Time to get a new computer! In need for advise.

[tinylampe]

Hello there,

 

It's been 3 years since I bought my current laptop and I think it's time for something new. My general idea is:

 

a) Desktop. And one already built and ready-to-be-used since I don't have the knowledge to buy the components and assemble them myself.

b) For gaming purposes (heavily-modded oblivion and Fallout above all and, among new games, starcraft2)

c) Budget is 1500-1750€

 

As you can see I'm not being precisely specific here, which says something about how knowledgeble I am when it comes to computers. And that's why I'm asking really, because I thought that if I go with these pointers to a computer store the sellers are gonna fool me big time. So basically what I would really appreciate are some recommendations about which kind of computer should I have in mind when I actually go to the store and say that I want to spend 1500€ or so in a gaming PC.

 

Thanks in advance,

tiny lampe.

[urbex]

I'm going to tell you right now, don't buy a prebult. The money you save will be huge towards the overall performance. It isn't hard to do at all, you're only plugging stuff in.

I don't like reposting the same content but this guide is up to date and will help you find a build. The guide includes places to by components for all regions.

 

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/af150/The_FalconO6/CurrentLogicalPCBuyingGuide/Guide.png

 

[Ihoe]

I don't know how prices vary in your region, but as the wise man above me said: Never Ever buy a Pre-Built PC, you may as well use some of that gray matter of yours plugging stuff. in and out.

 

as stated above, I don't know how prices vary in your region, but at around $1000 USD, a ~Balanced PC with the below specs can be made:

 

Mainboard: Asus P7P55D-E LX - 130 USD

CPU: Intel Core i5-750 - 200 USD

CPU-Cooler: Cooler Master HyperTX 3 - 30 USD

Graphics Processing Unit: AMD Radeon HD 5870 1GB - 350 USD

Memory: Crucial 4 GB (2 x 2 GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3-1333 - 100 USD

Hard Disk Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 640 GB - 80 USD

Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124 OEM - 20 USD

Power: Corsair CMPSU-650TX 650 W - 100 USD

 

if you really have to go for a pre-built PC, don't buy anything that:

-Has Less than 2 Cores. (is that even possible?)

-Has a GPU Lower than GTS 250, GTS 450, Radeon HD 4650 or HD 5570. being lower means having a lower brand number.(eg. GTS 220 is lower than 250)

-is above 1600 euro.

 

 

in my opinion, most pre-built PCs are overpriced. don't rush!

[AWarGuy]

Dual cores will become somewhat obselete in 2-4 years or when games start demanding Quad Core.

[evildead789]

I see your budget is in euro, I'm from europe too

 

with that budget you can buy a monster pc, i play a heavily modded oblivion with a 750€ pc.

What country are you from. Maybe i can pick a store for you

 

With that budget you can buy pretty much almost the best of the best. You are probably not going to change something on the pc yourself let alone build one and this is perfectly understandable. I know dozens of people who can't work on the interior of pc's.

 

Do you have examples of stores where you would buy your pc. Post the specifications of that pc and the price and i will tell you if it's a good buy or not. Or post the link to the store.

 

There are too much types of cpu's, gpu's, psu's , cases to tell you what is good and what is not. It's just too much info to post espescially if you don't understand everything (no offense)

 

Greetings

[Vagrant0]

Although I would be inclined toward the notion that people who aren't familiar with building a PC or installing components probably shouldn't, with that large of a budget you'll end up losing more in performance and quality in a pre-built PC than you typically will with a few novice mistakes.

 

To put it in simple terms, pre-built PCs are only practical toward the middle/low end of the spectrum for those who don't have many demands, can't be bothered to do research, and want something they can just plug in and use. For higher end systems you usually aren't paying for the better components, but instead you are paying a premium for a brand name and the notion that it's "The best thing available". People buying these sorts of computers usually know less than everyone else, but have the money to spend... and companies know this and will tack on an additional 30% markup just to make something look better. The benefit of a pre-built PC however is that it comes with an operating system and most of its necessary software pre-installed, is usually covered under a warranty, and comes with tech support for those who need help. The downside is that much of that pre-installed software is bundled crap that you neither want nor ever plan on using (and in some cases can cause problems in and of itself), and tech support is usually someone working in a cubicle for 9 hours a day dealing with idiots, has assumed that because you are using tech support you are an idiot too, and will make you spend 3 hours doing the same stuff you already did just to make sure that you did it right and that it didn't solve your problem (the joke about someone not being aware of a power switch is more common than you think).

 

A custom made computer usually has no markup, but requires that either you or someone trustworthy put the components together properly. This often requires additional energy in the form of research, seeing what components work well together, construction, and in installing system software (which needs to be purchased extra). Although you get more bang for your buck, you take more risk based on your own experience in working with computers and being unable to ask anyone for help when things go wrong. But, if your budget allows, you can leave a buffer to allow for the purpose of replacement parts should you install something incorrectly (like forgetting to use that thermal cement between your processor and heatsink (or scraping it off :wallbash:)). After your PC is built you can then spend the remainder of that buffer on other useful things like external storage, extra software, or getting hammered in the company of friends.

 

If you're unsure about building your own PC, you can always try asking your friends and co-workers about PC building. Usually you can network to find someone in your area who is willing to spend an afternoon putting together your computer for the price of a case of beer (not a 6-pack) and an extra large pizza (or some other nerd friendly currency). I would not however trust PC shops since they often do substandard work and charge you through the nose for it. There are some good PC shops out there, but in order to find one of those good ones you have to know enough about computers to test them (such as preparing a component list containing conflicting hardware and asking their opinion), at which point you would probably be able to just do the work yourself.

[evildead789]

If he just mentions the specs, we can tell if it's a good deal or not no? besides I don't know what the usa is like but they sell a lot of pre-built pc in europe which are actually built by persons like you and me not some brand model.

 

You can buy brand models however and sometimes i do think they have good quality. Others are a complete ripoff...

building a pc is still a thing for experts imo or that have at least moderate pc knowledge.

 

If everything goes well ok, that's good then but if something goes wrong or something doesn't work it's everytime complete misery for the beginning builder. I wouldn't want to put anyone through this if they don't plan to use this knowledge later on or aren't interested. ( a lot of people get very stressed with computer stuff )

 

Greetz

[Ihoe]

to paraphrase what the knowledgeable people above me mentioned: Pre-built PCs aren't worth the cash spent. assembly of a powerful PC in the 1000 EU range is a piece of cake, to do it, you only need some gray matter. sure, building a professional $2000 PC requires extensive knowledge about hardware, but in the 600-1000 range, it's a mere matter of plugging components in and out. for a newbie it may take a day or two to assemble such PC carefully, but hell, since a 15 year old nitwit like me can assemble a $2000 one, so can you. you may ask someone with more knowledge than yourself to supervise you during the process.

 

never buy a pre-built PC, since you have no idea how the components work, how they are assembled, how they connect with the PSU, are they reliable etc. say, you want to buy a Geforce GTX 680 in the future and the difference between 6pin and 8pin auxilary connenctors leaves you a bubbling idiot.

 

i wonder if i digressed from the point of the topic...(?)

[evildead789]

Yeah maybe you're 15 and you can put the components in because you know what's what, you have learned it.

I could program when i was 12 and most people didn't knew what a computer was (i'm 32 now). It's not because you are 15 and you can do it everyone can. Everything is easy if you know how to do it, but somebody must have shown it to you or you figure it out for yourself. Also i told you before there is whole lot of difference between assembly's, some could have unforeseen problems others don't.

 

Let's take a 100 people and let them assemble a pc themselves (which they bought them selves) and we explained it to em. I can assure you some hardware will fly out of the window :laugh:

Off couse if you supervise them you're actually doing it yourself, if he did know such a person he wouldn't have asked here and specify specifically the doesn't want to assemble...

 

Besides pre-built pc's (here anyway) are not crap, some are most aren't. And the brand models, yeah well some are more expensive some less. Only time can tell if they are durable or not. Their reputation does preceed them. You cannot generalize like that. There are components that you can buy seperatly that are crap too just like you have high quality brand model pc that you can't even assemble for the same or lower price.

 

Greetz

[Vagrant0]

Yeah maybe you're 15 and you can put the components in because you know what's what, you have learned it.

I could program when i was 12 and most people didn't knew what a computer was (i'm 32 now). It's not because you are 15 and you can do it everyone can. Everything is easy if you know how to do it, but somebody must have shown it to you or you figure it out for yourself. Also i told you before there is whole lot of difference between assembly's, some could have unforeseen problems others don't.

 

Let's take a 100 people and let them assemble a pc themselves (which they bought them selves) and we explained it to em. I can assure you some hardware will fly out of the window :laugh:

Off couse if you supervise them you're actually doing it yourself, if he did know such a person he wouldn't have asked here and specify specifically the doesn't want to assemble...

 

Besides pre-built pc's (here anyway) are not crap, some are most aren't. And the brand models, yeah well some are more expensive some less. Only time can tell if they are durable or not. Their reputation does preceed them. You cannot generalize like that. There are components that you can buy seperatly that are crap too just like you have high quality brand model pc that you can't even assemble for the same or lower price.

 

Greetz

The basic problem with pre-built PCs is really that most of them use the sorts of components which no gamer would tolerate, like an integrated graphics card, stock cooling, and memory with poor timings and suggest quality merely through price. Pre-built PCs also often lack most options for upgrading later on by using motherboards which only support the amount of RAM which is present at shipping, and has almost no extra open connections for PCI slots, additional harddrives, or other devices. So what you gain in convenience, you lose in flexibility and potential to upgrade later instead of having to buy a new system 2 years down the road.

 

While yes, there are many places where people can bungle up in building a PC, most of these are caused by moving too quickly or carelessly, or not bothering to do a bit of research. The main part of this, knowing what components are compatible, can already be solved by asking the expertise of persons on this site and in doing some research. The rest is just mechanical competency and being able to read instructions for some of the more arcane bits (like knowing where to plug all those power connections to your motherboard). Accidents probably will happen. As long as room is allowed for those accidents to have little impact, you can just take them as a learning experience. A $200 lesson is one which you are likely to never forget.