Which of these two PCs? Help me spend my dosh!

PeacanPie

Hullo all - was wanting an opinion on which of these two pcs is a better deal. I've been staring at the specs for a couple of days, but just cant make up my mind. My little credit card has been taken out out the wallet and put back loads of times! So I'm going to buy tonight. Or maybe tomorrow.

So here are the two:

http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default.aspx?PAGE=PRODUCTVIEWPAGE&USG=PRODUCT&ENT=PRODUCT&KEY=56236

and

http://www.pcnextday.co.uk/product_detail.asp?stype=5&productcode=3362-3302&group=CSVL&pgroup=CS

I'll be wanting the pc to do all the usual stuff like MS office, email, internet browsing, so I'm taking that as read for any new pc.

But I will dabbling with website design & Flash development, and vb.net programming, and perhaps most importantly - I want to be able to play some of the more recent games, like Fear & B&W 2. World of Warcraft is also a must, but that runs fine on my laptop that has intel extreme 2 integrated graphics, so that'll be fine on either system I guess.

I also want to end up with 1g of ram in the system, so I'll have to factor that in too....

Basically I the mesh system has a 19" monitor upgrade, but I don't know anything about the specs, and also has a 'real' processor, and the pcnextday got a pc-pro a list award - and the review says that it's pretty good.

Also are the graphics cards in these systems any good? I dont want or need bleeding edge, but I would like to be able to play some games at above lowest settings!

OK. So any opinions welcome - or is there a better deal that you know of for around £500? I had a poke around on the Dell website, but even with quidco discount, I didn't see anything that jumped out at me. Can anyone out there help a guy spend his money!?

Cheers!!!

PS also on a slightly wider subject, if I end up having to replace the graphics cards in the system that I buy, is Nvdia or ATI the way to go. Personally I've always preferred ATI - but I couldn't really tell you why.

trigger_mike

I purchused this last weekend from my local pc world store in ipswich for £489 with out the monitor, i don't know much about computers but it seems o.k so far.
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/304206 :money:

cougar_3

The Mesh is the better PC out of the two - bigger screen and more powerful processor or two reasons (speed and memory on the processor Athlon vs sempron).

I think that the rule with ATI and nvidia is that nvidia is better for athlons and ATI for intel. I prefer nvidia because the drivers remain the same for all their products and their software on the PC isn't as obtrusive as ATI's.

I think that the prices are reasonable, but you still need to spend a little more on them to get them good. The graphics card doesn't have much memory and the RAM is half what you need. I would not use their customise option - they charge £50 for the RAM you need, when it will be half that on ebay. The alternative graphics cards are expensive too. The problem with adding more is that you may invalidate the warranty.

Can you build the PC yourself - it might not be massively cheaper that way, but you can customise it more...

windym_2

I would go with Mesh anyday and everyday. Their customer service is excellent.

PeacanPie

Many thanks for the replies and info guys. I'll be plunging for the mesh in a few minutes - guilt-free too, because it's my birthday today, and you're allowed to spend stupid money on your birthday! Hurrah!