Looking to maybe buy a new computer but have big time lost touch with what is available for what £££'s. It would primarily be for internet use (broadband), burning CD's, games and general fannying about. I don't need a printer, scanner or any cr@p like that but it would need to have a 19-21" CRT (with a nice flatish screen) monitor.

Any links or suggestions appreciated

 

Ooops, forgot about this forum

Which mod moved it? You have to be awarded a prize for the quickest moving of a thread ever - it was about 30s

 

Right forum this time aswell for me.

 

Check out this month's PC Pro - they've got some around that sort of mark

(It weren't me btw )

 

I got mine 12 months back from Evesham Micros. They are highly recommended by all the PC publications, for making very good value PCs. There are cheaper systems out there from competitors, but they come at a cost.

I bought an off-the-shelf system for about 900 quid back then, and it has been faultless since.

A mate chose the cheaper option, and went to The Computer World, where he got a Time System for about a hundred quid less. His has been back to the manufacturer's twice, and he's had to reformat it himself a couple of times too.

Evesham deal with both Pentiums and AMD chipsets, so you have a good choice. Aim to get a decent graphics card, and a large hard-drive if you're getting Broadband. My 60 gig seems a tad small already!

 

I assume that is a magazine available at most newsagents?

 

DP, I combat that by backing everything up on CD, but I know what you mean. Once you get BB the skies the limit and HD's just seem so small and useless!!!

 

I think you should definetely go for the CTR as the Clio will be too cramped ...

Oh er...... oops

Ehm....back on topic er...buy a PS2



PS Chap up road just build a mate of mine an all singing and dancing thingy for £480 mate.... could be worth a look. 1 year warranty and full support I believe

 

A good point made by Little Miss WRX - ensure you have a CD burner on the system. You'll be surprised how many CDs it'll take to back up all the erm, files that you download

Most come with a CD re-writer and a DVD player, but I haven't as yet found any reason to watch a DVD from my office when I can watch one in the lounge downstairs in complete comfort...?

 

I personally wouldn't go wasting £1200 on a PC as it'll be worth nothing almost immediately and a couple of months down the road an it'll not run the latest all-singing, all-dancing games.

One of the lads here built one of these http://www.aria.co.uk/ProductInfoComm.asp?ID=7932

All he needed was

AMD XP2200+ CPU = £57
512MB RAM = £42
120GB Hard disk = £74
CD/RW, DVD combo = £55
Cordless Keyboard & Mouse = £ 40
17" LCD = £270

It's got onboard video, sound, USB, Firewire and a NIC for your broadband. Only real downside is gonna be the video support, but buy an Xbox for games.

You can get DVD writers now for about £170, so you may want to go with one of those instead.

Stefan

 

what ever u want m8! U can get the Dogs for that!

ted

 

Seriously??! I though you'd still need to spend £2k for the dogs danglies and £3-4k for the sort of computer set up to make you dribble

 

Saxo, Issue 149, the GTA Vice City issue is the one he mentions, which also has a feature on one of those 3-4k PC that makes you dribble. A very nice machine, I should know as it is my machine in the article .

Cheers,

Nick

 

Get yourself a Mac and stop fannying about...

 

mac's are for f@nnying around on

they look the part, but just wait till they breakdown.

Stefan

 

Get a shuttle pc.

Built one for the misses £700 all inc.

XP2500 , 512MB DDR400 + fast DVD/CD/CD RW.

Add a graphics card if the onboard doesnt but it

Si

 

OK I'll bite wot a load of b0llix!!!

MUCH more reliable than a PC - most professionals (media-based anyway), and 99.9% of the music industry use them 24/7. They are used a minimum of 20 hrs per day, 7 days per week.

I'm one of these professionals. I use PC and Macs. I've lost count how many times my PC has crashed in the last 6 months. My older Mac hasn't crashed once

Games - yes, buy a pc, or better still, a PS2 or XBOX.

Macs are great - no BIOS or IRQ conflicts/ blue screen of death etc. They just work. Yes, they cost much more in comparison, but you get what you pay for.....

"wait till they break down"

Priceless

Dan

 

Sorry Kenny, to answer your question, you can get some great PCs for about £600.

Here is a good place. Usually refurbed, but bloody good spec and good prices. Round the corner from you too....well....Scotland

Get a nice P4 2.5 or Athlon-based chip, G Force 4 or ATi 9500/9700 Grafix card, Sound Blaster Platinum. Flat Screen and a big HD.

Sorted

Dan

 

LOL, Got one - a G3 laptop and it hasn't missed a beat. I don't need the portability anymore so I want a desktop. Macs wipe the floor with PC's and I much prefer them but all I actually need a computer for now is burning CD's downloading stuff, surfing and gaming and that is where a PC is as good/better than a mac but cheaper

 

Evesham.com have great PCs. You get decent specs unlike PC world where you get crappy graphics cards etc and mother boards.

 

I bought my last one here.Compaq auctions.

http://www.auctions.compaq.co.uk/

 

1000 is overkill really
m8 just bought an xp2000 for 500 quid. The only thing that might need improving were the 17 inch monitor and the geforce 2mx graphics. However this upgrade should only add another 150 quid

My system is only an xp1700 with geforce ti4200.
I use it as a gaming system and its fine. I play all the latest games.
No need for a 3 gig cpu

Power is only needed for gaming and even my system does the job very well

for decent hardware and example systems check out this page
http://freespace.virgin.net/m.warner/RecHardware.htm


[Edited by kamikaze - 6/9/2003 10:32:38 PM]

 

why not build it yourself, they are dead easy and cut out the middle man,

basically have had a lot of systems including the new p4 shuttle but in the end sold it and went back to normal,

is noise an issue , you could build a silent setup,

dvd writers around £120 a05

basically

do you go amd or intel (amd cheaper)

if playing games you need reasonable graphics

broadband big hdd

basically my system (componets from ocuk)

antec true power silent case
p4 2.4
768mb pc2700
had a radeon 9700 (overkill stuck in a gf4 ti4200)
dvd
dvdr
cdrw
60gb hdd
gigabyte mobo on board 6 channel sound (never had an issue with a gigabyte mobo my work is full of them as that is all i buy)

15" tft
XP

if you need any info , email me

jase

[Edited by jase555 - 6/11/2003 11:15:02 PM]