Best PC, £600-£1000
03 March 2008, 11:18 AM
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Best PC, £600-£1000
Hi Peeps
Have decided (I think) to get a new PC. Budget around £600 to £1000. I have looked at a Dell XPS (430) which is a benchmark of sorts so will need to be better for money or cheaper for same spec etc... I also see some benefit to buying a Dell (or other off the shelf manufacturer) as it's all built and get manufacturer support is it goes wrong etc.
I'll put my requirements below, so let me know what you think is the best PC for the money/spec. It can be "custom" built (but proven to work components, i.e. no "incompatible" parts etc.) or from someone other than Dell that are good (HP? Compaq? etc....).
Min spec:
Quad core processors (64bit yes? not sure)
3GB Ram but 4GB preferred.
500-1TB HDD
Blue-ray player (don't worry about DVD writer as I have one)
Decent case with socket on front (USB, min 2 5 1/4 bays, multimedia sockets - memory card/camera card readers etc.). Also need a reasonable sized one for future upgrades, putting in other cards, HDDs etc.
Wireless card/LAN card.
21/22 inch widescreen monitor, pref not samsung as we had 4 at our office and ALL of them developed dead pixels so no impressed, esp given that some dead pixel are "allowed" by manufacturers so can't send back..
Decent graphics card but I'm not a heavy gamer, just want something reasonable should I wish to dabble.
Digital TV tuner with recording facilities (i.e. acts as a PVR)
Decent keyb/mouse but nothing ridiculous!
Windows Vista ULTIMATE. 64 bit? I need stuff like remote desktop, IIS etc...
MS Office (I need excel, word AND Outlook - I see there's an office home & student edition but I need to buy outlook on top of that but still cheaper than the full office?). I say office as I do some office vba and sync my phone with outlook and it works well etc...
I will be using the PC for a bit of .NET programming (C#, VB.net etc.) and lots of database work (SQL Server, Oracle etc. but I can get home/enterprise editions of these for free so don't budget cash for full versions!!!)
Go on, give it your best shot! Ideally I'd like to know what I'd get for £600 and what I'd get for £1000. I assume I'll get what I want for this cash range? thanks.
Have decided (I think) to get a new PC. Budget around £600 to £1000. I have looked at a Dell XPS (430) which is a benchmark of sorts so will need to be better for money or cheaper for same spec etc... I also see some benefit to buying a Dell (or other off the shelf manufacturer) as it's all built and get manufacturer support is it goes wrong etc.
I'll put my requirements below, so let me know what you think is the best PC for the money/spec. It can be "custom" built (but proven to work components, i.e. no "incompatible" parts etc.) or from someone other than Dell that are good (HP? Compaq? etc....).
Min spec:
Quad core processors (64bit yes? not sure)
3GB Ram but 4GB preferred.
500-1TB HDD
Blue-ray player (don't worry about DVD writer as I have one)
Decent case with socket on front (USB, min 2 5 1/4 bays, multimedia sockets - memory card/camera card readers etc.). Also need a reasonable sized one for future upgrades, putting in other cards, HDDs etc.
Wireless card/LAN card.
21/22 inch widescreen monitor, pref not samsung as we had 4 at our office and ALL of them developed dead pixels so no impressed, esp given that some dead pixel are "allowed" by manufacturers so can't send back..
Decent graphics card but I'm not a heavy gamer, just want something reasonable should I wish to dabble.
Digital TV tuner with recording facilities (i.e. acts as a PVR)
Decent keyb/mouse but nothing ridiculous!
Windows Vista ULTIMATE. 64 bit? I need stuff like remote desktop, IIS etc...
MS Office (I need excel, word AND Outlook - I see there's an office home & student edition but I need to buy outlook on top of that but still cheaper than the full office?). I say office as I do some office vba and sync my phone with outlook and it works well etc...
I will be using the PC for a bit of .NET programming (C#, VB.net etc.) and lots of database work (SQL Server, Oracle etc. but I can get home/enterprise editions of these for free so don't budget cash for full versions!!!)
Go on, give it your best shot! Ideally I'd like to know what I'd get for £600 and what I'd get for £1000. I assume I'll get what I want for this cash range? thanks.
05 March 2008, 09:08 PM
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As a note, you can pick up promotional copies of not just SQL Server 2008 / Windows Server 2008 / Visual Studio 2008 at the Microsoft 2008 Launch Events, but also a copy of Vista Ultimate with SP1 included. So at least if you register for one of those events (UK Events begin 19 March 2008) you'll have those for free. 
**************
Nico del Castillo
Microsoft 2008 Joint Launch Team
http://www.microsoft.com/2008jointlaunch
**************
Nico del Castillo
Microsoft 2008 Joint Launch Team
http://www.microsoft.com/2008jointlaunch