Building a PC

[Baladin]

Already spoken to a few people in spring about this and i have a good idea of what i want, the only problem im having is finding cheap retailers who sell to the UK.

NZXT HUSH Silent Brushed Aluminium ATX Midi Tower - Black [upg £ 25.00]
700W X-Power Desktop Power Supply [upg £ 10.00]
ASUS P8P67 LE Mainboard - Intel CoreÔäó i - LGA 1155 / ATX
Intel┬« 2nd Generation CoreÔäó i5-2500K Processor (6M Cache, 3.30 GHz) - LGA1155
8GB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM - ( 2x4GB** )
1280MB NVIDIA Geforce GTX470 Graphics Accelerator [upg £ 95.00]
24" Iiyama LCD Monitor - Full HD 1920x1080, DVI & HDMI, 2ms [upg £ 130.00]
1TB Samsung F3 SATA 7200rpm 32MB Cache Hard Drive
Blu-Ray Combo Optical Drive (12x BD-R Read, 16x DVD Writer)
Creative SoundBlaster X-FI Xtreme Gamer Sound Card PCI OEM [upg £ 57.50]
Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium pre-installed
Free Microsoft® Office 2010 Starter Edition
Free Cyberlink Video Editing Suite - 7 titles (oem)
BullGuard Internet Security ver. 10 - 90 Day Trial - AntiVirus/Firewall/Backup/Spamfilter
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.2 - PC Game - Free with NVIDIA GTS 450/ GTX 460
2x IEEE1394 Firewire (onboard)
Free 3 Years Gold Warranty - inc 3 Months Free Collect & Return

£1230 for that.

This was what i originally wanted, but ive been told mesh computers have bad customer support and all the so called free stuff doesnt seem so free to me for that price (and there is alot of junk included in that package that i dont really want).

Id really like to be spending about £1000 for the same thing and maybe £150 on top of that for a monitor. Seems like american retailers sell alot cheaper than english so if you know any that deliver world wide itd be nice to know.

[Jazcash]

I've bought two PC's from MESH, the first one I used for about 2 years before selling it to my sister to buy a better one from MESH, still using that now and it runs Crysis and everything. Was £700 when I bought it, is about £300-£400 now so pretty much anything you buy from MESH for ~£500 will do whatever you want it do do.

[TradeMark]

I hope you know that bigger PSU isnt directly better PSU. And when combined with word "cheap" it certainly is going to blow up your computer. Take more money in PSU and motherboard than any other part.

I also suggest you to take lot of attention on the screen you choose. Go watch it IRL how it looks like. Dont buy before trying. FYI: 2ms response times are just marketing hoax, so be very very suspicious about those screens. Especially when they are cheap.

[SirArtturi]

Agreed.

Nothing imo is more important in your pc than a motherboard (Ok some may argue that CPU or GPU etc. is most essential but in the end they are just processing units. Motherboard is the system which holds all the parts together, handles the traffic and makes it a computer).

So, If you want a computer that works good, lasts long, and is still easily upgradeable up to date after couple of years, invest on motherboard! Usually you will get some bonus with the support.

[Beherith]

I dont think motherboards are that essential. Looking at this current config, it should last 3 years. By then, Im pretty sure upgrading would mean chucking the mobo-cpu-gpu anyway. Raise your hand if you ever upgraded only the cpu in a mobo.

Decent PSU is good advice, buy name brand only to be sure.
Also, like TM said, looking at the screen before buying it is the best choice possible.

[SirArtturi]

o/

It's about five years or so when I essembled my computer. I bought a quality mobo and spent only little money on the CPU. After couple years I upgraded the CPU with small investment and the computer was up to date.

I admit I had to buy new GPU and some more RAM afterwards but im still running with the same 5 year old system. Only recent it has been slightly cracking with the usb ports but everything else is still working like a magic.

Personally, I'd look to the future: is there going to be any drastic changes in technology? and make my decision according to that. Unfortunately cant help you with that since Im not familiar with current trends so im just offering you my own casestudy :)

Edit: But yeah, Power supply that is, if nothing else...

[KaiserJ]

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.2

*fart-smell face*

edit: all i can do is +1 things already said; with monitors its great to go and look in person. mobo and PSU i think of as the foundation of a house, if they break, it may well take the rest with them.

does anyone know why it costs so damned much for PC parts etc in europe? is it due to some sort of monopoly? idk, just from what i've seen, my fellow north americans get a way better deal on just about everything...

i would have thought that since europe is connected to asia by land, it would be cheaper if anything