Cheapest UK mainstream PC builder?

I have been researching my replacement PC for a while now.

My core requirements remain the same:
680i motherboard, Intel Core 2 Duo 6600, nVidia 8800 GTX and 2GB RAM.

Virtually everywhere sells this type of set-up for £1,300+

I did find a cheap dealer (PC Option) who would do a system for £1,200+

Anyway, I just rediscovered Power Computing - www.powerc.com/ - Power Computing have been around since 1985 - they were big in the days of the Amiga.

They'll do the system for £1000!

Basically, they are £300-£500 cheaper than everyone else!



They are a clear £300+ cheaper than the mainstream.

They offer less options and they don't offer the faff or specialised cooling, professional wiring and other customisation.

My only main concern is I would have gone for faster RAM. Plus, they don't offer a PSU upgrade - so I might request they do it or confirn the included one is a branded one.

However, the savings mean I could add more in - X-Fi Xtreme audio - second optical drive which takes it up to £1,100.

I'm due to buy my new PC within a week or so and, currently, these boys are first on my shopping list

No, I don't know anywhere trustworthy cheaper than this. Novatech could do a similar system for about £100 more, but that's the next cheapest I know of from someone I'd trust.

They have very little in the way of variety and they seem to favour (probably due to bulk deals) certain brands.

They only sell Samsung 3.5 hard drives and Fujitsu 2.5 ones. They only seem to do ASUS mobos.

They only sell one type of DDR2 memory (DDR2 533) - which is a bit of a shame really.

However, they are bloody cheap.

They don't have much variety, that's true. But Samsung, Kingston and Asus are good brands. Not the best, but not the cheap crap either. Good, solid stuff at a very low price.

Mmm, I just realised the mobo is 650i SLI - not the 680i I want. They don't seem to do a 680i one.

Now, with the slower RAM and a 650i mobo, I'm not so sure - I'd rather pay more to get the mobo I want and may as well get the faster RAM I want too.

Novatech seem good - but they don't let you configure the systems. I looked at them last week then removed them from my favourites.

Wait a minute - they have another section:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/products/a789x1y0z1p0s0n0m0

I'll take a look.

Yet again, I can't get the 680i mobo.

What is their major malfunction regarding the 680i mobo?

We are not living in the Eastern Block. This is a First World country - we have electricity and transport and stuff - education, hospitals.

Hand the chuffing 680i over!

680i's are truly an expensive option. Saw a thing the other day where someone (ASUS?) have squeezed dual SLi out of a 650i chipset (in conjunction with nVidia) and still give a huge saving over the cost of 680i.

I priced up an "ultimate upgrade" rig for someone with similar components to the PC you've specced up and it came to £2K.

CPU       Intel Core 2 Duo 2.67GHz              £311.36 
M/B       ASUS P5N32-E NF680i                   £138.64 
Graphics  768MB ASUS 8800GTX                    £380.29 
RAM       2GB (4 x 512M) Corsair TwinX 4-4-4-12	£158.96 
HD        WD 500GB                              £ 80.95 
Flash     2GB Corsair GT                        £ 19.96 
Monitor   24" Dell 2407WFP                      £516.40 
Input     Logitech Cordless MX3200              £ 58.27 
Sound     Altec Lansing MX5020 2.0              £ 36.18 
Software  Windows Vista Home Premium            £ 69.20 
Case      Antec P160                            £ 90.53 
PSU       520W Corsair (triple 12V rails)       £ 68.76

That's £1929.50. Not including an optical drive.

If you're just upgrading, knock off the monitor, speakers and keyboard+mouse; the price comes down to £1318.65. Knock off the USB stick (which I put in there to use ReadyBoost) and it's £1298.69.

That's with some extremely fast (and low latency) RAM and the bestestest (almost, without overclocking) gfx card.

**EDIT**

Of course, the problem is that you then have to build the thing :)

I would charge nearly £1700 for the system after building and testing (have to factor in the after-sales!).

Actually, just re-checked Mesh who are now cheaper than they were a few weeks back:

Core 2 Duo E6600
EVGA SLI nForce 680i
8800 GTX - unknown make
2GB DDR2 - albeit 533MHz
320GB SATA - 16MB buffer
£1,188.25

Previously it was £1,300+

Looks good to me.

Buy the bits and build it yourself.

www.komplett.co.uk ?

Puki,

I have a Mesh Athlon 1.9+ (runs at 1.6 MHz) which is five years old and has only 768 MB ram compared to a recent Dell 3.0GHz PC , 2GB RAM, fast graphics card and yet mine wiped the floor with it, for speed, reliabliity, boot upand all.

Moral of story? Cheap PC's are cheap, good PC's need not be expensive, but a PC with the right build quality and components does not need to cost too much more.

Check out: www.meshcomputers.com

I have been buying from them since 1996 - they are excellent PCs, have fantastic aftersales service and my clients and I love 'em.

They'll install XP for you instead of Vista too if you want.

IPete2.