3xs build from Scan.co.uk

[unofficialPete]

I'm in the market for a new machine, current one has been going for over 5 years now! I can't view HD video or HQ youtube video without it stuttering.

To give you an idea I currently have 1.5GB DDR RAM, an AMD Athlon 3200 and a GeForce 6800 GT.

Scan.co.uk has my attention with its buy now pay in 9 months with no interest offer but how reputable are they?

The new machine needs to be able to cope with HD video editing, photo editing and some occasional gaming, probably nothing more than Counter Strike Source which this machine could handle OK until recently.

Budget up to 800 without monitor, mouse or keyboard.


2 Systems from the Gaming section:
http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ShowSystem.asp?SystemID=1166 (£813.17)

Not only is the GTX460 a potent card for the price, the 3XS System Engineers have overclocked it too!! The system also features a 32nm Intel Core i3 530 dual-core processor overclocked to 4Ghz with 4GB of DDR3

http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ShowSystem.asp?SystemID=1122 + some upgrades, 1GB XFX HD 5770 + 500 GB storage drive. (£654.70)

The 3XS AMD VISION Premium system is aimed at users wanting more power than a basic PC, utilising an AMD Athlon Quad-Core processor combined with an ATI HD5670 graphics card, a 500GB hard drive and 4Gb of DDR3 memory.

Does the quad core trump duel core or does the other system offer superior graphics, I'm so out of the loop.

None of the above?
Really appreciate any help!

p.s. man up and splash out? :S
http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ShowSystem.asp?SystemID=1015

 

[Daz.]

Always used scan for pc bits being local to it - never had any issues.

 

[Gareth]

Scan are one of the best companies out there, I've bought components from them for years, I wouldn't have any hesitation in buying from them.

If your a member of AVForums you'll get free delivery as well.

 

[KDF]

I needed to do 1080p video editing, I bought

Core i7 2.67Ghz
6GB Triple channel ram
128GB SSD
Geforce 9500GT

I don't play games on my PC hence the middle line GPU. I would recommend more than 4GB for HD video editing ! and either an SSD or decent drives in RAID0 (you can store your edited stuff on single/slower drives)

 

[rogueneo]

i would go ssd small size for os and then raid on two other sata drives

 

[Silent_Scone]

Not a bad offer. Scan have always stood out from the other tin pots because of their after sales support, they're brilliant

 

[unofficialPete]

Thanks guys, I'm so out of the times that I had to wiki what an SSD was!

I've just been pointed towards an affordable XPS system as another options for £820..

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dell...d=122756&acd=4faab8a9e416e9aab56ee9736b4dc71d

So looks like I'm on the market for i5, 6-8GB DDR3, an SSD to run the OS(?) and a reasonable GPU. May have to build myself!

 

[rogueneo]

www.pcspecialist.co.uk good for high spec custom

 

[wozzaa]

I would definitely go quad core if you can. Especially with video editing if you are ever converting large files, compressing them etc etc the quad core is going to be a much much faster.

6gb ram I would recommend as well.

If you can build it yourself, then I would likely do that.
Scan today only bundle, i7 950, motherboard and 6gb Corsair memory (£450)
Case to stick it in (£50 - 100)
Nvidia GTX465 (£160)
Power supply (£80)
Hard drive Storage (£70)

SSD is going to put you over budget by around £120.

 

[Jon.G]

Scan are a very reputable company, they are just round the corner from my Uni in bolton as well, Very handy for when student loads come in

They build some awesome PC's for example their jellyfish system has won the best custom pc award for 3 years running. The guys who work there know pretty much anything there is to know and can help you get exactly what you want.

I would highly recommend them as I purchased all my parts for my gaming/media pc from there

like wozza says, if you can build it yourself you can usually get better for the price. the i7 bundle is very good at that price, im running the i5-750 which is Quad core with 4GB dominator RAM and a GTX260 and have no issues with anything. All games run on Ultra as well!

 

[unofficialPete]

Thanks guys, I'm learning fast!

Using http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/ I just created this in a few minutes, comes in nicely at £800. 6 Core, 8GB RAM..

Case: COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU): AMD PHENOM II X6 1055T (2.80GHz/9MB CACHE/AM3/)
Motherboard: ASUS® M4A87TD/USB3: DUAL DDR3,SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0
Memory (RAM): 8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card: 1GB ATI RADEON™ HD 5750 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk: 500GB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk: 1TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)

DVD/BLU-RAY Drive: 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader: INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)
Power Supply & Case Cooling: 450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling: STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Sound Card: ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities: ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB Options: 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

I'd guess its worth a few quid more to get some USB 3.0 ports as the Mobo is 3.0?

Luckily my house mate is in the process of building his own for the first time, so won't be so daunting if I go that route.

 

[Addicted]

scan are good, but those prices dont seem too good, check overclockers.co.uk for more reasonable prices

as said before, i'd go SSD if you can, that'd much improve the editing, and an i3 just doesn't seem worth going for, you'd be better of getting a phenom x6 or something along those lines, better performance than an i7 for half the price!

 

[rogueneo]

with pc specialist would pay bit more and go crossfire. or build its easy and me and others could help if ur stuck

 

[unofficialPete]

excuse my stupidity but which component would be better as crossfire? think I'd be ok building as long as I can get a component list that matches..

 

[rogueneo]

graphicss card.

 

[rogueneo]

meshcomputers.co.uk
alienware but aftersales will be crap now dell own them

 

[wozzaa]

First off I would stick with an i7 the 950 has recently been reduced in price quite a lot and is similar in price to AMD's 6 core CPU's now. The extra 2 cores aren't a big deal, very few programs make use of them and if they do the i7 is hyper threaded so technically shows up as 4 logical core's and 4 physical cores for a total of 8 threads at once. Makes very little difference.

I would also stay with the nVidia based GPU's for your use. They have a few extra bits and pieces you may find editing is better on, more and more things are supporting CUDA which allows the program to offload more to the GPU than you would realise. GPU's are much faster than the CPU for multi threaded apps.

I would build the basic system and then drop an SSD in later. Or spend the £900 now instead of £800. Will get you the system you really want.

 

[unofficialPete]

I'm probably about to run out of post for today but thanks everyone! wozzaa I quickly specced this up for the same price as the system above.. when I get more time tonight I'll price up everything to see what the build cost is and whether I could go for the i7 950..

Case: COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU): Intel® Core™i7-870 Quad Core (2.93GHz, 8MB Cache) + Turbo Boost
Motherboard: ASUS® P7P55 LX: USB 2.0 & SATA 3.0Gb/s, CrossFireX™ SUPPORT
Memory (RAM): 8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card: 1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GT240 PCI EXPRESS (3D BluRay Ready!)
Memory - 1st Hard Disk: 500GB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk: 1TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)


1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive: 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader: INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)
Power Supply & Case Cooling: 350W Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling: INTEL SOCKET LGA1156 STANDARD CPU COOLER
Sound Card: ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities: ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB Options: 2 PORT USB 3.0 INTERNAL PCI EXPRESS CARD

 

[UncleGrumpy]

Word of warning with pcspecialist, yes they are cheap but they're slow as f**k, we've bought from them twice, took 5 1/2 weeks with one machine, other was on time but had dead memory in it, went over to exchange the ram myself to find them in some crappy little unit that looked more like a recycling plant than a box-builder. They're winging it all the time, wouldn't entertain them again.

 

[KDF]

SSD's are a 'luxury' item, you can edit HD without them for sure, like I said above if you can't stretch to an SSD (make sure you do your research on which SSD to get as there are fast and slow ones !!) then a pair of SATA drives in RAID 0 will be fine for video editing. don't have to be that big either as you can use a 1 or 2 TB drive for long term storage/backup.

I wouldn't go for anything less than the i7 and in the same way I wouldn't go for anything too much faster than that as it would be overkill. 6GB ram is plenty.

 

[wozzaa]

The spec list I put together further up would outperform that and is a similar price.

Newer GPU, faster CPU, faster ram (wont need more than 6gb very few people use more than 4gb)

Seriously recommend you build it yourself. Will get a far better system for the money.

It isn't hard to build a system yourself, hardest bit is probably hooking up the power button wire on the case to the motherboard...Then for me it is purely because I have big hands. Trying to put small plugs on small pins just gets annoying.

Scan are a very reputable company, they are just round the corner from my Uni in bolton as well, Very handy for when student loads come in

Seriously how many of us on here at at Bolton uni? If you ever see a yellowish C4 with black pro race 1.2's and lowered parked up there...its mine. Usually in the car park next to the union. Although not going back this September. Due to family issues I was kicked off the course. Apparently my mother nearly dying and having to move home to take care of her isn't a good enough reason to not attend the exams, even though I told them I would not be coming back. So currently appealing the decision.

 

[Jon.G]

The spec list I put together further up would outperform that and is a similar price.

Newer GPU, faster CPU, faster ram (wont need more than 6gb very few people use more than 4gb)

Seriously recommend you build it yourself. Will get a far better system for the money.

It isn't hard to build a system yourself, hardest bit is probably hooking up the power button wire on the case to the motherboard...Then for me it is purely because I have big hands. Trying to put small plugs on small pins just gets annoying.



Seriously how many of us on here at at Bolton uni? If you ever see a yellowish C4 with black pro race 1.2's and lowered parked up there...its mine. Usually in the car park next to the union. Although not going back this September. Due to family issues I was kicked off the course. Apparently my mother nearly dying and having to move home to take care of her isn't a good enough reason to not attend the exams, even though I told them I would not be coming back. So currently appealing the decision.

I didn't know ANYBODY on here went bolton uni! Ive never seen your car about, just coming into 3rd year now. Me and my mates always back over by the school behind maccies kfc. easy parking down there and always space. The undergrad carpark is a night mare.
What course you doing? or should i say what were you doing?

 

[KDF]

The spec list I put together further up would outperform that and is a similar price.

Newer GPU, faster CPU, faster ram (wont need more than 6gb very few people use more than 4gb)

I didn't post a spec he should get, I posted the spec I purchased about a year ago. Obviously my spec is not suitable as I never intend to play games etc. My point was in reference to HD video editing.

 

[wozzaa]

I was meaning in reply to his post mate. The spec list he posted, saying the one I posted although a DIY build would outperform the built to order one he did by quite a bit.

Jon.G

I was in my 1st year doing Auto Engineering. Kind of odd really 2 of my lecturers saw my point of view the other one who makes the decisions basically said you had your chance it's tough.

 

[KDF]

Ah ok,

Although your point was still valid in reference to my post to