New System advice please!!

[Bloomers]

O.k Guys, you've heard it no doubt a hundred times before, but I need some advice on a new system an am looking to spend around £1000. I am looking to play games (some fairly new) and edit a few home movies, a bit of accounting work and surf the internet, for space reasons I would like a TFT screen. I have no real knowledge of building a system so I need an 'off the shelf model' which will last me a while. After reading a few threads on here and my own research, I have narrowed my choice down to two options;

1) CCL built which comprises of:

* Soltek SLKT400 Motherboard
* 15" TFT CTX 5500 Monitor
* 512Mb DDR 333 RAM (pc2700)
*AMD XP PR2500+ Barton Chip
*60Gb Maxtor D'Max Plus 9 HD
*128Mb GeForce FX5600 Video Card
* Toshiba DVD-Rom & Lite-on CDRW

All in for £829.47 or

2) Mash Matrix TFT

*ASUS A7N8X Deluxe MB
*17" Sharp TFT Monitor
* AMD 2400+ Processor
* 512Mb (PC2700DDR) 33Mhz
*120Gb (7200 rpm)
*128Mb ATI 9600 Video Card
DVD ROM & CDRW

All in for £984.65

Is it worth paying the extra for the MESH system. I have no experience of CCL before and am cautious should there be any problems with the after sales service. MESH seem to be a much bigger company which gives me more confidence, but is it really worth paying the extra for a system that seems better on paper.

Your views and experiences with these companies would be appreciated - THANKS!!!!

 

[kish]

IMO its better to pay a little more for a system from a more reputable company.
Shelling out £1000 is no small purchase and you want to know that the company is there to help should anything go wrong.
I'd say the Mesh would be a safer bet. However, you should really look into similar priced machines from the larger companies.

The Hewlett Packard Pavilion T160.uk, for example has a similar spec to the two you mentioned but also has an INTEL P4 2.8Ghz and a DVD writer to boot (which should come in handy to store your home movies after editing). That costs a grand and gives you the peace of mind of buying from a larger company.

I personally have an HP and couldn't be happier with it. The customer support, I've found, has been exemplary. A had a problem with the power plug socket at the back of the PC. I got through to Support with a minute (during peak time) and without fuss they arranged for a free collection by DHL the next day. It was couriered back to me within 3 days and they also changed the keyboard and motherboard for good measure.

The moral of the story is, go with a company you feel you can trust. Check out the manufacturers' own online tech support forums and see what kind of praise/rants you find there from existing customers.

Good luck and happy shopping!