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*New Build Help* (Build or buy Dell/HP?)

M

mrblahman

Member
1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

Video/Photo Editting, Gaming, Web

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

$1200 - $1600

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

USA!

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc, etc, etc, you get the picture.

Used to be an AMD Fan boy, would like to go Intel/Nvidia, but would go AMD or ATI if price is right for the performance. Harddrive not a big deal as long as it lasts

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

My Lian-Li mid-tower I bought 5 years ago in my current build, but would like to not have to find a cheap case to relocate the current system i'm running

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.

Tried, but i'm getting itchy with some of the Dell/HP builds and sometimes how affordable they are. When I built my machine 5 years ago it my $2,000 build would have been 3-4k on dell/HP, now it seems its getting closer to build cost

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

Run at default speeds.

8. WHEN do you plan to build it?

Soon as i'm done the planning
 
It would probably help if you listed the parts you were looking at and the comparable models you've found from Dell or HP.
 
I'd rather go the other direction and find the best I can build custom (which I used to doing) and then try to find the best I can find at dell to match.
 
I guess I'm a little bit confused by what you're expecting us to do then. There's a sticky with suggested parts that would make good reading material.

It's not a coincidence that most of the builds on here with your budget come out 75-90% the same, so it might not be a bad idea to poke around the other build threads as well. I think you'll find that people are most willing to help when there's already a skeleton build up for them to comment on.

Do you have any idea whether you want dual or quad core? How big is your monitor?
 
Here's what I can tell you from what I see:

Dell is a great company, sure. They offer warranties and tech support.

However, it costs more.

I can guarantee you if you build your own with the same budget you'll get a significant performance increase, depending on your technical knowledge.
 
Originally posted by: TaylorTech
I can guarantee you if you build your own with the same budget you'll get a significant performance increase, depending on your technical knowledge.
Click to expand...

With the insane discounts Dell offers every one in a while, that's not necessarily 100% true, especially when you consider that Dell generally includes a pretty nice monitor.
 
- Already have a 24' Widescreen

- Probably Quad-Core because of future proof and I'm starting to do more photo/video than gaming these days and don't need the extra gaming performance boost dual gives you
 
As a starting place I would suggest these parts.

ASUS P5Q Pro $150 [includes firewire port + many USB ports/jumpers & S/PDIF out]
q9300 $270 [free $20 gas cards if you look in the combo deals]
Mushkin 2x2GB DDR2-800 $71AR
WD 640GB HDD $90

Video card depends on how much gaming you want to do. Radeon 4850 for $140AR is an excellent deal these days, at the next level is the GTX 260 for $225AR (see hot deals forums for details on these deals).

Power supply depends on how much video card you buy, I would suggest at least 500W from a good maker (Seasonic, Corsair, Antec-Earthwatts, OCZ, etc).

Case is too much a personal choice to make much of a suggestion.
 
Especially if you already have a monitor/peripherals/OS, building your own is way more cost effective. (Don't forget can reuse an OS key if you had a retail one you can recover from an old computer that you won't use anymore). Otherwise I agree with DSF.
 
Quad-cores are only useful for certain software applications. If you aren't heavy into video encoding you will probably be better off with a dual core cpu instead.

And if you have XP Pro retail you're good to go, no need for Vista unless you want DX10 for newer games.
 
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