I've attempted to do my own research so far, however I now turn to Neoseeker and your great minds to focus my wants into reality.
Budget: $900-$1000 AUD
My Location: I'm in Australia so hopefuly someone local can assist with prices.
Main Purpose: Web surfing,
Multitasking: Most likely a high level of this.
Games: Revised to none.
Resolution: Not a huge deal for me. Onboard graphics are fine.
Overclocking: No need.
Peripherals I have: Wireless Keyboard and Mouse.
Recycled Parts: None
Case: Just one that fits my parts and doesn't make them overheat.
RAM: preferably 8GB however would like to have the option of upgrading in future.
HDD: 500GB will be plenty.
Other Requests: I'd like to have as much future proofing as possible, eg USB 3 and Firewire ports if possible. As far as I can tell, this means I have to be careful about the motherboard I purchase, I believe. (first build )
I've pulled a rough plan from mwave, here's the specs from the attempt I made:
Spoiler:1st Attempt
Case: Thermaltake Spacecraft VF-I Midi Tower Case with 500W Power Supply
CPU / Processor: Intel Core i5 3550 3rd Gen Processor
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H77M-D3H Motherboard
DDR3 RAM: Kingston ValueRAM 8GB (2x 4GB) DDR3 KIT
Main Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 500GB *Cheapest 500GB drive in the guide
Optical Drive: LG SATA 24x Dual Layer Super Multi DVD Burner *Cheapest in the guide
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium - SP1 - 64-Bit
Business Software: Microsoft Office Home and Student 2010
Monitor: LG IPS236V-PN 23" Slim IPS Full HD Widescreen LED Backlight Monitor *Cheapest in the guide
Speakers: Logitech LS21 2.1 Stereo Speaker System *Cheapest in the guide
Total Cost: Aprox $1,020 AUD
Spoiler:2nd attempt
Case: 1 x Mini Tower Case - Black, mATX w. 400W PSU - Front USB and Audio Ports
CPUs | Processor: 1 x Phenom II X4 970 Quad Core (3.5GHz) - AM3, 2MB L2 & 6MB L3 Cache, 45nm SOI, 125W - Boxed - Black Edition
Memory - RAM: 1 x 8GB (2 x 4GB) PC3-12800 1600MHz DDR3 RAM - 9-9-9-24
Hard Drives - Internal: 1 x 500GB 7200rpm Serial ATA-III-6Gb/s HDD
CD/DVD/Blu-Ray Drive: 1 x 24x DVD+-RW Dual Layer DVD Burner
USB/Firewire: 1 x Firewire 400 Card - 2x IEEE-1394 Ports
Operating System: 1 x Microsoft Windows 7 - Home Premium - 64-Bit
Memory Card: 1 x Internal Memory Card Reader Read and Write MS/ MSP/ CF/ SD/ MMC/ XD/ USB2.0
Comes to $742 from Techbuy.- and they assemble it for me.
Any pointers of where I can go cheaper would be appreciated. I'm willing to stick to the upper end of the bracket ($1000) if it means longer time without needing to upgrade.
My main sticking point is my lack of knowledge in the CPU/Motherboard area.
Thanks in Advance
Thread Recap (last 10 posts from newest to oldest)
May 31, 12 at 5:28am
hiigaran
i will admit, prebuilt units have improved in quality, but their prices have risen disproportionally. for starters, stay the hell away from HP and Dell. period. now, if you want good quality prebuilts youre looking at forking out some extra money on them. ASUS are good, but their prices are high. if we want to go to the extremes, alienware prices are so high that you can build two computers with the exact same specs yourself for the same price.
what i absolutely hate about prebuilts is that they usually restrict your overclocking capabilities in the BIOS. the most you can to to improve performance is to adjust the timings of your RAM. of course, they do this so that you have to buy a new computer sooner, rather than later.
where the performance of a self built computer is the same, the quality is much better. by quality, i mean the reliability and failure likelihood. prebuilts usually use shitty power supply units, and to make matters worse, they only use the bare minimum, preventing you from upgrading anything beyond more RAM.
I have to say though, the previous prebuild I had did have room to upgrade RAM, but the power supply being modular, didn't offer much headroom. In terms of quality though, I do think they are starting use higher quality components, although that is largely down to the individual manufacturer. My previous prebuild had an FSP PSU... sure it was FSP anyway and I think FSP do make good power supplies.
The main problem though is that most manufacturers don't list the exact stuff in the PC. I tried searching best buy and the nearest fit I could find to that PC didn't list the exact CPU. The other issue is they are more troublesome to upgrade. The BIOS on the board is really restrictive to the point the only thing it lets you change mainly are boot devices, and I/O settings. Plus the PC used a BTX form factor which is dead.
The other thing is, building your own PC isn't hard to do. Any failed component is easier to replace than if a component fails in a prebuild. If something in the a prebuild failed, then you'd have to send the entire PC back to the factory to get replaced. If something failed in a selfbuild, then only that component would get shipped off, and warranty management is somewhat more simple. Opening a prebuild just to upgrade or replace a component would void warranty, just by opening the case, meaning anything fails your on your own.
Quility of selfbuilds are generally higher anyway because you get to choose what parts you want, meaning you get exactly what you want instead of having to buy a 'nearest-to' what you want. I would only ever suggest a prebuild for someone who is a novice with PCs and can't be trusted with all the hassle of building it.
If you want a gaming PC then I would highly suggest you build one. Most prebuilt gaming PCs I've seen are overpriced for what you get.
May 31, 12 at 4:22am
hiigaran
where the performance of a self built computer is the same, the quality is much better. by quality, i mean the reliability and failure likelihood. prebuilts usually use shitty power supply units, and to make matters worse, they only use the bare minimum, preventing you from upgrading anything beyond more RAM.
Just go buy one at the store most laptops and amd desktops work perfectly for what your wanting.
building a computer is cheaper and you get parts of higher quality. prebuilts suck in every way.
May 30, 12 at 1:38pm
ashantiqua
really, if you just need web browsing spending anything more than a few hundred dollars is a total waste.
buy a $300 netbook with an APU.
unless you want a desktop because you plan on upgrading it in the future, again, anything over a few hundred dollars for web browsing is a complete waste. web browsing takes practically no RAM and no CPU power, with only HD video playback requiring a tiny little GPU / CPU juice.
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