PC

[DavidT]

Guys,

I need a new PC. Don't laugh, the one I have at home is 4 years old, PII 400, 96mb ram, 8gb disc [img]images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Can someone suggest a reasonable spec which will last a few years and a supplier please ?


David

[PhilT]

How much do you want to spend?
Do you need a new monitor?

Might be able to help [img]images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[DavidT]

Hi Phil, thanks for replying.

About £1k all in I think and I fancy a 15inch flatscreen monitor as they take up less deskspace.


David

[Riz_RS4]

I recently bought a pc too, my old spec was getting slow [img]images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

AMD K6-III 400Mhz, DVD-ROM, Decoder Card, SB Live, TV Card, CD-RW, 196Mb Ram, 8.4Gb and 6,4Gb Hdd`s, Dlink Network etc

Now got a P4 1.5Ghz, 512mb Ram, 20Gb & 8.4Gb Hdd`s, DVD-ROM & CD-RW, Decoder card and Windows XP Pro [img]images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Should keep me going for awhile. [img]images/graemlins/thumbs.gif[/img]

[DuncS3]

I've got an AMD 450 128mb ram that doesnt work (keeps blue screening) - beat that for crap!

[PhilT]

How's this for a start:

1 x ATX Mini Tower 8 bays 5 EXT: 3x5.25 2x3.5 3 INT: 3x3.5 300W ATX 12V SmartPower supply. 036333 £54.89
1 x ECS L4S8A2L SKT478 8xAGP SIS648 Sound/LAN/USB2 & Firewire Motherboard 046221 £43.92
1 x Pentium 4 2.4GHz 478Pin 533MHz Retail Boxed 036048 £122.12
1 x Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 9 80gb 7200rpm UDMA133 Hard Drive - OEM 040968 £55.17
1 x Gainward Geforce4 Powerpack Ultra750-8x AGP 64MB DDR Ti-4800 SE Chipset With Tv-out 044705 £99.94
2 x 512Mb DDR PC2100 266MHz RAM 026878 £62.88
1 x Panasonic DVD-R/RW IDE Internal / S/W VOB 7.0 - OEM 045663 £149.99
1 x Panasonic Floppy Drive 1.44mb - OEM 047896 £4.83
1 x CTX S700B 17ins TFT 0.26 80khz TCO95 Black with 3year Onsite Warranty 044785 £274.80
1 x Memorex Wireless Keyboard & Mouse Bundle - MX5500 RF keyboard + RF Scroll Mouse in White 027578 £16.66

Total: £885.20
Shipping Band: £4.99
SubTotal: £890.19
VAT: £155.83
Total: £1046.02

You can look up the product codes on www.ebuyer.co.uk

[Riz_RS4]

now now, aslong as it does the job, i only bought another one because it was going cheap.

Mine can handle hyper-T intel P4 processors and 3gb ram.... so i should be ok for a upgrade if needed. [img]images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

512mb ram is doing ok at the moment [img]images/graemlins/thumbs.gif[/img]

[DavidT]

Looks like the dogs danglies to me.

Only extraa are: speakers, printer and software is that correct ?

Is it possible to get a bigger hard disc drive ?

And what is involved in getting one of these ?


Thanks a lot,

David

[PhilT]

Looks like the dogs danglies to me.

Just knocked it up to give you an idea. At the moment I think this would make a very good all round system and would be ready for digital video editing (Firewire + DVD-R/RW)

Speakers - Wouldn't bother, better to wire it up to an amp and speakers. I have an old NAD amp powering a couple of Warfdale Diamond Pros.

Printer - Mate of mine buys printers at some ridiculous price... In fact they're so cheap, he buys a new printer everytime he needs a cartridge!!

Software - What were you thinking? I recommend Windows XP and Office XP as base packages.

Bigger hard disc drive - What size is your current drive? I qould recommend that you use your current drive for the new machine's operating system, and use an IDE RAID controller (£15) to run two xGB disks in RAID 0. RAID 0 = Upside is it gives you speed and fault tollerance; downside is that the size of the disk space is halved. i.e. 2 x 80GB = 80 GB.

And what is involved in getting one of these - If you have no experience in building PCs and you would like someone to build it.... I am a bit of a dab hand at this kinda stuff, we could discuss [img]images/graemlins/080402call_prv.gif[/img] .

Thanks a lot - Nay probs, 'tis what I do [img]images/graemlins/thumbs.gif[/img]

[Riz_RS4]

Building PC`s is easy peasy! [img]images/graemlins/thumbs.gif[/img]

I would recommend the RAID mirror mode, ok so like Phil pointed out you will need two identical drives but will only have one of them as usable storage space, but a backup these days for those big hard drives is a must! [img]images/graemlins/tung2.gif[/img]

The only reason ive not gone into super power pc area is cost and the fact that i would want the best! [img]images/graemlins/tung2.gif[/img] [img]images/graemlins/thumbs.gif[/img]

[DavidT]

Phil,

OK, I will see you on Sunday, shall we have a chat then ?


David

[wazza]

Mine is now 6 months old [my first home computer [img]images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]]
HP Pavilion
P4 2.53GHz
512Mb DDR-SDRAM
80Gb 7200rpm
DVD+R/RW
2nd DVD-ROM
1.44Mb 3.5"
ATI Raedeon 9000 64Mb video
Firewire
6 USB
Wireles keyboard/mouse
internal ADSL modem
15" TFT
MS XP/Works/Office
HP K80 Printer/Fax
HP 2300c scanner
Logitech webcam

bought in a special deal with work, where I pay for it monthly (pre-tax) [img]images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img] [img]images/graemlins/jump_clap.gif[/img]

[FatBoy]

Hi Phil,
Excellent spec. and should do everything you're likely to want to do for some considerable time. My only suggestion would be that for the small amount extra, it might also be worth upgrading to the 3.06Mhz P4 processor, which has multi-threading. Windows XP supports multi-threading and more and more applications will benefit from it...just a thought [img]images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
Cheers
Paul

BTW..it's also "what I do", but we major on larger corporate networks & infrastructure.
If anyone's interested, we are also a major systems reseller for Autodesk (AutoCAD, Inventor, Architectural Desktop etc.) and PTC (Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire etc.)

[Taipan]

Have a look at DELL too.

They aren't as cheap as some custom-mades as described above but :
- pretty good/stable components
- very neat and clever internal arrangements, enterprise level.
- good warranty and possibility to extend to 3-years Day+1
- very easy to setup (like green plug in green connection, red plug in red connection, etc..).

You can't go wrong with the world largest PC manufacturer.
A bit like buying an Audi vs a Subaru

Just don't overspend on RAM because that's one part where Dell isn't competitive vs after-market retailers. So you could add 256meg for half the cost on your own.

Entry level Dimension 2350 could make a nice bundle for £1000 (P4 2.4ghz, DVD player, 120Go disk, 15" flat screen, Windows XP, 3 years on site warranty).
And very nice for £ 1250 (same, plus 17" flat screen upgrade, additional CD-burner, Lexmark 75 printer-scanner-copier, Harman Kardon speakers with subwoofer).
PROVIDED you don't play high-end computer games using a lot of graphical power (like Counter Strike or Splinter Cell or Warcraft III), cause the on-board graphic chip isn't designed for that.

Here's a link where you may find several reviews for the major manufacturers.
http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/0-1017.html

Eric

[runrowsam]

Just read this through, and somebody way back was going on about crap computers and bits and stuff? Well check this out. In june last year I paid £1400 (that was with a HEFTY discount) for a Compaq laptop. For £1800 I could have had the current top spec Compaq Presario from PC World or something, with a 2.1GHz chip, 40MB hard drive, 64MB graphics and all that. But no, I went for the cheaper one, and I wish I hadn't. It's Sh!ite! It's a 1.0GHz pentium 3, 30GB HDD, 8MB video (how poor is that?!), 256MB RAM, 14.1" TFT hunk of crap, with ethernet and it's fitted with Windows 98! Have CONSTANT problems with it, as it crashes constantly, and eats hard drives too. The first one was destroyed by mystery power failures which were never resolved, and this second one is starting to get noisy. Compaq tell me it's all my fault, and even though it's under warranty, they tried to make me pay for everything that went wrong! Got a copy of Windows XP Pro now though, but I've gotta find 20GB of space, and the time, to transfer all of my files and do it!

I've thought about perhaps a new laptop, a top spec one. I would like one I can put some decent games on, as I have no TV and this thing provides my entertainment as well! A decent soundcard is essential too, as I have over 2000 songs on the hard drive which all sound pants even through the line out onto a Bang and Olufsen sound system. A 40GB hard drive would also be nice, as I do have a lot of music and movies stored on here. I currently have a CD/RW drive in a multibay, which I can change for a DVD or floppy, which is about the only thing I do like about this system! So could anybody give me a rough idea as to what that could cost me if I built it up? I'm a complete virgin to the computer world. I know a bit, but not as much as most of you guys by the sound of things! Any assistance is greatly valued.

Rock on
Sam [img]images/graemlins/thumbs.gif[/img]