mad_dr

Morning everyone!

I'm currently using a PC I put together myself and am desperate for a new one bcause I'm just sick of all the problems that I've had with it.

It's not a bad spec for a 2 year old machine: Athlon 1700, Abit NV7M Nforce board, 1GB DDR Ram, Audigy Platinum, Gainward Geforce 3 Golden Sample, 40Gb IBM HDD.

I keep getting bluescreens (win2k.sys errors and paged fault in nonpaged area errors...)and believe it to be down to the mismatch of components. Also, the USB drivers don't seem to work (can't use an MP3 player or iPod etc - recognises the device and then drops off again...)


ANYWAY - I'm after a new PC. I use it mainly for PhotoShop and games so I'd like it to be a fairly good spec. Trouble is - I don't want to spend mega money... I've found this: http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/sho...ProductID=1453 which looks OK, but was hoping someone could come up with a suggestion or two? I don't need Monitor, Mouse or Keyboard, but would like to be able to use it straight out of the box - IE, I don't want to start adding bits to it and suffering the same problems as I'm getting now...

Cheers!

Andy

BlkKnight

Seems quite a nice package for the price.

I doubt it'll have a graphics card that'll play any "new" games. Try and find out what it is.

The processor is a little on the slow side also (for games)

angrynorth

Spend a bit more and buy a 2nd hand Mac G4. After reading what you have said, I cannot think of any reason why (if I were in your position) I would be thinking about buying a PC.

Make sure it has OSX Panther and you will have solved all your compatibility problems and it will work straight out of the box. It will also run beautifully with PS and will work great with your peripherals (iPod etc)




Just re-read you post noticed the games thing. Maybe the Mac isn't for you if you a a serious gamer. Buy an Xbox instead

richs2891

What are you doing with your old machine, as looking for a new file / internet proxy for at home, if you are intested in selling it drop me a pm,


Richard

BlkKnight

*grumble* bloody mac users *grumble*

/flame suite on

angrynorth

Lol, if it weren't for the games though, after the problems he's been having the Mac would be the most sensible choice without question

BlkKnight

yeah I agree.

Assuming he doesn't only want to play sims

Fit for purpose etc

Iain Young

Of course you've also got to figure into the price the fact that he'll need to buy another copy of photoshop as the pc version he has won't work on a mac. When you figure this into the equation, (plus any other software he may be using) it makes changing platform a little more pricey than just buying the hardware.

In an ideal world I'd have one of each. Mac G5 for gfx / video, and PC for games. But I think I'd need to rob a bank first

angrynorth

Adobe will swap your PC license for a Mac one if you have bought it withing the last year, so that solves that one.

Besides everyone knows PC users don't pay for software

BlkKnight

Or movies, mp3's, operating systems, games shhh don't tell everyone

Iain Young

I do

Still best to have one of each machine though I reckon

Looked at the spec on that thread, and I'd tread carefully. We've had some of these Hps (and Compaqs) at work, and although they're reliable enough, they aren't exactly what I'd call fast. In fact we've found that a similarly specced Dell will outperform the Hp every time.

If you're buying this for games, then personally I'd be looking elsewhere.... (in fact I'd proabably build my own or buy an Alienware machine, but these are a little more expensive). To play the latest cutting edge PC games, you need cutting edge hardware, and I'm afraid that doesn't come at budget prices. You get what you pay for........

Iain

angrynorth

MMM Alienware. I like them. They are bloody expensive though.

As for having both, I have a Windoze laptop which I only use for Actinic as that's the only thing that don't work on my Mac (until VPC7 comes out) that I use.

The games area on a Mac should increase this year though, the main stumbling block has been the graphics card but now we have that monster NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL, which is DVI instead of ADC we should see some more developers look the Mac way Not that I'm particularly that bothered, I hate sitting at a desk playing games.

Iain Young

I know, I've recently bought one of their Area 51-m laptops so now I can play all my pc games sitting on the sofa in front of the telly

Possibly, although the games developers will have to be conviced that there is a large enough user base of the new machines out there to make it financially viable to develop games for it. I shall watch with interest.....

angrynorth

The Mac user base is becoming massive, quietly. The new machine sales are still the same but the 2nd hand market has gone through the roof. More and more people are picking up a cheap 2nd hand Mac just to give one a go. Eventually these people will decide to go the whole way and buy a brand new Mac. It's a bit of a transition period.

Games wise, it helps that people like Maya are pushing the G5 heavily as a recommended system and Discreet are (allegedly) putting together a 3DS Max port to the Mac. Not to mention the fact that the next Xbox will run off PPC which should make ports an absolute doddle.

Iain Young

Yep, it's all pretty interesting. You never know, give it a couple of years and even I might end up getting one

angrynorth

Almost guaranteed You will get sick of windows sooner or later.

StiX

iTrader: (4)

I'm going to buy one soon - just base unit and am looking at something like this:

Ebay sale clicky

Seems fine to me, proper company etc. good feedback. Clicking on their upgrades however, they seem expensive, but can't see much wrong with the base unit - just need to buy/'borrow' and install an OS.

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

Just a fairly fast comp in an Antec case sprayed a horrible colour.

Personally I'd avoid HP/Compaq like the plague they are, and ditto Dell. And if you buy from PC World I will have to kill you. Either build you own, or if you don't want to risk it, take a spec to a local independant computer store (get opinions on it first!) and ask them to give you a quote. Feel free to wave that spec past them to help them lower the prices.

But as BlkKnight says, the gfx card is probably a Radeon 9000, which won't play modern games at any kind of speed.

BTW, your BSODs are probably either RAM being run overspec, or overheating.


M

Frosty The Snowman

I would also guess it's most likely gonna be the RAM causing the problems and that's cheap as chips at the moment. I would perhaps strip all of the RAM out buy a single stick and try that out before you hand over huge wads of cash for a new box.


Mark