New System

[securespark]

Me again folks...

Mrs Secure is wanting a new system.

Normally I don't touch Comet, but have some vouchers I can spend there.

How do you rate this system for the money?

http://www.comet.co.uk/p/Computer-Base-Units/buy-HP-G5208UK-Computer-Base-Unit/681695

If you don't, is there anything Comet sell for similar money that you do?

 

[Monkeh]

I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. I can build a machine of those specs for the same amount of money, with better quality parts, not to mention more than a one year warranty.

 

[Igorian]

It's a bit far for him to go to return it if it goes wrong tho.

I'd be interested in seeing your specification, price list and source though.

 

[securespark]

I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. I can build a machine of those specs for the same amount of money, with better quality parts, not to mention more than a one year warranty.

But do you take vouchers?

 

[digdilem]

From someone who used to build loads of the things - it's rarely worth it now unless you're building a specific or high end machine. The only thing I build myself now is my own home machine, mostly for gaming - and because I run it caseless and watercooled. All my work servers and desktops I buy pre-built. Time's money and quite often you cannot even beat the price by buying components separately, even though you might get a better quality machine at the end of it and enjoy the process of building something.

As someone who once spent £80 and drove through the night across half the country for 4 x 1mb second-hand simms for a 386 elonex (replacing my old XT, which replaced a series of 8-bits going back to 1981), I'm constantly amazed at the low price of modern hardware. Economies of scale.

That HP is a reasonable machine. Worth £350. IME though, if you can get a pink one the missis will love it twice as much even if it's twice as slow.

 

[EFCLee1]

From someone who used to build loads of the things - it's rarely worth it now unless you're building a specific or high end machine. The only thing I build myself now is my own home machine, mostly for gaming - and because I run it caseless and watercooled. All my work servers and desktops I buy pre-built. Time's money and quite often you cannot even beat the price by buying components separately, even though you might get a better quality machine at the end of it and enjoy the process of building something.

That HP is a reasonable machine. Worth £350. IME though, if you can get a pink one the missis will love it twice as much even if it's twice as slow.

I 100% disagree, I work in IT and have built dozens and dozens of PC's

I could build this PC for under £150

Small hard drive, 500 gig - 1TB is now under £40 so do the maths
On-board graphics - no dedicated memory or graphics processor means no mid range gaming, will not even play a HD movie thats been loaded onto the HD
Intel i3 - single core CPU is pretty much like a P4 and how old are they now, exactly.
Price, £350 with no monitor or keyboard or mouse, jesus they making over 100% profit easy!!!!!!!!

About the only good thing I can say about this PC is that it has Windows 7, - best of all the OS's although thats matter of opinon i know we have a Mac lover lurking in these woods


If you have £350 to burn then find yourself a couple of IT shops ring them up and ask them to give you a spec that will cost £350, then compare notes if you dont know what there on about ask a relative who is tech savvy to make the calls for you

Hope this helps

 

[Monkeh]

I could build this PC for under £150

Small hard drive, 500 gig - 1TB is now under £40 so do the maths
On-board graphics - no dedicated memory or graphics processor means no mid range gaming, will not even play a HD movie thats been loaded onto the HD
Intel i3 - single core CPU is pretty much like a P4 and how old are they now, exactly.
Price, £350 with no monitor or keyboard or mouse, jesus they making over 100% profit easy!!!!!!!!

Under £150? Really? The CPU costs 85 quid by itself. Then you need motherboard, case, power supply (unless you want to use the cheap tat which comes with cheap, tatty cases), memory, hard drive, optical drive..

And no, it's not single core, let alone even related to the P4, and actually, it will play HD, seeing as it does have a dedicated GPU, just not a discrete GPU.

 

[Igorian]

From someone who used to build loads of the things - it's rarely worth it now unless you're building a specific or high end machine.

I have to agree. Unless you want to pay for good components or have a specific purpose, an off the shelf machine often fits the bill.

I 100% disagree, I work in IT and have built dozens and dozens of PC's

Most companies wouldn't bother to entertain doing self build as it's not cost effective to manage warranties on individual parts, never mind having to assemble the stuff.

I could build this PC for under £150

I3 Processor - £85 (and, although entry level, has 2 cores, not 1)
Windows 7 HP OEM ~ £75

Errm, budget already blown before you even shell it. So, the same question to you then:

"I'd be interested in seeing your specification, price and source?"

 

[festive]

Just lurking as this thread doesn't need another experienced input here. Good to see we have a few who know what they're talking about.

What shocks me is the one that sounds so convinced he could build the same spec for half the price! To any novice out there you'd almost be convinced yourself!

Oh ok id like to chip in a bit here, just let me say this, Aria for example (just taking a random pick here, do their own range, this is spec'd with some reasonable components same cpu and storage as Hp above but with 4gig ram.)
£300 exc Operating system.

• Intel® Core™ i3-540 3.06GHz Processor £85
• 4GB Mushkin (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz 9-9-9-24 Silverline - 996768 - £39.98
• 500GB Samsung HD502HJ F3 3.5" SATA II Hard Drive - £30
• MSI H55M-E23 Intel H55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 PCI-Express Motherboard - £54
• Corsair Builder Series 430CX 430W PSU £35.87
• Coolermaster Elite 342 M-ATX Chassis £33
• Sony DVD/RW 24x £15
• Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
• 1 Years RTB Warranty

That comes to about £290 if you build yourself minus the warranty.

The other route is AMD if that's the arguement the AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 560 3.3GHz Black Edition C3 is similar in price to the Intel i3 but afaik is far superior to the Inteli3 thus you could get a much better spec for same price. Well you still need to add the +75 for the O/S.

The HP machine looks better imho. If you're just going to surf tinternet and a bit of multimedia filth etc, then the HP must be less hastle and an easy life.

 

[Monkeh]

Well, I still have to suggest a self build. My experience with pre-built machines has been poor, and the one year warranty is, imo, a serious drawback.

Plus, securespark seems interested in learning to build for himself, and the only way to learn is to do. There's little to go wrong with building such a simple system.

As for price, spec, and source, I'm not going link digging right now, but without any shopping around, and excluding delivery (which is OTT from them currently), I can build a machine of identical specs from Scan for £349, including OS.

Some shopping around and using an AMD platform (imo far superior on a tight budget) will probably come in below that.

 

[festive]

Oh i agree to an extent which is why i highlighted the AMD option, but you obviously know the game well which is a big advantage when building a system as opposed to Comet shopper wondering how good a deal that HP machine is. Yes for 350 we could shop elsewhere and get a better spec most probably down the AMD route.

But we digress, this is for his misses and he/she has Comet vouchers only to spend.



And to me ah it looks ok, and comparing to the typical Aria spec it's not far off the price, albeit maybe a 1gig down on memory.

 

[EFCLee1]

I could build this PC for under £150

Small hard drive, 500 gig - 1TB is now under £40 so do the maths
On-board graphics - no dedicated memory or graphics processor means no mid range gaming, will not even play a HD movie thats been loaded onto the HD
Intel i3 - single core CPU is pretty much like a P4 and how old are they now, exactly.
Price, £350 with no monitor or keyboard or mouse, jesus they making over 100% profit easy!!!!!!!!

Under £150? Really? The CPU costs 85 quid by itself. Then you need motherboard, case, power supply (unless you want to use the cheap tat which comes with cheap, tatty cases), memory, hard drive, optical drive..

And no, it's not single core, let alone even related to the P4, and actually, it will play HD, seeing as it does have a dedicated GPU, just not a discrete GPU.

I stand corrected Monkey, i3 is infact a core2duo reboxed for an 1156 socket, maybe single cores will be called i1 in future

as a side note, a single core tower would come in at £125 quid which would only be useful for internet and MS office or other similar app hence why I said under £150

still think that £350 is a rip off, anyone who knows anything about the cost of hardware would be able to build a much better spec for that same money

 

[Monkeh]

I stand corrected Monkey, i3 is infact a core2duo reboxed for an 1156 socket, maybe single cores will be called i1 in future

No, it's a Nehalem, more accurately a Westmere, not a Core or Penryn. I doubt Intel will make a single-core CPU for the desktop or notebook market again.

as a side note, a single core tower would come in at £125 quid which would only be useful for internet and MS office or other similar app hence why I said under £150

Feel free to provide a parts list for that, I'd be interested to see just what you put in a box to get it that cheap..

still think that £350 is a rip off, anyone who knows anything about the cost of hardware would be able to build a much better spec for that same money

Depends. That configuration can be built for yourself for £350. If you need certain features, you don't have much choice but to stick with an Intel system, and that's what they cost.

 

[securespark]

I posted the link to see if it was a good value bit of kit, seeing as it has a hefty reduction on the price.

I don't mind people saying it's overpriced and they could do it for half the price, but, as already mentioned more than once, please back up your claims with prices etc.

That way, I (and others) can make an informed choice.

 

[Igorian]

I'm sure Mrs S will be happy with it unless she is wanting to play Black Ops at seriously high res.

If you are happy to pay that price, and it's not unreasonable IMHO, HP are probably (again IMHO) as good as any other mainstream manufacturer.