Pre-built system recommendation

[pardal51]

Hi all,

friend of mine needs a desktop to replace his Jurassic machine. We are NOT planning on building a machine but rather get a pre-built system from somewhere.

His requirements:

- Not for gaming;
- Needs to use for editing/watching home movies, browse Google Earth, use maps (no CAD);
- General internet + office + skype usage;

He's got a very good Asus sound card - Xonar D2
He also has a legit copy of Win7 Pro x64 which he will install on his machine
He is happy to manually add things like Graphics card, RAM and HDD in case a pre-built system does not meet all these requirements.

What would guys suggest???

His budget is around: GBP400-450

cheers,

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would look at these two computers:

http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default...UCT&KEY=674190

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/168459

[Pob255]

Personally I'd look at these no-OS units
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176488
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/189011

Or you could look at the novatech barebones units
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s....html?BB-6204G
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s....html?BB-8304A
You just need to add a hard drive and a DVDr/w

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Mesh use HEC power supplies which are usually OK but I am not sure about Ebuyer,Novatech or Zoostorm. Even Dell and Medion tend to use FSP.

[pardal51]

It looks as if he is going for this one: http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default...UCT&KEY=674190
Is the HD4200 enough?

How would it compare against this one: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=FS-180-OK

He is quite keen on going for 1333Mhz RAM. Is it much of an improvement over 800Mhz (considering the system will have 4Gb minimum)

Cheers,

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It looks as if he is going for this one: http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default...UCT&KEY=674190
Is the HD4200 enough?

How would it compare against this one: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=FS-180-OK

He is quite keen on going for 1333Mhz RAM. Is it much of an improvement over 800Mhz (considering the system will have 4Gb minimum)

Cheers,

For gaming the OcUK computer will be faster and it will have a better PSU. The Mesh also uses a better motherboard and faster RAM

However for non-gaming tasks the Mesh computer is far better.

I would check this comparison between the X2 250 and the X4 920:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=96&p2=81

The X4 920 can only use DDR2 and hence is a bit slower than the X4 925 with DDR3.

The HD4200 will be fast enough for non-gaming purposes.