Here's my problem. My home PC is dying. It's a Tiny P2 214 with a 4GB hard disk, which is full and it just doesn't seem to be able to run a lot of todays software (ok games).

So I'm looking for a new one. I was thinking of Tiny again, they do a buy now pay later on a P4 1.3GHZ, 256K RDram, 60GB hard disk 64MB GEvideo Graphics card CD Rewriter (DVD), 17 inch monitor etc etc. £1199. I've looked about and it seems pretty competetive especially as I wont have any cash til next March (bonus hopefully)

Any of you techy guys out there got any tips or suggestions.

Cheers

Dave

 

Wouldn't advise Tiny - they're built to a price, not to a quality.

Can't beat a good custom built PC with the best of everything. Find a friend who knows how to config a cracking package for you.

[This message has been edited by DazV (edited 19 July 2001).]

 

Dell are pretty good. If price is no object, ditch all that IDE/EIDE crap and make sure everything is SCSI. A couple of years ago I bought an Elonex on one of those 'buy now, pay in a year' schemes. It's fine if you can stand paying the full whack a year down the line for a machine that's probably not now worth more than a few hundred quid

[This message has been edited by carl (edited 18 July 2001).]

 

.

[This message has been edited by carl (edited 18 July 2001).]

 

Try

 

Dave,
as matt said "MESH". they use top quality components and come top (usually!!) in magazine tests
chrs alan

[This message has been edited by albob (edited 18 July 2001).]

 

What do you want?

a 'brand' name with 3 years warranty?
the cheapest?
the best of all components available?

cheers,

greg

 

Third recommendation for Mesh - it's what I'm using now. And the specs have gone through the roof since I bought in March.

No idea about finance though - credit card...

 

as far as i'm concerned, mesh is something u fix yer rabbit hutch with. all I can say is BUILD YOUR OWN! it works for me!

 

umm, the mesh link takes me to what looks like a band's site. surley some mistake?

 

Since you said off the shelf, I won't tell you to build your own. The buying power of a company like Dell means that if you have no specific hardware in mind, they will make you one cheaper than you can build yourself.

Do think whether you want a Pentium 4. At the momement the confer no advantage over much cheaper hardware, and for todays applications are often a lot slower. Obviously you are not going to be able to buy an AMD based PC from Dell, but AMD is worth consideration.

As for SCSI, if it floats your boat and you are Mr Moneybags. Otherwise don't bother. If you are playing games there will be no advantage for the money spent.
KF.

 

Take a look at

 

If you want quality, go for a Dell, they're pretty cheap anyway

If you want a pretty OK system at a good price - you could do a lot worse than go to PC World and buy one of their Patriots (without monitor) for £300-400

I know.. I know.. PC World sux and all that, but you do get a warranty and you don't need to build them.. and they do come with built in modems + LAN cards.. and we've had them running 24/7 in our office for years now.

I used to build my own PCs, but I got to the point where my time was more valuable than the money I saved on building it.. not to mention the potential hassles of configuring it all, and conflicts.

 

>> If you want quality, go for a Dell

Hmm!!!

 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by gregh:
<B>&gt;&gt; If you want quality, go for a Dell

Hmm!!![/quote]

Well, I had some of the first 1Ghz machines when they came out, and some of the first 1.5Ghz machines.

They ran 24/7 and nothing went wrong.

Can only talk from personal experience.

[This message has been edited by DavidBrown (edited 19 July 2001).]

 

If you want to go down the Dell route, have a look at:

 

Guys,

Thanks for the help, I'm going for a P4 from Gateway 2000, but I've downgraded it a bit and I'm going to buy the upgrades dvd and ram from CCL or somehere for less than half the price.

Cheers

Dave

 

I never went for the Gateway. Went to the shop in Bluewater and the rudest salesman I ever met in my life quoted me £250 more for the same pc I saw on the net.

Went and bought Computer buyer and opted for an Evesham AMD Athlon 1.2Ghz..... Evesham and Mesh were both raved about in the mag, the Evesham won on cost. Ordered by phone, buy now pay Jan and was dealt with by a very polite guy.

Can't wait to get it as my one is at deaths door.

Thx all for your help.

Dave

 

Dave - glad to hear you steered clear of Gateway - we are just upgrading all our office and home machines and moving from Gateway (unbelievably bad customer service) to Dell. But then cost wasnt so important as the company was paying.

 

Evesham - good choice, have been one of the best performing PCs for the past x years...
anyone else thinking of buying rather than building - just buy PCPro or similar, find the best current PC, then check out how their support/service fared in the latest tests....If you're building don't forget to check out....

 

Doh! Just read this thread for the first time. - I'm in your neck of the woods, and would have been happy to build one to your spec.

Currently thinking of upgrading mine (it's a woodman's axe job - I think I've only got my floppy drive from my original PC), but I'm waiting for the best deal on the scan site.

Still, if you have any problems, mail me.

 

I reckon I now qualify as a PC repairman. I

Rebuilt my old PC and donated it to my kids who are now delighted they can play Pets3 whenever they want. (Had hysterics on Sunday when one of the dog's ran away)

Put my old ISDN card in my new PC which caused it to reboot every 5 to 10 minutes. Managed to locate the driver for Windows ME from the Billion site so now it all works.

Got to say top marks to Evesham. The PC seems to be well built including inside (as far as my amateur eyes can see), is quiet, great sound system, great monitor (donated to kids as I have a 19inch Compaq one from work)and is sooooooooooooo fast compared to my old one it's untrue.

And that 2 year onsite warranty is just unreal. They must have some confidence in their product.

Dave

 

You could do alot worse that going for an HP Brio. 3 yr warranty and decent spec and good value too. Sell laods to corpporates who love em.

Not sure about gateway. Rumours in the industry suggest that they'll be gone soon , shutting up shop in the UK to focucs on the US market. I also work for a company that fulfills its non PC orders and I've heard internally that they are not the best to work with, allegedlly.

AllanB