Ne advice on "europc"

[guest31]

Hi there I am currently considering buying a new pc. I`ve found a website for a Glasgow based firm called "europc". I am just wondering if anyone here has had any experience with buying from this firm. i.e. how aftersales service is etc.?

I am thinking of purchasing a refurbished pc, so any advice on this would be recieved gratefully also.

Thanks very much

guest31.

 

[1nteger]

Perhaps u could specify the system u r considering (i.e. full spec) and the asking price? It would be easier to advise on whether it seems reasonable.
:spin:

 

[guest31]

Its £515 inc. VAT + delivery, here`s the spec as requested:

Warranty: 1 Year Onsite (Parts & Labour)

- Famous Brand - I-Media 5095
- Mini Tower case
- Windows XP Home
- Intel Pentium 4 2800Mhz Processor
- 512Mb DDR SDRAM pc266Mhz CL2.5 2100
- 60GB IDE Fast access hard drive
- 12X DVD drive
- CD Re-writer drive
- Sound on board
- 64MB GeForce 4 Graphics Card
- Standard onboard 10
- 100 RJ45 NIC
- Modem 56K
- Six USB ports
- 1 DIMM slot used 1 free
- 3 PCI Slots Free
- AGP slot used
- One serial port
- 3.5' 1.44Mb floppy drive
- UK keyboard layout
- PS2 mouse

 

[1nteger]

Originally posted by guest31
Its £515 inc. VAT + delivery, here`s the spec as requested:

Warranty: 1 Year Onsite (Parts & Labour)

- Famous Brand - I-Media 5095 (?)
- Mini Tower case (Not much room for upgrades in future)
- Windows XP Home
- Intel Pentium 4 2800Mhz Processor
- 512Mb DDR SDRAM pc266Mhz CL2.5 2100 (I would go for PC2700 ram at least)
- 60GB IDE Fast access hard drive (Brand? 7200 or 5400 rpm?)
- 12X DVD drive (Brand? Go for 16x)
- CD Re-writer drive (Brand? Speed? Go for 52X)
- Sound on board (Most onboard sound is very average)
- 64MB GeForce 4 Graphics Card (GeForce 4MX, Ti4200? Brand?)
- Standard onboard 10
- 100 RJ45 NIC
- Modem 56K
- Six USB ports (USB 1.1 or 2.0 ?)
- 1 DIMM slot used 1 free
- 3 PCI Slots Free
- AGP slot used
- One serial port (hardly necessary these days, unless you have old peripherals that don't have USB)
- 3.5' 1.44Mb floppy drive
- UK keyboard layout (Type? PS/2 or USB?)
- PS2 mouse (not USB??)

I've put some quick comments in brackets after several items. Overall, the price seems well over what i would pay for that system, and you're only getting a years warranty which is the bare minimum. Also, does it include a monitor?

In your original message, you said you were thinking of buying a refurbished system...is this one refurbished? To be honest, I would say that £515 is a bit high even if it was new, but I'd definitely avoid it if it's been 'refurbished'...I'm not exactly sure what that means either.

Sorry if this sounds a bit negative, but I'd be very wary of that supplier if i were you. They might be really honest and local and have a great customer care policy...problem is that you never really find that out until something goes wrong!:crazy:

If i were buying off-the-shelf rather than building it myself, and had a tight budget, I would probably go to a well established highstreet supplier that was local, so i knew that they would be around in a years time and i could go and shout at someone if necessary. I don't know of this supplier you mentioned, but it seems like your doing the sensible thing by testing out the water before diving in!!

 

[floppybootstomp]

imo it's not worth the money

as 1nteger has pointed out, there are too many grey areas

for £500.00+ you could do a lot better

it looks as if the sales pitch from that company has been directed towards inexperienced purchasers

sorry

 

[guest31]

Thx 4 the advice! offer has finished now so still searching, having trouble finding other p4 2.8GHz in this price range tho (especially in local established stores as 1nteger suggested). In anyones opinion is it worth waiting until a 2.8GHz machine comes into this price range (as opposed to buying a 2.4GHz machine now). I am looking to use the machine for music creation and have heard that p4s are better than athlons for this purpose. Will the extra 400MHz be worth the wait?

Again thanks for ne replies

 

[1nteger]

It's not always a good idea to focus on a CPU speed as the basis for deciding if a system is any good or the price is right. A 'good' system is about all the parts working well together - you could have the fastest CPU on the planet, but if it's being cooled by a cheap heatsink, it will burn out fast; if it's plugged into a naff motherboard then it won't be working at it's optimum efficiency. The thing is, suppliers tend to focus on CPU speed as the key selling point, and they'll be willing to take a loss on the price of the chip by making a fortune on all the cheap shite they package it with. Most of those ads for 'bargains' out there that have the 'fastest' CPU slapped onto a newspaper page in big bold letters, next to an 'unbelievably low' price (and then throw in printer, scanner, digital camera etc...for another £200)...are all making their profit out of the case, power supply, keyboard and mouse...etc...

If you have a budget of, say, £500, then there are ways of getting 'good' value-for-money systems for that price...but they may not be based on P4 2.8GHz chips.

The only way to get a good system and that kind of chip is to buy the parts seperately and build it yourself. Either way, check out your ideas here and we'll be happy to help you get the best bang for your bucks!

 

[guest31]

Hi there again, been doing a bit more pc hunting and found this dell base unit with the following spec:

Dimension 8300 2.6GHz 800fsb
256MB (2x128) Dual channel DDR400
Floppy disk drive
120GB (7200 rpm) 8MB Cache IDE Hard Drive
16x DVD-ROM
48x CD writer (need to check!)
Cyberlink PowerDVD v13
Creative soundblaster soundcard (onboard but upgradable)
128MB NVidia GeForce FX 5200
V.92 Data Fax modem
No Keyboard/ mouse (already have)
Win XP Home with norton antivirus
Works 7.0
AOL 8, Tiscali + Dellnet UK ISP`s
1 yr collect + return warranty

£615 inc delivery

Again any advice is much appreciated

edit: here is a link to the spec page for this machine, the above is the configuration I have chosen. Dell dimension 8300

 

[1nteger]

Seems reasonable, but I'm allergic to Dell

I'm not sure about the kind of processing power needed for music creation, but it might be that you need more RAM...memory prices are very high at the moment.

 

[guest31]

Thanks again for the advice I have ordered this model now after a lot of searching! Will let you know how it works out.

 

[guest32]

Hi there again!

Have had the new PC for a while now and it seems to be working fine!

Only had one problem which seems after all not to be a problem. When I aquired the new computer I hooked up some unamplified Polk Audio speakers to it to find very little sound coming from them. After sending back the machine for a mobo replacement (onboard sound), a few hours on the phone to Dell tech support in India and a windows reinstallation later, Dell came to the conclusion that onboard sound requires amplified speakers! I am just checking to see if this sounds correct to anyone here as it seems quite basic but took Dell such a long time to work out. It all seems to work fine when amplified but I would just like to know if this is as simple as Dell eventually said, or whether it sounds like a real problem to anyone.

Thanks for any replies again, am waiting ready to be accomodated by the Indian switch board once more!

Hopefully not

P.S. been having a bit of trouble posting here, thus the TEST post above

 

[floppybootstomp]

guest32:

Glad to see things worked out well.

It's uncommon but yes, some on board sound devices only produce an audio output at 'line-level' which at most will be 775 mv (millivolts) and will need amplification.

I've edited out your test post

 

[guest32]

Thanks very much for the reply (quick too!). Can get down to concentrating on making the music I bought the machine for now!


Thanks to all posters and all the best!