Building a PC-HELP!
 

I am building myself a new pc.Have all the bits except dvd writer,floppy drive,case(psu+fans) and dvd rom.I have used e-buyer for some bits,but wondered where else does a good deal on pc stuff,as they don't have what i want.Any help would be appreciated(having never done this before).:puzzled:

I used www.aria.co.uk when I built mine. They are fast, cheap and will even answer the phone!!

I built my PC myself with bits from there and upgraded it last year with more bits from there. Might get myself a DVD burner soon - very cheap!

Try simply computers as well but don`t buy from pc world!:mad:

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ for me

I wouldnt use E-buyer, my dad had problems with them and checked them out on various consumer forums and found literally hundereds of people who had problems with them. They may be cheap but when something goes wrong then forget it! Customer service doesnt exist, they dont have a phone number or an address to write to and if you return faulty or incorrectly supplied goods they deney having recieved them.

I used to find that local computer fairs offered very good prices.

[Edited on 21-4-2005 by rockhopper]

I've used ebuyer many, many times and never had a problem.

My mates have also used ebuyer and have had problems with stuff they've bought (ie, dead parts which is no fault of their own) and they've been quick to replace them.

As with any high turn-over company, you'll get your fair share of people who no matter what you do for them they will still feel bad enough to tell everyone about it.

The reason ebuyer don't have a phone number is because it's far more efficient for them to process everything when they receive it back - you can't diagnose problems over the phone! - and keep their electronic system upto date, processing people's returns in the order they come back rather than people jumping in and chasing them on the phone!

Never had a problem with Ebuyer myself, also use Scan and Aria quite a bit, no problems with either of those, although it took about 2 months for a refund on a printer that was lost by the courier that Aria used, as the blame went back and to constantly, which wasn't helping me or my customer

@Jasper, I have a floppy drive and a DVD writer you can have, and most likely a PSU kicking around someplace amongst the junk on my deskand got 1 stick PC-100 32 MEG RAM and one stick PC 133 128 MEG RAM and some crappy cases lurking out in the shed, if any of its any use to you drop me a line, you have my email addy :)

Paul,you have mail.Ok,having completed overloaded myself with too much stuff.Can anyone reccomend a Black case with 400w psu and fan,easy to get into (ie quick release screws!).'cos i have too much choice now!

Anybody?

Errr ... haven't looked at cases for a long time. You just need something quick and easy to get apart, enough space for all your bits and looks nice?

I say just get one!

FWIW I picked my power supply and bought a case it would fit, I wanted a quiet one though with enough molex connectors for all your devices, some new video cards need their own molex connector now and one even takes two!

Thanks

Jasper, how much do you want to spend?

Coolermaster cases are probably one of the best, but aren't cheap, Chieftec (who I think make Coolermaster cases) are another good quality brand.

PSU wise, there's so many to choose from, just get one which suits your needs, plenty of connections for IDE/Floppy/SATA etc

one not just buy a ready built Dell ??? its not like they are expensive anymore .... or am I mising something ???

Because you can build a much higher spec machine with the bits you want, no compromises, for the same price or build a similar spec machine a lot cheaper.

I used the Dell's as a benchmark when I first came to the UK to see if it was worthwhile building or just buying. I built my machine for something like £900 at the time, the equivalent spec Dell (still including compromises) was over £1300.

Took me half a day to lob it together and get an operating system on it.

Then it took Ange a week and a half to stop me playing Unreal Tournament on there :D

To be honest Dibble, Dell or as the industry calls them "hell" are some of the leat reliable bits of kit on the market, their cheap for a reason!

As Tony has said building your own system might possibly work out more expensive, but it's a no compromise system, and can be upgraded as and when new technology appears, unlike legacy hardware such as Dell, HP etc, etc...

Anyway... lets talk more about UT2004... who's up for the challenge? Onslaught anyone?;)

Jasper, I think I have an Enermax in mine (I only upgraded it at the end of last year, you'd think I'd remember!)

They are here

I went for a 450 or 500, can't remember, but the biggest thing for me was the number of molex connectors to power all the devices I have in there. I upgraded the video card at the same time and it needed two of the bloody things! And it generates a fair bit of heat so add some extra cooling, the video card and PSU combined I mean.

[Edited on 22-4-2005 by TP]

oh, ok .. is that because Dell dont use organically farmed DDR Ram and wooden cases from sustainable resources ???

Built in Ireland...

Sorry Ian, for I am about to sin!

Dibble, it's because Dell build down to a very small budget - it's like buying a Kia! Which is why they are infesting companies as a preferred desktop supplier and, lord help us, server supplier in some organisations because techo's don't make many of the decisions anymore - beancounters do!

The 'large, blue chip' I work for is going down the Dell server path at the moment and I have seen some of the estimates in time and money to add management software into our monitoring and management infrastructure which is scary! Lots of money is going in to making them work in our environment so they must be a LOT cheaper than the HP kit we used exclusively before.

I'm glad I don't do hands on anymore!

Edited to add: I feel sorry for guys like Freak who are at the coalface with this sort of kit - it can be a bit repetitive explaining to your boss that the server has lost its RAID config again ... and it puts a lot of pressure on your backups which now have to be perfect and are called upon frequently.

I rest my case ...

[Edited on 22-4-2005 by TP]

here fishy, fishy fishy .........

Luckily Tony I don't support the hardware, or even the OS to a degree, I just have to support the apps running on them, which as you say if the raid config decides it's going south for the winter not only kills the server but also my app, so after the hardware/OS support sit on it for a few hours when all hell is raining down on me, it falls back to us to do the whole thing.

But like you say, these days is down to cost, luckily for me/us it appears HP are now the standard server suppliers, or possibly IBM, changes daily I'd have Amstrad or Sinclair before Dell

I was only looking at paying about £40,if that helps.I don't use the machine for gaming or watching videos.So just a PSU,fan and couple of usb's will do.If thats any help.

Rich, i just found a couple of PSU fans out back, not sure if they are any good to you, will bung them in the parcle, if no good to you just bin them.

personally i get all my parts from Novatech at www.novatech.co.uk I have built about four machines although about three years ago. PC world is an absolute last resort and OK if you know exactlty what you need, dont rely on the staff! Well thats my experience anyway, I bought a book with easy to follow photos and used is as a guide. I found building the machines easy, the tricky part was loading the operating system and other software. I built the PC's in probably an hour but the software can take best part of a day, unless you are sat there doing nothing else. One other tip is not to canabalise the machine you currently use so that you can download all the drivers and help info that you need before your new PC is operational.