New desktop PC needed - Advice required

Bad_Ash

I've been considering getting a new system for a while now and the death of my PC today has rather increased my need.

Unfortunately I'm rather out of the loop and haven't a clue about all these new spec processors so I'm not sure what systems give good bang per buck. In the past I've build my own, but I don't have the time to research or build one at the moment so I'm looking to get a ready built solution.

I have a 19" TFT which I can use and am looking to spend under £500 if possible (though could stretch it a bit if the performace increase was worth it). Can anyone recommend a current great deal or just some advice on what I shoud be looking for?

nickmack

What will you use it for?

magyar

If you've built your own in the past you clearly know a bit about computers. I'd recommend a "customise your own" site like https://www.komplett.com

As to what to get, well as nickmack says, depends what you want! Quite simply, if you don't want to play games, the price will drop dramatically. You could pretty much get a bottom of the range machine. (And if you *do* want to play games you're probably still better off buying a bottom of the range machine and a console...)

£500 will get you a pretty decent machine at Komplett, e.g.
http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/config.asp?ConfigSystemId=10093

There are plenty of similar sites, but I can vouch for Komplett. If you let us know what you want it for, we could probably help you tailor the £500 a bit better.

Bad_Ash

nickmack wrote:

What will you use it for?

I think the most taxing thing I do is watching divx's and/or browsing with about 20 tabs open, which did cause my old machine to stutter a bit.

Don't really play games any more, but having a machine which could cope with them running on lower settings would be nice in case I do take it up again.

letsbehonest

Try this site https://www.instantpc.co.uk
You can design your own pc online and see how much it costs as you add bits to it. This company is Medway Computer Components based in the medway area

dino_jr

FYI, Dell will offer free upgrades to Vista if you buy from them now. Worth considering.

magyar

Bad_Ash wrote:

I think the most taxing thing I do is watching divx's and/or browsing with about 20 tabs open, which did cause my old machine to stutter a bit.

Don't really play games any more, but having a machine which could cope with them running on lower settings would be nice in case I do take it up again.

To be honest a £500 will have a good go at playing some games, especially the less graphically intensive one.

If you're thinking DivX then all I'd really do is up the hard drive space (DivX files eat it...) and maybe up the memory to 2GB but that's hardly critical and you can always do it later if you feel the need.

Viz_2

Have you tried the Dell Outlet ?

I have just seen this there.....

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Dimension 5150 Pentium 4 HT 3.40GHz
Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=arial,sans-serif]System Price[/FONT][FONT=arial,sans-serif]£393.01[/FONT][FONT=arial,helvetica]Dell recommends Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] Operating System:[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] Memory:[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]1G Memory, 2 X 512mb (400, 512)[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] Hard Disk Drive:[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]160GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]160GB (7200rpm) SATA Hard Drive #2 [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] Video:[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]ATI Radeon X600 256MB HyperMemory [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] Modem:[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]V.92 Modem Data/Fax/Voice PCI UK [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] DVD Drive:[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]16 X DVD +/- RW [/SIZE][/FONT]


Or something like this...

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Dimension 9150 Viiv PD 930 proc Dual Core (3.00GHz, 800FSB, 2x2MB)
Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=arial,sans-serif]System Price[/FONT][FONT=arial,sans-serif]£473.02[/FONT][FONT=arial,helvetica]Dell recommends Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] Operating System:[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] Memory:[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]2048MB DDR2 533 [4*512] [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] Hard Disk Drive:[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]160GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]160GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] Video:[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]256MB Nvidia GeForce 7300LE TurboCache graphics card [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] Modem:[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]V.92 Data Fax Modem UK [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]V.92 Modem Data/Fax/Voice PCI UK [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] DVD Drive:[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]16 X DVD +/- RW [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]16X IDE DVD ROM [/SIZE][/FONT]

magyar

Viz wrote:

Have you tried the Dell Outlet ?

I have just seen this there.....

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Dimension 5150 Pentium 4 HT 3.40GHz
Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=arial,sans-serif]System Price[/FONT][FONT=arial,sans-serif]£393.01[/FONT][FONT=arial,helvetica]Dell recommends Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] Operating System:[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] Memory:[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]1G Memory, 2 X 512mb (400, 512)[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] Hard Disk Drive:[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]160GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]160GB (7200rpm) SATA Hard Drive #2 [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] Video:[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]ATI Radeon X600 256MB HyperMemory [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] Modem:[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]V.92 Modem Data/Fax/Voice PCI UK [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] DVD Drive:[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]16 X DVD +/- RW [/SIZE][/FONT]


Or something like this...

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Dimension 9150 Viiv PD 930 proc Dual Core (3.00GHz, 800FSB, 2x2MB)
Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=arial,sans-serif]System Price[/FONT][FONT=arial,sans-serif]£473.02[/FONT][FONT=arial,helvetica]Dell recommends Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] Operating System:[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] Memory:[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]2048MB DDR2 533 [4*512] [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] Hard Disk Drive:[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]160GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]160GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] Video:[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]256MB Nvidia GeForce 7300LE TurboCache graphics card [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] Modem:[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]V.92 Data Fax Modem UK [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]V.92 Modem Data/Fax/Voice PCI UK [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] DVD Drive:[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]16 X DVD +/- RW [/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1] [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]16X IDE DVD ROM [/SIZE][/FONT]

The second one is a brilliant spec! I might buy one as well!

magyar

Is that inc. VAT and del?

Viz_2

Was just going to mention about that.
The first one doesn't have VAT and delivery included. Price is £461.79.

Second one is £574.59