who knows there pc's?

[Rich]

Im thinking about investing in a new pc. My current one was very good when i bought it back in.. 2001.. Its lasted well but its slowly starting to die. I would like to be able to start it and just use it not wait for 10mins for it to load lol

Dont really want to spend alot, i only use it for music, surfing web, downloading. Would probably play games if it ran them a bit better, but not one to go out buying all the latest stuff. Just want somthing thats not going to be completly useless in a couple of years. I dont understand all this duel/quad core stuff. Just minimum specs to go by? Couple of examples of ok makes?

Been looking on pc world, dont know which make to go for and heard vista can be very poor if the systems below certain spec?

www.pcworld.co.uk (http://www.pcworld.co.uk)

[Dar]

Wait for Windows 7 to be released. I will be building a nice new spangly system myself when it's released.

[Rich]

Take it thats the next one after vista? How long till thats out?

[mowgli]

vista is ok for the non techy user, just get loads of extra RAM added. normal pcs don't have much. mine is a year old & came with 512mb, I stuck an extra 1gb in recently & it sped it up dramatically

[paul james]

You can get a PC thats fine for general use (i.e not the latest games) very cheap if you don't mind going second hand. Have a look on ebay, plenty of bargains to be had. I spent £100 on buying a PC about 6 months ago, big hard drive, DVD, 2 gig of ram etc

[Bubba]

ebuyer.co.uk is cheap for parts

[Curtoise]

yeh ebuyer are very good i got my lsptop from there, thing with vista is it idealy needs more than 1gb to run smooth, on the processor side of things AMD are always good, the speed of the processor should be above 1.9ghz and more if its single core, amd dual core are good processors but obviously quad are faster but depends on how much dolla u wanna spend lol best thing if u wanna save money is put one together and select the parts you want. DELL are good for readysets if u dont want to upgrade them (nomatter what ppl say about them) hope this helps you mate :)

[Curtoise]

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0109271979.123525765 0@@@@&BV_EngineID=cceladegidfejmecflgceggdhhmdgmk.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=074563&category_oid=

thats a good package, will probs need to buy another 1gb of ram but thts simple and will cost 15quid or less on ebuyer.

[Rich]

Cheers guys very helpful. I was actually looking at that package earlier cmax but heard packard bell were crap? Is this what you mean for the extra ram? http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0109271979.123525765 0@@@@&BV_EngineID=cceladegidfejmecflgceggdhhmdgmk.0&page=Product&sku=509560

I dont like the idea of buying a second hand pc of ebay etc

edit- My pc has 512mb of ram and 3ghz or 2.99ghz (says both lol) could i just update my ram?

[Mike]

Oh god! Technonlogy..........

[Welsh Dan]

Wait for Windows 7 to be released. I will be building a nice new spangly system myself when it's released.

Word is vista users can upgrade to the same version (home premium, ultimate etc..) of 7 for free upon its release :).



heard packard bell were crap?

Correct :thumb:, so are PC World once they've got your money ;).

[Prey]

Wait for Windows 7 to be released. I will be building a nice new spangly system myself when it's released.
Id have a read round on that first - ive seen some pretty scary articles on how the security works on windows 7 - allowing apps to bypass your firewall etc without your permission - scary big brother stuff.

Edit - dell systems are pretty good value for money if you get them when the offers are on.

[Dar]

I wouldn't worry too much about any security problems they have in the beta. They will get fixed in the release version and if any new ones are found they are included in the updates. If your really worried about security you will have a proper firewall sat between the PC and the web.

For example the UAC problem has already been fixed.

[Welsh Dan]

allowing apps to bypass your firewall etc without your permission - scary big brother stuff.

Edit - dell systems are pretty good value for money if you get them when the offers are on.


XP and Vista do that anyway lol.

The trick with Dells is not to get any of the upgrades, the basic packages can be great deals but the upgrades tend to be a ripoff.

[Prey]

I meant this - article is RE drm stuff but it applies to apps too - i could be wrong but ive not heard of anything that bad with xp or vista.

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/02/17/windows-7-drm-begins.html

[Curtoise]

Cheers guys very helpful. I was actually looking at that package earlier cmax but heard packard bell were crap? Is this what you mean for the extra ram? http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0109271979.123525765 0@@@@&BV_EngineID=cceladegidfejmecflgceggdhhmdgmk.0&page=Product&sku=509560

I dont like the idea of buying a second hand pc of ebay etc

edit- My pc has 512mb of ram and 3ghz or 2.99ghz (says both lol) could i just update my ram?

yeh thats the ram, if you have only got 512mb it must be slow lol, sounds like you have a good processor, so yeh you could just upgrade the ram it would make it loads faster especially with xp, no pakard bell are not crap but then everyone has bad experiences with differnt companys. i have bought a few pc's and laptops from pc world and i think there very good. rams is generally pretty easy to install aswell, also have you tried de-fragging the system that often speeds things up

[loggyboy]

I made my new PC last month, pretty good spec, i wanted it for doing autocad and Sketchup mainly.
It cost me about £400 (not inc monitor) and i built it myself with parts from ebuyer.
Spec is 3ghz core 2duo processor, 2 gb kingston ram, 512mb gforce graphics card, asus Mboard, asus case, 250gb sata HD (dont need a huge one as I have a remote HD and 130gb IDE which has all my 'stuff' saved on from my previous PC.
So far its been faultless.

Dont wait for windows 7, it will be a good few months AFTER its released to be sure all bugs have been worked out, I'd get XP pro then either upgrade to 7 when it reaches its 1st service pack.

[Curtoise]

yeh we did the same (lower specs tho) ebuyers good, problem is you have to check what parts are compatible, never as easy as buying a ready made set tho, im still having endless amount of problems with mine so i got fed up and bought a toshiba laptop lol

[Rich]

Loooking at this one, what you think? I know you said minimum of 1.9ghz but its quad core instead of duel cor processor?

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/406230

I dont have the knowledge to build myself a computer, and would like a package with screen as well, mines got at a tiny screen and only just fits on the desk lol

[Curtoise]

yeh that one looks very good, quad core at 1.9ghz will be plenty, it will be fast and theoretically have no problems with multiple windows, 19" screen is pretty big to! lol ram fine and for music and vids the hard drive is definetly big enough :)

[Rich]

Or this one? Same price

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1907146767.123530323 1@@@@&BV_EngineID=cceladegidfejmecflgceggdhhmdgmk.0&category_oid=-35410&page=Product&sku=488601&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null

[Curtoise]

well the second one is sort or better for games, but it wont play the latest games anyway... overall for general use i would say the first ones better, and its been reduced from £499 to £399 so you will get more for your money! and the first ones got the bigger hard drive so you will be able to store more things on it. and with a quad core, if later on you wanted to play games on the computer you could install a better graphics card, and it should run well as the processor is immence! lol

[Rich]

Cheers mate, be nice if it loads counterstrike source properly, thats about the only gam i have lol. I have a 120mb radeon in mine at the moment i think

[Curtoise]

yeh that should run counterstrice source very well! tbh u should get a xbox 360 with cod4 tho :)

[Rich]

lol i got an xbox i dont play it, should buy cod4 but im tight lol

[Curtoise]

lol yeh xboxs are good soooooo many games are poor tho but not cod4 with xboxlive

[Jack]

vista is ok for the non techy user, just get loads of extra RAM added. normal pcs don't have much. mine is a year old & came with 512mb, I stuck an extra 1mb in recently & it sped it up dramatically
513Mb RAM? lol


Oh god! Technonlogy..........
LMFAO


edit- My pc has 512mb of ram and 3ghz or 2.99ghz (says both lol) could i just update my ram?
Possibly, but you'd need to know board capacity (i.e. how many slots for RAM you have). Have a look at your task manager to see RAM utilization to see if thats slowing you down.


Loooking at this one, what you think? I know you said minimum of 1.9ghz but its quad core instead of duel cor processor?
Don't assume because it has more cores, it will be faster. Multi core processors are only faster when running software thats designed to utilize more than one core at a time.

[mowgli]

ok, rj, ya got me... I added a 1gb of ram & slipped when typing whilst inebriated

[Curtoise]

razor jack makes a good point

[Rich]

Doesnt matter now, i bought this one

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/406230

My first post on the new computer, good for what i want it for and it actually loads up without having a heart attack lol

[Curtoise]

yes nice one mate you got the one i recomended lol came very fast didnt it !!! or did you pick it up ?

[Jack]

If you think buying a new PC is hard work, try rebuilding an old one.

I'm trying to build a PC to 1998 spec from spares, its proving to be a PITA lol K6-2 500mhz ftw though :D

[Rich]

yes nice one mate you got the one i recomended lol came very fast didnt it !!! or did you pick it up ?

I went to pick it up, cheers for the help. Old ones was doing my head in!

[loggyboy]

If you think buying a new PC is hard work, try rebuilding an old one.

I'm trying to build a PC to 1998 spec from spares, its proving to be a PITA lol K6-2 500mhz ftw though :D

I have a 92 spec one somewhere:
2086, 8mhz processor, 640k ram, and a 30MB harddrive....

PMSL

infact its identical to this:
http://www.ccworld.co.uk/images/S_2086sheet.jpg

[Jack]

30mb hard drive as an option, whatever would you do with all that storage lol

[Ash]

best thing for a PC:

http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/content/ebiz/wilkinsonplus/invt/0133793/0133793_m.jpg

http://www.pjcj.net/yapc/yapc-eu-2006-enigmatic_perl/slides/images/match.jpg

:)