ordered my new PC

[pctech]

I ordered my new PC the other day from Scan and have now had a provisional build date of 31/7 and dispatch of 3/8 provided the build and burn in test goes ok.

Here's the spec

CMaster Elite 430 Black
GIGABYTE H61MA-D2V MOTHERBOARD
Intel Core i5 3450 s1155
4GB 2x2GB CMX4GX3M2B1600C9 (Corsair RAM)
1GB EVGA GTX 550 Ti Superclock
3XS INTEGRA ONLY CORSAIR 600W
500GB SEAGATE ST500DM002 SATA3
LG BH10LS38.AUAR 10x Blu Retai
Clabs SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI
MS Win 7 Pro 64bit OEM

Can't wait to get my mitts on it.

[Simon]

Can I ask what the ballpark figure for that was, Mitch?  I have to admit, I may be looking for something fairly soon, as mine is getting rather tired, and I'm struggling for storage space.  I know I could just get additional hard drives, but it's four years old now and on Windows XP, so I'm just thinking of upgrading the whole thing.

[pctech]

£792, it comes with a 2 year warranty (1st onsite and then 1 year RTB) but you can extend that within the first year up to a max of three years onsite.

Could have been cheaper but I opted for Win 7 Pro, a Blu ray writer and a Creative X-Fi sound card as have some nice Harman Kardon speakers and have an X-FI in my current setup which gives excellent sound as I quite like my music.

Here's a link to the base system http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ShowSystem.asp?SystemID=979

They do also do a value range.

[Simon]

Cheers, I'll have a look later. 

[pctech]

Np, I was going to opt for an i7 but it would have made the price eye watering. I spent a couple of grand on this one and wouldn't do that again, besides other stuff to do this year like try and get through the assessments to be able to learn to drive.

[Simon]

Mine came to £688.66.  Don't need an OS, as I've got Windows 7 sitting here still sealed in it's box, so substituted that for Office Home & Student.  Only thing is, that didn't include a monitor, as the one I have is perfectly good enough for what I need, but it isn't widescreen.  I guess I should be considering an upgrade?   

[stevenrw]

Have you looked at the Asus Xonar sound cards? Creative have really struggled with drivers under W7 and Asus have taken the opportunity to really carve out a place in the market. I bought the basic DX card last year and apart from having front panel headphone output and a dedicated headphone amp (I use BeyerDynamic DT770 pro 250 ohm version hp's), the sound is just superb. And it only cost around £60! Really worth a good look I'd say.

[Simon]

I don't really use my PC as a multimedia station.  Yes, it's nice to have reasonable sound, but if I want to listen to something properly, I'll use my Hi-Fi, and if I want to watch a Bluray, I'll watch it on a full sized TV with the surround sound on full blast! 

All I really want from a PC is for it to be fast, secure, have loads of storage, and to do what I want it to do with minimum fuss.  I just want it to be a computer. 

[Lance]

You should get a mac

[Simon]

Don't start! 

[Technical Ben]

Wait, then why not get a £300-£400 build then? 

[pctech]

I grew up in the era of the SoundBlaster so that's why I tend to stick to Creative cards.

[pctech]

Well I'm still waiting for it to be built, was given a build date of 31/7 and told they would be in contact if there were any change to this, they took the money from my credit card on the 18/7

Heard nothing so phoned on the 1/8 to be told they were two days behind but not given any indication of how many systems were waiting to be built.

As of checking tonight its still showing as awaiting build so I am about to post on the Hexus forums to see if I can get any approximate timescale, failing this I may cancel the order and look for alternatives.

Delays happen but am not really impressed that I've had to chase them for information,

[Gary]

Patience is a virtue Mitch, also it is Sunday maybe you will be updated tomorrow. When I had my Voodoo built and shipped from Canada many years back I had a few build slips but it was worth the wait. Also in this day and age being kept up to speed is not always something that happens as much as we want, no matter how little or how much we spend

[Niall]

I've just removed my creative card. I've never had any issues with them at all, then I started using SSD drives and BSOD were the norm. I didn't actually know for certain it was the card and drivers causing it until I replaced the cooler on my 560ti graphics card, which took up the PCI slot space. Since I've been using onboard sound, the system runs faster and I haven't had a single BSOD.

It's possible it's the motherboard though, I'm not sure. The odd thing though is that sound on the system is MUCH better now than it was with the x-fi card. In games you can tell it's lost some of the range, but hey ho. I was going to get this http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-xonar-essence-stx-pci-e-audiophile-sound-card-optical-dolby-pro-logic-ii but I've bought a guitar instead

[pctech]

Patience is a virtue Mitch, also it is Sunday maybe you will be updated tomorrow. When I had my Voodoo built and shipped from Canada many years back I had a few build slips but it was worth the wait. Also in this day and age being kept up to speed is not always something that happens as much as we want, no matter how little or how much we spend

Only really trying to find out as the boss has slapped a leave embargo on at the end of the month as we have some major systems changes going on at work and we're gearing up to support Windows 8.

[pctech]

Just had a mail to say its progressed to build stage.

Did get a response from Scan asking for the invoice reference.

[pctech]

Delivery date finally agreed, will be here Wednesday 

[D-Dan]

I'm looking at a base rebuild (MB, CPU and RAM) soon, and am seriously considering an i5 3450k. Are you planning on OC'ing it (I believe this is a fabulous model to OC) and if so, let us know how far you can push it on air cooling alone.

My Phenom II 965 will be relegated to server duties in a nice, cheap, low profile case (It won't need a monitor/keyboard/mouse etc.)

[Technical Ben]

Niall PCI seems to crash things nowadays. It seems the drivers are just not compatible (32bit for 64bit systems?). I'm not sure if a PCI-E card would work better.

[pctech]

I'm looking at a base rebuild (MB, CPU and RAM) soon, and am seriously considering an i5 3450k. Are you planning on OC'ing it (I believe this is a fabulous model to OC) and if so, let us know how far you can push it on air cooling alone.

My Phenom II 965 will be relegated to server duties in a nice, cheap, low profile case (It won't need a monitor/keyboard/mouse etc.)

No no overclocking Steve, need it to remain nice and stable as am planning to do some more courses to equip myself with some server admin/engineer qualifications, with a bit of gaming and more mundane stuff like doing my banking.

I did intend to go for an i7 originally but I don't have the dosh at the moment and the priority was to replace my existing system with something capable before it may start costing me money due to parts getting old.

I'm a little wary of the Seagate drive in it as I have a Maxtor (from back when it was still Maxtor) DiamondMax drive which is still going strong.

I intend to add an SSD as a secondary drive at some point soon.

[D-Dan]

I did intend to go for an i7 originally but I don't have the dosh at the moment

To be honest, people more knowledgeable than I about current CPU architectures have said that the i5 overclocks so well, so far and so stably that the extra outlay for an i7 is simply not worth it. Even on stock air cooling massive overclocks have been acheived. You could afford to overclock a little without compromising stability in the slightest.

[pctech]

When I get time I'll have a play and let you know (my boss agreed to let me take the day off as he was as enthusiastic as I am now when he got his PC built last year) but apart from Sunday I'm working solidly for the next week or so.

[Technical Ben]

Is the i5 a 4 core chip? I had trouble finding one when I was looking. The customer I priced the systems up for (2 i5s systems and a i7) decided on the i7 and 4 cores.

[Steve]

The i5 is commonly four cores and four threads, however there are some 2 cores 4 threads ie Laptop processors ,the i7 is commonly 4 cores and 8 threads