A bit O/T ... UK PC vendors ...

[al]

Very tenuous DIY link here in that I'm looking to DIY myself a new PC ....! I know there's no dearth of opinions in here though about most matters from politics to cement ...

I've been looking around recently for a one around about the £2k mark. As I already have a monitor, I just want to buy a box with top end bits in it. Panrix have always come out good in the past in magazine benchmarks, but I found their website to be thoroughly crap and the choice very poor. Dell are starting to look more towards gaming with their top end systems, but they ruin it by not letting you customise it enough. Also, their prices for upgrading RAM are enough to make the average person faint!

VoodooPC in Canada

have caught my interest however. Their machines look the business, can be fully customised exactly the way I want (and without monitor!!) and North American currencies are pretty weak. My only worrys are faults and returns.

Any thoughts?

a

[Grunff]

For top end stuff I usually use - good selection of great components, good service, and good prices. £2k will get you something *amazing*.

[Bob Eager]

They don't have a very good reputation in uk.comp.vendors (actually, that's probably a better place to ask the original question). There's stuff in there right now about them, and the URL of an article too.

[Chris Oates]

£2000 - crikey I'd want a Laptop bunged in as well.

[Peter Crosland]

Unless you are into gaming in a big way you don't need to spend even £1k let alone 2!

[e-mail]

[Bob Minchin]

Don't forget the cost of delivery and excise duty (and VAT I think) which is helpfully levied on the goods value plus the insurance plus the carriage. The tax is collected by the carrier on behalf of HMCE who allow them to charge a extra admin/commission fee on top. There is little chance of escaping this tax. Personal experience!!

Bob

[Grunff]

I don't follow that NG, but that really surprises me. They are just about the one supplier who's never let me down.

[Hadenman]

If you want to properly DIY it, you could just make the PC from parts you've bought yourself. That way you could customise it to your hearts content.

[al]

Just read that ... it doesn't speak too highly of them! Thanks for the pointer.

a

[Colin Wilson]

I think there`s been a report on one of the computer news sites as well=20 as mentioned earlier in uk.comp.vendors (re: overclockers)

=A32k is a LOT of money to spend on a machine that will be worth maybe =A34=

00=20 in 6 months time. Buying mid-range now you`ll probably only spend=20 ~=A3400 to =A3600 which will allow you to buy a whole new computer in 6=20 months time at a higher spec compared to what you`d likely spend =A32k on= =20 now for no additional outlay above your original estimates.

As you`re only looking for a box, just build what you want at a fraction=20 of the cost by sourcing decent quality components yourself :-p

Do you know what platform you want to aspire to ? 32bit ? 64bit ?

Bear in mind that the shape of computing WILL change markedly in the next= =20

6 months given the introduction of 64bit chips (which are already=20 available).

Six months old is probably a good age at which to buy into this "new"=20 technology, because the initial teething problems should have been ironed= =20 out. Cutting edge technology has rough corners.

--=20 Please add "[newsgroup]" in the subject of any personal replies via email

• old email address "btiruseless" abandoned due to worm-generated spam *

--- My new email address has "ngspamtrap" & @btinternet.com in it ;-) ---

[al]

Had a look there ... they look a bit budget to be honest. I'm looking for a quality PC builder who puts time & love into the models they spec - not a big warehouse that stuffs things together and sells them on the speed specs alone.

Testament to that is my last PC, the one I'm using now, that I bought 5.5 years ago. It's a PII 400 with 448MB of RAM in it, top end sound & video cards from a few year back. Go out and buy a £500 machine now which on paper has all the figures you think count and this one will still kick its arse in many areas. Motherboard and drives are where the main speed is lost now on this old machine.

a

[al]

I very much beg to differ!!! If you want to even look at any new games in a year's time, such a machine won't even run them. I'm not looking for some cheap heap that surfs the web and loads MS Office quickly!

Perhaps I should lay out some of my bare minimum requirements:

Intel or AMD - don't mind, but no more than one down from current fastest CPU At least 2GB of *FAST* RAM (not cheap no-brand crap ... really Corsair are my favourite here)

2 HDDs - one about 60GB, the other about 160GB - both SATA, min 7200rpm Optical - one reader (all formats), one writer (all formats - including both DVD!) ATi Radeon 9800XT 256 graphics card Sound Blaster Audigy 2ZS sound card Decent speakers - at least 5.1 sound

However, banging the bits together in a warehouse does not make a good PC necessarily! High end manufacturers spend a lot of time testing and working with the OEMs to produce stuff that works really well together. VoodooPC win tonnes of awards in the US - I'm trying to find a UK equivalent to compare with.

a

[al]

Delivery is $235, which sounds a lot, but with the current exchange rates still works out damn cheap! The VAT and/or excise duty however I'd be interested to hear more about. Do I just have to pay 17.5% when it arrives? Who do I pay? How does it work? If they charge admin, can you pre-pay this to avoid it if there is no chance of it "slipping through"?

a

[al]

May just be a bad review ... just had a look at their RAM prices - they be daaaamn cheap!!

a

[Grunff]

While I'm in full agreement with you re. the spec, I don't agree with the "manufacturers spend a lot of time" bit.

You've listed your components. All you need to add to that is a really good motherboard, and you can't go wrong. There is very little tweaking to be done.

The things that high end manufacturers have normally won out on is using well designed cases with proper airflow around *all* the components, including the drives, and using good quality PSUs.

Good cooling and good PSUs are easy off the shelf items these days.

[Grunff]

Not just the RAM - they're pretty cometitive on CPUs and motherboards too.

[al]

Very true, but there is somewhat of a black art to performance tuning parts that work well together. Also, some companies (such as VoodooPC) work with ATi and nVidia to make some customisations to the cards.

a

[al]

I'm not planning on selling it while it has any value (like my current 5.5 year old system!) so it doesn't matter what it will be worth in a few months time.

Again, see my previous comments in other posting regarding this. I could build a good enough system I'm sure ... but I want a great one ;)

Clearly 32bit ... XP is going to be around for a LONG time, as will all the

32bit apps that go with it. 64bit will start on the server and IMHO take a while to settle down. I think more like 3 years before it makes any inroad into the home PC market - that is with the 64bit OS's and apps to make any benifit from it!

In 6 months time, there will be more new tech "just round the corner". I appreciate that 64bit is the future and a big step. I just don't think it will make that much of an inroad during the expected lifetime of my new system.

a

[Michael McNeil]

With all due respect you preternaturally stupid tosser, what the "FAQ" are you posting in here for?

[Jet]

Most politicians should *BE* in cement, but most cement has too high a self-image to be involved n politic(ian)s