The (new) Official PC building thread!

In the same way that a site writes their own terms and conditions - you'll note if you read carefully that OcUK are allowed to lie about whether something is in stock. Additionally, if they're not willing to take on customer complaints, it kind of says something about their attitude to customer service.

Agreed.

Not necessarily true. One of my orders was 'dispatched' but turned up missing an item. The following item wasn't even collected from OcUK for another five days.

What would confirming it with them prove? They told me they'd dispatched my Antec 900 case when I ordered it - yet it was 'collected' three days after I made the call with a different part consignment number.

I usually take a two strikes then out policy with companies. Between me and my friends, the last FIVE orders with Overclockers have all had problems - in one case with an order summing two hundred pounds arriving four weeks late, with the company not willing to refund. I can't name another company in any industry that has such a poor record for customer service. I genuinely can't think of one.

Up until a year and a half ago or so, Overclockers were pretty solid in the customer service department. Recently though, as their number of customers has gone up their service has waned - and it's easy to see why, they haven't hired any extra people. The dozen support calls a friend of mine made to the site only got him two names, he got through to them half a dozen times each pretty much, two service employees for a company as popular as OcUK?


Oh, and by the way, I forgot to mention Tekheads. 2/2 success rate for them so far, they also use Citylink, just like Ebuyer, Aria and Scan.

 

@everyone
AVG 7.5 is No Longer Free...What other Free Anti Virus are people using...I used Avira before AVG...I guess I will go back to it unless someone can suggest something better...

 

AVG 7.5 is dead and buried, it's free successor is AVG 8.0 and it SUCKS. My PC ran like crap from the moment I installed it. It's time to find something new. I tried Avast but didn't like how 'animated' it was. I'm currently on a 30-day trial of NOD32.

In other news, can anyone explain how this happened?
My housemate's laptop seems to have overclocked itself. BIOS settings haven't been altered.

 

After installing AVG 7.5 on my PC it started running like CRAP.

I had to format and re-install windows to finally start using it normally. Seriously, even web browsing became a chore for this computer.

edited by creaky - let's not have any more foul language

 

I always found 7.5 fine, but 8 seems to induce lag for any program that tries to send outbound data for several seconds.

 

funny i just installed AVG 7.5 and dont have aproblem with it. installed and did a complete scan. no problems. i havent tried 8.0 version yet. if its as bad as i hear it is i might not. got out and buy nortons again i guess.

 

Well I'm not sure if it was 7.5. It was the latest version few weeks ago.

 

Probably 8 - 7.5 had been bugging me to upgrade for quite a while before I did. Did it have shiny graphics or a plain grey window with buttons that used coloured text?

 

I originally posted this message on the main forum and I think it was supposed to go here instead so here it is:

So originally I was just going to upgrade my outdate PC Compaq SR1810nx.

However after i did a little checking not only does it take PC3200 ram which is crap now compared to whats out today, but it also has a socket 939 which as most of you know is extinct.

Added with the fact that case is a micro atx and its a pain to find mobos that fit it i'm deciding to scrap the whole thing and buy a new one, but rather than get ripped off by Dell or somebody I want to build my own.

I don't play PC games as I have a PS3 and a 360 and PC gaming isn't really my thing beyond yahoo games or something like that. I mostly download large files and store them, so storage is key preferably 750 MB+ and my fiancee is in interior design so she uses AutoCAD and photoshop to render HUGE files so i need something that can keep her happy as well.

In terms of price I'd like to stay under $1100.

 

Get a Quad core. A Q6600 or Q9450
You don't need a monster video card, I would still get something like a 9600GT though
Get a Sata Harddrive with 32MB of Cache
A motherboard like the Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3R will do for you. If I had a budget like yours I would get a P5E, but that's because I already used that board and wanna try something different
The case is personal preference to an extent. I just got a Cooler Master CM690, and I LOVE IT. lol It could use some more weight though.
For the PSU, get something like a 650TX or 620HX(more expensive, but tis' modular so it keeps your computer tidy).

 

Old as Socket 939 is, there's no reason why it can't platform a half-decent PC. It will support up to 4800+ dual cores if you can find them, which aren't that bad. Finding replacement motherboards for it is a chore though.
Since you're wiling to start fresh, you should go with Intel 775. Since you're not gaming with it, you don't necessarily need a gaming graphics card, just one with a decent amount of memory.

Abuzar's recommendations are all sound.

 

Whooo!! I win.

So what I've seen so far of my new case is great! I'm getting my new PSU(650TX) tommorow. I'm gonna start putting my stuff in the case and I will give my first impressions. Seriously, I like this thing better than my Armor, and that takes some DOING.

 

I've been looking and I have a Sempron (P) 3200+ 1.8 GHz the only other 939 compatible CPU i can find is this:

AMD Athlon 64 4000+


Which is an upgrade over what I have but its not what I want.

Are there others that are compatible with a 939 socket and they just aren't categorized as such?

 

What did you get? I've forgotten already.... lol


Oh and shaff? I have some word eating to do. At 7:30pm, guess what turned up?

 

The Opteron 185 is the fastest CPU on the 939 Socket. I would just go ahead and build a new computer. Now much you can get out of the old one.

 

I agree I'll check out your recommendations.

I really need help in terms of the mobo, CPU, and GPU.

the RAM, Case, PSU I can handle pretty much

 

OMG, I think I will STAB MY EARS!!!

This side-fan is so annoying!!!!!!!!!

 

The 690? didnt think it even came with a side fan...

 

Yeah, the 690. I'm so disappointed with this case. The build quality is HORRIBLE, and everything feels so damn flimsy. The only reason I'm keeping it is because I like the design.

It comes with a front fan, side fan, and rear fan. They are all 120mm. It also has two slots for 140m fans on top, one slot on the bottom for a 140mm fan, and two slots on the side panel for 140mm fans.

All these slots have holes to accommodate smaller fans. The cable routing system inside the case is genius. But the build quality. I mean, I think I BENT THE CASE trying to install the I/O shield.