Richard Work

Hi Guys,

I'm considering a new 'puter . I want something that is powerful enough to do video/photo editing and won't need to be upgraded for a while....but doesn't cost a fortune..... (less than 1K). I found these two which are in my budget one from Time the other from Evesham, the Time looks pretty powerful but is the quality any good? I know their help line is £1 a minute so I don't want to be using that - maybe they build them badly so they get the money back on the phone lines, or am I being cynical!

Cheers

Richard

Any experience with these two, I'm looking at Mesh as well but it might be a bit out of my proce range for what I want.....

Evesham - Axis 2600+DVD
£915.16 in VAT
Processor: AMD Athlon XP 2600+ CPU
Hard Disk: Twin 80GB HDD IDE (7200rpm)
Memory: 1GB DDR
Additional CD/DVD ROM Drive: 52xCD-RW Drive
DVD Writers: Sony DWU14A- Multi Drive
Video Card: 128MB DDR ATI Radeon 9200 graphics
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster 6 Channel Audio
Speakers: Creative Inspire 4.1 4400
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Home
Modem: 56K Internal (PCI)
Network Card: Onboard 10/100 Network Port
Keyboard: Ultratouch Keyboard
Mouse: Logitech wheel mouse
On Site Maintenance: 2 year on-site warranty (3rd year return to base)
Firewire: Firewire Card

Time Computers - Ultimate Time Machine
£899 inc VAT
Processor : AMD Athlon XP3000+ processor
Memory : 1024MB PC2700 DDR RAM
Hard Disk : 320GB (2x Seagate 160GB) Hard disk storage
Graphics : 256MB ATi Radeon 9200 graphics
DVD-Writer : DVD/CD Multi-writer
DVD : 16x Msi DVD-ROM drive
Firewire : 2x 1394 Firewire ports
Sound : 6Channel surround sound built-in
Ethernet : Realtek 10/100 Ethernet for home networking / ADSL
Operating System : Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Verify
USB : 4x USB2.0 ports
Ports : Standard serial and parallel ports
Modem : Hayes 56k V92 modem
Case : Full ATX case
Keyboard : Multimedia keyboard
Mouse : Logitech wheel mouse
Floppy : 3.5" 1.44MB floppy drive
Other Features : Integrated flash / memory card reader

JoeyDeacon

Time....

Is this some sort of sick joke?

Richard Work

maybe.... but I hope not! I was thinking it will probably go wrong at first but then once the teething problems are sorted it should be ok and it's got a great spec!

Also I've got the best support team in the world here on scoobynet

ChrisB

I'd take Dell (*spit*) over Time, but not Evesham.

marcmann

http://www.antiquesdotcom.co.uk/evesham/are/rubbish.htm

I also had loads of problems when I bought a PC from Eve 'SHAM' - i won't go into the details but it ended in a full refund and an apology. At the time I made a flippant comment to the store manager about how i'd rubbish their name sometime in the future......

Time spec might look nice but don't be drawn in......

I always build my own PC's cos i know that I'm get good QUALITY components.

druddle

What about http://www.underagrand.co.uk/

Dave

Richard Work

Ok I got this from Dell - £1076 inc VAT/Delivery, although I can probably get 10% off....

Downsides - smallish hard drive/expensive memory
Upsides - Lots of support/good reputation (allegedly)/Intel

is it worth not upgrading memory and buying elsewhere?

Standard Features: Intel 865PE chipset with support for Dual Channel DDR
Support For Intel® Pentium® 4 Processors with 533MHz System Base
Midnight grey mini-tower with 8 USB 2.0 ports, 3 PCI slots and AGP 8x slot
Intergrated 10/100 Pro Ethernet Network Card
Norton AntiVirus 2003 (with 90 days free virus updates)
No Floppy Drive as standard
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
Enhanced Support Packs: 3 Year On-Site Next Business Day Service Support - DELL RECOMMENDS!
Processor Upgrade: Intel Pentium 4 Processor 2.66GHz - DELL RECOMMENDS! (+ GBP £20)
Memory: 512MB Dual Channel DDR 333 (2X256MB DIMM) (+ GBP £80)
USB Memory Key: No Floppy Drive
Free Hard Drive Upgrade Promotion: 120GB (7200 rpm) IDE Hard Drive (Includes FREE Upgrade from 40GB) (+ GBP £40)
Monitor: Dell 17" Value (15.9" VIS) Monitor
2nd Monitor: Not Included
DVI to VGA Port Adapter: Not Included
Home Installation: Not Included
Video Card: 128MB ATI Radeon 9800 Graphics Card with DVI Dual Monitor Support and TV-OUT via S-Video (+ GBP £80)
Online Offer - Free Optical Drive Upgrade: 4x DVD+R\+RW & 48x CD-Rom (Includes Free upgrade from 48x DVD/CD-Rewriter Combo Drive) (+ GBP £15)
Sound Card: On-Board Sound
Speakers: Dell Stereo Speakers
Modem: Dell 56k Data/Fax/Voice Modem
High Speed Internet Connection: Not Included
Video Editing: Not Included
Digital Photography: Dell Picture Studio Standard Edition (note: contains a 21 use trial version of Paint Shop Pro)
Software: Microsoft Works 7.0
Wireless Connectivity: Not Included
Keyboard: Dell Standard Keyboard
Mouse: Logitech 2 Button Wheel Mouse

darlodge

As ************** said, Dell all the way. I have bought loads of Dells recently and love them. They are cheap, well built, reliable and look wicked in black

Darren

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

Looks like you also get a monitor with the Dell, which wasn't mentioned with the other two - bear that in mind depending on whether you need a new one or not.

Personally I'd look into a self build - if you're not confident in doing it yourself then find a mate who is and buy him a beer. It'll save you in the long run and at least you know exactly what's going into the box.

A.

Luke

dell

Fuzz

Hey !!

well, was it forty squids extra or was it free.

or was it a dell special that was a free upgrade that cost you £40

Andy

topdog

Try www.dell.co.uk/pcplus for a PC PLUS reader offer
It might save you a bit

Dewi

Chris_

Not sure if Dell still do this but when you purchased a ready made system from them you had to replace parts from Dell as they where none standard, Prohibiting you from replacing, say, the graphics card with one of your choice.
If you really want a system that suits your specific needs, why dont you think about building one yourself.

Anders

I sent 2K with 12 inches aspirational and the damned thing is so fast it levitates!

ozzy

Richard,

My advice would be to buy a base system from Dell and look at upgrading the RAM from Crucial. The only other critcism is the spec of some of their video cards is cr@p.

We bought a load of P4 systems from them and they had 16Mb cards. They were for normal desktop users (Word, Excel) and even some Oracle developers, so no fancy graphics were needed. Even for a cheap card, the performance on even simple animated gif's is shocking.

Either check they are supplying a decent video card, or get the cheapest and replace it with your own.

Stefan

Soulgirl

We, that is my hubby and I build PC's... can I give you a quote based on what you have posted?

Mr Footlong

iTrader: (7)

LOL, don't post when drunk Anders

In english,what he he said was that he recieved a brand new machine built by me which is of a higher spec than the ones mentioned on here and he is very pleased with how fast and stable she is .

Hehe, I doubt that anyone knew what you were saying except for me m8 .

Cheers,

Nick

suba

best way is to get a few copies of computer mags like personal computer world, pcpro, pc magazine, etc and read thru any reviews they got.

douglasb

Richard - I've had a Time PC for about a year. Mine is last year's £899 spec. No problems at all with the PC and no problems with the guys in the local Time shop. Loads of problems though with their Head Office when trying to get a refund at one point. Took a threatening letter to their MD and notifying two local newspapers (who were very interested) to get £25 out of them.

My experience is that if you don't have to deal with them after you've bought the kit, they are fine. After sales sucks, though.

Doug

midget1500

DO NOT *EVER* BUY A MACHINE FROM "TIME". seriously.

Dell is a safe bet, or build your own.

MarkO

I'll agree with that. Time have a terrible reputation. They also take ages - the reason their PCs are so cheap is because they advertise prices of what they predict the kit will cost in 3 months' time, and have a 12-week lead time on the components. They then buy 'em cheap at the last minute and build your PC.

Try www.novatech.co.uk who seem to be cheap for PCs.

BTW, if you're really trying to save money, consider whether you really need a machine that powerful. Bear in mind that you might not need such a powerful machine to do video editing. I can do it adequately on my 600Mhz Crusoe laptop, with 128Mb of RAM and a 60Gb HDD. Okay, it's a little slower, but I don't get dropped frames, and it works.

Realistically, you could probably get away with a 1.5Ghz pentium, 512Mb and a 120Gb drive, all of which would mean you could easily get a PC for about £400 + the cost of your monitor. You could then upgrade (adding more RAM/HDD) at a later date...

MarkO

Oh, and one other thing. I bought a video-editing PC from Evesham for my dad about 3 years ago. He had loads of problems with it - mismatched components, failed components, software bundled with a PC despite the PC not having the right spec for the software and so on.

Evesham's support was abominable - they took over 6 months and at least 8 engineer visits to sort the PC out so that it was working and could do the video-editing which my dad bought it for. [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Needless to say, the only recommendation I can give for Evesham is 'go elsewhere'.

Richard Work

Thanks for all the replies guys, food for thought. I might even go down the self build route - I could do with a hobby

I had a look at Novatech/Scan/CCl Computers and specced something up - what else would I need apart from these components and I mean everything, cables/screwdrivers/soldering iron/blowtorch etc.... Also are these good components for the price or should I be looking at other brands?

I haven't included a sound card or speaker as I have some cheapie speakers already and can make do with onboard sound for a while.

CCL £31.91 ATX Case 2000 Midi Tower + 350W PSU
SCAN £42.89 ASUS A7N266-VM/LAN
SCAN £71.96 AMD Atholon XP 2600+
SCAN £122.20 2 x PC2100 DDR 512MB
CCL £75.81 120Gb Maxtor D'Max Plus
NOVA £57.58 128MB Geforce FX5200
NOVA £128.07 Sony DVD-RW Multi Burner
CCL £32.83 52x32x52x Lite-On CDRW Retail
NOVA £18.99 Wireless Keyboard and Mouse
CCL £70.44 17" Proview EM-171 Beige CRT (OEM)
SCAN £107.51 Windows XP Pro

Grand Total: £760.19

ianc

Another "please don't buy from Time" statement...

(and I worked for them for nearly 2 years)

IC

gregh

picked this up on the http://thedvdforums.com

This bargain is one you'll have to wait for, but if you go to www.dell.co.uk and enter the outlet section you have a good chance of picking up a top class system for peanuts.

My tips.

1. Enter the outlet, choose your system and then sort by price. Most bargains will be on the first page.

2. If you see something that may be a bargain, don't **** around. Add it to your basket. You can add 5, and look in depth later.

jamesjones

Richard.

The motherboard is a bit dated. Only 4x AGP, 2 memory slots, doesn't support the latest memory, not much room for expansion all round (i.e. 2 UDMA, 2 USB 1.1 and 3 PCI).
The motherboard is one of the most important components. Don't scrimp on it. You need a cpu heatsink and fan?
Try www.savastore.co.uk and look at their motherboard kits. They do a decent motherboard (MSI KT4 - loads of expansion capability - 8x agp,6 pci,6 usb 2.0, 3 dimm supporting latest memory, 4 udma, 6-channel on board sound), 256DDR, Heatsink/fan and AMD XP2400+ for just £135inc. You may need to phone to see if they can get you a better cpu (e.g. XP2600) but it should only add £15. Do you need that much memory? Buy 1 512k PC3200 module from crucial.co.uk for £69 (free delivery) and you have a good starting point.

The hard drive only has a 2mb cache - spend an extra £10 for one with an 8mb cache.

The graphics card and monitor are more important if you are video editing than most other things. Review the monitor's refresh rates at higher resolutions. Spend a little more (lot more) on something like the Iiyama Vision Master Pro 454 19" with a max screen resolution of 1920x1440 @ a refresh rate of 85hz. Fantastic but £258 from Scan. Still leaves you under the £1000 budget and will last ages.

Do you need a modem? If so, and you are transferring videos, get 512k Broadband. Don't waste money on a 56k modem because you need speed.

Hope this helps.

J

[Edited by jamesjones - 04/08/2003 16:03:22]

Richard Work

Great, thanks for that I've updated the spec and it still comes in at a good price :-) I don't need a modem - got broadband already, but I will be doing video editing, is the graphics card sufficient for this? So if I was to buy this little lot is there anything else I would need - Thermal Paste(what is this???)/Leads?

CCL £31.91 ATX Case 2000 Midi Tower + 350W PSU
SAVASTORE £163.61 MSI Motherboard/Heatsink/Fan/CPU (Athlon XP2600)
CRUCIAL £69 1 x PC3200 DDR 512MB
CCL £90.46 180Gb W esternDigital WD1800JB (8MB Cache)
NOVA £57.58 128MB Geforce FX5200
NOVA £128.07 Sony DVD-RW Multi Burner
CCL £32.83 52x32x52x Lite-On CDRW Retail
NOVA £18.99 Wireless Keyboard and Mouse
CCL £146.8 17'' Iiyama Vision Master Pro 1413
SCAN £107.51 Windows XP Pro

Grand Total: £900.81

Cheers

Richard

Soulgirl

Richard... I have been trying to reply to your emails but they keep getting bounced back??? Anyway - This are prices that I can do.

Chieftec Tower Case
QDI i865 Springdale Mobo
P4 2.6C 800fsb with HT tech running at 3.00GHz
Western Digital 120Gb SATA 8Mb Cache 7200rpm
Dlink 10/100 NIC
512Mb Crucial PC3700 DDR 400 in Dual Channel Mode
Pioneer DVD106 (Dual format DVD-R & DVD+R * 4 speed)
Creative Audigy 2 with built in Firewire (for video editing)
Creative Inspire 5.1 5100 Speakers
19" Monitor (up to 1600 * 1200 res)
Logitech Cordless Optical Mouse (plus rechargable dock station)
Keyboard
Floppy
Onboard Intel Graphics **
8 * USB 2 Ports
Installed with Windows XP / Burning Software and Office Applications.



** If games are important then would need to add £100 for a GeforceFX 5600 Card
The Intel graphics don't really cut it. That would bring cost to £1000

Could pay for the graphics card by dropping the Audigy sound card and using the onboard
sound instead. Also drop the logitech optical mouse in favour of something standard. This would
keep the price at £900