deuces wild Posted January 8, 2006 Report Share Posted January 8, 2006 We will be gettng a new computer for my son as a high school graduation gift. He is into gaming. We can buy a great gaming PC from Dell for $2,400 ( http://tinyurl.com/8davl ) or my son and I can work together to make his own PC. Here are the Dell specs with upgrades from the basic system: Pentium® D Processor 830 with Dual Core Technology (3.0GHz, 800FSB) Genuine Windows®XP Media Center Edition 2005 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz- 4 DIMMs 160GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/ Native Command Queuing Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable 17 inch Ultrasharp™ 1704FPT Digital Flat Panel Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ XtremeMusic (D), w/Dolby® Digital 5.1 USB Keyboard Optical USB Mouse Maximum PC recently had an article about a powerful gaming PC they put together for $1250 (plus monitor, keyboard and mouse).. Here is their system: MSI K8N Neo4/SLI motherboard Althion 64 3000+ CPU 1 GB DDR400 Corair Ram nVidia GeForce 6800 GT Videocard Antec Performance TX640B Series Case Plextor PX-716A dual layer DVD 16X Maxtor 300GB DiamondMax hard drive Windows XP Professional OEM I figure we could buy a decent 17" plasma monitor, USB keyboard and optical mouse, speakers and DVD player for well under $700. With that understanding, this system would save us about $450 and we may end up with a better system. What are your thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scuzzman Posted January 9, 2006 Report Share Posted January 9, 2006 Home-built systems are typically much cheaper than the pre-fabs (and the system you build would actually outperform that Dell) not to mention it will be a nice experience for you and your son to build a PC together (was for my father and I) so I'd reccomend building it yourself :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted January 9, 2006 Report Share Posted January 9, 2006 Definitely build yourself.You don't then have a machine stuffed with cheap junk hardware (and software). You can tailor EXACTLY the brand of all the components, the number of drives, the brand of everything plus, as has been said, the experience of just doing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted January 9, 2006 Report Share Posted January 9, 2006 The above points have always been my thoughts, except that personally I don't have the desire to build my own. I would NEVER consider a commercial build, as pops says you don't know whet the hell they are going to put into them, and how much of it is to their own spec. Mine was built by a local man, and we discussed first exactly what I wanted from the machine. I had NO superfluous so called FREE software and unwanted bits and bobs. I got exactly what I paid for. I have sent several people to him since and all have been very satisfied. My son in law has just had experience of dreadful after sales service from Evesham, another good reason for not going down the big company route. It has taken four weeks of premium rate phone calls to get the damned machine working. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deuces wild Posted January 9, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2006 Thanks for the comments everyone and I understand the points you are all making. But I was also asking for a comparison of the 2 systems I listed. Can folks compare and comment on the hardware both systems have? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scuzzman Posted January 9, 2006 Report Share Posted January 9, 2006 With the above information, the ONLY thing I can see that would make the second system negligibly slower would be that the Dell has 1GB more RAM... The second though has an AMD board/proc which is typically much better for gamers then its Intel counterpart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deuces wild Posted January 9, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2006 Thanks....and adding a gb more ram is not a problem.How do the type of ram compare?Is the AMD a lot better processor than that on the Dell?Is the Dell upgradable?The motherboard on the 2nd system........is it good?How do the graphics cards compare?Would you make any other changes to the 2nd system?TIA!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagwoood Posted January 9, 2006 Report Share Posted January 9, 2006 As it's a gaming system you're looking to purchase, the most important factor is how good is the graphics card. Out of the 2 systems, the Dells graphics card is a lot better performer than the 6800GT.Don't get me wrong, the 6800GT is no slouch and would play most of today's games at high detail settings, but the 7800GTX is Nvidia's latest offering and is the fastest card they've produced to date.For a comparison of the two cards(and all the current ones available), have a look at these benchmark tests/results:http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/12/02/vga...viii/page5.htmlHTH, dagwoood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deuces wild Posted January 9, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2006 Thanks dagwood. That card cost twice as much at the 6800. Add on the additional cost of the memory and the costs of the two systems are now the same. And I get no guarantee or service with the home made job. I think I am leaning towards the Dell unless I can see a big advantage with the other hardware on the home made machine vs. the Dell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rong Posted January 9, 2006 Report Share Posted January 9, 2006 You can always buy the cheaper one and then in six months time upgrade when the price has come down, if you need. I just add bits and upgrade as I need or can afford.As dagwoood said the one on the second machine is up to anything that is on offer at the moment.The only thing I would want on a new machine that's not on your second is the faster ram (I think it's cheaper as well).I am not an expert but do know you don't need the latest all the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted January 9, 2006 Report Share Posted January 9, 2006 Thanks dagwood. That card cost twice as much at the 6800. Add on the additional cost of the memory and the costs of the two systems are now the same. And I get no guarantee or service with the home made job. I think I am leaning towards the Dell unless I can see a big advantage with the other hardware on the home made machine vs. the Dell.If you lived in the UK, you could expect little in the way of service for a commercial computer. There will always be exceptions of course, but there are literally thousands of complaints about the lack of service from computer companies. Most operate high cost premium rate help lines, and it can cost a fortune trying to get things to run as they should, as I mentioned above in the case of my son in law versus Evesham. Most of these companies offer what they choose to call an ON SITE WARRANTY, but getting them to come out can prove to be quite a tussle. They usually insist in on the phone diagnostics, which can be quite prolonged at premium phone call rates. I hope that you can fare better in the States. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted January 9, 2006 Report Share Posted January 9, 2006 More often than not "on-site warranty" doesn't define whose site - yours or theirs. It's extraordinarily difficult to get any of the larger makers to visit your home (or office). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r4may Posted January 9, 2006 Report Share Posted January 9, 2006 Thanks....and adding a gb more ram is not a problem.Is the AMD a lot better processor than that on the Dell?Is the Dell upgradable?The motherboard on the 2nd system........is it good?How do the graphics cards compare?Would you make any other changes to the 2nd system?TIA!!!!My two penneth !The AMD is a better Gaming Processor than the Dell, its probably cheaper as well.Dells tend to fairly difficult to Upgrade as there are usually quite a few Customised parts in them.Put the Best Graphics card you can get in the system, I prefer the ATI range, so I do not know which is the better of the two you have in your specs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebuilt Posted January 9, 2006 Report Share Posted January 9, 2006 Thanks dagwood. That card cost twice as much at the 6800. Add on the additional cost of the memory and the costs of the two systems are now the same. And I get no guarantee or service with the home made job. I think I am leaning towards the Dell unless I can see a big advantage with the other hardware on the home made machine vs. the Dell. With respect to Dagwood dont be fooled into buying a cutting edge GFX card its true that the later the card the better the perfomance when measured by a dedicated engine. But in real life the actual difference is minimal. I challange anyone to truly spot the difference between a g6800 and a 7800 with the naked eye playing any game that is already realesed. GFX cards come out far faster than the games that are programned for them and ATI and NVidia would love to have us all belive we should upgrade every 3 months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deuces wild Posted January 9, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2006 Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. My son and I will build one together and here are the specs so far: MSI K8N Neo4/SLI motherboard (w/built in SoundBlaster Live chip) Althion 64 3000+ CPU, Socket 939 version 2 GB DDR400 Corair Ram 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX video card Antec Performance TX640B Series Case Plextor PX-716A dual layer DVD 16X Maxtor 300GB DiamondMax hard drive Viewsonic 17" Thinedge VP171B LCD flat panel monitor Windows XP Professional OEM Cost is around $2,000 USD. Any further suggestions? BTW: How many of you have put together computers and what was your success rate? It does not look like rocket science........screw it into place.......plug it into the motherboard.......give it some power......... So what can go wrong doing it yourself? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scuzzman Posted January 10, 2006 Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 Everything will only fit together one way. Just make sure to be properly grounded when assembling it (keep a hand on the case) and you should be fine :) The biggest thing you have to worry about is static discharge, and this should shield you from that.BTW: That's one nice computer!!Good luck :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted January 10, 2006 Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 What about having two hard drives?You could put a backup on the second one and also use it for storage/archiving.I also like to have two optical drives - one reading, one writing. This is useful for "on the fly" copying etc and using the (much lower cost) reader also saves wear and tear on the writer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted January 10, 2006 Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 Glad you decided not to go commercial Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deuces wild Posted January 10, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 Thanks for all the great advice so far. :) I have an 80 GB WD HD that we will be installing as a backup. BTW: Some suggestions I got from other sources: 1. Install PC4200 DDR2 memory vs the DDR400 Corair Ram we were planning to use. 2. A comment - "the MSI board is very nice - but there is one issue with it that I hate. The chipset heatsink has a fan on it. One of my fan's got a dust bunny trapped in there and it overheated and it killed the mobo. I would suggest an abit board without a fan, but with a larger heat sink on the chipset. (on the picture its the little fan next to the cpu)..." Any comments on these suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.