looking at replacing my PC, its about 6 years old – amd athlon 64 3200 with 1.5mb ram and 160gb hd.

buget will be 200-300quid, as near 200 as poss, but rather than buy a complete is it possible to self build a better machine myself with a bit of scratching around for deals and going for not the very latest processors etc?

It used to be that you uiklt a pc to get better components and could save some cash doing so but I think these days the consensus is that there is no real value in building your own from a savings point of view.

I did build my own a few months ago but I had very specific requirements.

As above, only benefit is being able to choose all the components to try and build something that will last as long as possible, specifically suit your needs or be all colour coordinated and bling on the inside (this really matters to some people).

A few years ago the answer was definitely yes. These days with a decent spec PC being so cheap its hard to justify self build on the grounds of cost

Short answer.. for that budget.. yes..
You can save some hassle by going for a bundle package of components.. Choose one from here from CCL as a start. Reuse your case.. assuming it’s not some odd small form factor. Budget for a new PSU and 40 quid for a bigger SATA hard disk and you’re sorted.
If you can’t move your existing OS licence to the new machine then this will seriously eat into your budget though (assuming you want a legit install..)

Regards

J

The biggest reason to DIY IMHO is that YOU get to choose the operating system and software installed.

The downside is that you’ll end up paying more for the privilege.

Best policy is to get a barebones system from the likes of Scan, Aria, Overclockers etc or to just call them up and ask for a decent system.

Off-the-shelf PCs seem to (ime which is admittedly not that current) chuck in dodgy cheap stuff when you’re not looking, and they install for you a shitload of stupid software on top of windows that does nothing but go wrong and clog your machine up.

If you get a machine from one of those companies, it’ll be made from named components and come with a plain Windows installation and probably the actual Windows CD, which is useful.

You’d be amazed how quick a plain Windows installation can be.

Also, remember the very latest processors will be far more power than you need unless you are gaming or 3D rendering or something. The shop should be able to advise you on the best value for money.

If you can’t move your existing OS licence to the new machine then this will seriously eat into your budget though (assuming you want a legit install..)

Operating Systems other than Windows are available. 🙂

The best thing about building my Scan PC was when I checked, all the motherboard components worked with MacOs so I’m now a happy hackintosh user.

For £200 you can build a decent PC, if you buy componens from places lie Scan, Aria or CCL. I would do something like a Pentium build for £200, with all decent parts no cheapo case that comes with a free PSU. If you added a litle extra for a graphics card hen you have a PC capable of playing any game at decent setting 1920×1080 for less than £300

The other upside to building from components is that each individual item has its own warranty – so if your PSU fails you only send the PSU off, and not your whole system. 🙂

Best bit about building your own PC is all the bits are generic so can be swapped or upgraded at will.
Buy a nice case, nice keyboard and mouse and a decent PSU.
The rest of the kit (HDD, memory, CPU, Graphics) I tend to change every few years as a job lot. My case and PSU are 9 years old and still fantastic.

Best bit about building your own PC is all the bits are generic so can be swapped or upgraded at will.

As long as you don’t get caught by standards.

Molgrips – owner of an AGP+ graphics card since 2004.

I’ll point out this lot again:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/
You can customise their base models quite extensively, or buy a barebones bundle (which is a tested MoBo with chip and ram, with or without a case) and bung in whatever you already own and/or want to buy yourself.

cool, seems an intertesting challenge for me. next thread installment ‘how hard is it to build a pc’!!!

when i’ve got 5 mins i’ll spec/price up a complete in my price range, and one above, and using those as the benchmark see what i can price up in parts hunting about.

If you can build lego then you can build a pc.
Installing software takes longer than building the PC.

what os you going to use, if windows, £70 ish of your budget. But ubuntu (linux) is easy to use and more to the point free. Openoffice works as same as microsoft office, but free.

This is without os. £197

http://www.novatech.co.uk/basket.html

building PCs is pretty straightforward, the hardest part is the opening and closing of the case – as long as you aren’t completely hamfisted (be careful not to bend the motherboard or chip) you’ll be fine

Openoffice works as same as microsoft office

Yes, in the same way that a Vauxhall Chevette works the same as a BMW 5 series.

MS Office home edition is probably the best value £70 you’ll ever spend on your own IT.

Openoffice works as same as microsoft office

Except for being utter sh*te.

Openoffice works as same as microsoft office

As much as I love open source software, using Calc after using Excel for years is just a nightmare. I can’t see why they made everything so different.

One comment on Novatech, my old man bought one a few years ago on my suggestion, and it wasn’t great. Noisiest PC I’ve ever heard, came with a load of third party rubbish software installed and the motherboard died after a couple of years.

Is ubuntu a viable alternative to Windows? Would be required to run commercial music software, video software… no messing around making things work…

Is ubuntu a viable alternative to Windows? Would be required to run commercial music software, video software… no messing around making things work…

No, you’d have to get used to different and not so good software for music and video. But then if you’re using commercial music software and video software, £70 for a windows licence is tiny compared to the cost of most decent music or video software.