New home pc help please..!!
 

Hi all,

Currently have a HP Pavilion 7934 with the following spec:
1.5 Ghz Pentium 4, 128mb sdram, 30gb hd & XP. :(

I upgraded the memory myself to 256 + 128mb, stuck a dvd drive in and use an external 160gb hard drive for my music, photos etc. :D

Though it may be about time I treated myself to a new one after having a walk around in Comet today. I've had my current pc for about 6 years and it's done well, with me only having to take it to get wiped once because it stuck on a black screen for some reason or another. So, I like HP as it's served me well, but that doesn't mean I won't consider other stuff. :norty:

I don't really want to spend any more than £700 and I would like to have a nice big screen as I'm using a 15" lcd which now seems small compared to what I saw today. :eek:


My main use is on the internet, just general surfing. I don't play online games or anything like that, but I like watching videos on youtube etc. I like looking at my photos on the pc, but dont generally do any photoshop stuff. I like being able to have Itunes running whilst surfing and not having my pc freeze or go slow when other applications are running. :mad:

So, over to you guys and gals for some SN pc advice. :notworthy

Thanks in advance..!!

Nige. :thumb: :D

I recently built a new machine and got the following for £600 inc delivery:

Intel Q6600 G0 Quad Core CPU
2GB DDR2 RAM
Asus P5K Motherboard
Hyundai 22" LCD Monitor
Midi Tower Case
Power Supply

Now that runs games, music, msn, web browser, skype, and a bunch of other stuff at the same time without even spinning the fan up fully so I'd guess £700 would buy you plenty of PC for your money.

Hmm...

Apart from sticking a new dvd drive in and one of those memory chips on a strip things in, I can't see myself building a new one, so I suppose the usual suspects are my best option, pc world, currys etc..?

Any more advice out there..? :)

If you are buying a pre-built off the shelf system Dell are usually pretty cheap, also Tesco have had a few good offers on lately.

I would never buy a p.c. from somewhere like Tesco or Currys et al (p.c. snob :D)

You may want to consider something like:

Titan Gamer Intel Core 2 DUO E6550 2.33GHz SILENT DDR2 System

I would never buy a PC from overclockers. ^^

Dell have some good deals on at the moment. Some people on here know where to point you for discount codes etc.

Do yourself a favour and throw an extra £100 in.

Apple (UK and Ireland) - iMac

You'll save in the long run.

How about Mesh then? MESH Computers - Award Winning PCs Since 1987

Discount codes for Dell?? Could have done with some of those recently! :(

Another vote for Dell. They generally work well, and have reasonable support. Not to mention being cheap for what you get. They are also quite quiet, which is nice if you like listening to music.

You can get a decent Dell system for about £450.
Don't spend more than you have to, a Mac would be double the price to do the same things so I wouldn't go there either.

Dell are pretty cheap but it may be worth you looking at the pre-built systems on:

Overclockers UK

:thumb:

would go for for a del pc if you cant build one, stay away from pc world and other large high street retailers

another vote for Dell.
Also, lots of RAM is more important than a huge hard disk, as unless you download hundreds of movies and mp3s pretty much all PCs these days have a hard drive you'll never get close to filling.
Get the highest spec / latest PC you can afford it will be the most future-proof

Another vote for Dell. Love the way you can spec it almost exactly how you want it and see how the price varies for different options.

Much less compromise and way more for your money than the likes of pre-specced builds from PC world and the like.

Problem with dells is, they're a pita to upgrade, ram for example. And they use funky connectors in all their systems, so even a simple PSU change would be a headache.

I'd seriously consider building your own. I built my first one just over a year ago and I'm certainly no PC expert. In fact you have more experience than I had at the time. My biggest job previously was to swap a CD drive for a DVD drive.
The only bits that don't come with instructions are things like Hard disk drives, and DVD drives; and they just plug straight in.
I'm sure you could build something suitable for about £400 plus the cost of a screen, so £700 will get you something with a few extra whistles and bells.
I buy all my stuff from Overclockers, but then I live in Stoke which is where they're situated.