Who to buy from

[notaclue]

I've already posted about getting a new system, but didn't take people's advice and went with PC Nextday. And now I'm back to square one, having waited 2 weeks! Now I'm looking at PC Specialist or Novatech, who would people recommend? I can only afford £600 for a base unit, so that limits me. Would AMD 64 or Core2 be better? I'm not into hardcore gaming, just a bit of C&C 3, Flight Sim etc. Thanks again, and I now agree with what is said about PC Nextday!

This is what I'm thinking, would it be up to much?

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/pcrange.html?NFO

 

[floppybootstomp]

Second one's ok apart from the video card, the 8600 GTS is a bit crap, really.

Best card for the money atm is the 8800GTS, both the 320Mb & 640Mb versions are very respectable cards. I'd actually go for a lower specced card, like an Nvidia 7950GT, rather than the 8600.

 

[notaclue]

Since my debacle with PC Nextday I'm going to stick to a company that gets good feedback so I've gone and bought one from Novatech. They only have systems with the 8600 series, so I've ended up with the 8600GTS and I couldn't afford one with an 8800 series. Hopefully that'll be good enough for what I need it for. THanks for your help!

 

[V_R]

Novatech are good, pc specialist are ok too.

I had a quick look on the latter and found this for £598...

configurable if needs be, Its started off from the '£500 recommended' section.

Do you need a monitor, kb and mouse etc?

Processor (CPU)

INTEL® Core 2 Duo E6420 (2 X 2.13GHz) 1066MHz FSB/4MB L2 Cache

Memory (RAM)

1024 MB CORSAIR DDR2 667MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x512MB)

Motherboard

ASUS® P5VD2-VM: DDR2, S-ATA II, 1 x PCI-E x16, 2 PCI, etc

Operating System

WINDOWS® XP Home (inc. Genuine CD & License) (£59)

USB Options

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

Memory - 1st Hard Disk

160GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7200rpm)

2nd Hard Disk

NONE

RAID (HDD 1 & 2)

NONE

1st CD/DVD Drive

20x DVD±RW/RAM/Dual Layer + Lightscribe (48 x CD-RW) (£16)

2nd CD/DVD Drive

NONE

Graphics Card

512MB RADEON X1650 PRO PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT

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 (ETHERNET) AS STANDARD

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

500W (Peak) Quiet Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£25)

Processor Cooling

STANDARD CPU COOLER

Firewire & Video Editing

NONE

TV Card

NONE

Monitor

17 INCH TFT Silver/Black 1280 x1024 12MS D-Sub, DVI, Audio (£89)

2nd Monitor

NONE

DVI Cable

NONE

Keyboard & Mouse

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

Mouse

Black Logitech® Premium Optical Mouse (£4)

Speakers

LOGITECH S200 2.1 SILVER/BLACK SPEAKER SYSTEM (£16)

Printer

NONE

Surge Protection

NONE

Webcam & VoIP

NONE

Media Center Kit

NONE

Anti-Virus

NONE

Office Software

NONE

Warranty

1 Year Return-to-Base incl 1st Month Free Collect & Return

Delivery

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

Quantity

1

 

[notaclue]

Mouse, keyboard and monitor I'm buying elsewhere, get a better range to choose from. That looks good, but I've gone and bought from Novatech a E6600, 2gb 667 RAM, 500gb HDD, 256mb 8600GTS for £600 and they'll deliver by mid next week. Had look at PC Specialist and they're quoting 3-4 weeks. My laptop's slowly dying so the sooner the better! Thanks for your help, I'll let you know what it's like.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/pcrange.html?ISM (Isys Max 8600)

 

[notaclue]

Just thought I'd post a compliment to Novatech - ordered my PC on Wed 18th and was quoted 26 Th July for delivery as it had to be bulit. When it arrived this morning (24th) at 9am I was very pleasantly surprised! So far, and I've just set it up, everything looks good and seems to work fine! Thanks to everyone on here for there help too!

 

[floppybootstomp]

Just thought I'd post a compliment to Novatech - ordered my PC on Wed 18th and was quoted 26 Th July for delivery as it had to be bulit. When it arrived this morning (24th) at 9am I was very pleasantly surprised! So far, and I've just set it up, everything looks good and seems to work fine! Thanks to everyone on here for there help too!

Good news

Novatech have been trading some time and seem to have got things right.

They are not the absolute cheapest but their prices are still pretty good.

It's gratifying to hear a good news story, thanks for posting your experience.