My best value PC tips (esp Currys/Dixons/PCWorld

royalsteve

Its hardly worth upgrading these days...the deals you get on a full system and monitor are good.

I used to build PC's and my last 2 have been built to order....but the last full system build was 7 years ago though (and has been upgraded since).

The advantage of full system build used to be mainly because you not only knew what you were getting, upgradability was key and price....my PC 7 years ago cost me 1600.00, whereas a spec in PCWorld which was no where near as good was almost 3000!

However, now PC's are cheaper (in some ways) than upgrading...though they skimp on the motherboard, so only 2 PCI slots is shockingly common

I have always thought about upgrading, but will probably just a new PC in the sales....as much as i hate dell their deals are good and i dont expect it to be that upgradeable....plus i will only buy it if I get the window XP disk and no restore disk crap....which idiot though of this dumb idea....single point of failure??!! so i can reinstall windows over the dell intro, slow my pc down' rubbish!

You can buy a Dell PC with 17 in monitor - new Pentium 4 3Ghz HT 800FSB LG775 based chip, 512mb PC3200 ram, 160gb hard drive, 128mb PCI Express ATI graphics card....for 649.00 inc vat and del, with 1 years ROB warranty....you cant build one for that!!!.....even using ebuyer.

The thing with Dell is they are ok, but if something goes wrong...good luck!

The only downside with upgrading is its harder to resolve problems if components have been bought from diferent suppliers, possible compatiablity issues although these are becoming rarer than they used to. Upside is its quite fun and easy.

Me, Ill probably get a Dell and in most cases fix it myself if it goes wrong!

statman

It is a good deal but the nature of Aldi (and Lidl) hardware deals is that batches come in from time to time and when they're gone, they're gone until next time. They may have those computers once or twice a year. Worth waiting for. Keep an eye on their website and be outside a store at 9am on the first day of advertised availability.

I cant find a number to check stock so looks like a drive over to see if they have any.
Thanks for your help

£$&*"($£&(

I cant find a number to check stock so looks like a drive over to see if they have any.
Thanks for your help

You need to be aware that many of these offers are restricted to certain regions (clearly stated on the website) and if they are good you need to be in the usual first day queue to have a chance of getting one.

George_Bray

I cant find a number to check stock so looks like a drive over to see if they have any.
Thanks for your help

Sorry - I should have said that the best place to check forthcoming availability is the Aldi website, unless you visit the shops and collect their leaflets regularly.

Don't make a journey this weekend, as they are so unlikley to have any computers unless you are very, very lucky.

George_Bray

Its hardly worth upgrading these days...the deals you get on a full system and monitor are good.

royalsteve

I fully respect your approach, but for me the figures just don't add up.

My proposed upgrade cost £246 (incl VAT) whereas yours was £649 for no greater processing power. My spec:

1) Gigabyte nForce 250 Socket 754 ATX Audio/LAN/RAID motherboard with 5 PCI slots £46.98
2) Athlon 64 3000+ S754 512Kb including heat sink £95.49
3) Fan £8.50
4) Memory 512Mb PC3200 £43.50
5) Dabs Radeon 128Mb video card £35.74
Total £246

Your proposed system would have:
1) Possibly unknown motherboard with few PCI slots
2) Pentium 4 3Ghz HT 800FSB LG775 based chip incl heat sink
3) Fan
4) Memory 512Mb PC3200
5) PCI Express ATI graphics card

So here’s why I’m not so keen on the Dell approach:
1) Motherboard uncertainty, possibly fewer PCI slots, maybe hard coded with Dell-speak
2) I’m told Athlon 64 is better than Pentium 4: Both supposedly 3Ghz processing power.
5) Is the Dell video card as good as a Radeon?

Even if it is, we’re still talking Dell £649 vs my DIY £246. That’s a huge difference.

You also get a new monitor, case, hard drive, etc. thrown in. I don’t need any of those things. My existing components are absolutely fine. I already have more hard disks and space than I will ever need.

Regards
George

statman

Sorry - I should have said that the best place to check forthcoming availability is the Aldi website, unless you visit the shops and collect their leaflets regularly.

Don't make a journey this weekend, as they are so unlikley to have any computers unless you are very, very lucky.

Went to my local Aldi and they had them in stock so I picked one up. Looks like I got lucky.
The in store leaflet has items on sale from this Tuesday rather than Thursday(probably for Christmas), I'll be there.
Thanks for your help.

Chriswil

I've built my last three pcs. I wouldn't buy a built system from anyone because i'm a bit of a performance freak!

What I tend to do is to look at magazines such as pcpro and websites such as hexus.net to find out what the best kit available is. I then do a trawl of the internet to find the best price for the components and order them individually, saving postage where possible.

I have found that pcworld etc are great as a showroom for printers and components, but cost so much more that internet companies. Also there are so many websites that show you how to build pcs that it really shouldn't be too daunting a task. If you would replace a cracked wall power socket yourself then it is easy to build a pc.

Dixons etc offer you wonderful pcs with the latest speed and fastest memory, only to be letdown by a slow component elsewhere - a bit like having a sports car with only three wheels. Instead of buying a pc there I would always recommend a local computer shop if you feel you can't build one yourself, but always compare the prices of the total system to the likes of infiniti.co.uk, watford.co.uk, and even dell.co.uk.

Another factor to consider as has been mentioned elsewhere is that some of the components offered are far in excess of what you will ever need! I am a serial downloader and have 180GB of storage on my machine which I struggle to fill. For a 'normal' user these sort of figures are plainly ridiculous....

Overall -

1) Avoid Dixons, PCWorld etc like the plague
2) Always do a price comparison on the internet - computer related parts always have been widely available on the internet
3) Some research can allow you to build an incredibly powerful pc with a low cost
4) Opting for AMD instead of Intel processors (cpus) can save you money and give better performance (gulp he says waiting for a backlash)
5) Ask for advice, but don't ask in the high street!

Chris

culpepper

5) Ask for advice, but don't ask in the high street!

I agree with a lot of what you've said Chris but I have often asked for advice in Maplins and always been given sound advice.

bazza1603

Hi,

I have gone down the lines of getting machines built to the spec I required and to be honestly I have had minor niggling problems which cannot be solved. They are usable machines, but over 50 percent are very annoying to use.

Last two machines I have bought have been from Currys. First was a Medion Power star for £699. Not one single problem in 18 months of use. Next was bought on the 22 Dec and is the Advent T9102 bought for £622 including Postage. Its upgradeable and has the PCI graphic card slots. I have chose carefully, and am over the moon with the PC specs so far.

I am not a novice, and can solve about 95 percent of problems myself. However its nice to be able to pick up the phone and speak to Currys helpline within the first 12 months free of charge if I do get stuck.

I have no problems with the built and reliablity of either the Medion or Advert makes of PC and would recommend them to anyone that wants a reliable computer with a decent spec at a realistic price.

Pcworld and most of the Hight street shops are okay, as long as you know what you want. Take there advice with a pinch of salt...

Best Regards

Barry