General Discussion

Hey everyone. So it's time for me to update my PC, but with a budget of $500 and no idea how to assemble one on my own, I've been considering some of the pre-assembled rigs available on Ebay.

What do you think of the price/quality rapport?

#1: $500

Processor AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5200+ Socket AM2
CPU Fan AMD Original AM2 CPU Fan
Motherboard ECS nVidia GeForce 7050M-M Motherboard
Memory 4GB DDR II 800 Memory 240 Pin (Kingston) ?
Hard Drive Western Digital 160GB 7200RPM 8MB Cache Serial ATA II
Optical Drive LG 22X DVD RW + Dual Layer
Video nVidia GeForce 9600GT 512MB DDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI HDTV
Audio Realtek ALC662 6-channel HD Audio
Network Card Onboard 10/100 Network Card
Ports 6 USB 2.0 Ports, 1 Parallel, 1 1394a
Case 1285 Deluxe Black Tower Case
Power Supply 600 Watt Heavy Duty Power Supply
 

#2: $500

CPU Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad-Core 2.4GHz 8MB (G0)
CPU Cooler OCZ Vanquisher Ultra Silence Performance Cooler
Overclocking ETC Computer Professional OC Service (2.4GHz up to 3.2GHz)
Memory 1 Kingston DDR2 PC2-6400 2GB/800MHz
Memory 2 Kingston DDR2 PC2-6400 2GB/800MHz
Motherboard GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L (Intel G31,SATAII,DDR2,PCI-E)
Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar SE 160GB 7200RPM 8MB SATA II
Optical Drive LG 22X GH22NS30 DVD+/-RW Dual Layer SATA Rewriter (Black)
Video NVIDIA GEFORCE 9500GT 1GB DVI-I HDCP HDTV Out (Palit)
Audio Onboard 6 Channel High Definition Audio
Network Card Onboard Gigabit Network Card
Case G-Power Stylish Deluxe Black Case (9021)
Power Supply PR Dual Fan 550W Premium Switching ATX Power Supply

What do you think? Thanks a bunch.

Assembling one isnt that hard you can find detailed instructions using Google.

You dont have to be super careful with the parts, you wont break anything unless you really put some serious force into it.

As for those, i would personally go for the first one because the video card is better, but the 9600gt still isnt a serious gamer card. The 9500gt is even worse. Keep in mind too, those come with NO OPERATING SYSTEM! Thats how they sell them so cheap. So you'll have to buy Vista, install it and configure it by yourself, unless you want to pay another $200 plus taxes for that.

Build your own, there are plenty of people online who have posted builds and would be happy to offer their advice. (i just built mine 3 weeks ago for $825cdn w/ taxes)

Oh wow, that's so true about the operating system. Thanks!

If it does save me a bit of money, then maybe I will try to construct my own... I'm just always afraid that something will go awry, and I won't have any idea how to fix it.

Try having a look through pricewatch.com

You can find some good prices on rigs with or without an OS.

Originally posted by guardez

Oh wow, that's so true about the operating system. Thanks!

If it does save me a bit of money, then maybe I will try to construct my own... I'm just always afraid that something will go awry, and I won't have any idea how to fix it.

Just make sure you have another computer/laptop around so you still have a way to access the internet when you are building. 99% of the problems you may run into, other people have already solved so you can just google it. Take it one step at a time and remember everything you buy comes with a warranty if you stick with mainstream stores (Newegg, Tigerdirect, NCIX etc). The motherboard manual tells you step-by-step what to do.

Try finding a build that someone has posted to work good online (for example google "Gaming pc build, cheap gaming pc, $500 gaming pc" etc) and order the same parts. Once it's assembled and turns on you are usually in the clear and all you have to do is go into the BIOS and to "Boot-up priority" and tell it to boot from the CD drive that Vista is in and go from there.

Once you do it the first time, everything is easy from there so you can build/repair your own computers for the rest of your life and don't have to rely on overpriced brands and services.

All good Motherboards have instructions on how to do the building also.

It is really simple as long as you avoid getting an ESD (Electro static discharge). You can eaither buy a small bracelet against that or be careful and touch something that is grounded a few times during the build.

Another thing that is annoying is putting in tje power and reset  buttons but since you can't destroy anything there you can trial and error that if the boox have weirdly marked cables.

Here is my recomandation for a high end PC:

Intel core 2 dual 3,0 ghz (can be clocked quite a bit) FSB 1333 E8400. Nice performing processor which can be found to a really good price. Note that the FSB speed is very important, it is the speed which the processor and memorys "speak" to eachoter with.

A-BIT Motherboard for high end users, MSI if you want something cheap. The japanese A-BIT cards are the rolls royce of MBs, only high end jap components instead of the cheap chinese and taiwanese crap the other companies use, just see that your not getting their cheap Fatality cards. A-BIT also have a great software for upclocking included (The 3,0 will run around 3,4 great without additional cooling). The motherboard must in any case support FSB 1333 and have a slot 775 so it fits the processor above.

Memory: Go for 4GB DDR2, preferably 800mhz. Brand isn't so important but Kingston and Samsung make good ones.

GFX card: The Nvidia GTX 260 performs great for it's price, or the ATI 4870. Here are some benchmark test to check out before deciding on a card: www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-q3-2008/Sum-of-FPS-Benchmarks-Totals,795.html As for the manifacturer use Leadtech, Gainward, Sparkle or MSI. Avoid Gigabyte, their cooling isn't always working so great.

Sound: If youre using it together with your stereo you might want to invest in a good soundcard also, the built in cards most MBs have are good enough for games but if you want to play load music you should consider a Creative X-fi card or USB device. But if youre not playing loud music on it, don't bother.

Power supply: 650W is absolut minimum for a high end GFX card. My reccomendation is the corsair 750W, got one myslef and runs a GTX 280 card and 5 harddrives. If youre just planning to use one HD you can get a cheaper 650W but don't take anything lower. A good PS will also keep power costs down since they only run at max power when needed, the cheap ones run full all the time.

Harddrive: Seagate, Western digital or Maxtor is my recomendation but any one will do. At least 250 GB SATA.

And any box you like the look on. If youre gonna have more than 1 HD, get 1 with lots of space and extra fan. Also modern GFX cards tends to use a lot of space.

I would say that youll have to pay around 600 bucks to build a high end PC, maybe $700 if you aim really high but it will be far better than those 2 crappy ones.

Good luck

Originally posted by Loke666

All good Motherboards have instructions on how to do the building also.

exactly. I didnt look at any instructions online, i just looked at the mobo manual and i was able to build it without any parts being not where they should be.

@OP i would pick the first one, thats if you dont feel like building one.

definitely just build your own. most custom built pc's on ebay are decent deals, but you'll almost always get a better deal making it yourself.