In preparation for my new career as a L337 games tester (or maybe just full-time Planetside player) I’ve just bought meself a new PC, and learned one or two wee tips for any other potential buyers.
Prices from the different vendors vary quite wildly, so you have to look at things like the build quality and the responsiveness and expertise of the support.
A great help was this consumer rating system at Romulous2. Your second stop, as always is Google Groups for uk.comp.vendors. Search this mercilessly for any vendor you’re considering: if they suck, someone will have vented their anger here.
The best gear is always from the small, indy suppliers run by genuine geeks (Chillblast, Poweroid). They tend to care the most about noise, cooling and flashy lights on the casing, and won’t dumb down the spec. They’ll also be far dedicated to effective tech support (e.g. giving out ICQ numbers!). In the end though these packages are only practical for those on an unlimited budget – YGWYPF after all.
Originally I was aiming for a mid-range (£1000) number, but it’s too damn hard to resist when you’re presented with all the cool futureproof add-ons. What did surprise me though was the floor price for systems is way down – £250-400 in many cases. You might want to check out The Matrix to see what top-end really looks like.
After much research then I narrowed my suppliers down to Campus (where I bought reebeast’s PC) and Evesham. Campus have the cheaper packages, but Evesham have the rep for quality builds so that’s where the money went in the end, an Axis 2800 with upgrades (1Gb RAM(!), Radeon 9700 Pro).
Total £1700 – definitely one for the 0% interest period on your credit card…
30-Apr-03 at 1:32 pm | Permalink
I’m thinking about one of these quality babies as well… SF2, XMvSF, Smash TV, think of it…
03-May-03 at 3:31 pm | Permalink
holy mackerel. The courier slip appeared yesterday, meaning that Evesham turned it around in 3 days! Nice.
Also means I will have no social life come Monday… : )