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kro
14th August 2007, 06:31
I am in the position of having to upgrade my old dunger of a PC. I have been studying pricespy quite heavily, and have noticed that it's all a bit of a farce, and from what I have seen, all pricespy does is point you toward the company who is specialling off 2 or 3 items really cheaply, and there is a majorly false economy in buying all your pc bits from the lowest priced vendors, because then the freight costs destroys whatever savings you thought you made.

I had a real beast of a machine priced up, and now have to start again, due to my strict budget. Shopping for new geek parts should be a joyous occasion, but if you're a one income family like me, and have a set budget, it's a freaking nightmare.

I was going to team up an Athlon x2 4800 (or better), with 2gb of DDR2-667, and a 7600GT, and a WD 160gb HDD, and fuel it all with a 500W PSU. The Asus M2N mobo was going in to bring it all together.

Either I need to save more moeny, and hope my existing PC doesnt go pop, or comprimise on what I wanted to buy.

caesius
14th August 2007, 08:06
One way I can think of cutting down the price might be to buy a Dell. They're pretty cheap. Although it won't be as hard core as you might like.

Headbanger
14th August 2007, 09:27
Pricespy is manipulated by the sellers, If you want a real indication of the price you will need to pick the 4th or 5th listing.

You may have better luck if you spread your purchases over a few weeks rather then trying to buy them all on the same day. Though I can see that probably won't suit.

Romeo
14th August 2007, 09:33
One way I can think of cutting down the price might be to buy a Dell. They're pretty cheap. Although it won't be as hard core as you might like.

I'd have to agree with him TBH, some of those Dells are well below the price you'd be able to build your own at - plus it's supported by someone else. The downsides are generic motherboards, less-than cutting edge graphics and lackings in upgradability. But if you want a good machine that's not a hardcore gamer or showrig, it's all good - plus if something breaks you don't have to go through the RMA horrors. Oh, and they're quiet, there's nothing worse than a noisy computer!

But if you are going to build, DON'T GO WITH THE CHEAPEST! They always fuck you around, something breaks and you try to RMA it? They'll fuckin' stonewall you, they'll charge you for shit that's pseudo-legal and they'll generally treat you like shit - Why? Because they don't get paid to be nice, they get paid for throughput. Go for a place that has good staff and a valued-customer mentality.

If you're in Christchurch I would definitely recommend <a href="http://www.cbcnz.com/">CBCNZ computers</a>. I've used them for about a year and they've bent over backwards to get what I want, even when I've changed my mind on them after purchasing they've taken it all back and sorted something out for me.

Spuds1234
14th August 2007, 09:41
If you can afford it, buy your whole system from a place like Ascent.

You wont regret it if something doesnt go right.

Those guys are awesome. You do tend to pay for the service though.

Definatly try to avoid the cheapest places though as they tend to be in business one day and no the next so if a part breaks down then you cant get it fixed.

Hoon
14th August 2007, 11:28
I'd go with DDR2 800 ram instead. Same price but will support a faster CPU should you decide to upgrade later.

Also might as well get the 8600GT instead of the 7600GT. Pretty similar prices but the 8600GT supports DirectX10 and Vista.

The 160GB hard drive is a little small too. If thats all you need then fine but the "sweet spot" for drives where you get the best bang for buck (price per GB) at the moment is the 320GB-500GB range. For another $30 you could get a 320GB drive.

Pricespy isn't up to date either. Often if you go to the actual shop website you will find that item for even cheaper still.

Also SuperCheapPC are well known for their lack of after sales support so try to limit your purchases there to things that never break. I've found that OCZone is a worthy alternative with similar prices and you can just rock up to their address and buy over the counter even though they list themselves as an online order only shop.

Delphinus
14th August 2007, 12:27
the Nvidia 9800's are supposed to be out by christmas as well I've heard. I'm going for a big upgrade them.



By Q4 2007 (Xmas) NVIDIA will be releasing their GeForce 9800 series GPUs.
Unlike previously expected the codename for nVidia's next generation GPU will NOT be "G90" but instead be "G92".

I have some info form NVIDIA insider about the upcoming G92 graphics processors.

G92 will be released in November 2007 timeframe in the form of "GeForce 9800" series.

"G92" GeForce 9800 GTX specs.

- 65nm process technology at TSMC.
- Over one billion transistors.
- Second Generation Unified Shader Architecture.
- Double precsion support (FP64).
- GPGPU native.
- Over one TeraFLOPS of shader processing power.
- MADD+ADD configuration for the shader untis (2+1 FLOPS=3 FLOPS per ALU)
- Fully Scalar design.
- 512-bit memory interface.
- 1024MB GDDR4 graphics memory.
- DirectX 10.1 support.
- OpenGL 3.0 Support.
- eDRAM die for "FREE 4xAA".
- built in Audio Chip.
- built in tesselation unit (in the graphics core"
- Improved AA and AF quality levels

Pros.

65nm process will allow for better yields and better power consumption. power consumption will be lower than that of a GeForce 8800 GTX.

GeForce 9800 GTX will be over two times faster than a GeForce 8800 Ultra in real world games and applcations.

Release date : November 2007. There will be TWO products at launch: The flagship GeForce 9800 GTX and the second fastest GeForce 9800 GTS.

price for the GeForce 9800 GTX will be 549-649 USD.

price for the GeForce 9800 GTS will be 399-449 USD.

kro
14th August 2007, 12:28
Thanks for the replies. I am in the process of pricing it all up again. I will advise on the outcome.

kro
14th August 2007, 12:31
Just out of interest, if a PC shop advertises a certain item at a certain price, so you buy it, and pay for it, and then they come back and say "sorry we advertised that item at the wrong price", can I make them supply it at the advertised rate that I already have an e-invoice for?.

Delphinus
14th August 2007, 13:53
One way I can think of cutting down the price might be to buy a Dell. They're pretty cheap. Although it won't be as hard core as you might like.

Just remember if you are buying Dell to check whats inside is what you want. I've had toooo many clients buy a dell, then go to play games, and realise its only got onboard video and not even an AGP/PCI-E slot so they cant put a video card in either. (PCI video cards are not worth it almost)
They are usually cheap for a reason. Sometimes they are good, but just remember to check :)

Metalor
14th August 2007, 14:00
Give the guys at extremepc.co.nz a call or an email. I'm sure they'll give you a good deal. I have only pleasant dealings with them and they go out of their way to help you as the customer out. When I built my mates pc and the monitor he wanted wasnt in stock the gave him a BRAND NEW monitor to borrow while he waited for his one to come in. My brother had a problem with his ram and his hard drive and they straight away tested it and gave him new gear, and it took less than 10 minutes.







Also SuperCheapPC are well known for their lack of after sales support so try to limit your purchases there to things that never break. I've found that OCZone is a worthy alternative with similar prices and you can just rock up to their address and buy over the counter even though they list themselves as an online order only shop.

I have only had really bad experiences with supercheap. I went to them in the beginning because they were cheap, BUT they don't answer their phones or reply to emails AND they actually told me that they don't answer emails or phones.

My motherbaord was buggering up and they went out of their way to make it difficult for me. Ripped me off $45 for "testing" my computer (they didn't actually test it, all they did was install windows and left it running to see if it would bugger up and ran seagate tools. This was to no advantage at all as the fault was an intermittent fault so it wouldn't be able to pick it up unless it happened at the time the were running the pc... IDIOTS) and then not finding a fault.

I told them they need hardware to test my motherboard but they insisted seagate tools alone is enough (do not know what the hell they are talking about) and forced me to pay the $45 if I wanted my pc back. I then had to take a video of my pc buggering up for them to acknowledge that there was a problem. They sent it of to the manufacturers so I was pleased with that (this ordeal went on for over a month) and then when it came back they never refunded me the initial $45 I paid them for them not finding the fault (which is their problem, not mine, in my opinion).


So yea, STEER CLEAR OF SUPERCHEAP. Everyone else I know who has had dealings with them has only bad things to say about them.


Extremepc will look after ya if you are wanting to build a complete system. And I agree with Hoon about the vid card, go for a 8 series, much more support and alot better performance for not much more.

Metalor
14th August 2007, 14:03
Oh yea, and whatever you do don't go with any PC company like Dell or whomever. The only reason their computers are cheaper now for a complete system is because they are using cheaper components in order to be able to build cheaper systems so they can compete with pc stores like extremepc or whomever.

Best to go straight to a pc shop and have them sort you out. And if you have any problems you know who your dealing with and can take it straight in.

Having said that though, Dell have really good monitors but that's about it :p

RantyDave
14th August 2007, 14:04
If you can afford it, buy your whole system from a place like Ascent.
Yeah, totally. It used to be the case that Ascent would be a little bit more expensive but it was worth it because they would actually answer the damn phone if you had any problems. I used to order from Ascent for work and other places for home for just this reason. Then the other day I came to price some bits up and discovered Ascent were the cheapest as well ... so now they just get all my business.

BTW, this was building a new Linux box for home - hence the PC bits and pieces. But if you've got the pennies and want a just beautiful machine there's only one way to go (http://store.apple.com/0800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/nzstore.woa/wa/RSLID?nnmm=browse&mco=163AA6A5&node=home/desktop/imac)...

Dave

Delphinus
14th August 2007, 14:05
Having said that though, Dell have really good monitors but that's about it :p

QFT

Fantastic 24" monitor. But thats just because they buy in a good panel for it :)
The new HC is even better too.

Metalor
14th August 2007, 14:12
QFT

Fantastic 24" monitor. But thats just because they buy in a good panel for it :)
The new HC is even better too.


New HC?? What's that?

Monitors have gotten really cheap now! I think when I finish uni I'm gonna buy a whole new machine with a huuuuuge monitor. Hopefully in a couple years time 30 inch widescreens will be pretty run of the mill, hehe.

Delphinus
14th August 2007, 14:19
New HC?? What's that?



Dell UltraSharp 2407WFP- HC on their website. Looks like it's replaced the old 2407WFP.




The 2407WFP-HC uses a Samsung S-PVA panel. As a VA panel it brings good colours, blacks, contrast, viewing angles and a decent response time so that moving images are less likely to ghost. There are two alternatives to VA -- IPS panels can provide superior colour reproduction and viewing angles but at a high cost, while the cheap TN ones offer faster response times at the sacrifice of image quality and viewing angles -- so in essence VA is a compromise between the two.


I got the 2407WFP about 6 months ago. never looked back. utterly amazing display for movies/games/work

Got a 17" beside it... Maybe I should grab the HC as well, dual 24" monitor goodness...
Its only $1100
http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx/30lcd?c=nz&cs=nzdhs1&l=en&s=dhs

Sanx
14th August 2007, 23:42
Also might as well get the 8600GT instead of the 7600GT. Pretty similar prices but the 8600GT supports DirectX10 and Vista.

7600GT supports Vista just fine, though it might not have all the DirectX 10 bases covered. In fact, any NVidia card from the 5000 series up should support Vista without too much difficulty.