New PC (But what to buy?)

[Anon_F]

OK, i'm after a new PC.
Price range from £500 to £1k.
Must be able to handle most tasks & my gaming is minimal.
Large storage for photos etc.
Blue-Ray drive would be prefered if possible (future proofed a bit)?
And a good PC to Crunch with.
And Upgrade voucher to Windows7?

Obviously will not be going with Mesh again!!
Have looked at Novatech & even PCWorld!

Do i go for 32 or 64bit O/S?

Any advice or Guidance most welcome.

 

[Abarbarian]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=43

You might find something of interest here.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-187-OK&groupid=43&catid=1078&subcat=

Me mate paid £217 for one of the above a few weeks ago. Quality parts and cheap as chips, he is as happy as Larry.

 

[V_R]

Just the tower or you want a full system?

Get 64 bit OS, no point buying a new pc wit ha 32 bit OS these days. Download Win7 Enterprise 90 day trial, then you can just use a retail product key upon general release.

If your not building your own the Ricochet on Novatech looks like a good buy for your budget.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/pc/range/ricochet.html

Big HDD, decent graphics and core speeds etc.

 

[Ian]

Yeah, I'll second V_R in that 64 bit is the way to go - and that the Ricochet looks like a good buy!

The W7 idea is a good one too, as you get just buy the OEM version of W7 once it is released and swap straight over

 

[floppybootstomp]

As V_R said

Please please please don't buy from PC World, they are el crapola

Novatech or OCUK would be my preferred supplier for a tailor-made unit.

 

[Anon_F]

Please please please don't buy from PC World, they are el crapola

Just thinking aloud Mr FBS!

May wait until afterr the 22nd once Windows7 is released, Not sure if thats a good idea or not?

The PC V_R linked to is one of my choices + we can add a blu-ray player to it.
Plus we would get a Windows7 upgrade.

Or we just buy the basic pc & once the warranty is over we add a blu-ray driver?

 

[Anon_F]

Thinking about it may just buy the Standard one from V_R's link now.
Get the uprade voucher & install at a later date.
And once the warranty is up in a years time install a Blu-ray driver when they are cheaper!

 

[V_R]

Buy it without an OS.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/evalcenter/cc442495.aspx?ITPID=sprblog < Download

Order Win7 from somewhere, then just re enter your product key on release day. No need to reinstall win7

That is the way to do it, **** vista.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Buy it without an OS.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/evalcenter/cc442495.aspx?ITPID=sprblog < Download

Order Win7 from somewhere, then just re enter your product key on release day. No need to reinstall win7

That is the way to do it, **** vista.

Are you positive about that?

I ask as I was considering doing just that myself as I have the Home Premium edition pre-ordered from Dixons and figured if it was just a case of swapping out the key, I'd install now.

But this is from the guidelines in the link you gave:

After the 90-day Trial expires, if you wish to continue to use Windows 7 Enterprise, please note that you will be required to purchase and perform a clean installation of Windows 7, including drivers and applications. Please keep this in mind; Windows 7 Enterprise is not available through retail channels.

And MS are offering the Enterprise edition for trial, whereas I want to use Home Premium, that's the version that suits me best. And the 90 day trial version doesn't come with a registration key though I expect there will be one pre-installed in the Registry.

I actually have trial versions of Win 7 Ultimate, both 64 and 32 bit but as Home Premium costs less, I assume my soon to come Win 7 Home Premium key code won't work with it.

I think I will probably wait until I receive my Disk of Win 7 from Dixons as there seem to be too many uncertainties for me to install Win 7 Enterprise right now, less than 4 weeks from release date.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Thinking about it may just buy the Standard one from V_R's link now.
Get the uprade voucher & install at a later date.
And once the warranty is up in a years time install a Blu-ray driver when they are cheaper!

I have read that there are no Blue Ray codecs available for Windows just yet but things may have changed.

If so, kinda pointless buying a Blue Ray deck for your machine.

Does anybody on this forum have a Blue Ray player in their computer and does it play Blue Ray disks?

Also, thinking out loud, if you have a budget of up to £1K it may be worth considering an i5 or i7 based machine for future proofing. Core 2 quad CPU's are now starting to look a little long in the tooth.

 

[V_R]

Are you positive about that?

I ask as I was considering doing just that myself as I have the Home Premium edition pre-ordered from Dixons and figured if it was just a case of swapping out the key, I'd install now.
....

Ah bugger, i thought that was what i read on another forum, guess i got my wires crossed!

Sorry, disregard my above comment then.

EDIT: Yep it was the RTM from Technet (Sub required) not the Enterprise version. My bad.

 

[Anon_F]

We may go with Novatech & get Vista with the Windows 7 upgrade offer?

Thanks for all the advice.

 

[crazylegs]

I have read that there are no Blue Ray codecs available for Windows just yet but things may have changed.

If so, kinda pointless buying a Blue Ray deck for your machine.

Does anybody on this forum have a Blue Ray player in their computer and does it play Blue Ray disks?

Also, thinking out loud, if you have a budget of up to £1K it may be worth considering an i5 or i7 based machine for future proofing. Core 2 quad CPU's are now starting to look a little long in the tooth.

I have a Blueray reader/writer in my Sony laptop flopps, Uses the BD software that came with the laptop though..