Considering Home Building vs Purchasing custom PC on eBay

Hello,

I've read through the stickies here as well as some of the threads. I need a new computer and have provided my needs below. I don't have any experience home building a machine so I'm looking at purchasing one off eBay - I've provided information below about what I need and a link for an eBay system below that. If someone could please provide some feedback on whether this is a decent deal or not, I'd really appreciate it.


APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: ASAP - Today/tomorrow BUDGET RANGE: 1800 - 2000
SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Videoediting, Watching HD source DVDs, making DVDs out of video + burning, multitasking surfing, wordprocessing and other similar tasks. I don't really play any games.

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Need everything, currently using a laptop.

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: any but I'm looking at eBay because I have an 8% off coupon.

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Maybe

MONITOR RESOLUTION: not sure of exact resolution but I do want to watch HD quality video on it.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: At least 1 TB HD but would like to get 2.

Here is the eBay system I'm looking at:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Custom-System- [...] 9|294%3A50

Please let me know your comments and / or better places to find a system like this. I can add/remove certain components but I don't think I know how to build a system from scratch.

Yeah, while that seems like a pretty nice build they have there. In my opinion, defiantly over priced considering with a little elbow grease, and a few tutorials you can build something better for the money yourself.

Thanks hunter, ezkiller and xxza.

Hunter, I think I"ll go ahead and follow your recommendations and build my own machine. I'm reading through the tutorials right now. I will reply again with all the parts I will be purchasing for it.

Since the total will be lower than expected, I might bump up the performance and add the GTX in case I decide to try out some games.

I'm usually working on putting together multiple DVDs and I like to watch video while the DVDs encode so hopefully the higher performance will help out because I can only encode one DVD at a time and can't watch video while doing that in the setup I have now.

Thanks again for all the responses, I'm going to get started buying the individual parts today.

I got a new I7 920 OC @ 3.4
6G DDR3 1333 Gskill
640 WD HDD
LG DVD Burner
Antec 650 Watt
Cooler Master Cosmos 100 Case
Asus p6t Deluxe
Ati Sapphire 4870

$899

Send a pm if interested, I got pics and benches, its going on Ebay Tuesday or Wednesday.

Hey Bro,

Would you be able to please send me a link to the eBay system you're looking at. I thought I searched pretty good for some systems but I guess I didn't.

Thanks.

For a non-gamer, the Dell might make more sense. You wouldn't be able to overclock it, but you won't need to. The components will likely be up to the job, even if they aren't the premium parts many of us would choose.
That said, I'd be a little concerned about buying something like this on eBay. Why is this one being sold there? What would it cost if you bought it directly from Dell? Compare that price to building it yourself, then decide.
In any case, avoid that first system. It is way overpriced, has some things you don't need, and uses a few inferior parts.

hahahaha.... i agree with syche..... build it urself, and get a decent PSU