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Recommend me a home PC

Tricky Skills

Tricky Skills

Well-Known Member
The old Shuttle box is about to die on me. Takes 3-4 mins for XP to load, and the monitor is throwing a bit of a wobbler with intermittent flashing as well. I put it all together just over four years ago, and so I reckon it’s time for a change.

Last time I sourced it all, but… just can’t be arsed now. Prices are so low and there doesn’t seem much difference with your averages machines.

I’m after a basic home PC, monitor and keyboard. It will be used for online browsing, photo storage and editing, and possibly running two iPods off it. I may just keep all the mp3 stuff on the old Shuttle box.

Price range… from dirt cheap to about £400 I reckon.

Any recommendations? I keep on hearing bad things about Dell. Likewise Vista – best to stick with XP? And sorry – I just ‘aint a Mac type of guy.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Cheers.
 
Keeping the monitor or do you want a new one?

Dells aren't bad at the low end. They rip you off for RAM upgrades but they're dead cheap.
 
just bought a new dell, no problems so far, cost me £337, seems to have a lot of good gubbins included - but i'm no techie:D
 
marty21 said:
just bought a new dell, no problems so far, cost me £337, seems to have a lot of good gubbins included - but i'm no techie:D
Click to expand...

Is that dual core too? The price of PCs these days is amazing.
 
AMD and Intel are phasing out single core chips, last i saw they only sold them in less developed countries. But i too love the price of computers.
 
gabi said:
www.apple.com

never heard of anyone switching from mac to pc, lets put it that way...
Click to expand...

My brother is going back to pc. His mac laptop had no end of problems, and the mac store had no solution for it. I give them the benefit of the doubt, and say it was a one-off, but my brother will be switching back to winxp, after seeing my 2 laptops and 3 desktop computers at home all running beautifully.
 
Apple
* 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
* 1GB memory
* 250GB hard drive1
* 8x double-layer SuperDrive
* ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT with 128MB memory
$1,199.00
Click to expand...

Intel® Pentium® E2160 Dual Core Processor
(1.80GHz ,1MB L2 Cache, 800MHz)
1GB 667Mhz DDR2 Memory
250GB Hard Drive with 16MB Buffer
256MB Shared Memory Graphics (on board)
LightScribe Super Format 18x DVD Writer
5.1 High Definition onboard sound card
PCIe Mainboard, 4 USB, LAN
Multi-format Memory Card Reader
£299.00
Click to expand...
:D
 
Bob_the_lost said:
Hi, my name's bob and i switched. Feel educated.
Click to expand...

Ha! first one ive come across, and christ... u really are a pompous twat, just like on tv..

worth1000.jpg
 
gabi said:
Ha! first one ive come across, and christ... u really are a pompous twat, just like on tv..
Click to expand...
What? Microshaft merely haven't gone to the expense of a marketing campaign to persuade you to desert from apple, as these other pretty (ethnically diverse) people have in the apple ads.

In the mean time there's nothing in the apple lineup that would do the job in the budget... :rolleyes:

Edit: Would "Do you feel less ignorant yet?" have been better?
 
Oooh... I think the Mac Vs PC argument has been done to death.

The spec for the Mesh machine seems to be just what I want. Throw in a 19" screen, and the job's a good 'un for £400. Thanks for the advice.

But... just before I buy, I'm intruiged to see what type of Mac I could buy for a similar budget and basic online / photo editing needs?

Thanks again
 
A used one.

Seriously. The base Mac Mini is £400 with no keyboard, mouse, or monitor. Its specs are quite similar to the Mesh machine, but with a smaller disk and no DVD writer.

Of course, it's a lot smaller and you're paying for that. Macs are an awful lot cheaper than they used to be, but they're still not going to win many price comparisons. It's usually only at the high end, on the launch date that they're quite competitive. When the new Mac Pros came out, they were actually a good deal for what they were.
 
Tricky Skills said:
Oooh... I think the Mac Vs PC argument has been done to death.

The spec for the Mesh machine seems to be just what I want. Throw in a 19" screen, and the job's a good 'un for £400. Thanks for the advice.

But... just before I buy, I'm intruiged to see what type of Mac I could buy for a similar budget and basic online / photo editing needs?

Thanks again
Click to expand...

Get an iMac - £799, trust me you won't look back.. its worth paying the premium...

gallery-big-02.jpg


Thats the one I've got, im a graphic designer and it handles photoshop fine - even to a fairly advanced level. For basic stuff it'll fly...

I got it on an interest free loan too, dont know if they're still doin it tho. £133 a month over 6 months.

http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObj...mm=browse&mco=163AA6A5&node=home/desktop/imac
 
Tricky Skills said:
But... just before I buy, I'm intruiged to see what type of Mac I could buy for a similar budget and basic online / photo editing needs?
Click to expand...

Quoted for the benefit of Xanadu..
 
Chz said:
A used one.

Seriously. The base Mac Mini is £400 with no keyboard, mouse, or monitor. Its specs are quite similar to the Mesh machine, but with a smaller disk and no DVD writer.

Of course, it's a lot smaller and you're paying for that. Macs are an awful lot cheaper than they used to be, but they're still not going to win many price comparisons. It's usually only at the high end, on the launch date that they're quite competitive. When the new Mac Pros came out, they were actually a good deal for what they were.
Click to expand...
What he said. The mini would be fine for you, if you don't mind the tiny HD and lack of DVD writer, and you don't mind the £100 premium. The OS is different to XP but it's very user friendly once you do get used to it.

If you don't mind the problems then i'd think about it, nice little unit and perfect for random home users.

The Imac is woefully underpowered for the price range. You can get a Quad Core with 4Gb RAM and 22" LCD for the same price. It's a beautiful machine but it's not a good buy for a photoshop pro anymore (they need to refresh the lineup with the current C2D offerings).
 
Exactly...

Although I have to admit, despite, my Mac reservatons, I am feeling slightly tempted. The Mesh should see me through the next four years or so, but what about the Mac? What am I getting that is worth spending £400 extra on?

Virus free, blah blah blah, but with sensible management of my old Shuttle box, I've had no serious issues over the past four years.

Price aside, I think my main concern with a Mac is the lack of extra software. I'm forever using little bits of shareware, freware etc for photo editing. Don't really want to fork out for PS, on top of the £800 spend.

Mmm - more questions than answers.
 
mac on a budget doesn't really work - they're a premium product and there's no arguning with that. Rhe extra money does get you extra things, but if you don't want or need them, it's not really worth it.

That said, I love my mac to bits :)
 
You get OSX - Prettier and less buggy than Vista (Vista will improve, how much we dont' know).
You get a much prettier machine than 95% of Windoze machines.
You get a slightly faster machine.

On the down side:
The speed difference is small and in no way on earth worth the money.
The hardware is in no way comparable to the equivalently priced windoze machine, which is far, far more powerful.
It's less upgradeable (don't know if you care).
 
Tricky Skills said:
Exactly...

Although I have to admit, despite, my Mac reservatons, I am feeling slightly tempted. The Mesh should see me through the next four years or so, but what about the Mac? What am I getting that is worth spending £400 extra on?

Virus free, blah blah blah, but with sensible management of my old Shuttle box, I've had no serious issues over the past four years.

Price aside, I think my main concern with a Mac is the lack of extra software. I'm forever using little bits of shareware, freware etc for photo editing. Don't really want to fork out for PS, on top of the £800 spend.

Mmm - more questions than answers.
Click to expand...

Dont know all the techie shit - im just a designer, all i know is that on my desk I have a PC and a mac. I have to use both because of the sort of work I do - and the mac shits on the PC. Just in terms of usability anyway - as I say no idea about the tech details - but unless you're doing some hardcore geekery then the Mac would suit you fine... get that interest free loan sorted..

Oh and why would you *pay* for Photoshop?! ;) Download it - then you won't need to mess around with freeware editing tools.
 
And if you have to pay, pixelmator should be out this year, which does everything an amateur needs from an image editor, at a $59 price. (mac only)
 
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