New PC - help and advice required

Ian_Slater

ALDI good price for the spec and a 3year guarantee.
I hope your printer/ sanner works on vista or you can get a driver update.
I had a lexmark and they did not supply a update so had to buy a new one.

HappyJanner

Thanks for help so far.

Does this spec look ok for what I'm after?

AMD Phenom 8550 processor.
3Gb DDR2 RAM.
640Gb SATA hard drive.
19ins WXGA Brightview monitor.
DVD writer SATA DVD RAM with double layer supporting Lightscribe.
NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GS graphics with PureVideo HD technology with 512Mb dedicated memory.
Pocket media drive bay.
15 in 1 memory card reader.
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium.

aliEnRIK

HappyJanner wrote: »

Thanks for advice so far.

Is there any major difference between AMD and Intel processors as I've seen a couple of systems with AMD in?

AMD USED to have the better 'single processer' cpu's
But for Dual and Quad cores etc, Intel have the edge now. (Though this could easily change again in the future)

Jesthar

NickMidgley wrote: »

To a seriously anoraky techie, yes, and they'll duke it out for ages over which one's better.

To the average user, they're much of a muchness.

aliEnRIK is right, (see his post above) - Athlon once had the edge, but the Intel Core Duo and Quad chips sweep all before them now. If you want to support gaming to a decent level, a dual core is the minimum level to consider at the moment. Jury is still somewhat out on the Phenom (if memory serves), but it's not performing as well as the Core Duos, so Intel is the sensible way to go at the moment. And this is coming from a girl with an Athlon in her (ageing!) homebuild machine...

Janner,

That spec is 'interesting' to say the least - in particular the 3GB of RAM, which either means you have three matched 1GB sticks, or one 2GB stick and 1 1GB stick. Either way, that is not brilliant, as RAM always works best in matched pairs. It should also be noted that 2GB RAM is more than adequate for most computing applications, including most games (shy of the absolute cutting edge games). And it is also cheap and buyer inducing, which helps the profiit margins of the seller...

The problem with gaming is that requirements for games vary so much - can you please post a list of the games your ds likes to play? That will help match your needs a somewhat better? Please bear in mind, though if he wants to play some of the most modern games, getting the necessary requirements for £500 may be challenging.

Hope that helps,

~Jes

HappyJanner

Jes,

With regards to the DS and games, he's got a PS2 at the moment and when he uses the computer, tends to head for websites such as cartoon network and nickolodean and play the games on there.

He's not at the stage yet where he wants to get into Halo 3 and the like (thank god!!!):j

Jesthar

HappyJanner wrote: »

Jes,

With regards to the DS and games, he's got a PS2 at the moment and when he uses the computer, tends to head for websites such as cartoon network and nickolodean and play the games on there.

He's not at the stage yet where he wants to get into Halo 3 and the like (thank god!!!):j

Ah right - if we're talking Neopets level, then I don't think you're going to have a problem with the games for a while! The nice thing about graphics cards, though, is if you do discover at a later date you need one, you can usually just buy one which is compatible with your motherboard and add it in. Same with RAM, you can always add more later.

I'd say for now your most important criteria are as follows:

Intel Core Duo processor (if you can)
2GB RAM
Good size hard drive (540GB+ if you're going to be downloading a LOT of music, as hard drives work best and fastest when under 60% full)
Decent monitor (the higher the resolution the better)
Branded graphics (if you can - the two brand names are ATi and nVidia)

The rest is much of a muchness (including the DVD writers these days). You could also consider buying a box without a monitor and seeing if you can't get a better monitor unbundled.

Whatever you do, think carefully before buying from somewhere like PC World, as the after sales service has a reputation on a par with that of a fox on a chicken farm. Some of the other major electrical retailers are not much better. Places like John Lewis, on the other hand, are rated excellently on that front, although they tend to be more expensive to buy from. You may well find some decent 'aimed at student' deals around at the moment, too, which should hopefully be close to what you need.

I personally have a three-year-old Dell laptop at the moment, and have no complaints, and the nice thing is you can customise a basic model to meet your needs. You may also stand a chance of picking up a bargain in their 'clearance' section (Dell Outlet), and they usually have an offer or several going (though avoid free printer offers like the plague, as you can only use them with very expensive proprietory cartridges and the printers themselves are poor, rebranded Lexmarks). You can also get cashback when buying online through various sites (like TopCashBack) - you can also get this for other major stores, including PC World, John Lewis, the electrical stores etc.

Anyway, feel free to post/PM with potential specs to assess

Happy hunting!

~Jes

Antispam

That dell in post 13 has matched pair

3072MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM B]2x1024[/B] + [B]2x512[/B

Jesthar

Antispam wrote: »

That dell in post 13 has matched pair

3072MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM B]2x1024[/B] + [B]2x512[/B

So it does (still at work, me... ).

However, RAM is still best being totally matched - sticking to one size of RAM stick for all the modules, and preferably the same brand and product line for each pair, too. That will always get you the best performance, and better stability too, rather than pairs in different sizes.

Anyway, it's not going to be hyper-critical for Janner, as he's not planning on doing anything too stressful on his sytem, but it's not something I personally (as a techno-geek) would do in a machine of mine.

HappyJanner

Jes,

Would this be a better bet?

Intel Core 2 Duo E4700 processor.
3Gb RAM.
500Gb hard drive.
19in widescreen WXGA Brightview display with 5ms response rate.
DVD RW with lightscribe.
AT1 Radeon HD340 128Mb graphics.
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium.
TV tuner. 15 in 1 card reader.
Wireless keyboard.

HappyJanner

Or this?

Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 processor
2.4Ghz. 2048Mb DDR2 RAM.
500Gb hard drive.
256Mb graphics card.
19in LCD flat panel monitor.
DVD+/-RW dual layer.
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium.
Stereo speaker set