time to upgrade to a new system........current one (circa 5-6years) is getting on a bit and getting increasingly clogged, clunky and frustratingly slow

just want good browsing speed/capability, bit of I-player watching, bit of Mp3 playing, online radio listenting, usual office stuff, downloading pictures from camera etc, etc, nothing to exciting........don't do gaming, video editing, streaming films, file sharing, etc etc, saying that daughter is off to Uni this year so missus might want a bit of webcam action to keep in touch (now, now, not that type of action!!!)

not one for visiting PC world etc, to be bombarded with gigabytes this megabytes that, just want reliable, delivered to the door system I can plug and play...........for that reason have always had Dell systems, which tended to be on offer at the time and have suited my requirements great,

budget............about £750 is suppose???? with a monitor

any suggestions??? lets hear them !!!

cheers

I would really suggest building a PC.

People are always put off buy the though of building their own PC, however these days everything has a set standard so basically it is just a large meccano set. Screw in this, plug in that, clip that in. £750 with a monitor on a self built machine can net you a PC better than what PC world has to offer.

+1 for buildng your own PC everytime.

Make sure the RAM and processor are compatible with the motherboard you choose and the rest is easy.

Building one yourself is more satisfying and that way you know you can always upgrade bits as and when you need to. It also allows you to make the choices and spend the money on where it's needed. For instance if you aren't into particularly graphics intensive gaming theres little point in spending the earth on a very high spec graphics card so you could save money in this area and spend it on more RAM or a better monitor instead.

One thing also to add is that most PC parts places have bundles that usually include a motherboard, processor and some ram, then also you can get bundle cases that include a power supply. Then basically you just need to choose how much hard drive space you want and if you want a CD drive or not.

Dave

Hi,

Also +1, for building your own PC, when you do, you will probably wonder why you ever bought pre-built ones. Hop over to http://www.overclockers.com/forums/ and post your requirements, this is why I started and found the help on there really useful. Sometimes people even post a complete build list to fit your requirements.

All the best!

[Edited on 2/4/13 by Opirun]

Buy one of these : http://www.ebuyer.com/443470-zoostorm-desktop-pc-7873-1081 - £199

Get a Logitech C270 webcam : http://www.ebuyer.com/230435-logitech-c270-hd-webcam-720p-hd-video-usb-960-000582 - £22

Samsung LED Monitor : http://www.ebuyer.com/368395-samsung-s22b300b-21-5-led-lcd-dvi-monitor-ls22b300bs-en - £136

Because you're daughter is a Student, you can get the student edition of Windows & Office. Don't get windows 8... it's like nothing you have ever seen before !! - should be < £100 ???

I've got pretty much the setup above and it's superb. I admit, I don't play games - just spreadsheets and documents + some web browsing and iplayer also use skype a lot to speak to my family.

One thing to note - my monitor doesn't have the mounts on the back so I can put it on a wall - other than that, it's great.

All in approx, £400 - use the other £350 for something new in the garage

I will go against the majority and say go for pre-built. Last time I priced up a pre-built versus components there really wasn't much in it. I only buy components because I rarely need to replace everything at one time, but when my mate wanted a full PC I just sent him over to Dell. They do pretty decent kit for a good price, and take a lot of hassle over matching components. Zoostorm (as linked by Barkalarr) are also very good at putting together high spec hardware that is difficult/impossible to beat in component form.

I'd like to throw something else into the mix, have you considered a laptop rather than a desktop? For £750 you could get a pretty good laptop, and while they aren't for some people they are so much more convenient. I'm writing this sat in front of the telly downstairs, rather than being stuck in the cupboard upstairs where my main PC is.

I agree with Slimy38 in that your will not save much (in some cases even spent slightly more in custom built PC's), however the key in that in the long run you will save by not having to keep rebuying new PC's and throwing away components only to purchase similar ones to replace them (a DVD drive is a good example of this). Also you can do the repairs and upgrades yourself.

Therefore it really depends on you as an individual and how much time you want to spend on this project.

Personally, I would not buy cheap brand PC's, I have had bad experiences with them, but know others who have had no problems. For example, what some people don't realise is that cheap and mass PC builders use the cheapest of ATX power supplies, which can be very unstable, then a few months or even just over a year later there PC goes bonkers and they don't know why. Of course this can happen to many PC's but you need to be aware of it.

I have had good experiences with Dell laptops, so as Slimy38, mentioned you might want to consider this as an option. These days it seems that gap of Price-Spec of laptop vs PC's is getting much smaller.

All the best with it all !

[Edited on 2/4/13 by Opirun]

Perhaps we are getting a little carried away with selling a custom PC option based on the op's comment:

quote:

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just want reliable, delivered to the door system I can plug and play

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quote:

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Originally posted by Opirun
I agree with Slimy38 in that your will not save much (in some cases even spent slightly more in custom built PC's), however the key in that in the long run you will save by not having to keep rebuying new PC's and throwing away components only to purchase similar ones to replace them (a DVD drive is a good example of this). Also you can do the repairs and upgrades yourself.

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I bought a business spec PC for my shop from Dell about 4-5 years ago for about £450 (no monitor) and it has never missed a beat, never crashes, it's still plenty fast enough and does everything I want (email, web, music, iplayer, photoshop etc).

I would buy another one straight away. However for my home when I wanted something a bit more special I built my own - it's definitely not been as reliable!

When i was an IT manager i often procured batches of 20 or so Dell PCs when it was time to refresh a department's desktops - until i had a very bad experience with quality control that Dell quite refused to acknowledge despite it being common knowledge.
We are talking Rover head gasket levels of corporate of refusing to acknowledge a problem. Just Google for Dell capacitor issue and you will see what i mean. Thats why i always build my own PCs.

quote:

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Originally posted by clanger
time to upgrade to a new system........current one (circa 5-6years) is getting on a bit and getting increasingly clogged, clunky and frustratingly slow

just want good browsing speed/capability, bit of I-player watching, bit of Mp3 playing, online radio listenting, usual office stuff, downloading pictures from camera etc, etc, nothing to exciting........don't do gaming, video editing, streaming films, file sharing, etc etc, saying that daughter is off to Uni this year so missus might want a bit of webcam action to keep in touch (now, now, not that type of action!!!)

not one for visiting PC world etc, to be bombarded with gigabytes this megabytes that, just want reliable, delivered to the door system I can plug and play...........for that reason have always had Dell systems, which tended to be on offer at the time and have suited my requirements great,

budget............about £750 is suppose???? with a monitor

any suggestions??? lets hear them !!!

cheers

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quote:

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Originally posted by Not Anumber
When i was an IT manager i often procured batches of 20 or so Dell PCs when it was time to refresh a department's desktops - until i had a very bad experience with quality control that Dell quite refused to acknowledge despite it being common knowledge.
We are talking Rover head gasket levels of corporate of refusing to acknowledge a problem. Just Google for Dell capacitor issue and you will see what i mean. Thats why i always build my own PCs.

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+1 for Build for Personal Use


For Industrial apps we'll buy pre assembled industrial spec units.

I've got Dell XPS desktop and laptop ('ultrabook' and they've both been excellent.

thanks for the input all, not really wanting to build my own, not that it would be a problem. have updgraded bits and bobs on this one since i had it

just the thought of endless hours researching whats best/not compatible would drive me nuts...........................takes my 2 hours googling to decide what clip to use on a fuel pipe that nobody will see these days

time i research stuff i know very little about the stuff i get will be way out of date..............and my car will still be in bits

probably stick with dell, as i've had good service in the past...........(jinxed that now LOL)

quote:

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just the thought of endless hours researching whats best/not compatible would drive me nuts...........................takes my 2 hours googling to decide what clip to use on a fuel pipe that nobody will see these days

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Don't think I'd buy another pc, laptops all the way these days for me.

quote:

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Originally posted by Barkalarr
Buy one of these : http://www.ebuyer.com/443470-zoostorm-desktop-pc-7873-1081 - £199

Get a Logitech C270 webcam : http://www.ebuyer.com/230435-logitech-c270-hd-webcam-720p-hd-video-usb-960-000582 - £22

Samsung LED Monitor : http://www.ebuyer.com/368395-samsung-s22b300b-21-5-led-lcd-dvi-monitor-ls22b300bs-en - £136

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