New PC - What and from where?

Bf109

Marty_J wrote: »

But, let's not turn this into a Mac vs PC thing.

You know Marty, when I saw your avatar, I would never have guessed that your are a Mac man

I cut my teeth on macs and think they are defo superior but all my lovely games are now in PC and macs are pretty expensive for me....

Bf109

crampo wrote: »

If you were just using the computer for basic writing letters , general web browsing. Then a fairly low-cost computer would be acceptable.
.....
Yer, If you are Planning to do this. WAIT till Windows 7 Comes out, It has got good reviews so far and due out within the year.

Basically I want an in between machine. Something I can still play older games on but will mostly be used for Skype and teh internets.

I have an old laptop or two kicking around, I think what I may do is turn one of these into an Ubuntu box and see what happens.

crampo_2

Bf109 wrote: »

You know Marty, when I saw your avatar, I would never have guessed that your are a Mac man

I cut my teeth on macs and think they are defo superior but all my lovely games are now in PC and macs are pretty expensive for me....

Also i think Software is expensive for Macs . Like Office 2007 For PC is £62 and for Office 2008 (the same as 2007) is £287 .

But yer , no Mac V's PC lol

timbim_2

Do try with ubuntu. If you don't like it, you can always switch from gnome to KDE, the two environments are completely different.

timbim_2

crampo wrote: »

Also i think Software is expensive for Macs . Like Office 2007 For PC is £62 and for Office 2008 (the same as 2007) is £287

Home and student 3 licence for mac is £87 compared to £58 for windows. Not comparing like with like there.

Money_Grabber13579

Why is PC World held in so low a regard? I've never had any problems with them, and for the computers themselves, they are relatively cheap. Components, now that's another matter! Customer service has always been good as well. Their sister company, Currys could do with taking some lessons!

Mobeer

To cut the operating system argument short:

Do you want to use specific software only available for Windows, Linux or OS X ?
If so then you don't have much choice.

What are you most familiar with: Windows, Linux or OS X ?
If you want to invest time and effort in making a decision then any of these could be a good choice.
If you want to keep things simple, go with what you are familiar with, and with what other people you know are familiar with.

If you want to choose Windows then I would recommend Dell
If you want Linux then the choice of pre-installed systems is more limited but plenty of smaller companies supply PCs with no operating system and you can download the operating system (on another PC)
I won't say what my opinion of Mac users is. ;->


--
and avoid pc world - they are 10% helpful and 90% clueless

Marty_J

Bf109 wrote: »

You know Marty, when I saw your avatar, I would never have guessed that your are a Mac man

Subtle, ain't I?

I cut my teeth on macs and think they are defo superior but all my lovely games are now in PC and macs are pretty expensive for me....

If you're going to be running "older" Windows games, CrossOver Games does a pretty good job of playing them. DosBox does a really good job of running DOS games, and Boxer will even package them up so they behave just like any other Mac application. I also use ScummVM for playing all my old Windows point-and-click adventure games.

I appreciate what you say about price, though Mac Minis start at £499, so it's not as though they have to cost thousands, and if you can find a student, they can get a white MacBook for not much more with their student discount.

But, you're the one who will be using it, so the choice is up to yourself. Ubuntu as pointed out is pretty good, and you can run Windows applications in that too.

crampo_2

Have A look At These Two Items
Computer: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158373
Monitor: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159365
Total £650 . Don't know whether you want to spend this much or more

timbim_2

Almost certainly over the top for any normal usage. You want Core 2 Duo, not Quad, unless you happen to be doing any 3D rendering or video editing...