Buying a new computer

mickomack

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone could advise me with regard to buying a new PC.I am looking for a new PC because my old is simply not good enough (P3 455mhz...say no more).I am looking for a PC to back up data,play music,run application software smoothly like Autocad etc and lastly to play games.What would be the best place to go to buy a PC which would represent value for money while getting a PC with a high quality spec.Would I be best buying a package PC off someone like dell or getting it custom made?I am willing to spend about €1000-1500

Thanks in advance

Creamy Goodness

you could do a lot worse than build a custom pc from www.komplett.ie

they use quality well known branded parts and you are assured that you have 100% control over what you stick in your machine.

to be honest, i'd stay away from dell, although they do build ok machine you can generally build custom machines for less and you don't get any of this added ****e that dell insist that you need (DELL photo****e v1, norton etc.)

so have a look here see what you think.

remember komplett (if you buy your pc from that link) will build the machine for you, so essentially they are like dell but use quality parts and you can customise everything you want.

nuttz

for € 1,378.58 you could have the following from dell incl vat and delivery:
Dimension 9150 1-Year Collect and Return service
Processor:
Intel® Viiv™ technology -Intel® Pentium® D 920 Dual Core(2.80GHz,800MHz,2x2MB)
Memory:
2048MB Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz (2x1024) Memory
Hard Drive:
250GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurst™ cache
CD/DVD Drives:
16x max. DVD+/-RW Drive
Monitor:
Dell E196FP 19" Midnight Grey (TCO99) Flat Panel Monitor
Graphics:
256MB ATI Radeon® X600 HyperMemory graphics card
or
256MB nVidia™ GeForce™ 7300LE Turbocache graphics card
TV:
Integrated Analogue TV tuner PCI card and Dell MCE remote control
Speakers:
Dell A525 Speakers with Subwoofer
Sound:
Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy ADVANCED HD Audi
+ 56k modem

Dell are ok IMO for after sales service, the above is only one year service though

8T8

I'd second Komplett as a good option, Dell are decent enough hardware wise (though the graphics cards are never that great for gaming in the default spec) but the OS and the stuff they bundle in leave a lot to be desired.

Another option is OcUK who also build systems however these are much more DIY sort of thing in that you have the option for no operating system and some come with no monitor, keyboard & mouse.

But for €1500 = £1040 you could net yourself a fairly powerful machine that would be suitable for all the tasks you mentioned;

"Ultima" AMD Athlon 64 3700 Dual DDR System (FS-004-OC)
- AMD Athlon 64 3700 San Diego (Socket 939) Dual DDR400 CPU
- AMD Approved Cooler
- Asus A8N-SLi Premium nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard
- GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) DDR PC3200 CAS2.5 Dual Channel Kit
- 250GB Western Digital Caviar SE16 16mb cache SATA-2 Hard Drive
- NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT 256MB DDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card
- Pioneer DVR-110 16 x 16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter
- Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 4.0 Sound Card
- Mitsumi FA 404M 7in1 USB 2.0 Floppy & Media Drive - Silver
- Coolermaster Silver WaveMaster Case
- Tagan TG580-U15 580W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU

The price is €1352 and it is composed of all high quality components that can be replaced or upgraded down the line but you would need to supply the OS and monitor, mouse, keyboard.

Check out the other options they have as well some are complete systems, use XE to calculate the cost in Euros (they do ship to IE).

maidhc

If you can get one of the special offers dell run from time to time they are unbeatable, and there is absolutely no way any one else will come close on price.

I'd personally be aiming to spend 1/2 of you budget. For 600/700 you will get a PC more than adequate for everything except playing the very latest games.

mickomack

8T8 wrote:

I'd second Komplett as a good option, Dell are decent enough hardware wise (though the graphics cards are never that great for gaming in the default spec) but the OS and the stuff they bundle in leave a lot to be desired.

Another option is OcUK who also build systems however these are much more DIY sort of thing in that you have the option for no operating system and some come with no monitor, keyboard & mouse.

But for €1500 = £1040 you could net yourself a fairly powerful machine that would be suitable for all the tasks you mentioned;

"Ultima" AMD Athlon 64 3700 Dual DDR System (FS-004-OC)
- AMD Athlon 64 3700 San Diego (Socket 939) Dual DDR400 CPU
- AMD Approved Cooler
- Asus A8N-SLi Premium nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard
- GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) DDR PC3200 CAS2.5 Dual Channel Kit
- 250GB Western Digital Caviar SE16 16mb cache SATA-2 Hard Drive
- NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT 256MB DDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card
- Pioneer DVR-110 16 x 16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter
- Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 4.0 Sound Card
- Mitsumi FA 404M 7in1 USB 2.0 Floppy & Media Drive - Silver
- Coolermaster Silver WaveMaster Case
- Tagan TG580-U15 580W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU

The price is €1352 and it is composed of all high quality components that can be replaced or upgraded down the line but you would need to supply the OS and monitor, mouse, keyboard.

Check out the other options they have as well some are complete systems, use XE to calculate the cost in Euros (they do ship to IE).

Would that sort of spec be capable of running the latest games?

TerrorFirmer

mickomack wrote:

Would that sort of spec be capable of running the latest games?

Yes!

B00MSTICK

Got my machine in sig for around €1300. Look at the F/S section before ordering anything I managed to get my case and RAM there, should have got my psu aswell but anyway saved ~ €100.

I didn't buy a monitor or harddrive mind, but if your not into overclocking then a cheaper Asus/Abit/MSI mobo would be good and some cheaper RAM.

I did have to build it myself though.

srdb20

Can one of the mods make a sticky for buying / making a new computer! (I know theres a tonne of stickys already)

Creamy Goodness

kind of impossible to do, considering everyone wants something different and with the hardware market changing almost daily it would need some good mod to constantly update the pages

lucernarian

RAM is very important when running AutoCAD. My dad's work revolves around AutoCAD and he has told me that the program can easily use up more than 200 or 300 MBs of memory.

conzy

Get that PC from OcUk, its amazing value and the 7900gt is one of the best graphics cards currently available, Its also has a athlon 3700 which is a great processer for gaming;)

Matamoros

I am well interested in this thread. Since I have been pondering this issue for a a while now. Let me offer my credentials and you will know my predicament. I am 41 years old now and had just left school when they purchased a computer. I have missed the boat so to speak but am enjoying immensely your expertise on this subject and I am learning a lot too. So for that I say a sincere THANKS. The temptation to just go into PC World is nearly proving too much for my jelly willpower so I ask you to PLEASE tell me what to do regarding getting a PC. Komplett.ie and other sites have been mentioned for building your own PC. My main computing needs are just Browsing and downloading Audiobooks and E-Mailing and also using I-Tunes to get Internet radio. I would be delighted to get some feedback on my quest because I will only make mistakes and buy someting I don't need. P.S To illustrate the above, I don't know what RAM is or how much is good to have, need I say more.

conzy

Seen as you have no area that your PC needs to Excel in, and all it will be used for is day to day computing, you will not get better value than a bog standard bottom of the line DELL;)

Now if you wanted a machine for gaming, or 3D modeling or AutoCad, you would save hundreds of Euro and get a much better PC with a custom build.

Now, if you want to build a PC as a project, Make a new thread, and We will gladly advise you on what to buy;)

Morpork

Matamoros -
For what you'd be using your pc for, you can get a pc for a low price. Say an AMD Sempron 2800+, Windows XP, 80-120Gig HDD, Combo Drive (which is CD burner/DVD player) and 512MB of RAM. With XP you should always get 512MB if you want it to run well. 256MB is not enough for XP.
Are you interested in building it yourself? You can get parts from these sites:

www.marxcomputers.ie -- Kinda expensive on some parts, but usually stock a lot of items. They'll build your pc if you want.
www.skyll.com -- Don't stock much, but are cheap and can get anything you want in a couple of days. They'll build your pc too.
www.komplett.ie -- Everyone knows about them, stock everything, cheap but need to buy on the net.

That's all I can think of for Dublin right now.

Matamoros

Thank you guys for replying to my question, I have a few days off work this week and I be choosing one with your help for which I am grateful. Cheers.

TerrorFirmer

Its not worth it to custom build if your PC is only going to be for the tasks you described. DELL's bottom end machines, ideal for what you've described, offer the best price considering it will include both a monitor and an OS.

And by the way - XP does run perfectly fine on 256mb Ram if you're not doing intensive stuff i.e it will be plenty for what you've described. I used to run XP on both 128mb and 256mb of Ram and I had no problems, even when playing games like Call of Duty and Battlefield. Don't make a mistake and get parts in your system you don't need....512mb ram is definately more advisable then 256 for the long run but just so you are aware, XP with run no problems on 256mb ram.