Looking for advice on buying a new pc please

Confuzzled

thank you deanos that is precisely the type of thing i need to know! :T
i've often wished i could cut back on the power used by my machine and so part of me thinks i should just get a laptop but i'm hesitant for two reasons... 1st i can't stand the damn things... they burn your lap when you have them on you (great i suppose in winter not so nice the rest of the year) i can't stand the flat keys and i don't like using a track pad etc etc plus the monitors are so small (or at least the ones i can afford are) and most of my friends on SL that have laptops struggle on it anyway

2nd, i will probably have to replace this computer i'm on in another year or so anyway, my daughter is home educated until i return to uni full time so we MUST have a computer for her to use and even after she returns to regular school she'll need it for homework (and to play on so mum can study!) her very very old mac mini is worse off than mine. i don't think this computer will last all that much longer so i need to replace it one way or another. i think i'll buy a laptop next year at the beginning of term because then i really will need one, now i have the luxury of being finicky

ok another question... is dell still as bloody awful to deal with as they were about 7 years ago? i had a dell and i shudder at the thought of dealing with their customer disservice department :rotfl:

deanos

Ive got a Dell XPS420 now , tech support has been excellent, only had to ring them twice tho.

Im not sure if the Currys deal is better , £50 gets you quad core and blue ray but you will have to pay £15 for the Windows 7 upgrade , i guess thats something you will have to decide, you could take the blue ray out and sell it on Ebay, not sure what they are worth probably £50-£60 and just put in a normal DVD writer that costs around £15

quidsinquentin

If you pop over to HUKD, and type Dell into the search box, you should get a number of current good deals.

I saw one recently around the £400 mark - similar to this http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/538709/dell-inspiron-546-desktop-base-amd-

But there are others.

Confuzzled

if the quad core uses up a lot more power than the dual and i don't need all that power then i probably wouldn't bother with the quad (though part of me says 'will you regret that in 2 years)

the currys deal is integrated graphics though and i am not sure about that one yet. also i don't need blu ray as i don't have an HD tv or monitor (not that it's comfy to sit at the computer to watch movies anyway) and i have no plans or funds to upgrade my telly so i'm not sure there is much point anyway. nice for others that might want it, i'm happy enough with my boring but reliable dvd player...call me a luddite

i'm having a look around the toms hardware site now, maybe they have somehting about integrated graphics that i can read up on.

thanks for all the pointers they're very helpful at getting me up to speed! :beer:

deanos

No the Currys deal is the exactly tje same as the Dell deal but has Blue Ray and Quad core and is £50 more + Windows 7 upgrade cost

Oneday77

Blue Mars do not support the ATi Radeon 4350 Graphics card and the extra £60 for the Geforce220 card from Dell is a rip off.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176559
or
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173705

Both graphics cards are about £60 or less and Dell is charging £60 extra for an upgrade. :mad:
If you had to buy one off the shelf, go with the quad core Dell and then fit a better card. I would double check that the 4350 in the Dell is not integrated, it is possible, then swap it. Sell the 4350 on ebay for £15-£20 . The second card I listed will play anything you want on a 19" monitor.
Have you thought about building your own?

Confuzzled

deanos wrote: »

No the Currys deal is the exactly tje same as the Dell deal but has Blue Ray and Quad core and is £50 more + Windows 7 upgrade cost

ahhh so it does, sorry about that! one of the suggested pc's did have an integrated graphics and i thought it was that one, i stand corrected!

hmmm it would still be cheaper than the first offer i found with the quad core... do you have any idea how i could find out about power consumption between the two? the more computer sites i look at the more the numbers and abbreviations all begin to swirl into one mass of :eek: :rotfl:

Confuzzled

Oneday77 wrote: »

Blue Mars do not support the ATi Radeon 4350 Graphics card

If you had to buy one off the shelf, go with the quad core Dell and then fit a better card. I would double check that the 4350 in the Dell is not integrated, it is possible, then swap it. Sell the 4350 on ebay for £15-£20 . The second card I listed will play anything you want on a 19" monitor.
Have you thought about building your own?

ahhh thanks for the tip about blue mars... i really do want to be able to continue with the beta testing but i'm will most likely have to find something off the shelf. i live in a village surrounded by more villages and none of them has a proper computer store anymore and i won't let someone i don't know mess with my pc (been there, done that, not doing it again) at least at a shop i'd have recourse if they messed it up.

so i take it integrated graphics are to be avoided like the plague then?

which video cards are considered good for games? i know the reason i got an nvidia card for this computer was because at the time i was really big into Sims2 and they recommended nvidia cards. now that i think of it i believe that the xstreetsl forums is where i heard about people with major problems with ATI cards, not just with compatibility with SL but with some of them overheating and melting though i think those issues were with integrated cards not necessarily with seperates....

good thing i don't have to buy one today, i think my head would explode if i had to choose at the moment :rotfl:

i have thought about putting them together myself but i honestly don't think i have steady enough hands to do it, and to be honest it scares me silly which wouldn't help my hands from shaking!

Biggles

But is Dell support still as bad as ever?

Oneday77

You could consider: -
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-197-OK&groupid=43&catid=1444&subcat=
+
http://www.software4students.co.uk/Microsoft_Windows_7_Professional_64_bit_Upgrade_Edition-details.aspx
£410
Since you daughter is at school, assuming you still have an XP disc lying about to upgrade from.
That PC will game better than you could buy anywhere for this cash and the rest of the it is very similar to what I am using just now. The other advantage is that if any parts go out with warranty they are standard off the shelf parts that any PC shop could replace, not large manufacturer case specific parts.
As far as power consumption goes it isn't a big thing with Desktops at the moment. Unless you go for one of the Intel atom based machines or the small form factor PCs with laptop style inards to reduce heat. A PC will only draw what it needs. Even if the power supply is rated to 1000W it will only run at the combined componet cost of the PC so that could be 350W. The better the powersupply the more efficient it is, not necessarily the more powerful.
Thmshardware,com is good to investigate most PC queries on an component basis.