Windows 7: New Computer

Hello guys, Im planing to buy a new desktop computer after summer. And I want want to ask you which are good and which are bad comparing to performance/price. I found dell XPS 435, it would be great for me. Btw I will use this computer for gaming/graphic things. So if anyone have any ideas/know where to find high-end pc, place them here. Or its better to build a pc for myself?

I would recommend building your own actually.

Its cheaper to build it yourself, But It dosent come with any support outside the warranties.

I would second both the above posts. Doing the research for the parts, figuring out which video card will provide you with the performance you would like to see in your games, the processor that will provide you with the grunt you need/want to do the various things you want to do (graphics - more grunt is better ) - that can be more the 1/2 the fun of a new computer.

But, like was mentioned above, going this route you have to provide your own tech support. You can, sometimes, get tech support from the MBO and/or video card manufacturers, but sometimes not.

I've probably built 7 or 8 machines over the course of the last 10 years and so far I've only had one problem. In the most recent build, the the CPU socket on the MBO was damaged and I had to RMA it back to NewEgg.com (a painless process).

+1, 2 & 3 for the above comments.

A custome build is 1 way to guarantee that you've got the machine you want

Actually I disagree -- It's usually NOT cheaper to build it yourself - you can't compare huge manufacturing volumes with a 1-off build.

Cheap manufacture in Taiwan and elsewhere means you can pick up a reasonable rig for a very cheap price these days.

However if you do "Roll your own" you'll get a really good purpose built rig which should be just fine for what you need to do.

Don't make the big mistake of thinking that it's actually cheaper however.

(Note if you ALREADY have parts that you can re-use such as memory, power supply, monitor, case etc. then it *can* be cheaper since you don't have to source every component from scratch).

BTW I'm NOT against building your own -- on the contrary - I'm all in favour but it's NOT cheaper.

Cheers
jimbo

well....lets put that assumption to the test shall we jimbo


here is a gaming rig i googled from one of the largest UK ''E-tailors''




now lets match the spec of this tower ourselves, using the same E-tailor for the separate components....

i7 920.......£225

x58 board......£150

6gb Tri channel DDR3.......£77

GTX260.....£120

Antec 900 gaming case........£82

2x 500gb HDD's........£84

DVDRW.......£16

KEYBOARD & MOUSE.....£73 (personally i'd never spend that amount on this product)


total......£827

retail.....£1091

as you can see im able to save myself quite a bit by building this rig myself even more could be saved by loosing that ''mouse & keyboard'', all components also have 1 year RTB on them....(which is the same as the actual warranty you get from the retail tower)...

building it yourself is the logical option.....



SK

Cheers for that skunksmash. I have seen some cases where the DIY builds do get a bit pricier especially if it is the first computer you are building since you dont have any existing parts that you can scavenge from. But usually it works out best if you do your own build first.

I love doing builds but the art of cable management to get maximized airflow through the system eludes me.

On reflection (and re-reading what I wrote) I have to agree - it's not cheaper. But, you can get a better bang/buck ratio by building your own.

And, like jimbo says, once you go down that path you can sometimes pull parts from your old machine to build the new machine. My current machine (i7 920, 6GB, ....) only cost me about $700 to piece together because I had all I needed except the X58 MBO, the i7, and the memory.

As somebody who has built most of his desktops, I'd say it's not really worth it unless you have a lot of free time and are trying to save every dollar possible.

It's not too hard to clobber a pc together, but to really make a solid build, you need to know a lot of details such as PSU rails, effective case cooling, RAID setup (if applicable). And you always run that chance that some piece of hardware you get has a crummy driver or just so happens to act wonky with another. You'll occasionally run into problems where a new build just simply won't boot and install an OS and it might take you all day screwing with it. (I had a problem where Vista simply hung during install and apparently it was some obscure conflict the motherboard was throwing up. This is despite the motherboard coming with a Vista certified emblem)

But if you do have loads of free time, not much cash, and want a very specific build, then go for it. It's just not always as pain-free as it's made out to be.