new pc

jatbaws

i looking to buy a new pc for around about £500 i was wondering if this is a good spec i will be useing the pc for surfing and watching tv and downloading

Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 945 SOCKET AM3 (3.00GHz/8MB CACHE)

Memory (RAM)
4GB CORSAIR DOMINATOR DUAL-DDR2 1066MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY

Motherboard
ASUS® M4N78-AM: DUAL DDR2, S-ATA II, PCIe x16, 1 x PCIe x1, 2 x PCI

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS (4 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)

2nd Hard Disk
NONE

RAID (HDD 1 & 2)
NONE

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
22x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NONE

Graphics Card
512MB NVIDIA GEFORCE 210 PCI EXPRESS

2nd Graphics Card
NONE

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT

Modem
NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND



Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)

Case
STYLISH BLACK/SILVER TRIDENT CASE + 2 FRONT USB

Power Supply & Case Cooling
350W Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan

Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER

Firewire & Video Editing
NONE

TV Card
NONE

Monitor
NONE

2nd Monitor
NONE

DVI Cable
NONE

Keyboard & Mouse
NONE

Mouse
NONE

Speakers
NONE

Webcam
NONE

Headsets (VOIP)
NONE

Surge Protection
NONE

Printer
NONE

Anti-Virus
NONE

Office Software
NONE

External Hard Drive
NONE

Home Installation
NONE

Warranty
1 Year Return-to-Base incl 1st Month Free Collect & Return

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 9 working days

Quantity
1


Other Features Included As Standard...

Software
CD/DVD/BLURAY viewing & authoring software is included with all DVD Writers/BD Drives.

Ports
Each computer comes with 1 x PS/2 keyboard port and either 1 x PS/2 mouse port or 2 extra USB ports.

Fans
Where necessary your computer will come with extra case fans fitted.

Memory
Our memory comes with a 100% tested lifetime warranty!

Bezels
All our drives come in either silver, black or beige and are all of a
high quality & matched brand.

Support
We offer lifetime hardware technical support during normal office hours.

Cables & Manuals
A power cable, all drivers, manuals, and a heatsink & fan are included with every order.

Service
Our computers come fully assembled & thoroughly tested. We are so confident in the quality of our computers that we offer a free collection and re-delivery service* should you ever have a problem with your computer.

Installation
If you order an operating system it will come fully installed with the CD and licence key.

Low Total Cost of Ownership
Taking into consideration our low cost telephone support, free collection warranty service* and our strive to use energy efficient components where possible, the total cost of owning a pcspecialist computer is reduced as much as possible.

And Finally
If you are lucky enough to have seen a cheaper quote, click here.


We've Calculated Your Power Requirements


We notice that you have selected a 350W power supply, but based on our calculations we recommend you change your selection to a 450W power supply because your computer could require up to 365W of power including a 20% allowance.



Price for this PC System:

Price for this PC System:
£440.87 ex VAT.

£507 inc VAT and Delivery.

turbobob

Few comments. The processor is fine - maybe more powerful than you need. The memory is fine. Most systems are moving towards DDR3 now but the performance advantage is small, so I would not worry too much about that.

The motherboard has a video card built into it - a Geforce 8200. The Geforce 210 is not much more powerful, although it does have HDMI support, which that particular motherboards on board graphics lack. As you are using it for Blu Ray and watching TV, I'm assuming you will want an HDMI output. You could alternatively choose a different motherboard with better onboard graphics and skip the add in video card - e.g. this one - http://asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=daNjn5iQIh14MVvN

Personally I'd get a larger hard drive - it should be fine but if you are storing a lot of video it will get used up quite quickly. 1tb shouldn't cost much more.

You will be watching TV on it but there is no TV tuner or satellite card? Are you getting that separately or just watching TV that's been downloaded or something?

Cooling - bear in mind stock cooling on a Phenom II can be noisy. It might be something to consider upgrading.

Power supply - no brand stated. They vary a lot in quality. 350w is probably just about OK on a quality PSU with the current spec. High power video cards tend to increase the power supply requirements greatly - fortunately you are not using one. More headroom would be good though and I would suggest that.

jatbaws

thanks for the info

ddoris

It seems expensive to me, you don't need quad core for you current uses.

Dan_S_3

Where is this pc from?

I am looking at getting a new desktop and have £500ish to spend.

computershack

Definitely overkill.

jatbaws

its from pcspecialist

Freebyman

Personally I wouldnt bother with the graphics card as turbobob mentioned also the psu is a little low and would go for a 500w one. A shame you cant build it yourself, a friend helped me just build mine and it was so easy and cheaper.

jatbaws

i would love to build it my self but would not know where to start

turbobob

If you select the right components its pretty straightforward usually!

Anyway agree its a bit on the expensive side but there are some expensive components in there. For example that Corsair Dominator memory kit is over £100 and its really aimed at overclockers. Likewise the CPU is over £100.

computershack

Freebyman wrote: »

the psu is a little low and would go for a 500w one.

It isn't. I run a 320W PSU running a Phenom X3, two hard drives and a nVidia 9600GT and it copes perfectly well with that because it is a decent make of PSU.

You only need a 500W rated PSU if you're buying one of those cheap manky ones that barely manage 67% efficiency.