Building / Ordering a new PC

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mvtaylor

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Ok I'm sorry to come to the forums immediately asking for help but this will probably be the only thing I come here for, it's not like I could give anyone here advice.

Basically i'm looking to order a new desktop, I don't want to even contemplate building one by buying parts no matter how easy I'm told it is, I don't know enough about computing. However I still want some choice over the stuff that gets put in it so I'm using a company that lets you select the parts and then builds it, if you can know of a better company, or a premade computer that would suit my needs then by all means please tell me it but it's got to be based in the UK and there's a budget I'll mention later.

Company i'm using: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/index.php?page=pcsystembuilder

What i'm looking for:
A decent all round PC but one that's geared to gaming / image editing.

This may seem pretty vague so it may be easier to explain, basically the only parts I need help with are the Processor, RAM, Motherboard (not really much choice in that matter) and Graphics card, Hard disk I was just going to pick 250GB in one drive.

OS, Vista upgrade, USB, CD Drive, RAID and everything below and including Sound card can be set to NONE or the default as I can't see them having an impact unless you think there's a reason it needs upgrading.

The limit once you've made your selections is around £650, this is assuming that most areas are set to none, if you can find a good one for less than that then by all means post it. Again I'm really sorry to just come here and ask people to do my work for me but after reading so many reviews for everything I'm more confused than when I started.

Thank you in advance for the people who take time to help me!

EDIT -

Oh yea I guess it would help if people post their selections from the site and the cost.
 
Here are two possibilities in your budget. It will depend which is more important to you, gaming or image editing. The first system has a better graphics card for gaming. The second system sacrifices the graphics for a faster CPU (image editing). The second system would still be able to run today's newer games, but you'd be turning down some of the eye candy on the more demanding games in order to get decent framerates.

Processor (CPU) INTEL® Core 2 Duo E6300 (2 X 1.86GHz) 1066MHz FSB/2MB L2 Cache

Memory (RAM) 1024 MB CORSAIR DDR2 667MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x512MB)

Motherboard ASUS® P5N-SLI: DUAL DDR2, S-ATA, 2 PCI, etc

Operating System MICROSOFT WINDOWS® XP HOME (inc. Genuine CD & license) (£59)

Memory - 1st Hard Disk 250GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7200rpm)

1st CD/DVD Drive 18x +/- DVD WRITER (8x +/- Dual Lyr) (5x DVD-RAM) (40x CD-RW) (£18)

Graphics Card 256MB GEFORCE 7900GS PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT

Floppy Disk Drive 1.44MB - 3.5" Floppy Disk Drive

Case Stylish Silver/Black Trident case + 2 front USB

Power Supply & cooling 500W (Peak) Quiet Dual Rail PSU incl Case Fan (£25)

£639 inc VAT and Delivery.

Processor (CPU) INTEL® Core 2 Duo E6400 (2 X 2.13GHz) 1066MHz FSB/2MB L2 Cache

Memory (RAM) 1024 MB CORSAIR DDR2 667MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x512MB)

Motherboard ASUS® P5N-SLI: DUAL DDR2, S-ATA, 2 PCI, etc

Operating System MICROSOFT WINDOWS® XP HOME (inc. Genuine CD & license) (£59)

Memory - 1st Hard Disk 250GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7200rpm)

1st CD/DVD Drive 18x +/- DVD WRITER (8x +/- Dual Lyr) (5x DVD-RAM) (40x CD-RW) (£18)

Graphics Card 256MB GEFORCE 7600GT PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT

Floppy Disk Drive 1.44MB - 3.5" Floppy Disk Drive

Case Stylish Silver/Black Trident case + 2 front USB

Power Supply & cooling 500W (Peak) Quiet Dual Rail PSU incl Case Fan (£25)

£646 inc VAT and Delivery.

I'd recommend asking them for some details on the namebrand of the PSU they typically use, and ask if that is also something you can select. Noname PSUs are dangerous, especially on high end systems like the ones above.
 
Thanks i'll ask them about the branding, also since you counted the OS system anyway thats a nice amount under budget, thanks for the help!
 
Well, if you have the budget, you may want to consider bumping yourself up to the E6600 CPU, and 2Gb of ram.

Good luck!
 
Hey, did some research on Pcspecialist.co.uk and they have as poor reviews as Alienware when it comes to product reliabilty and customer service my advice would be to look somewhere else and then try searchin online and not on there website to see what people think of them.... as the last thing you want to do is spend alot of money with someone and then have headache after headache!

As your in the UK id recommend Aria.co.uk they have been pretty good over the years to me and have only had a few hiccups which have mostly been sorted!
 
Dont mention it but if you do go with Aria and use there system builder if you have any special instructions, such as the drives set in Raid0 etc just email them and they are very accomodating, the only thing they wont really do is Overclocking...
 
I know nothing about either of those companies, but the parts that pcspecialists uses (according to the list) are of extreme high quality... asus, corsair, fsb are all top of the line parts.

If that other company (Aria) has better tech support that is a good thing of course, but make sure they also use high quality parts as pcspecialist does.
 
They do Don, Aria's custom PC builder gives you a hell of alot more choice than practically every other such service ive seen on the web, allowing you access to every component they supply, You can start from scratch and spend as little or as much as you like working from the processor upwards, they stock the majority of the big names, such as corsair but for those seeking the cheaper route offer in house items etc etc which is where ive had the only problems with them..... two cheap PSU's DOA....

The customer service is brilliant as far as company's go.... the guys there have litteraly bent over backwards to sort out the few issues ive had.... concerning the two cheap PSU's mentioned above.... I ordered the first to test see if my PC had blown when my old PSU died, the cheapo failed to work and after testing with my multimeter and having nominal current I contacted Aria who said I could have a refund or a replacement and could claim back the postage and packaging if I included a receipt, opted for the replacement.... same thing again so back on the phone I got, and spoke to a very appologetic guy who again offered replacement or refund, I opted for the refund and they even sent a courrier out to pick it up at no charge.....


The only thing I can really Fault aria on are their limited delivery options which can be a pain if you have a busy life!
 
Ok I found Aria website highly confusing, there's way too many options.

Looking at more reviews I found cyberpowersystem.co.uk, the website is very much like alienware except it's more affordable AND the reviews of them seem good (once you find a review for .co.uk and not .com)
 
Yeah Cyberpowersystems seem pretty good..... also id try Vadim.co.uk if you have more money to spend they do some pretty superb computers
 
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