OK, I'm going to take the plunge and buy a new home PC. My present one is 7 years old and showing it's age.

I'm unsure of a few things though, so if someone could guide me I'd be obliged:

AMD Phenom Quad core, or Intel R Quad 2 core?

Processor speeds in GHz and MHz FSB.......what do they mean to a user?

What does the processor cache signify to a user?

Is a TV tuner useful?

Is 6 USB connections enough?

Do I NEED PCI slots?


Are there any manufacturers out there to be avoided due to high cost/low spec ratio, etc?

Are DELL computers rated or not?

Thanks for any help.

Alcazar

 

On a low to medium budget I'd recommend Acer, though the cost is not as high as some other manufacturers, they offer great value for money and are very reliable.

If you want a high end PC, my choice is HP.

In terms of spec, it depends on what you are using the PC for. Most peiople pay the added premium for things they'll never use.

Obviuosly, the higher the spec the more scalable the machine.

What's the primary purpose ?
Gaming?
Surfing ?
Multimedia ?
Storage ?
All of the above ?

 

Surfing, multimedia and storage.

Oh, and can I use a pair of Mission bookshelf speakers instead of PC speakers?

Thanks, Alcazar

 

I won't go for Dell, customer service is below par, leave that for corporate organisation that has too much money to spend.

Personal preference for your choice of PC

Processor : Intel Core 2 duo

RAM : I won't pay over the top for a large memory, but will kep the cost down by buying a PC with 1 or 2GB but upgradable to 4/8GB. Later visit Memory upgrades, flash media, and usb storage at Crucial.com for cheap memories and self install. You'll save alot of money as to buying the PC with huge memory.

Disk Space: I'd go for 250GB - 320GB, if extra is needed buy an external hard drive, be safer than sorry, not leaving all the eggs in one basket.

TV Tuner : A bonus not a necessity

Graphics card: For multimedia you need a good one. Check this site for review Graphics Card Reviews - IT Reviews

Memory card reader a bonus
High Def audio
Firewire
The more USB ports the better all 2.0
Video RAM 512 and above

Not too sure about the cache, but i believe the high it is the faster your processor can process information as it holds it in cache. I'm sure a techie
will come along to explain.

Hard disk Speed: Min 7200rpm

Check out both the Acer series and HP pavillion

 

A P3 is perfectly adequate for Scoobynet and ****

 

Never did understand the need for these huge HD's. My pc has hundreds of mp3's and digi camera pics and i have 56gig of free space left on an 80gig HD.
What do you lot store?

 

intel over amd at present, far better bang per buck

higher the mhz on the fsb the better, however it isnt good having a processor that supports say 1066mhz fsb when the memory only supports 667mhz fsb, so look for matched or close as.

Generally the more cache on the processor means better performance as things can be done on "die" rather than being passed to the memory and then passed back

Tv tuner is useful if you will use it for watching tv. Best bet would be a digital/freeview type. Generally you can record with these so you could always burn to dvd/cd at a later date.

6 x USB slots should be more than enough. I have 6 on mine, and the only one that is really used is for my printer. I have a gamepad connected to one as well so in total 2 out of 6.

My pc is wireless and I use a pci card for a wireless adaptor, however you could use a wireless usb dongle saving a pci slot and using another usb.

For storage, you could also get an external hd (get 500mb for about 50 quid these days) which would take up another slot. Advantage of this is you can go from pc to pc and transfer your mutlimedia etc

 

oh to add, the medion range of pcs that you can get from aldi I think it is are quite a good spec for the money

 

What's wrong with Dell. On the few times I've had to contact them, the customer service has been fine. Much better than I've had from other companies with a "good" reputation - (I'd never buy from Alienware or Rock again).

I just bought a cheap Inspiron from them for my dad, with a E8200 dual core processor, 2gb ram, 500gb hard disc, and a 19" monitor all for around £400. Can't argue with that

Depends on your camera and how many pictures you take. I usually manage to take around 10Gb of photos in a single holiday, (in fact I have before taken 6GB worth in a single weekend when going the motor races etc).

My system has 1TB of storage, 500GB of which I use for video editing, plus 750GB of backup on an external NAS drive. Even with all that, I'm finding I'm running out of space

 

Another vote for Dell. Excellent VFM.

They always have some great deals on.

 

Just an example of what can be had:

Dell Inspiron 530 DT (D045022)

Intel® Viiv Core 2 Quad-Core Q6600 Processor
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English
1 Year Base Warranty - Collect & Return
NO 19" Monitor
2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]
500GB (7200rpm) SATA Hard Drive
128MB ATI® Radeon HD 2400 Pro graphics card
DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD)
Dell Entry Quietkey USB Keyboard
Dell 2 Button USB Optical Mouse
Integrated 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio
19-in-1 Media Card Reader
Microsoft® Works 9.0 - English

2Gb (2x1) GB RAM upgrade from Crucial: 2GB kit (1GBx2), 240-pin DIMM, DDR2 PC2-5300 upgrades for Dell Inspiron 530 Desktop/PC, CT700765 from Crucial.com

 

£359 delivered

 

Did you forget to add the cost of extras for call out charges after the one year warranty runs out.

I've had a bad experience in the past with Dell but I'm glad there are peeps that can vote for Dell, but I for one won't buy one for personal use.

We use Dell @ work I have both HP and Acer @ home.

Acer for the family to surf etc and HP for my work to run VS2005/8 and MSSQL server etc. I defo do know where I'd rather spend my money.

 

i had a dell, superb pc no problems whatsoever.

 

It would be the same for any PC with a 1 year warranty. Why would you have call out charges after a year?...Just pop it into the local PC specialist or fix it yourself if things ever go wrong...PCs are quite simple...


but if you really must have an extended warranty, then Dell also offer this (as with most other companies) for an extra cost.

The topic starter isn't technologically challenged from my observations anyhow

 

unless the parts aren't standard...or just obscure. Now, which manufacturer of cheap computers does that.......

 

Dunno, but I opened up the Inspiron I got from Dell last week to have a look, and it all looks pretty standard to me...

 

Apple. Once you go Mac there's no going back.

 

Yes there is. I've hd the misfortune of using them, and would never buy one myself. To each their own...

 

Thank truck for that, looks what happens to any other technology when you touch it

 

Lol

To be fair, all the Pcs I've built myself have been 100% reliable, and so far my 10th xbox seems to be ok

 

Yeah, all the my personally built computers (running windows) have been preety stable.

I love my Macbook though - best comuter I've owned.

 

i have 73 gb of stuff just in itunes

 

"Oh, and can I use a pair of Mission bookshelf speakers instead of PC speakers?

Thanks, Alcazar"

I run my PC through a pair of bookshelf speakers and it sounds good. You may need a seperates amplifier though with an AUX input to hook the speakers up to. I have an older NAD amp that sits nicely under the monitor, its not too big or anything. You just need a cable with the 3.5mm headphone type plug at one end and the red/white phono plugs at the other. 3.5mm plug goes in the speaker output socket on your pc, phono plugs go to the AUX in sockets on the amp and thats it.