Pre built PC. £1000 worth it?

GeminiUKGeminiUK Join Date: 2003-12-30 Member: 24880Members, Constellation
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">Please help a clueless NS fan.</div>Hi everyone,

I was lucky enough to come into a some money recently. My current PC is really old and on it's last legs so it's upgrade time!

I considered building my own system, but to be honest I don't mind paying a little extra to have it made for me and to get the tech support and what not.

I have been told CCL are a good site to buy PC parts from, they have this pre built system I like the look of but I could really do with some more informed advice!

<a href="http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=45806" target="_blank">CCL Vantage Elite Gaming System</a>

So, what do you think?
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Comments

  • lolfighterlolfighter Snark, Dire Join Date: 2003-04-20 Member: 15693Members
    Thousand quid is always expensive, but that looks like a solid rig, all told. Not too sure about the mobo, I don't have a feel for those. Midi tower can be fiddly if you need to mess around inside it and without looking at power usage 600W looks like a tight fit - not much room for extra gear without risk of overstressing it, but then again swapping out a PSU is hardly the most difficult procedure.

    Verdict: Expensive. Consider it if the place has a reputation for good service and you don't feel up to the headache of building your own system, leave it otherwise.
    If you go for it, go with two 500GB discs rather than a single terabyte (or go with two single terabytes if you thing you need that much), and partition smart: First disc, OS on one partition, permanent data (anything you don't want flushed when you wipe the OS) on the other partition. Second disc, small partition for the swapfile, large partition for games. Keep discipline when you install things (games on your dedicated games partition, office programs and such where speed is irrelevant can go on C) and you reap a nice loading time benefit versus the ol' amateurish single-partition-for-everything-and-oh-god-that-partition-died-and-everything-is-gone setup.
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  • sherpasherpa stopcommandermode Join Date: 2006-11-04 Member: 58338Members
    edited May 2010
    I don't consider myself great with tech stuff yet I would never, ever buy a pre-built system.

    Making one yourself really is simple and as long as you get well-known parts from companies with good reputations (i.e. don't stick a generic 500w PSU with generic RAM into your budget Mobo) there should be few problems.
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  • PipiPipi Join Date: 2009-12-09 Member: 69550Members
    edited May 2010
    I don't know what's the money value in the UK but this is much overpriced to me, as I'm Canadian and would pay about 1000$ CAN and probably less for the setup.

    (£1000 = 1500-1600$ CAN)

    EDIT: Like others said and most people will tell you, spend the time and effort to build your own system and buy OEM parts, you'll save good money just doing that. If you don't know how, read some manuals, assembling a computer is really easy nowadays, and get to know reputable hardwares.
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  • Draco_2kDraco_2k Evil Genius Join Date: 2009-12-09 Member: 69546Members
    Very good rig and fair price if you don't mind the extra cash or just can't be bothered, otherwise you can probably build similar if not better for 600$ or so. I did a year ago, anyway.
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  • DiscoZombieDiscoZombie Join Date: 2003-08-05 Member: 18951Members
    I'm considering a new rig myself, and I don't know if I'd ever risk putting one together all by myself. I know everyone says how easy it is, but if I can go to a website, pick all the parts I want, and have them assemble and test it for $100, it's totally worth it to me to have the peace of mind that a professional put it together. It would probably take me like 2 to 4 hours to get everything put together, OS installed, drivers, etc. so $100 for that much labor is practically nothing.
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  • Draco_2kDraco_2k Evil Genius Join Date: 2009-12-09 Member: 69546Members
    Zombie's idea is pretty much the best for most situations. All the benefits of knowing better without downsides of knowing worse.
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  • ScytheScythe Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 46NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation, Reinforced - Silver
    I'm wary of having anyone else build a computer for me ever since a mate of mine had one built. He asked for a 1TB HDD but he had me over recently to install another HDD and I found that they'd just RAID0'd two 500GB drives together. Dodgy as hell.

    --Scythe--
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  • lolfighterlolfighter Snark, Dire Join Date: 2003-04-20 Member: 15693Members
    So call 'em up and tell 'em that's not what you asked for. I mean it's hardly like that's not immediately obvious if you crack the case and have a looksie inside.
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  • ObraxisObraxis Subnautica Animator & Generalist, NS2 Person Join Date: 2004-07-24 Member: 30071Super Administrators, Forum Admins, NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Silver, WC 2013 - Supporter, Subnautica Developer, Pistachionauts
    I built a better system for much cheaper for myself recently. Just build one yourself. Save £$£$£
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  • ScytheScythe Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 46NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation, Reinforced - Silver
    <!--quoteo(post=1769567:date=May 3 2010, 02:43 PM:name=lolfighter)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (lolfighter @ May 3 2010, 02:43 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1769567"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->So call 'em up and tell 'em that's not what you asked for. I mean it's hardly like that's not immediately obvious if you crack the case and have a looksie inside.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    He had it built 600KM away.

    And a year ago.

    --Scythe--
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  • lolfighterlolfighter Snark, Dire Join Date: 2003-04-20 Member: 15693Members
    And he didn't notice until NOW that there were two small shiny boxes instead of a single small shiny box?
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  • ScytheScythe Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 46NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation, Reinforced - Silver
    <!--quoteo(post=1769584:date=May 3 2010, 10:37 PM:name=lolfighter)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (lolfighter @ May 3 2010, 10:37 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1769584"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->And he didn't notice until NOW that there were two small shiny boxes instead of a single small shiny box?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    He never had a reason to open it up until recently.

    --Scythe--
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  • RetalesRetales Panigg cultist Join Date: 2003-08-07 Member: 19180Members
    They'll take away his metal bawkses
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  • lolfighterlolfighter Snark, Dire Join Date: 2003-04-20 Member: 15693Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1769617:date=May 4 2010, 01:25 AM:name=Scythe)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Scythe @ May 4 2010, 01:25 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1769617"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->He never had a reason to open it up until recently.

    --Scythe--<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    That's sort of like buying a car and never looking under the hood. Hath that man no curiosity?!
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  • spellman23spellman23 NS1 Theorycraft Expert Join Date: 2007-05-17 Member: 60920Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1769636:date=May 3 2010, 10:52 PM:name=lolfighter)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (lolfighter @ May 3 2010, 10:52 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1769636"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->That's sort of like buying a car and never looking under the hood. Hath that man no curiosity?!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Well... it works....
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  • lolfighterlolfighter Snark, Dire Join Date: 2003-04-20 Member: 15693Members
    But there's all sorts of cool stuff in there! And even if you're afraid to touch anything for fear of breaking it, just looking won't hurt!
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  • Chris0132Chris0132 Join Date: 2009-07-25 Member: 68262Members
    I'm fairly sure my computer is a bit dodgy, it crashes constantly, I might replace the ram see if that fixes it because it usually crashes under load and most of the errors seem to be memory related.

    Don't really know a good company to buy computers from, I've tried like three and they all have problems.
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  • lolfighterlolfighter Snark, Dire Join Date: 2003-04-20 Member: 15693Members
    edited May 2010
    Those symptoms could also point to overheating or a too-weak or broken power supply. You also want to try Memtest86+ first if you suspect memory issues. And finally, my seemingly memory-related crashes may have been caused by a broken GPU (I say may have because it's too early to tell yet).
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  • Chris0132Chris0132 Join Date: 2009-07-25 Member: 68262Members
    edited May 2010
    Shouldn't be overheating as I had them install a liquid cooler and a bunch of fans because I figured it would get pretty hot, CPU rarely goes over about 35 C. It could be the power supply but I'm fairly sure I bought that with a margin as well, although all the fans might be draining it. It could also be the gpu as it's one of those BFG ones and apparently they're overclocked by default, so it could be unstable.

    It could also be that I'm running with 2gb of memory which probably isn't enough for a computer at the moment, and certainly not when I try to run 3dsmax, photoshop, and watch videos online at the same time.
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  • spellman23spellman23 NS1 Theorycraft Expert Join Date: 2007-05-17 Member: 60920Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1769669:date=May 4 2010, 10:00 AM:name=lolfighter)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (lolfighter @ May 4 2010, 10:00 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1769669"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Those symptoms could also point to overheating or a too-weak or broken power supply. You also want to try Memtest86+ first if you suspect memory issues. And finally, my seemingly memory-related crashes may have been caused by a broken GPU (I say may have because it's too early to tell yet).<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    fun fact, my computer fails Memtest. =]

    I'm pretty sure I'll get a new on this summer.
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