Looking for opinions on this build!

[Hatter106]

I'm not sure if you guys have heard of Tagar PC, but they're a Canadian company who provide custom PC builds. I've been tinkering with this AMD build for a few days, and after a lot of consulatation with my friends' tech nerd cousin, I've tentatively got it down to this:

CASE: Cooler Master Centurion 5 18in SLV
POWER SUPPLY: Sparkle Power 400W 24pin CW/20pin adptr
PROCESSOR: AMD Athlon 64 3500+ S939
PROCESSOR COOLING: Cooler Master K8 A64 & Sempron Silent
MOTHERBOARD: FOXCONN GeForce 6100 +nForce 410 S939
MEMORY: 512MB PC3200 DDR400 x2 (Dual-channel)
HDD: Seagate 200GB Serial ATA
OPTICAL WRITER: Samsung 16X16 DL DVD±RW Int. Blk
OPTICAL READER: Aopen 16X IDE DVD-Rom Int Black
MEDIA CARD READER: 42-in-1 Flash Media USB BK/SLV/BG w/ext
VIDEO CARD: eVGA GeForce 7600GS 256M PCI-E, HDTV DDR2
-XP Pro
-Onboard Sound

= $1144.42 (Canadian) Plus $140 for tax & s/h.

Decent value? I'm looking for something that'll last me for at least a few years. I realize I probably won't be able to play Oblivion at highest graphics, but the video card will probably be the first thing I upgrade in a year or two.
Opinions?

 

[StevenNevets]

1-2 GB of ram for games - go for 2 GB if you can

 

[buck]

1100 US after tax for that machine? Maybe im missing something or its the glass of wine that i just had, but that is crap for that amount of money.

 

[buck]

Sorry to be blunt with my first response but let me ask some questions:
What is your budget?
Would you be able to build your own? (if its your first time, you have this great forum at your disposal, save ALOT of money doing it)
Have you looked at even dell?

You should really reconsider that system, I would hate to see anyone settle for that, unless there is some lcd and software involved that im not seeing.

 

[Hatter106]

I had considered building it myself, but I wondered whether it'd be worth it considering a) how much I'd pay in s/h by ordering all the parts online and b) I'd rather the build be in the hands of experts, since I've never installed anything more complicated than a disc drive.
As for budget, I was hoping to not go too far over $1000 Cdn ($880 USD) although obviously I'm willing to go a couple hundred over that.
Is it that the components are crap, quality-wise, or are they just over-charging for them?

 

[Talcite]

It's 1100 CDN. Anyways, I'd say go with the 3700, get the 2 gigs of ram, change psu. Ok well the thing is... Hatter, where are you in canada? if you're in toronto. I can personally quote you for a build at my computer store. Even if you don't want that, i can quote you for parts from my store online. It should give you a ballpark figure of how much it costs around toronto or anywhere in canada actually. Rest assured i work on no comission, and i only build with your wellbeing in mind. There's a few parts I can't get a price of at my store, so we have to give some external quotes. I can't help you with that unfortunately.

 

[xanis]

Trust me, building your own PC is not that hard as long as you take your time, think things through and have some measure of patience. I had never even seen the inside of a computer much less built my own and I put together a computer without any problems. Buck is correct, you would save a considerable amount of money by doing it yourself.

 

[chango]

Build or bust.

 

[Hatter106]

I'm over in Moncton, NB.
If I was going to order parts, pretty much the only site I know of is Vibe Computers. They're Canadian, and their prices seem pretty fair.

 

[Talcite]

Yeah i'm with the rest of the guys here, building yourself IS the cheapest... if you're lucky you can find a place that sells parts individually and then assembles for a small fee if you're not great with computers, or don't want to worry about them. I'm not sure what they have out there at NB, but yeah, don't go to a place like MDG or crap like that. Vibe doesn't look bad, a real plus is how they don't charge shipping if you have the right items. Where are they located? I find it hard to believe they had 401 users online when i visted though =p

 

[Operandi]

Video card is far too slow, drop the CPU down to Athlon 64 3000+ if you have to but definitely up the GPU.

Go with 2GB or RAM. Corsair, Crucial, Mushkin are the names I recommend.

CPU cooling, Thermalright or Zalman.

Foxconn is not something I would suggest for the motherboard, try Asus, or MSI.

I'm also not particular impressed the Centurion, give a few Lian Li's a look.

 

[xanis]

If you're going to order parts in Canada, check out NCIX

 

[Talcite]

shipping adds up quite quickly with NCIX

 

[buck]

Originally posted by: Hatter106
I had considered building it myself, but I wondered whether it'd be worth it considering a) how much I'd pay in s/h by ordering all the parts online and b) I'd rather the build be in the hands of experts, since I've never installed anything more complicated than a disc drive.
As for budget, I was hoping to not go too far over $1000 Cdn ($880 USD) although obviously I'm willing to go a couple hundred over that.
Is it that the components are crap, quality-wise, or are they just over-charging for them?

The best thing you can do it build it yourself. We are all here to help you .
You would still save ALOT of money getting all the parts from a single place (like NCIX that the other fellow suggested) and building it up. Its really not that hard as long as you have a computer that is up and running while you are building it in case you had questions. This hardware forum stays very busy so any questions will be answered pretty darn fast, as %99 of us have built them up before 100x over.

As for your components, off the top of my head I would get atleast 1 gig of ram and a better video card.

 

[buck]

Originally posted by: Talcite
shipping adds up quite quickly with NCIX

I feel bad for you canadians not having newegg . And Frys for that matter.

 

[Talcite]

dude i just hate how we can't get any of the freeshipping offers =/ You'd think they could make it free shipping to canada too for an extra few bucks... but no it's full price -_-"

 

[iamaelephant]

I would go with a 7600GT instead of the GS for sure.

 

[araczynski]

i just built my little brother the following rig for $1400

19"lcd
same case
solid psu
2gig ram
250hd
dvdrw
7900gt
3800x2
dfi mobo
audigy2zs
creative 7.1 speakers

the problem with buying a 'custom' built pc anywhere is that you will ALWAYS get charged for the labor.

but i agree, shipping costs to canada are crap. what my other brother did is have everything delivered to the family house in milwaukee and he drove down from toronto to pick it all up on his next visit. but i suspect you don't have that luxury.

 

[Running]

i think zipzoomfly ships to canada now.

 

[buck]

Originally posted by: Running
i think zipzoomfly ships to canada now.

Interesting...

 

[buck]

Originally posted by: buck

Originally posted by: Running
i think zipzoomfly ships to canada now.

Interesting...

Actually they don't.

"As of August 4, 2005, we will not be offering shipping to Canada. We apologize for the inconvenience."

 

[rcalzada51]

I Just put together a nice home build system which included an A-top X-Blade Case, 600W PS, Abit KN8 Ultra MB, AMD Ath64 X2 4200+ (Manchester), 2GB Corsair DDR400 (1GBX2) with SONY 16X Super All-Write DVDRW Drive and an XFX Geforce 7900 GT (520MHZ) Xtreme 256MB PCI-E video card for around $946.35 (US) from parts I got at mwave.com. I'm not sure if they ship to Canada though... or if they have a distributor there, but I bought them on-line. I think you should take your time and shop around a little more. You can get so much more for your money if you do it yourself. Oh yeah... I also added a 20" Viewsonic VG2021M TFT LCD for $285 from there too. My old 19" CRT was just taking up too much space