BlueMak

Going to buy one (PC) soon. I am between yoyotech, cyperwpower PC and PCspecialist. Cyber has the upper hand so far.
Any reason to avoid any of the 3?

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

NathanMarks

There's no reason why you shouldn't just build your own, there's a guide located on this forum with a step by step with pictures on how to build your own computer. If you insist otherwise though, I haven't used PCspecialist before, but between cyberpowerpc and yoyotech I would go with yoyotech. I haven't had a bad experience with yoyotech before but have seen them deliver a low quality product (damage, bad wiring, etc.) and have had a friend who has had nothing but trouble with their customer service. This wasn't recently so I can't say what they're like now but from things i've heard it isn't much better. My friend who ordered from cyberpower couldn't say anything good about them except for the price. In some cases I guess you get what you pay for.

If you do order from cyberpower though, let me know how it turns out. Cheers.

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nathanmarks.dh

kris23

whats wrong with building your own? unless you dont have the time, i wouldnt want to deal with the possibility of subpar service....

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Callandor

Agreed.

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cozumel

Me too. Although for value, you can't beat a pre-built pc with vista, office, printer, webcam etc bundled goodies.

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Callandor

IIRC, Blue is not too much of a deep gamer these days, he said he plays mostly old school/not very demanding games these days, don't know if his stance has changed but if that still is the case; then like Coz says, pre-built ftw.

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kris23

touchscreen...... good.....


HP TouchSmart IQ500 Desktop PC series overview - HP Home & Home Office products

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BlueMak

Are you forgetting that I will have to pay p&p for cheaper products bought from seperate shops to get the best price per part, then spend x number of days to have all the components, then spend a couple of hours at least to build it, and hope that nothing is broken and test everything, and etc etc etc.
To save what? 5% of the final price? IF that?

I have the knowledge to build a pc on my own, I just lack the reasons to do so.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

blibbax

The more expensive you get, the less true that becomes.

cozumel

Until it becomes the total opposite and the pre-built ends up a rip-off

But for the average sub £1,000 rig you do get good value as long as you make sure you are getting the right bundled peripherals and software...

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unknownjd

Novatech just won PC Pro awards for best Desktop PC, and highly recommended for online retailer... definitely worth checking out

cozumel

Their Energiser Pro looks nice (£915 inc)
Motherboard MSI P7N Diamond 780i
CPU Intel Quad 9450
4GB PC2-6400
2 x 9800GT SLI
Antec 900 Gamer Case
1TB (2 x 500GB) Serial ATA II Hard drive with 16MB Buffer
Creative X-Fi PCI-Express 8-channel audio
Microsoft Wireless Keyboard & Optical Mouse

Does not include monitor, OS or any software though

With added extras of Vista Home Premium, MS Office Home & Student and Novatech 2 Year PC Care Pack it adds up to £1118 (incl)

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BlueMak

Going with an ATI solution, probably 4870x2, 4gb ram, 500-1tb hdd, onboard sound, no monitor.
I don't want to get another nvidia for a while.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

cozumel

ATI FTW, to be honest

What is your budget btw?

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BlueMak

About 1000 GBPs. I could go a bit more up to 1200max.
The problem is I don't have or want to use a solo/switch/credit card so my options for retailers are much smaller. Bank transfer (or cirrus) would be great, but so far only pcspecialist.co.uk has it as option and their site SUCK ASS by not telling you the price for hardware while you are building it.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

blibbax

Paypal couls be a useful halfway house. I can understand a reluctance to use credit cards, is your aversion to debit cards security related or for other easons?

You are going to have real issue shopping online without at least paypal.

BlueMak

Other reasons.

I have noticed.

So far pcspecialist seems to be the only one accepting bank transfer for payment. So I might do that today or something.

What do you think of this?

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™2 Quad Q9550 (4 X 2.83GHz) 1333MHz FSB/12MB Cache

Free Item
FREE RaceDriver: Grid DVD Game (RRP: £34.99) with any Intel® Core™ 2 Quad CPU!

Memory (RAM)
4GB CORSAIR XMS2 800MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x2GB)

Motherboard
ASUS® P5Q DELUXE: DUAL DDR2, S-ATA II,2 x VGA, 2 x PCI, 2 PCI-E x1

Operating System
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium 64-bit Edition + SP1, CD (£59)

USB Options
8 x USB 2.0 PORTS (6 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)

2nd Hard Disk
NONE

3rd Hard Disk
NONE

1st CD/DVD Drive
20x Dual Layer LightScribe DVD Writer ±R/±RW/RAM

2nd CD/DVD Drive
NONE

Graphics Card
2048MB RADEON HD 4870X2 PCI Express (PRE-ORDER ONLY)

2nd Graphics Card
NONE

Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Modem
NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND

Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT

Floppy Disk Drive
NONE

Memory Card Reader
NONE

Case
Stylish Silver/Black Sigma case + 2 front USB

Power Supply & Case Cooling
700W Quiet Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£79)

Processor Cooling
STANDARD CPU COOLER

Firewire & Video Editing
NONE

TV Card
NONE

Monitor
NONE

2nd Monitor
NONE

DVI Cable
NONE

Keyboard & Mouse
Logitech® Internet Keyboard + Hotkeys (Black) (£6)

Mouse
NONE

Speakers
NONE

Printer
NONE

Surge Protection
Belkin 4 Socket 2M Surge Protector with £25,000 Protection! (£7)

Webcam & VoIP
NONE

Media Center Remote
NONE

Anti-Virus
NONE

Office Software
NONE

External Hard Drive
NONE

Warranty
1 Year Return-to-Base incl 1st Month Free Collect & Return

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 13 working days

Quantity
1


1126 GBP, including expenses.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

BlueMak

Order placed, same system as above with some changes

mainboard the p5q ws
8gb of 800 ram (corsair)
wireless network card
logitech g15 keyboard
1 dvi cable ( I will need to buy something to make it work to the hdmi only tv)

final price including expenses, 1237 gbp.
I think it is good.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Callandor

Just seeing this now, was going to suggest yhe Logitech G15 keyboard and G5 mouse, not a bad buy, I know the feeling when you need a new rig and are tired of using a crappy one. Grats man, hope the new system will bring you oodles of joy.

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FuNsTeR

i only bought 1 pc from a company and it was a absolute nightmare ... ever since i built my own and never had any problems... my current set up is a couple of years old .... but still does a job .... i will probably ditch this pc and by a acer laptop around christmas time ... i already have a dell laptop which is ok but is not as powerfull graphic and cpu as the latest acer laptops

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"They say when you play a Microsoft CD backwards you can hear satanic messages ..... but that's nothing, if you play it forward it will install Windows"

BlueMak

Well, I transfered the money today, so I should have the PC in a couple of weeks at the most.
Will see how things go, but one thing I did not like was how I had to order a seperate DVI cable, I would imagine one was included with the retail graphics card or something and since after reading the review of the pcspecialist system here and how everything is included (cables, manuals, cds etc), I was surprised.

Hopefuly everything will be fine.


Oh, regarding the keyboard, yes the G15 looks very nice and with backlighting even better. As for mouse, I left the sidewinder back in Greece, I hated that mouse, and bought a Logitech G9. Superb handling so far, but haven't tested yet in gaming.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

BlueMak

UPDATE:
I added a set of speakers and a different pc case. The one original bought didn't feel enough to handle the heat from the radeon.

There is a delay since they expect the radeon card on the 10th. I was given an option to go for the 4870 but I decided to stick with the x2.

Still trying to decide if I will get another monitor as I want to or just use the tv I recently bought.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

BlueMak

Update:
They finished building it today and will probably enter testing tomorrow. So hopefuly I will have it in a couple of days and within this week.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

BlueMak

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

BlueMak

It's here.
I can't use it yet since I have some filming to do this evening, but later on I will try, if I manage to unscrew the case from the side to make sure there is nothing out of place or something. (safety first).
That might be a problem because I don't have any screwdriver here and I don't have the time to go and buy one. I have a few knives, so I might try that, will see.

I was dissapointed with one thing, since they are supposed to bundle everything there is in the retail packaging of the hardware you purchase, why not include the hdmi-dvi adaptor that is included with the graphics card? I was forced to buy a seperate one from a local shop. (too expensive too).

Apart from that everything feels ok, will know more whenever I manage to operate it hopefuly tonight.

BTW, the box that everything was inside was in pristine condition. I had no idea DHL was that good. It looks like the box was moved with extreme care, not something I am used seeing often by any company/post office etc.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

BlueMak

It works fine, although I don't know if the mainboard etc need drivers or what. I get windows score of 5.9 which is nice. I will post some photos tomorrow.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Callandor

Sweet dude, only seeing this now though, one kick ass machine right there, epic congrats. Maybe now you'll play lots of newer games if only to have a taste of all the kick ass eye candy you can have lol.

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BlueMak

Thank you. I bought several older and not so older PC games over the last few days

All of them on sale or very very low prices. Colonization (the new one), GRID (came with the PC), STALKER (about time), Silent Hunter 4 (haven't played 3 yet...), DiRT, Star Trek Legacy, IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 (this I will probably not play for a long time since I don't plan on buying a joystick yet). In total I paid something like £40. Not bad I think and it looks like I will probably buy one or more of Fallout 3, Saints Row 2, Far Cry 2, GTAIV, X3-Terran Conflict, Mercenaries 2, Dead Space. Not sure yet which, depends on a number of factors like prices, reviews and DRM.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Callandor

Nice selection you got for starters there, and at a good price. GRiD, for me, is a cool game but I don't know why, just played through the first 3 zones, then the next one two regions then a couple of the pros and challenges then lost interest. As for Far Cry 2, got Crysis Warhead, its pretty good, I've played it a bit but it minds me of the original game quite alot just like Far Cry 2 would probably be alot like Instincts and 1 with better graphics, Crysis Warhead to me somehow seems like a repeat of the original storywise (and feelwise as well) for the little that I've played it. Haven't tried Crysis Wars yet though.

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Zardon

I agree, its a huge issue with their site and im sure they are losing a lot of customers due to that. I mentioned they needed to sort that out them several times but they didn't seem that interested in my feedback. You should email them and complain, the more people who do it (and don't order) means they might change their system.