Buying a cheap ass Haswell PC

[Flynn]

Just a quick question guys, my laptop fried on Monday morning, so I am on the lookout for something Haswell based for SupCom (and possibly other games to get the most out of my purchase ). Now I can get one of these rigs for £375:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121187218885? ... 1438.l2649

It has a bare basic Mobo, but it is still Gigabyte so a reputable brand, plus a Haswell in the socket. Sure, when the time comes to upgrade I will basically be stuffed, but does it really matter when I can just rip everything out and start again with a new mobo in 5 years time?

I have been looking at some more expensive and upgradable options but is there really a point or is there a flaw in my logic?

ETA: I would normally have a go at building one but since it is an emergency I need one as fast as possible since I am having to tolerate a very slow Netbook at the moment!

[johnie102]

I have a third generation i5 myself and I have yet to come across a game where I'm the one slowing everybody down.
That having been said: As far as I can tell, that computer you linked doesn't have a dedicated graphics card. That will probably be a problem if you are playing a big game.

[Flynn]

Not a problem, I will get a graphics card at a later point.

[Torch]

Haswell is good if you will be running at stock, but if you are willing to do some overclocking, you can get a cheaper Ivy Bridge/Sandy Bridge CPU, spend the difference on a decent motherboard and cooler, and significantly outperform stock Haswell without spending much/any more.

[Flynn]

Trouble is a lot of the pre-built rigs come with basic ass mobos because people rarely look at the mobos so then they advert can say "look, latest Intel Haswell CPU at rock bottom price" etc, etc, because it's all bolted to a cheap mobo which is how they are able to be so cheap with a decent core. And because it's an emergency I do need to get a rig in one bundle instead of a dozen parts delivered all separately. From what I've read, I5 is the ultimate for SupCom anyway, that's all I want now.

[Torch]

Yes, i5 is the most you will use in Supcom, because the game can only use 2 cores, but an i5 3570k (Ivy Bridge) at ~4.4ghz will be a lot faster than a 3.4ghz i5 4670 (Haswell). I don't know sites or prices in the UK, so I can't really find anything for you, but you should be able to find a prebuilt with a half-decent z77 motherboard. You don't need anything amazing, and if you leave voltages at stock, you should be able to get away with just about any z77 at all. I'm also a bit worried about that noname power supply in the prebuilt you linked. I wouldn't risk all those expensive components with such a questionable PSU. If you do buy that, you should definitely upgrade the PSU when you add a graphics card.

[Flynn]

Thanks for your help. Frustratingly the only 3570k pre-built rigs come with the asus p8h61-mx which I can tell just by looking at it's picture on Google image search that it is a bare basic mobo (only 2 RAM slots, not z87 chipset). The frustrations of speccing a prebuilt rig

As for the brandless PSU on the I5 machine, yes, I have read about the dangers of a cheap PSU and was actually gonna ask them to not include a PSU at all and get a decent Antec or Corsair and fit it myself.

[da_monstr]

Yes, brandless PSUs are basically a fire hazard:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?na ... y&reid=335

Also, isn't it a little pointless to buy prebuilt? I understand it's an emergency, but you won't sell those pointless parts easily, or you would, but at a big loss. Are you sure that your retailers don't have all the parts that you want in stock? It would take as much to deliver those as it would the prebuilt rig. Just slap the parts together in an evening and figure out the details later.

[IceDreamer]

Build it yourself. It'll always be cheaper.

[Flynn]

Yes, brandless PSUs are basically a fire hazard:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?na ... y&reid=335

Also, isn't it a little pointless to buy prebuilt? I understand it's an emergency, but you won't sell those pointless parts easily, or you would, but at a big loss. Are you sure that your retailers don't have all the parts that you want in stock? It would take as much to deliver those as it would the prebuilt rig. Just slap the parts together in an evening and figure out the details later.

Good question. The cheap parts I will simply ask them to omit from the build. I have priced up building a PC myself and the prices are as follows:

Decent Case: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cooler-Master ... 58a2ac82b2

£27

Mid range Z87 Mobo: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Asus-Z87-A-LG ... 48581b9231

£110

Decent PSU:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-CORSAIR-4 ... 3f274ade43

£66

Processor (now this is the real kicker):

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intel-Core-i5 ... 53fd126da0

£190

Decent DDR3 RAM:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/OCZ-DDR3-2x2G ... 20b8853c66

£29

HDD 1TB:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Western-Digit ... 485bd0e8eb

£50

Decent case fans x4:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Arctic-Coolin ... 51b18def8e

£17

That roughly matches the spec of the machine I am looking at, which has now changed to this one:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/370916574300? ... 1438.l2649

So we have:

Case £29
Mobo £110
PSU £66
Processor £190
RAM £29
1TB HDD £50
Case fans x4 £17

All together that is:

£491

You might be able to knock £30 off that if you were lucky, but generally things are very cheap on eBay now days due to the amount of traders who use it as their primary business. The similar pre-built rig is up for £520, but I will ask them to do it without the PSU or the OS (Windows 8 is included, I have Windows 7 on my old HDD), which will probably knock it down to £450.

From what I have read OEM parts are a fair bit cheaper than retail parts which is how they are competitive. And when you consider with the pre-built rig I am gonna get nearly a whole rig in one box and then just add my own PSU when I get it and a GPU further down the line, I think it's value for money.