Best place for Hardware

General Computing Hardware & Networking
1

This is a two phase question really, where is the best / cheapest place to buy and… is this good kit to be getting.

What I am getting is…

AMD 64 3500+
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium
Generic 450 - 500W PSU
512MB Memory
some brand (XFX or ASUS) 256mb GeForce 7600GS XT edition

Best price I have so far is 308 from ebuyer, is there cheaper kit that will do the same job? The most powerful thing this PC runs is the Sims 2 and Doom3 / HL2 when I have time :slight_smile:

Can you people in the know guide a person who has been out of this game for far too long :frowning:

2

off the top of my head ebuyer and scan are 2 I would go for, look at scans today only and budles pages see if theres any bargins, as for the spec… do you plan on going sli? if not look for a non sli motherboard will be cheaper, also I would swap the generic psu for a known good make, if you do go sli you’ll need a psu with good amps on dual 12v lines.

Curly

edit: might be worth waiting a few days till the new intel cpu’s are out as there should be price cuts on the AMD cpu range.

3

for overall service, I would suggest MicroDirect - not once have I been let down by them since making them my primary place for buying things after ebuyer and scan both had a series of failed to deliver items.

And of course, an afiiliate link exists for them as well :chuckle: :sneaky:

DT.

4

You could try Savastore.com a division of Watford electronics

I use them more than EBuyer now very good pricing and customer service.

5

http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/k.asp
http://www.dabs.com/homepage.aspx
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/productlister.aspx?GroupID=1048
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/
http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/index
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/
Try all of the above.
Dabs.com has boards that are seconds, meaning they are missing cables or have been replaced under warranty by the manufacturer.
Got my Asus A8n SLI Premium for £75 and it was brand new from them.
http://www.lowestonweb.com/ is about the cheapest for CPUs.
And last but not least http://www.pcworld.co.uk/ always check their site as ordering online for store pickup can save you money. Got my Hyper Type R PSU from there cheaper than on the net.
PS Don’t skimp on RAM. Go for 1 gig at least.

6

I was going for a Venice Chip, any pros / cons of this approach? I’m not interested in dual core or anything fancy, just want a mid(ish) range office PC that can play the odd 1st person shooter in more than 800 x 600

7

bump up the memory to 1gb…I play many FPSs, and Im finding even 1gb is not enough some times…should have my 2gb kit in tomorrow. Also, I would get a quality PSU…its one of the most critical parts of a build, and often the most overlooked. But I cant help you with where, since im in the US…sorry.

8

Go for the 64 bit 3500+, chip runs at 2.2 gig and is very cheap now £73 at Dabs and £71 at http://www.aria.co.uk/ Boxed.
Although the 3000+ does overclock very well the 3500+ does not cost much more and you wont need to overclock as most games run as fast on that as a dual core (most games are not written for dual core).
PS. Buy 2 matched pairs (2 x 512 if budget is tight) of RAM to reap the benefits of the Board/chip/GPU. I know we keep saying it but it is important for game play.
PPS. Go to http://www.pcworld.co.uk/ and order Hyper Type R 580 watt (630 watt peak) SLI PSU. Order online to collect at the store and it costs £60, very cheap for SLI PSU.