Duh. Custom built is always better.

Get your parts online if possible from

www.zipzoomfly.com
www.pricewatch.com
www.newegg.com

Best and Cheapest sites.
Also make sure all your parts are compatable.

See the thing is i want my own PC and im sure buying it in seperate parts is cheaper than buying like a whole pc ken. But my main problem is i dont know everysingle thing is that goes in a PC like a buying list

Anyone know if theres a place that will tell you everything you need to buy so i can make a lsit and tick it off as i go lol

Get the latest 'PC Gamer' magazine. The theme this week is Build your Dream rig. It gives step my step on how to build it and what exact parts you need. You dont need to get all the same parts he did, like Graphic card wise or MB or Ram though. You can figure those out on your own with the websites I said.
Its only like 7 bucks so i suggest you get it.

[This message has been edited by MaximusDecimus (edited 11-24-2005 @ 01:12 PM).]

Man i love your SIG anyway of making a Scottish flag?

Yea actually, I might be able to do it

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Here's your list-

Hardware:

Motherboard
Cpu (also known as the processor, make sure you get a fan/heatsink/thremal grease with it, those usually come with the processor anyway)
RAM
Video Card
Harddrive
Sound card (well thats only if you don't want to use the onboard sound card)
Case
Powersupply
CD/DVD drive (regular or a burner or both, whatever you want)
Power cord (may come with the powersupply)
Network card (if you have a home network and/or a broadband internet connection, most of the newer motherboards have a built in network card though)
Keyboard/mouse (if you don't already have one or want a new one)
Moniter (if you don't already have one or want a new one)
Speakers (if you don't already have them or want new ones)

Software:

Operating System (ex- Windows XP, Linux)
Anti-Virus software (not required but highly recommended)

If you've ever looked inside of a computer you'd notice that there really isn't a whole lot of stuff in it. It's quite easy to build one. Just make sure that all of your parts are compatible, uncompatible parts are the most common problem when building a pc.

@ MaximusDecimus If you can your the man!!!!

@ bstoned cheers neebz ure the man. Ive got my Novatech magazine but all check everywhere and come up with a nice sexy list. Im thinkin if i keep my own mouse keyboard monitor speakers etx then ill save money lol cheers man

I would suggest that you get an Athlon64 processor, if you can afford it get one of the new dual-core ones. If you can't afford a dual-core processor at least get a motherboard that is compatible with dual-core Athlons so you can upgrade in the future. Have atleast a gigabyte of PC3200 RAM, and get a 256mb videocard. Try and get a mother board with a PCI Express x16 slot so you can have a decent videocard and because AGP is starting to get outdated.

Some good PCIe video cards (I'm not too sure about the UK currency so I'll price them in US dollars)-

Nvidia Geforce 6600 GT (about $170 USD)
Nvidia Geforce 6800 GT (about $270 USD)
Nvidia Geforce 7800 GT (about $320 USD)
Nvidia Geforce 7800 GTX (about $400-$450 USD)
Radeon X800 (about $150 USD)
Radeon X800GT0 (about $200 USD)
Radeon X800PRO (about $200 USD)
Radeon X800XL (about $274 USD)
Radeon X850PRO (about $240 USD)
Radeon X850XT (about $300 USD)
Radeon X850XT PE (about $400 USD)

Your probably going to want to get something with OpenGL 2.0, which all of these cards have.

Some good motherboard manufacturors-

Asus
Abit
Gigabyte
MSI

You can build a nice system with an Athlon64 dual-core processor, 2 gigs of RAM, and a $300-$450 video card for about $1500-$2000 USD.

[This message has been edited by bstoned (edited 11-24-2005 @ 03:21 PM).]

I am planning on saving up money from work for a long time for the next four months and using part of my student loan so ive got quite a bitish and ill use christmas money lol. But become 17 soon so ive got lessons and crap to pay for and a car to buy and insurance etc. But heres the plan im gonna get another job a second one lol but anyhoo. Ive been lookin fru a mag that has mother board bunddles and i know the mag is good becuase ive bought from it before.

Here is a mother board bundle ive found P;S it says they come with mother board processor heatsink and fan and memory module.

Intel pentium 4 830 dual core 945 express bundle

Intel pentium 4 830 dual core CPU

512mb 533mhz dual channel DDR2 Ram (will upgrade to over 1gb)

945 intel chipset socket LGA775 motherboard

7.1 channel digital audio

4x usb2 ports

16x PCI express VGA slot

Heatsink & fan

ATX form factor

For 378£ which roughly translated could be 450-500 i think not sure

But thats what im looking at the mo. Does it seem ok?

Also must add. Ive seen a ATI Radeon x800gt 256mb PCI-E

490MHz Memory clock

256mb 256bit DDR3 memory

dvi & tv out

8 pixel pipeline fopr 111£

Is it better to build a custom PC from the ground up, or to simply order a pre-made high power machine? Is it cheaper?

I also have little technical knowledge in putting things together. Is it easy?

Well ive been told its better to build it from the ground up cos you can do it bit by bit ken and i have been lookin at website who do good deals and u can get the parts all cheaper and assemble them your self. And as for putting thme together if i can do it trust me ull be able to man. tis easy just pluggin it here and there lol i think.

Kaiser, the computer I built by myself, cost me 3000+ dollars. If you tried to get what i have It would cost around 5000, and I dought a company makes a computer that highly powered, for mainstream users.

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Yes, its alot cheaper, and easy. One big drawback when getting a pre-built pc is that if you modify any of the hardware it usually voids the warrenty, but with a fully custom pc you can do almost anything with the parts without voiding the warrenty.

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I'm an Nvidia man. The 6600GT is cheaper and alot better, something like 500 core clock, 1000 memory clock, 8 pipelines.

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If your gonna use that you'd better pick up some Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound and a damn good CPU fan. The Pentium Dual-Cores run extremely hot from what I hear, and they don't support Hyperthreading technology. Unlike the Athlon64 Dual-Cores, I hear they run alot cooler and support Hypertransport, which is basically the same as Hyperthreading, and AMD > Intel lol.

[This message has been edited by bstoned (edited 11-24-2005 @ 05:14 PM).]

Im listenin to you lol well what about this

AMD Athlon 64 3500 pro bundle

athlon 63 3500 socket 939 processor

nvidia nforced ultra socket 939 motherboard

512mb 400mhz ddr ram

heat sink and fan

internal upgrade slots 4x pci slots

7.1 channel digital audio

16x pci express vga slot

But this is £276 and the other one is £378 so i thot the other one would be better or is this as good?

[This message has been edited by Seany Boi (edited 11-24-2005 @ 05:14 PM).]

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That is very good. Hopefully the mobo (motherboard) is dual-core compatible, because the future games will require dual-core cpu's, if not oh well its still very good. If your worried about the decrease in quality of the RAM, don't be. I know someone who builds pc's for a living and he said that he couldn't see a performance difference between DDR2 and regular DDR PC3200.

Now I'm assuming that this is just a CPU/Mobo/memory combo, right? When you go to get your case you should consider an aluminum case as aluminum decreases heat in the case alot better than steel or fiberglass would.

Other than that it looks like a good deal, and a great gaming pc.

[This message has been edited by bstoned (edited 11-24-2005 @ 05:23 PM).]

Cheers man your the man tis PC im building will have your name somewhere in a folder or something lol.

And yeh this is a combo. And ill buy a nice aluminium case to go with it. But the bundle i realised aint everything
so i was thinking of everything else i needed to get the PC running. Not perfect but running.

Video Card
harddrive (could use old one to save buying new xp?)
and then buy another larger ahrddrive for games etc?
CD/DVD drive

and you mention power cord? what you mean power cord and power supply that not come with motherboard?
Case
A wont get a monitor to keep costs down and use the one i have
and same with speakers cos im getting suround sound for my room so ill hook it upto that
and software ill get norton.

So just to make sure that ok?

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Yeah, I never thought about that, yes you could use the old one instead of just putting a new one in and rebuying XP. Just make sure you set it as the primary harddrive when you install it.

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Yep

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The power supply and the power cord do not come with the motherboard (just to make sure you know what I'm talking about- the power cord is the cord goes from your computer to the electrical outlet, now that I think about it you could probably use your old one, but you will probably need a new powersupply). Sometimes the powersupply will come with the case depending on where your getting the case from. Your probably going to need atleast a 480 watt powersupply.

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Nah, just name the computer after me lol.

Well as i was surfing further with all this in idea i found this

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?BB-X2DB

Think it cuts out some hastle but not sure.

That would be awesome if you have the money. Too bad they don't have a 3800 X2 bundle, it would be alot cheaper and you'd probably get about the same performance.

Here's something you may want to consider-

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/pcsextra.html?PC-0825T

Dual-Core Athlon64 3800 already completely built, it costs more but would be great.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/pcsextra.html?PC-0812T

This one's really nice too, although its not dual-core and the video card isn't the greatest.

I know I'm going against my word here, custom built only, but these are some good deals.

[This message has been edited by bstoned (edited 11-24-2005 @ 06:28 PM).]

Thats not bad bstoned...

He double posted!!!! OOOOO

Kewl ive sent them an e-mail about pay monthly. And ive they say yes then ill get onto my mum to let me buy it after xmas lol.

I wish they had something like that store in the US, alls we've got is Newegg...... lol

No check the second post. Other net stores. Some also have prebuilt customs.