How I brought a top class gaming PC for £300

[Freddie]

Specification

CPU: Core 2 E6400 with Artic Cooler Freezer Pro 7
Motherboard: Gigabyte P965 DS3
Ram :1 gig DDR800 Crucial Memory
Hard Drive: 320gig Seagate Barracuda SATAII
Video Card: X1900 XT 512MB with Artic Accellero X2
PSU: Seagate 600 Watt PSU
Opitcal Drives: Pinoer: 18x DVD RW, 16x LG DVD-RW
Extras: Floppy Drive, Front Card Reader, Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard

With delivery this set me back around about £800. So how did I end up paying only £300? Well for a start I got the company I worked for to pay for all the goods, and as such they can claim back all the VAT witch claws back £120 which when taken away from £800 leaves a balance of £680. The £680 is now the gross amount (i.e. before VAT) I need to pay, I then have this amount taken of my gross wages (i.e. before tax deductions), this is perfectly legal since I’m technically going to use my computer for work purposes as well so I’m buying of the company. Now, £680 is taken of my wages which reduces my tax and national insurance liability (it also means my company has to pay the taxman less company NI so everyone is a winner), by another £180 which leaves a balance of £400. The final piece of the puzzle came the other day when I sold my old rig for a nice tidy sum of £200 on Ebay.

Gross cost of new computer £800

Less

VAT £120
TAX/NI Savings £180
Ebay sale £200

Closing Balance £300

[Rhone]

Where did you buy your computer from?...Or did you assemble it yourself?

[Freddie]

Where did you buy your computer from?...Or did you assemble it yourself?

I assembled it myself. Most of the parts came from Dabs.com

[DougyM]

I assembled it myself. Most of the parts came from Dabs.com

Good man!

Im doing the same roughly on the 18th of november (pay day!!!).

Except i wont be going through my company... cant justify why id need a computer at work when we already get them.. plus they gotta be explosions safe (work in a petrochemical plant... might blow up if theres sparks or open flames etc...).

The specs im planning on....

Nforce 6 intel motherboard (due in november... meant to outclass the 4/5 series)
Core 2 duo E6700 (gonna overclock it... somebody i know has it OC'd to 3.8 gig)
2 gb DDR2 800 (pricy but worth it)
EVGA 7900 gtx (using the evga step up program i get to change it for a Dx10 card when they launch and i only need to pay the difference in original prices)
Sound blaster x-fi
2 Raptor 150gb 10,000 rpm drives (probly with a 3rd large drive for storage)
Seasonic 650 watt PSU (gonna get quad sli dx10 cards in the future)

unlike youself im having to spend a fair whop of cash... (£1410 to be exact... plus ill need to get a good cooling system)

EDIT: the computer im using the now was attained via the same way as you got yours.... got 2 years out of it with minimal modding.

[UnderdawgIV]

Good man!

Im doing the same roughly on the 18th of november (pay day!!!).

Except i wont be going through my company... cant justify why id need a computer at work when we already get them.. plus they gotta be explosions safe (work in a petrochemical plant... might blow up if theres sparks or open flames etc...).

The specs im planning on....

Nforce 6 intel motherboard (due in november... meant to outclass the 4/5 series)
Core 2 duo E6700 (gonna overclock it... somebody i know has it OC'd to 3.8 gig)
2 gb DDR2 800 (pricy but worth it)
EVGA 7900 gtx (using the evga step up program i get to change it for a Dx10 card when they launch and i only need to pay the difference in original prices)
Sound blaster x-fi
2 Raptor 150gb 10,000 rpm drives (probly with a 3rd large drive for storage)
Seasonic 650 watt PSU (gonna get quad sli dx10 cards in the future)

unlike youself im having to spend a fair whop of cash... (£1410 to be exact... plus ill need to get a good cooling system)

EDIT: the computer im using the now was attained via the same way as you got yours.... got 2 years out of it with minimal modding.

Do you really have to get thoser Raptor 10,000 RPM drives? You don't need them unless you are running some sort of server. Plus they are way too expensive for gaming purposes. Why get a e6700? A e6600, much cheaper, overclocks to 3.5 without breaking a sweat with some nice DDR2-800 RAM. It could probably get to 3.8 too. I've seen some get it to 3.9ghz. Nice plan on the 7900GTX. Let's hope they don't pull some BS and make it so that you cannot upgrade to a DX10 card from a DX9 with the step-up program.

Other than that, everything else looks good I guess. Though for a PSU, A OCZ GameXStream 700W unit (4x 12V Rails at 18A!) is a nice PSU. I have the 600W unit. But Seasonics are of top quality. What model are you planning to get? The M12's?

[Cúchulainn]

How I got my 2 grand laptop for free!!

Stole it

[Mr Tuna]

Thats very nice

[rayzzz]

you lucky lucky....man

[Scarlett Letterman]

I don't understand, you paid 500 euros just for delivery? :hmmm:

[Freddie]

I don't understand, you paid 500 euros just for delivery? :hmmm:

No all the parts plus delivery set me back £800.

[Shaun]

Pretty nice Freddie!

[Emperor of Europe]

If you're only "technically" using that computer for work, there is only one word for what you've done: Fraud.

Sorry for being the devil's advocate here, but that's how the tax authorities will view it as well. And if you need to forge documents or lie about the actual use of that computer, then fraud is what it is.

rgds/EoE

[Rhone]

If you're only "technically" using that computer for work, there is only one word for what you've done: Fraud.

Sorry for being the devil's advocate here, but that's how the tax authorities will view it as well. And if you need to forge documents or lie about the actual use of that computer, then fraud is what it is.

rgds/EoE

Its not fraud...he will use the computer for work.

[Shaun]

If you're only "technically" using that computer for work, there is only one word for what you've done: Fraud.

And I am sure that will be on Freddies mind all the time when he is playing games at 1200x1600 with 4xAA and HDR

But for it not to be fraud all he has to do is take it to work and plug it in.

[Emperor of Europe]

Well, it's no concern of mine really. Where I live, what he did was illegal. In the UK it may be enough to bring the computer with you to work and plug it in, if the tax office comes crashing down on you, but I strongly doubt it.

And even if by some odd chance or ineffective system there's a lophole, it's still like this, isn't it: The computer did not cost £300, the dealer was paid £800. Our hero here paid £300 for his hobby, but someone else must have paid those £500 for his little bit of luxury. And who do you think that would be?

The only interesting thing in this thread is really why someone with such a lack of integrity needs to brag about it here to raise his self-esteem.

rgds/EoE

[Peter]

How about case and operating system thats like 200$ extra

[Freddie]

How about case and operating system thats like 200$ extra

My case is worth £100 on it's own! Acousti Case Black It's lined with sound proofing materials which means I don't have to suffer from the noise of my already quiet components. My computer is in my bedroom (which is a small) and could easily leave my computer on all night and I wouldn’t be able to hear it. It's bliss. All I done was buy a cheap £20 case, put all the parts from my old computer in it and sold it on ebay and kept the Acousti case for myself!

As for the OS I already own a license for XP.

[Erik]

So you avoided taxes, hurray for you!

By the fact that this thread isn't closed yet I assume it was legal in your case?

[Freddie]

So you avoided taxes, hurray for you!

By the fact that this thread isn't closed yet I assume it was legal in your case?

I'm an accountant so I know a thing or two about tax laws. What I done was perfectly legal, I purchased the computer so I can work from home (which is the truth), and since I do all the payroll at work anyway it's not like there is anyone in the way who can overrule me. I cleared it with the boss before hand anyway.

Legally it's hard to aviod PAYE (this means your tax is decducted at the source) but this is one of the few ways to do it.

[Lavastein]

i love you freddie. I wish i could buy a cpu for a cheap 300 euros which is prob like 450 american.