computer brands

donnajunkie

ok, as someone who knows little i was wondering if there are any brands of computer that i should avoid and which do you think are the best? i hope to get one soon and i have seen one advertised and the price seems too good to be true which is usually not a good sign. the brand is compaq.
so apart from the brand are there any other tips on what to make sure the pc has when i get one? all i want to do is be able to use the internet including watching and listening to clips. i want to be able to use it for editing on my camcorder and transfer mp3s to my phone. i would like to abe able to play the latest games on it or at least games that arent more than a few years old. my finances are limited. i probably wont be able to pay more than £500.

amcluesent

How about this for £500 - http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/107313/pc-nextday-zoostorm-23305-versatile-pc.html

penrhyn

Compaq are owned by Hewlett Packard which is a respectable make, I've got a Compaq myself (from Morgan Computers) and its been running fine for about 4 years.

donnajunkie

hi,
thanks.
i am looking at this one at the moment.
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/575897

motorguy

donnajunkie wrote: »

hi,
thanks.
i am looking at this one at the moment.
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/575897

Good spec of machine but woefully overpriced.

You can buy the same machine from Dell with twice the memory for £329 delivered.

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&oc=D09V03

Drop the warranty down to one year. Its running Vista standard edition, which you can upgrade, but personally i wouldnt bother.

motorguy

amcluesent wrote: »

How about this for £500 - http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/107313/pc-nextday-zoostorm-23305-versatile-pc.html

Compare that one to the spec of the Dell for much less

donnajunkie

pgilc1 wrote: »

Good spec of machine but woefully overpriced.

You can buy the same machine from Dell with twice the memory for £329 delivered.

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&oc=D09V03

Drop the warranty down to one year. Its running Vista standard edition, which you can upgrade, but personally i wouldnt bother.

i have looked at dell. they dont accept debit cards, well they certainly dont accept mine which is solo card. anyway when i had a go at configuring a pc to get it to a decent standared it seemed to not be much cheaper if at all. i must have done something wrong. well anyway as i said i cant use them.

superscaper

Avoid Mesh computers. I've found it cheaper, quicker, less stressful and more effective fixing anything myself that went wrong with my own homebuilt pc compared to getting my parents' Mesh pc fixed with their 3 year onsite warranty.

espresso

donnajunkie wrote: »

i have looked at dell. they dont accept debit cards, well they certainly dont accept mine which is solo card.

Time that you hassled your bank, tell them that you will leave them if they don't give you a real adult credit card!

:eek:

FallingDownMan

With branded systems, try to avoid anything which has a custom BIOS/boot sector setup which makes hardware changes tricky later on.

Packard Bell have to be the worst for this, but HP and Compaq do it too.

And make a set of backup disks before installing loads of games or other stuff if Windows CDs aren't included. I lost count of ther number of dipsticks who had tried to install Linux as soon as they turned the PC on and lost their recovery partition. No warranty covers them for that.

donnajunkie

espresso wrote: »

Time that you hassled your bank, tell them that you will leave them if they don't give you a real adult credit card!

:eek:

i cant remember why but when i enquired last year they put the block on me. i got some forms for opening an account with other banks but there was so much paperwork i just couldnt be bothered.