive: LG ELECTRONICS GH24NS95 LG (24X) DVD Rewriter

All feedback appreciated. Couple of key issues:

1. Can't get the case in a timely way from Amazon under with free delivery. Anywhere else I could grab the same model (or similar, needs USB 3 support) with only a week's lead time?
2. Not sure about the power supply. I'm following http://www.logicalincrements.com/ recommendations but he's not clear on the point of a stronger PSU. Perhaps there's better value to be had here?
3. Going with an AMD CPU rather than an i5. I'm told they're roughly equivalent in performance. Am I right in that?

Again, all comment welcome! You guys have been great so far, more advice the better. I'll be placing the order on Tuesday and hope to have the new machine set up by the weekend after next.

Thanks again!

EDIT: To clarify, my budget for the machine itself (no peripherals is about €700, which this build roughly comes in at).