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New Computer Build - a local computer centre or online?

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  1. #1

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    New Computer Build - a local computer centre or online?

    I've got a budget of around HK$20K to HK$25k for a decent home gaming/work/dev PC.

    3 options:

    1. Get somewhere like a shop in Wanchai Computer Centre to help me build?

    2. Look online desktop build companies?

    3. Order parts myself and spend time figuring out how to build a PC?

    Option 3 likely to be cheapest but also could risk getting inefficiently incompatible parts. The only thing putting me off option 1 is the number of shops offering PC builds that don't look super legit.

    TIA


  2. #2

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    1. with a reputable shop like Centralfield, they won't put in inefficiently incompatible parts or at least confirm with you before doing that. centralfield could be a tad more expensive than other shops in golden / wanchai / etc, but do your research on the components' prices, not unheard of to get a discount / price match at centralfield.

    jgl, shri and Javatar like this.

  3. #3

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    The cost of having the store assemble the parts is only a couple hundred HK, and takes maybe an hour or two.

    There are a couple of obviously big, high throughput places in SSP.


  4. #4

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    Can also vouch for Centralfield. I chose all the components from them and they built it. Zero problems after more than 5 years.

    What specs you looking at getting, just outta interested?


  5. #5

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    External or internal PSU?


  6. #6

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    Macbook pro? 14" m1 pro cpu for $15k. 16"? m1 Pro cpu - $16k - refurbished on Apple HK website. 15% off retail. Buy Applecare so breakages are covered, etc for 2-3 years. Don't get m1 chip - no multi-monitor unless you get a display link dock (which is what I use)

    Save some money and buy external monitors and keyboard from Amazon.com. $2k for a 4k AOC or LG monitor delivered.
    It should work for three years, then save the $5k-$10k to buy a new setup in a few years.

    Need to look at your use case -
    Dev - lots of devs use Mac's now, homebrew, virtualization.

    Gaming - MacOS - not as good as Windows at the moment.
    Work -> depends if your work is VDI, or needs Windows app. May be able to use the Windows virtualization for apps and some games - haven't looked into it deeply.
    I still have a Surface Pro 7+ and a M1 Macbook air. Still prefer Windows for majority of my work. Air is great on battery life. ymmv


  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by East_coast:
    External or internal PSU?

    <whoosshh>

    It's a strange setup where the power supply for a decent gaming spec machine to run an external power brick. I am sure they exist, but I've never seen one.

    Or are you talking about modular cables, which are default on the more carefully built machines these days.
    emx likes this.

  8. #8

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    Thanks everyone I'll check out Centralfield!

    To answer a few Qs:
    1. I've only ever done internal PSU.
    2. I'm not too bothered about lugging a tower for repairs, and much prefer not feeling constrained about parts (which I may be for a light laptop, esp for a GPU).
    3. Usual specs and decent GPU is enough for my home use purposes.

    PC's specs will probably not be too different from my current set up, which will be roughly:

    i7 or i9 CPU - will look at what's available now re hyperthreading and all that

    32 or 64GB RAM

    GPU: Almost-but-not-quite top of the range

    1tb SSD and around 4tb hard drive, arranged in RAID

    PSU: enough to power the above.

    Any thoughts on whether I should go Windows 11 or Windows 10?

    I already have other tidbits including monitor.


  9. #9

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    You know that AMD has just announced the pricing on their next generation of Ryzen processors, right? They run pretty high base clock speeds (over 4GHz) which is is very relevant to gaming.

    I don't think there's anything substantial on upcoming Intel CPUs, but tbh I do not follow this stuff anymore.

    https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022...arting-at-299/

    > 1tb SSD and around 4tb hard drive, arranged in RAID

    Personally would not bother with this bit. RAID1 (presumably what you'd be looking at) is inferior to a scheduled external backup to LAN or even a USB drive. Or put the cost of the additional 4Tb drive(s) towards a cloud backup solution.

    Javatar and shri like this.

  10. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by jgl:
    You know that AMD has just announced the pricing on their next generation of Ryzen processors, right? They run pretty high base clock speeds (over 4GHz) which is is very relevant to gaming.


    > 1tb SSD and around 4tb hard drive, arranged in RAID

    Personally would not bother with this bit. RAID1 (presumably what you'd be looking at) is inferior to a scheduled external backup to LAN or even a USB drive. Or put the cost of the additional 4Tb drive(s) towards a cloud backup solution.
    Thanks - I'll defo check out the latest AMD processors as I'm not too bothered about intel v AMD so long as it works well!

    Maybe I'm just not mentally there yet but still don't feel secure with cloud. I think you have a point with RAID1. I just get into bad habits sometimes and don't update (and there goes months of work).

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