Advice on new pc

[PCS]

Hello, I hope you can help.

I have a 1999 Tiny PC, running on Windows 98. I recently cancelled my dial up internet at home and now want to take the plunge and buy a new PC. I am confused having searched on the web for advice etc for months now, I have information overload so simple advice very welcome. I do not have the courage (or knowledge) to build my own PC, so I need to buy from a reputable company online or offline. Advice, gratefully rec'd.

I have a budget of £1,000 -£1200:

I need a printer
speakers
cable broadband router

I would like to do the following:
latest machine to last a few years
internet / internet radio
download films/music- watch TV
Write own CDs
I think I'll go for Vista Home Premium (can they supply the full windows CD rather than just a recovery disk)

Many thanks in advance.

[vicar]

If you are buying try scan or mesh 4 built systems.

[PCS]

Vicar, thanks for your reply.

I have read elsewhere that MESH are poor (another reasons why so confused). If I went to Scan what would I be looking for PC wise?

[trect]

PC Specialist are also very good, check them out as well: PCSPECIALIST.CO.UK - Custom PCs, Custom Computers, Custom PC, Custom Built Computers, Gaming PC

You can build your own machine or order one of their pre-specced systems.

(Review of a PC Spec custom machine here if you're interested: PC Specialist Custom Intel PC review - IT Reviews)

[format]

I bought my first PC from PCspecialist many moons ago, they are good guys, my PC was solid for years.

[PCS]

Thanks trect and format for your the advice.

I have used this site twice and both times came up with quotes for PCs that cost several times more than my budget! I guess my problem is is that I just don't know if I what I choose is OK or over the top for my needs. I might give it a try again.

[PCS]

Found this on Amazon.co.uk, is this OK for my requirements? I'd need to buy a new monitor and printer etc.

Fujitsu Siemens Scaleo Pi 2533 Desktop - Core 2 Duo E4500 2GB 250GB

* Intel Core 2 Duo E4500; 2048MB DDR2 RAM
* 250GB hard drive; 11 in 1 Card Reader
* DVDRW -Dual Layer; nVidia GeForce 8400GS 256MB
* 10/100/1000 Ethernet, USB Ports; USB Keyboard & Mouse
* Microsoft Works; Microsoft Windows Vista Premium; 12 Months C&R Warranty

£379 inc VAT + delivery

Thanks for your views.

[MSIC]

HI there and welcome to Hexus.
You've said very clearly

I do not have the courage (or knowledge) to build my own PC

however there may be some merit in buying a base unit (ie the boxy desktop bit) seperate to the other bits. Sometimes it is worth it, sometimes not, but it gives us options.

All in all, here is my advice for what it's worth:

Computers have come on in leaps and bounds so much since your last one, the truth is that for your needs nearly any modern computer will do the job, from £300 up to £2000, although that's not to say that they are all as good as one another.

The other general truism with computers (like cars) is that they all devalue over time, and the more you spend the more you lose. The desktop boxes however (which contain all the really interesting technology) lose their value quicker than the surrounding peripherals (such as speakers, monitor, keyboard & mouse etc).

The Fujitsu Siemens desktop you listed above generally looks good, certainly will feel & work fast enough and will last for a few years.
Different shops will give you a different service - somewhere like Dabs (which i think is perfectly fine) will give you a cheap machine with relatively little aftermarket help.
With Dell (which only sell their own brand but that's fine) you can chose the level of aftermarket support.
Someone like Scan in all honesty isnt going to give you the fastest machine for the money, but you'll get really good aftermarket support.

You obviously dont need anything to do with gaming so be wary of anyone who advises you to buy a machine with a great gaming graphics card to "use with Vista" or to "play solitaire".
As an example i just looked up Dell's Inspiron range.
You could get a E8200 processor (2.6Ghz, 6Mb cache) plus 3 Gig RAM, a 500Gig hard drive plus a 22" widescreen monitor for £579 including a 1 year return to base warranty.
Changing the warranty to a 4 year cover ("inc evenings and saturdays") adds only £70, which in your case may be well worth it.

I'm not saying that Dell are absolutely the best, but i think that they are a fine starting point in this situation.

[PCS]

MSIC many thanks for the welcome and the excellent advice.

You are absolutely right I wouldn't buy the Fujitsu Siemen on its own, rather it was an example of the type of PCs I've seen online from many different retailers, and as a consequence I've been confused into a standstill by the choice!

I will look at Dell Dabs and Scan etc. I guess I have been looking at things that are too big for my needs. I must say being without the internet at home for a week now, and I am climbing the walls. Got to buy this thing soon.

[MSIC]

You are aware of course that to get back on the internet you will need the following:
A computer (of course).
A router (please ask if you need help with choice)
An Internet Service Provider ("I.S.P." such as Virgin, BT, Tiscali etc).

The ISP is worth spending a little time investigating, and feel free to ask questions here, to get people's ideas. Some will give you better value than others, some will give better reliability or customer service, and others might give you better add-ons (such as a free wireless router).

By the way, have you considered a laptop for your needs?
In truth, if you are going to spend more than 1/2 an hour per night on it then from a posture and useability point of view a desktop may be better, but laptops are perfectly cheap, powerful enough and reliable etc to do the job. Just dont spend hours and hours on one squinting at & hunched over the smaller screen

[moogle]

Best option would be to build it! But seeing that you can't there's lots of dell deals on pc's. as for router, it depends on what ISP you are with. whereabouts are you based? if you can try and get Be*/o2 or if you have sky tv get sky broadband. i don't think you'd need to spend your full budget for this pc to last long. if you can run that 1999 tiny pc for 9 years you can certainly run a c2d based one for quite some time for half of your budget I think.

You'd get best value if you got it built by a friend or someone near you though.

[alsenior]

Processor (CPU)
AMD ATHLON™ 64 X2 4200+ (2.2GHz) 2 x 512K L2 Cache (Socket AM2)
Memory (RAM)
4GB CORSAIR DDR2 667MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x2GB)
Motherboard
ASUS® M2A-VM: DUAL DDR2, SATA II, x16 VGA, 2 x PCI
Operating System
64 BIT WINDOWS® VISTA HOME PREM SP1 (inc CD & Licence) (£55)
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS (4 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk
NONE
RAID (HDD 1 & 2)
NONE
1st CD/DVD Drive
20x Dual Layer LightScribe DVD Writer ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd CD/DVD Drive
NONE
Graphics Card
256MB RADEON HD 2400 PRO PCI Express + DVI
2nd Graphics Card
NONE
Sound Card
6 Channel Realtek ALC883 High Definition Audio (Onboard)
Modem
NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Floppy Disk Drive
NONE
Memory Card Reader
NONE
Case
Micro-ATX Silver/Black Sigma MX case + 2 front USB
Power Supply & Case Cooling
STANDARD 350W (Peak) Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22 dBA AMD CPU COOLER (£14)
Firewire & Video Editing
NONE
TV Card
NONE
Monitor
22 Inch Wide TFT Silver/Black 1680 x1050 5MS D-Sub, DVI (£145)
2nd Monitor
NONE
DVI Cable
1 x 2 Metre DVI Cable (£5)
Keyboard & Mouse
Logitech® Internet Keyboard + Hotkeys (Black) (£6)
Mouse
Black Logitech® Premium Optical Mouse (£4)
Speakers
LOGITECH S220 2.1 SILVER/BLACK SPEAKER SYSTEM (£12)
Printer
HP PHOTOSMART C4280 ALL-IN-ONE SERIES (£55)
Surge Protection
2 x Belkin 4 Socket 2M Surge Protector (8 Sockets) (Special: £12)
Webcam & VoIP
NONE
Media Center Kit
Microsoft Remote Control and Receiver for Media Center PC (£19)
Anti-Virus
KASPERSKY ANTI-VIRUS 7.0 (£10)
Office Software
NONE
External Hard Drive
NONE
Warranty
2 Year Return-to-Base incl 2 Years Free Collect & Return: £69
Delivery
Standard Insured Delivery to UK Mainland (Mon-Fri 8am-6pm)
Quantity
1

All that comes to £748 inc vat and delivery form pc specialist.
considering what you intend on using the machine for that should last you a few years at least

[moogle]

better get a wolfdale cpu/system.

I specced this

Processor (CPU)


Intel® Core™2 Duo E8300 (2 X 2.83GHz) 1333MHz FSB/6MB L2 Cache

Memory (RAM)


4GB CORSAIR DDR2 667MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x2GB)

Motherboard


ASUS® P5N-MX: DDR2, S-ATA II, 1 x PCI-E x16, 2 PCI, etc

Operating System


64 BIT WINDOWS® VISTA HOME PREM SP1 (inc CD & Licence) (£55)

USB Options


6 x USB 2.0 PORTS (4 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD

Memory - 1st Hard Disk


500GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7200rpm)

2nd Hard Disk


NONE

RAID (HDD 1 & 2)


NONE

1st CD/DVD Drive


20x Dual Layer LightScribe DVD Writer ±R/±RW/RAM

2nd CD/DVD Drive


NONE

Graphics Card


Integrated NVIDIA® GeForce 7050 CineFX 3.0 Graphics

2nd Graphics Card


NONE

Sound Card


6 Channel SoundMAX High Definition Audio (Standard on P5VD2-VM)

Modem


NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND

Network Facilities


ONBOARD 10/100 LAN PORT

Floppy Disk Drive


NONE

Memory Card Reader


INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)

Case


Micro-ATX Silver/Black Sigma MX case + 2 front USB

Power Supply & Case Cooling


STANDARD 350W (Peak) Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan

Processor Cooling


SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£14)

Firewire & Video Editing


NONE

TV Card


NONE

Monitor


22 Inch Wide TFT Silver/Black 1680 x1050 5MS D-Sub, DVI (£145)

2nd Monitor


NONE

DVI Cable


NONE

Keyboard & Mouse


Logitech® Internet Keyboard + Hotkeys (Black) (£6)

Mouse


Black Logitech® Premium Optical Mouse (£4)

Speakers


LOGITECH S220 2.1 SILVER/BLACK SPEAKER SYSTEM (£12)

Printer


HP PHOTOSMART C4280 ALL-IN-ONE SERIES (£55)

Surge Protection


Belkin 4 Socket 2M Surge Protector with £25,000 Protection! (£7)

Webcam & VoIP


NONE

Media Center Kit


NONE

Anti-Virus


NONE

Office Software


NONE

External Hard Drive


NONE

Warranty


2 Year Return-to-Base incl 2 Years Free Collect & Return: £69

Delivery


Standard Insured Delivery to UK Mainland (Mon-Fri 8am-6pm)

Quantity


1


£640.00 ex VAT.

£752 inc VAT and Delivery.

£4 more but way more powerful and will last you longer, on board graphics but I don't see how it will limit you in any way unless you are looking to play games.