buying computer from high street store ..

[jamieskilton]

hi everyone , im investing in a new computer and have around £800 to spend including monitor preferably , i would like to get it from a high street store .. pc world , currys e.t.c do you think this is a good idea though and is there better deals to be had online ? i was looking at this one specifically http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/st...null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=154418&category_oid=i need it pretty much just for the internet and gaming ! thanks for any help.

 

[muckshifter]

pc world, Currys e.t.c do you think this is a good idea ...

Nope, I don't ... I would suggest Asda, Tesco, Aldi or other "store" than the ones you mentioned.

Be aware, nVidia, and the card being used in that PC, have had nothing really new for the past 2 years ... they have merely re-branded & changed numbers on their cards ... they are ****ing on everyone at the moment, and loosing cred with lots of knowledgeable people.

So, if you is "gaming" that is an old 9500 card in there ... don't much care for that.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Avoid PC World, Currys, Dixons, Comet - they're all a bit crap. And especially avoid Mesh like the plague.

Better deals to be had online or try and find an independent local computer shop to do a build for you.

When you have spec of any machine you're interested in post it here and we'll let you know if it's any good or not.

Always ask what makes the motherboard, power supply and memory are - that's important.

Overclockers UK make good gaming machines at a reasonable price, as do Novatech, both online suppliers.

 

[jamieskilton]

thanks for the help chaps , how about this one from overclockers uk ...

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 7750+ Black Edition 2.70GHz (Socket AM2+)
- Asus Vintage V3-M3N8200 Barebones System - AMD64
- Onboard Graphics (Upgrade Options available)
- 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache
- LG GH22NS40 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black)
- 1yr Onsite Collect & Return Warranty

this comes with either ATI RADEON 4670 512 MB

OR ATI RADEON 4830 512 MB £28 extra

and either xp or vista ?? which one should i go for in both cases ??

thanks!!

 

[floppybootstomp]

Not really a good choice as the motherboard has onboard graphices which indicates it's a cheapie.

Also, the case and power supply (PSU) aren't listed.

What size monitor do you want? For gaming 20" is the minimum, 22" preferable, which will cost you from £130.00 to £200.00. Let's say you buy a good 20" for £150.00, this leaves you a budget of £650.00 for the computer.

Do you need keyboard, mouse & speakers? If so, we're looking at a budget of £600.00 for the tower.

You could build yourself a decent gaming machine for that money, nothing spectacular but certainly adequate, but buying ready made you'll probably have to compromise.

Look for motherboards by Asus, Gigabyte or DFI without onboard grafix, 2Gb of memory will do for now, at least a 500W name PSU and go for an AMD based system as they're cheaper, a dual core CPU will be fine, AMD quad cores aren't actually all that good.

I'm not up on the latest range of ATI grafix cards but an Nvidia 8800GTS will do you ok within your budget.

XP or Vista? Tricky, as Windows Seven is supposed to be out in 4 months' time which will possibly outperform Vista by a large margin.

I certainly wouldn't buy Vista now as it will be redundant shortly.

If you can still get hold of a copy of XP for less than a hundred quid I'd go for that then upgrade in August to Win 7 if you feel like it.

XP, although outdated now, is actually faster than Vista and is a mature stable operating system after being around 8 years in existence. And XP will run a lot of older games that Vista won't.

If the OS, monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers are included in your £800.00 budget, this leaves you 500 quid for the tower unit.

You'll likely have to skimp a little on the grafix card but you're still in the running.