HELP TO BUILD A NEW COMPUTER TOWER

[Colliwobblers]

Hi All, I need to replace a dead computer, I am biting the bullet and want to build / have built for me a new one.

Does anyone know where the best place to buy parts and build myself or to select parts and have them build it for me.

Just need to get a tower I have a monitor, budget is around the $2000 mark give or take....

Seen a lot of websites online and recommendations, but they all seem to be overseas sites.

So where do I shop online or in AUSTRALIA :)

Any help appreciated...

[AFEV]

What do you want it to do/what will you be doing on it?

[Justin Bieber]

If you going to spend 2000. Then you might as well buy a new laptop lol.

[Mr.Craig]

Have you checked out PC Market?

http://www.pcmarket.com.au/systems.php?systype=BTO

You should be able to find some pretty good advice at Whirlpool -

http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/rmp_sg_whirlpoolpcs

[Capper]

You can get something decent for $2K on any of the computer websites like dell.com.au.

i usually use arc.com.au for parts, but only because they are down the road from my work and i can pick stuff up. They also do computer builds

[AFEV]

If you going to spend 2000. Then you might as well buy a new laptop lol.

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[Spite]

Wow what are you using it for? $2k can be a bit overkill unless you are using it for gaming and/or work.

Look at some computers on gumtree, some are good value and others arent, feel free to run it by me. I'm no expert but I know a thing or two about costs of parts as I just bought a new computer myself! (For $800, which can run every game of max settings)

[Colliwobblers]

What do you want it to do/what will you be doing on it?

OK so I use it for the following....

1. online gaming - not as much as I would like since FF but still occasional fits of online gaming RTS, need it for that.
2. Playing and editing FULL HD and 3D Video, streaming said video to TV, media server.
3. Multi tasking as in running a video editing program, browsing in multiple windows multiple websites. downloading large files. chat program can all be running at once.

Also when gaming use team speak and run the game...

That's pretty much it, but want a SSD as well as one or 2 large 7200rpm 3tb drives for storage.

Then its a case of how far to go for the tower case, power supply, mboard, processor, ram, video card, sound

got a quote to build one from a computer shop but it's $2600 and if you add the parts up they quote on an american site its about $1100 worth....

now we get plain ripped off on everything in Australia so that cost will be a lot higher here, but not sure if it will be anywhere near as high as what the computer shop quoted if i can find an online store in Australia or that ships to Australia.....

[Spite]

What do you want it to do/what will you be doing on it?

OK so I use it for the following....

1. online gaming - not as much as I would like since FF but still occasional fits of online gaming RTS, need it for that.
2. Playing and editing FULL HD and 3D Video, streaming said video to TV, media server.
3. Multi tasking as in running a video editing program, browsing in multiple windows multiple websites. downloading large files. chat program can all be running at once.

Also when gaming use team speak and run the game...

That's pretty much it, but want a SSD as well as one or 2 large 7200rpm 3tb drives for storage.

Then its a case of how far to go for the tower case, power supply, mboard, processor, ram, video card, sound

got a quote to build one from a computer shop but it's $2600 and if you add the parts up they quote on an american site its about $1100 worth....

now we get plain ripped off on everything in Australia so that cost will be a lot higher here, but not sure if it will be anywhere near as high as what the computer shop quoted if i can find an online store in Australia or that ships to Australia.....

Oh. That's all... :P

Yeah so you need a badass computer, check a few high performance ones on gumtree, other than that I guess ebay (obviously in local places so you can see it)

Xmas is not the time you want to be buying from stores, everything is much more expensive. Buying from people around this time is heaps cheaper as they need the $$$ for xmas. Closer to december > More desperate the people are to sell their things

[BGK]

CW the cheapest place in Brisbane for parts and to have computers built is Game dude at slacks creek. Although I've had a few problems warranty wise with them when building the system myself, I highly recommend them. I would also recommend having them put your system together, that way warranty issues are all thier problems.

I've spoken to several other computer stores and shown them quotes, even they said they can't come any where near game dude prices.

[Colliwobblers]

CW the cheapest place in Brisbane for parts and to have computers built is Game dude at slacks creek. Although I've had a few problems warranty wise with them when building the system myself, I highly recommend them. I would also recommend having them put your system together, that way warranty issues are all thier problems.

I've spoken to several other computer stores and shown them quotes, even they said they can't come any where near game dude prices.

awesome mate was going to MSY in Slacks Creek to have a look anyway, other than that, my quote i got looks pretty close to what teh parts cost through MS or PC case gear online prices are anyway.

I will go check them out tomorrow. appreciate the tip. I would love to build it all myself be very satisfying....

until it didn't work or failed.... and i cracked it like my 2 year old daugher , smashed it to bits and had to start over...  :-X

[Colliwobblers]

just in case anyone is a real geek and can work out how I can do this cheaper, I have looked at the parts online and this looks about right in price...

$2600 is the quote. includes:


•   Intel Core i7-3770K CPU
•   4 x G.Skill 8 GB 1600 MHz RAM (32 GB total)

•   Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H motherboard
o   Full ATX
o   SATA3
o   RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10)
o   6 USB 3.0 rear connectors, 2 USB 3.0 front panel connectors
o   4 USB 2.0 front panel connectors
o   2 eSATA connectors
o   2/4/5.1/7.1-channel HD audio, S/PDIF out, optical
o   Gigabit LAN
o   PCI-e generation 3
o   2-way SLI/CrossFire

•   Gigabyte Nvidia GeForce GTX 670 OC 2GB (HDMI, DisplayPort, 2 x DVI)
•   2 x Seagate Barracuda 3 TB 7200 RPM 64 MB cache hard drive
•   128 GB OCZ Vertex 4 solid state disk
•   LG Blu-Ray writer
•   Thermaltake Toughpower XT 875W power supply
•   Windows 7 Professional (64-bit; includes Windows Media Center)
•   Thermaltake VN300M1W2N Chaser MK-I case (USB 3.0, eSATA, hard drive dock)
•   Microsoft Wireless Desktop 3000

[AFEV]

The first thing I see is you don't need a 3770k unless you're going to get an aftermarket cooler and OC it.

Just a 3770 will be fine.

32GB of RAM is overkill in my opinion. 16GB of DDR3 1600 mhz will chew up just about anything you can throw at it. If you find it's not enough you can add more in 30 seconds down the track anyway.

875W seems to be a bit much. 750 would probably do just fine although this is something you might want to think about as (speaking from experience) replacing your PSU is a dog.

While it's not going to save money I'd go for an Intel or Samsung SSD over OCZ.
Depending on what you actually want to use this for a a 60/64GB drive might work just as well. WP 64bit will take roughly 20GB then you'll have space to get the programs you use often on there as well.

I'm sure there's more and I'm sure I'll come across it later so I'll let you know. There seems to be quite a bit of 'overkill' there though.

EDIT: A 670 seems a bit much if all you're doing is playing RTS. I'd look into some benchmarks for a 7870 which would save a massive hunk of cash.

EDIT 2: I'd also send a PM to Valk if you want some quality advice, he knows his stuff.

[Ringo]

Colli only getting on once a day while on holidays so another outlet I use quite often is U-mart in Qld.  They are at Milton and Eight Mile Plains and you can only order on line so you can compare the quote without ordering. I usually find Umart beats Game Dude most times on pricing.

[Colliwobblers]

Colli only getting on once a day while on holidays so another outlet I use quite often is U-mart in Qld.  They are at Milton and Eight Mile Plains and you can only order on line so you can compare the quote without ordering. I usually find Umart beats Game Dude most times on pricing.

Thanks Mate, and thanks to everyone for the tips and feedback.

Looks like I have been stitched a bit on the quote I had, which is good because I want to spend $600 less than they quoted anyway...

I'll get a "sensible" system together then check costs across umart, game dude and my local.

Thanks again all. Can't keep using the Mac I bought the misses she is constantly throwing me off and I can't have that...