New PC - help and advice required

Jesthar

Hi Janner,

Would help if you could post the prices too, or judging value is quite tricky! Links to the products in question would also be useful if you can

I'm about to head home out of the office, but I'll be back around later. Don't worry about asking questions, though - sorting a PC spec can be a headache, alright!

HappyJanner

1st spec I posted - 699

2nd spec - 599

Jesthar

Hi Janner,

Hmm, seem a bit pricey for your budget - and they're not really balanced, either. You don't really need more than 2GB of RAM (and it's always going to be cheaper to upgrade with another 2GB independently), and it's not really worth going for a 256MB graphics card for online cartoon games (although it will help boost Vista performance a bit).

Looking at Dell, I'd say the Inspiron 530 series would do you fine - link is http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspndt_530?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn

I managed to get a basic but decent spec PC for £499 by doing the following through the Customise link (make sure you select to keep the basic support package):

1) Choose the second from the left option (the £399 option) to Customise, as this will give you the cheapest price for the following spec.

2) For the processor, go for the top option, the Intel Core 2 Quad Core Q6600 Processor - this adds £40 to the price, but it's one of the best value performance chips at the moment

3) Double check the "1 year Limited Warranty - Collect and Return" is selected as the support option

4) For the monitor, make sure the 19" monitor is selected (should be pre-set)

5) For memory, stick with the 2048MB of SDRAM

6) For the hard drive, upgrade to the third option - the 500GB DATA Hard Drive - this adds £19.99 to the price but doubles your available storage

7) For the graphics card, upgrade to the second option - the 128MB ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro - this adds £40 to the price but will give you better performance, particularly for games

8) The Optical Drive, Keyboard and Mouse can be left as they are.

9) You don't need to alter anything on the Accessorise My Dell part (unless you really want a wireless networking card, which is £20) or the Protect My Dell part.

The above selections should give you a final price of £499 for the machine. If you wanted to lower the price a bit, I'd first drop the graphics card (as you can always add one later), then return the Processor to the original Core Duo E7200 selection (still a reasonable chip, but upgrading a processor is not as easy, and is sometimes impossible). Alternatively, you can go to the Inspiron Stockroom of the Dell Outlet part of the site (I think this link should work: http://outlet.dell.com/Emea_Dfo/EuDispatcher?country=GBR&target=InventoryPage&lob_constraint=INSPDT), and see if you can pick up a similar spec machine for less - I've seen some or around £350. However, you must remember that Outlet PCs do NOT include a monitor, so you'll still have to get one of those.

Anyway, hope that helps. Please bear in mind that this is just my opinion on what I think you'd be OK with, and shouldn't be taken as definitive, just as a considered suggestion.

~Jes

Antispam

The main bottle neck on pcs today assuming you got a reasonable pc dual core 2 or quad any speed will probably do, is ram 2gb is ample. But the most important things is the graphics card, bare in mind you want a couple of years usage out of a graphics card (min 512mb on board ram dont confuse this with system ram) Ram you can always add later for system its very cheap at mo decent 4gb of ram is around £60 +/- DDR2 ram

There isn't that much advantage with quad over dual core 2 as yet, it really all depends on the application/game and operating system. Vista support multi core processors better than XP

Jesthar

Antispam wrote: »

The main bottle neck on pcs today assuming you got a reasonable pc dual core 2 or quad any speed will probably do, is ram 2gb is ample. But the most important things is the graphics card, bare in mind you want a couple of years usage out of a graphics card (min 512mb on board ram dont confuse this with system ram) Ram you can always add later for system its very cheap at mo decent 4gb of ram is around £60 +/- DDR2 ram

There isn't that much advantage with quad over dual core 2 as yet, it really all depends on the application/game and operating system. Vista support multi core processors better than XP

Depends on what you are going to be using the PC for - high end gaming requires a card like this, certainly. But not your average light user, like Janner - a 128 MB card should be fine for him, and is under £50 even if he doesn't get it with the machine initially. If he does decide he needs an upgrade later, then providing the motherboard will take it the better cards will have dropped in price and will be more affordable anyway, whereas a high line 512MB card will cost closer to £150 for a reasonable one. But it's certainly not a necessary starting point for him, as he doesn't run anything graphic intensive or high end games. I have a mobile Radeon 128MB graphics card in my three year old laptop (i.e. ancient in technology terms!), and it copes with GuildWars just fine, and even Lord of the Rings Online on low graphics settings. It never even breaks a sweat for normal use, and the mobile cards are nowhere near as powerful as the desktop cards.

[Deleted User]

Jesthar wrote: »

Depends on what you are going to be using the PC for - high end gaming requires a card like this, certainly. But not your average light user, like Janner - a 128 MB card should be fine for him, and is under £50 even if he doesn't get it with the machine initially. If he does decide he needs an upgrade later, then providing the motherboard will take it the better cards will have dropped in price and will be more affordable anyway, whereas a high line 512MB card will cost closer to £150 for a reasonable one. But it's certainly not a necessary starting point for him, as he doesn't run anything graphic intensive or high end games. I have a mobile Radeon 128MB graphics card in my three year old laptop (i.e. ancient in technology terms!), and it copes with GuildWars just fine, and even Lord of the Rings Online on low graphics settings. It never even breaks a sweat for normal use, and the mobile cards are nowhere near as powerful as the desktop cards.

I'd personally stick with the integrated card and with the money you'd save by buying what you suggested, put in an aftermarket ATI 8600GT 512MB which will be a much better investment for a few pounds more than the Dell upgrade, especially considering you can pick the HD 2400 for £20 brand new where Dell want £40.

echelon101

Did you miss the fact that the dell system I posted is only £529 incl del and is far faster than any of the systems you posted...

EDIT I ll post it again

Q6600 QUAD CORE (spanks the AMD Processors)
3gb ram
500gb hd
20" TFT Screen (they are pretty good)
HD3450
Vista Home Premium

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspndt_530?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs

"This is an incredible accomplishment and shows that the kit that Dell produces is nothing less than top notch."

Source: Computer Shopper, UK, Annual Awards, December2007

Jesthar

anewhope wrote: »

I'd personally stick with the integrated card and with the money you'd save by buying what you suggested, put in an aftermarket ATI 8600GT 512MB which will be a much better investment for a few pounds more than the Dell upgrade, especially considering you can pick the HD 2400 for £20 brand new where Dell want £40.

Thanks, anewhope, I did quite a bit of research last night, but didn't have time to check the card prices. Dell are notorious for being expensive in these areas, though!

Were this me, I'd definitely be leaving the card out the spec and adding my own (well, actually I'd be building a machine myself from scratch ), but I'm not sure how comfortable Janner would be with adding the card himself, so I thought I'd err on the side of caution. It is very easy to do, though. Not sure if it would void the warranty, mind, though as that is only for one year anyway...

Jesthar

echelon101 wrote: »

Did you miss the fact that the dell system I posted is only £529 incl del and is far faster than any of the systems you posted...

EDIT I ll post it again

Q6600 QUAD CORE (spanks the AMD Processors)
3gb ram
500gb hd
20" TFT Screen (they are pretty good)
HD3450
Vista Home Premium

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspndt_530?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs

Yup, that's the base top line Inspiron desktop. I was working on the £500 being a maximum budget, though, rather than a guide.

Aside from the extra RAM, a bigger screen (which I do like, personally - Dell screens are good) and a different graphics card, there isn't much difference between the two specs, but if Janner can afford the extra £30, your suggestion is definitely one to consider, especially with the free delivery offer being on until the 8th of October.