robby

I'm going to the shop this weekend for a new desktop PC as mine is approx 8 years old and seems to be getting slower depite cleaning the files, etc.
I use it for browsing internet, downloading, watching films, printing photos, etc - average things really? don't play game on it but thinking the new PC should be able to if i want.

My current desktop was a custom build by another shop and the spec is
AMD 3100+
1.93GB ram
NVIDIA Geforce 6100
Philips DVDR
Realtek AC97 audio
80GB HD

This is the new 1 i'm hoping to get - http://www.cclonline.com/product/721...CCL-AMD-HIGH1/

questions
1. Will it be significally faster than my current (start up, loading internet pages, doing tasks/ multi tasks)
2. Is it a good spec for the money
3. Will i be able to upgrade it easily in the future
4. I'm using Windows XP which i read is going to be unsuported by MS this year so would need Win 7 or Win 8 installing - which is easier to use/ looks like XP (i like my 95/98/XP desktop, etc)

Cheers

boomer

Don't even think about Windows 8 - it is HORRIBLE!!!

mb

robby

How about Win 7 - does it look/ work similar to the older versions?

360ste

iTrader: (1)

Windows 8 does take some getting use too. My laptop is windows 8 and my desktop is windows 7. I prefer to self build as I can then get the parts over a short time getting exactly what I want. When you buy the easiest upgrade after purchase is increasing the RAM memory so if there are two choices go for the larger Hard Drive initially then in time you can upgrade the RAM a lot easier than replacing the HDD.

Littleted

Bob looks like your close to me, Pudsey CCL is about 15mins from me.

in all honesty m8 windows 8 is fine, just download Classicshell and it looks and plays the same as XP or windows 7 you can choose.

As for the PC, yes it will be faster BUT try splash out on an SSD drive. this will blow you away on speed then

have that 1TB drive as D:\ and the SSD as your boot drive. My windows 8.1 take approx. after Bios screens had its think 5 seconds to windows

at CCL these are fine I use them fast as most and cheaper

http://www.cclonline.com/product/105...rive-/HDD1773/

if you need a guide nudge me


If your a gamer then it will chug, youll need more meat in the Graphics card area to move anything worth playing.

Littleted

http://www.cclonline.com/product/132...CL-EL-BC3000a/

that with an ssd will last you a long time
or if you prefer Haswell Intel chips as these run cooler and less power

http://www.cclonline.com/product/137...C/CCL-EL-RAV3/

with SSD

more than you may want to pay Bob, but im always one for value as opposed to cheap . my Pcs normally last me 3 to 4 years in high intense gaming, and on 12 hours a day with working from home.

My dad uses the Intel based unit, for adobe photoshop etc and loves it, The SSD I just fitted him blew him away as to the boot times into windows and general speed of things
P.S He uses Windows 8.1 and hes 82 , just needs setting up

Rob_Impreza99

iTrader: (3)

The Haswell one that Little Ted suggested is miles better, personally i wouldn't touch AMD. The one you suggested at the top is very basic and won't be blindingly quick, it uses a mechanical drive which are getting a bit old hat now to run an O/S from, like Bob said SSD is the way to go for running Windows.

robby

Thanks for the info -you can probably tel i'm not computer savvy

So for a good PC with fast speeds i should look for
SSD drive
16mb > RAM
extra cooling?
Dual core CPU

These along with
proper graphics card
better soundcard
DVDRW
Upgradeable motherboard

I've budgeted for around £400 but guess for a great spec i'd go upto £500 with an OS

Skoobie Dhu

iTrader: (3)

Do you really need a desktop?
I junked ours early last year after realising it had become redundant due to laptops and tablets/phones.
Also use a wireless printer now, so the old PC and printer corner has been completely freed up for some other junk.

I also replaced my 10 year old laptop last year with an ex corporate top of the range (4 years ago it was) HP laptop and installed win 7, total cost was £80.

Rob_Impreza99

iTrader: (3)

16MB of RAM is overkill, 2 x 4GB 1600mhz DDR3 will be fine. CPU at least quad core, all the recent Intel ones are quad core. SSD is a must, 64GB is a bit too small to run windows from as you won't have much left, you can pick up the Samsung 120GB Evo SSD for £65.98 from Aamazon and its a great SSD.



My advice would be to go to overclockers and join the forum

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/

Post a thread in the General Hardware section saying that you have around £500 to spend on a system including operating system and they should point you in the right direction for everything.

robby

Looking on the bay i found this- http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=141137447841it seems to tick most of the boxes but is dual core not quad as you mention - not sure what the difference is? an has no OS

Littleted

go with a 240 SSD as your not computer literate quite a few things will build up on c:\ and even a 120 goes pretty quick

memory is nothing nowadays so go with what you can afford I would advise 16 for windows 8, youll find the price diff is minimal, if you cant afford the SSD yet wait a month save up, then do it, nothing like filling up the normal spinners then adding a new drive only proves a ball ache.

if you go with the Haswell Intel I posted that will last you a long time.... I actually went run the haswell myself but with 32gb ram, due to Virtual training I do.

and remember you need 64bit windows 8.1 not 32bit. If you get windows 8.0 I think 8.1 is a free upgrade at the moment.

Rob_Impreza99

iTrader: (3)

robby, if you want quad core you need to be looking at i5 and upwards, the i5 4670 is a good CPU, its the latest Haswell version. The non overclocking version is the 4670 and the overclocking version has the "K" after it, 4670K.

I would tend to stay away from ebay, you don't know the history of the parts being used.

brendy76

iTrader: (6)

Zoostorm pcs are a great compromise when it comes to self build and branded. They use all branded parts ie GHigabyte motherboards etc. you can add a 120gb ssd and push the stock hard drive to secondary as a storage drive and the system will absolutely fly. I have bought around a dozen of them so far for some of my users who do not want/need notebooks and I have to say, for 300-450 dependant on spec, I cannot fault them.
I did notice that if you want to add many more internal parts, you do need to buy a £2 molex to sata convertor as hey do have limited sata power leads.

examples
intel
http://www.ebuyer.com/store/Computer...imit=30&page=1

amd
http://www.ebuyer.com/store/Computer...imit=30&page=1

robby

Ok looking at your advice i've specced up a system which i think should be good for several years - should i place the order at the weekend?

■Intel Core i5-4670 Haswell Socket 1150 CPU
■2x Kingston ValueRAM 4GB DDR3 1600MHz Memory Module
■Asus H81M-PLUS Motherboard Core i7/i5/i3/Pentium/Celeron 1150 H81 uATX Gigabit LAN (Integrated Graphics)
■Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 1TB Hard Drive (7200rpm) SATA 64MB (Internal)
■Palit GeForce GT 630 Silent (2GB DDR3/PCI Express 2.0/902MHz/1600MHz)
■CCL Choice 22x DVD+/-RW Drive
■Cooler Master Elite 342 Mini Tower Chassis
■CCL Choice 450W 80+ High Efficiency PSU
■3 Year Collect & Return warranty
■Asus PCE-N10 PCI-Express Wireless Adapter
■Crucial M500 120GB SSD
■Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Quiet (Rev 2)
Default Item Changed Item Added Item
£525.76 inc VAT

£438.13 ex VAT

includes £0.00 installation cost

Beef

Personally, I'd be inclined to replace both HDs with a single SSHD - can be a nice middle ground.

But in any event, this is a good website for putting together a spec:

http://www.logicalincrements.com

I think you've over-CPUd it, and by reducing the spec of the CPU you can put the funds into graphics instead. Almost any modern CPU is 'enough' for most non-gaming use cases; I run a G3220 in my 'boring' PC (I have a separate gaming PC) and that is absolutely fine for office/email/browsing.

OS wise, windows 8.1 is fine. I skipped 8 entirely, but after a little getting used to I would now be reluctant to go back to 7.

jura11

iTrader: (7)

Hi there

Yes spec looks good although I would go with Windows 7 64bit and more RAM,RAM in these days doesn't cost too much and more RAM its worth it in any PC

1 SSD should be OK,but still I would be inclined to to have one separate HDD(1TB) just as backup

Jura

Beef

I can't agree with that at all; 8GB is more than enough even for machine whose primary purpose is gaming. 16GB for a cost-conscious all-rounder such as this is total overkill, and the money could be put to better use.

Littleted

Rob agree with the boys here my view.

Up ya memory to 16 it's pennies nowadays
Go with windows 8.1 or if you really must go 7' but as I said before install classic shell gives you the exact feel of windows 7 anyway.

Only thing I'd change would be graphics card, go with something more meaty, these are the centre pins for gaming, I'm not saying go mad, but 660 upwards will last you.....

Keep the 1tb as you'll need storage and sad storage is expensive, pound for pound spinners are cheap as chips, for raw dumping of files, ssd will be for boot, also change that ssd for a 240 it's about 40 quid... Reason is a flat install of windows 7 or 8 will eat about 25 to 40'gig leaving you with a workable 50 ish taking into account swap file . Add office and adobe and it's near full.

240 gives plenty of room, it's what I use and I'm still careful but it gives me headroom

Beef

This is what I personally would go for as a specification - generated using http://www.choosemypc.net/

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor (£82.53 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock 960GM/U3S3 FX Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£43.23 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Patriot Signature 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£58.43 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive (£59.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card (£176.98 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£33.41 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£37.63 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £492.19

That is a system that will be responsive and capable of running even the latest games at high detail settings and high resolution. Connect one of the outputs to your TV, fire up Steam Big Picture mode and you've got something that makes the next-gen consoles look decidedly silly.

Littleted

Rob its 36 quid to double your memory......peanuts

The VGA card is your biggest decision, its 90 quid more for a 660. The one you have there wont play much, this is normally where the bulk of your cash goes in a PC

As Beef said above you could save on CPU, but my personal view is stick with Intel over AMD. But there is a discussion as to if youll actually see the benefits in what you do.

I still think this http://www.cclonline.com/product/137...vCuFP4qWY1QoBg
with an SSD drive and ask CCL to lower the VGA card a bit, get 3 year warrenty then also

robby

hmm - now more confused as i thought the spec i chose was good (ok i forgot about the graphics card) -still don't know at to choose now?

I was hoping to have a fully spec system inc OS fo around £400- might just buy an off the shelf model and make do - getting peed off with mine as it's now missing a lot of letters when i type so i have to keep going back and filling them in - bought a new keyboard yesterday thinkng i was that but it isn't

Littleted

Just ask CCl Rob that spec i pasted ask them to tweak it

Try get ssd in it but lower VGA card

Beef

For £400 including is I think you're going to have to sacrifice the ability to play games at all, and so I would suggest this spec:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A8-6600K 3.9GHz Quad-Core Processor (£72.58 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: MSI FM2-A75MA-P33 Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard (£47.53 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston Blu Red Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (£63.94 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive (£59.94 @ Amazon UK)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£39.95 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£37.63 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) (£71.95 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £393.52
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-14 19:15 GMT+0000)

Bear in mind though that it would be cheaper (~£200) to add a separate graphics card and turn this PC into something that can far exceed next gen consoles than it would be to then but a separate console, even before you take into account the cheaper games and no online fees.

I get what others are saying about SSDs, but the reality is you can't really afford to do it properly with that budget - that's why I'm suggesting the hybrid drive; it has lots of capacity, and your most accessed bits of data will be loaded (seamlessly to you) onto a small SSD built into the drive, so it will still be 90+% as good as a full SSD in most cases.

robby

Thanks Beef - i'm not looking to use the PC for games, it'll be for the internet, photos, downloding and watching movies

Beef

In which case my last spec should do you right, and leaves you options for if you change your mind.

Are you comfortable with the idea if building it yourself? It requires no more aptitude than performing an oil and filter change on a car.

robby

well i've just ordered the following with a 8GB upgrade and Win 8 OS

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=151159902344&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:GB:1123

Beef

How much did you pay in total?

That CPU is pretty old - the model was released in October 2011 - but having a full SSD will more than offset I expect!

Good choice!

robby

total worked out at £461.50
- should be picking it up next saturday

Beef

Not bad at all - especially as a built system 'good to go'.