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desktop spec
Can anyone point me in the right direction for obtaining sound advice on what to buy. Looking at the various specs but not understanding the role of many of the component parts, nor the quality of advertised components, it appears a minefield! For instance Dell advertise a couple of models which appear identical except for one component with a technical description and £200! Any advice appreciated.
H49 |
Hiya
Price is really dependant on whet you want. What you want should be governed by what you actually want to do with your PC. The faster the processor the better. The more RAM, the better. All the other bits like graphice,sound etc are not as important if you just want to use your pc for " Normal Stuff". Mike |
Helen49,
If you told us what you wanted to do with the PC along with how much you want to spend, we could go out and find options for you. You could also link some of the PCs you are looking at so we could look at what they are offering. Take Care, Richard |
Thanks guys. Required for all the microsoft products and also for use with a digital camera. (Would like a slot for camera memory cards). Not interested in games use but scope for radio and music would be useful, also internet and possibly with a router for home wireless connections. Also with thin flat screen and wireless keyboard 7 mouse. Have looked at Dell 4700 and 8400 but prepared to pay up to say £1200 for the package.
Regards H49 |
Helen49,
It does sound like you would do fine with a Notebook Comp. They all have wireless, LCDs, and Card Readers. They do cost more than their Desktop Cousins though. What are your thoughts? Take Care, Richard |
Helen,
I'll enter the lion's den here, as I did once before and the lady concerned seemed to appreciate it, simply BECAUSE I'm not an expert, and feel I can give you useful advice from the perspective of an average user, which is what you are from your description of what you want to do. Quite simply, today's basic entry level PC will provide you with all the grunt you need for your purposes. I suspect the slowest processor available on a new computer these days is about 2.4Ghz Celeron, which is so far ahead of anything you will need that it is pointless to pay more. Insist on 512Mb RAM, and as MikeD said, the rest of the stuff takes care of itself and you will easily be able to do everything you mentioned. The only exception would possibly be paying a little more for a Centrino processor if you want to get into wireless stuff. My suggestion as a starting point would be to go to the Dell website, select the bottom of the line desktop, customise it as necessary with your screen/keyboard/mouse, CD/DVD player or burner requirements and check the price. That will give you a good idea of the average price you should be paying, whether you finish up going with Dell or another company. I'd be amazed if you have to pay anywhere near what you mentioned. A bit over half that amount should be closer to the mark at a guess. Good hunting, and feel free to PM me if you have any questions you think might be best answered by a fellow average user! :ok: |
Helen49,
I was looking around the Mesh Website, here is an option for a desktop: Matrix M2800+ XP (1004)
Price Excluding VAT: £ 698.96 Price Including VAT + DEL: £ 821.28 (Note: I put the upgrades in the PC-3200 Memory, Floppy Drive, 17" Monitor, 5.1 Speakers, Cordless Keyboard and Mouse, 8 in 1 Card Reader.) I hope this might be something that will meet your needs. Take Care, Richard P.S. It will be a great system for listening to music, burning your own music, watching DVD movies, editing digital pictures, working on documents, as well as surfing the Internet. ;) |
I kind of agree with Binos, but it looks like Richard has picked a pretty good system there. You could do much worse :ok:
For the last couple of years, my personal view has been that if you aren't interested in games then the best buy is the bottom of the range model - or, even better, to try and track down the one that's just been discontinued, because that's usually been heavily discounted from an already cheap price (recently got myself a great IBM R40 Thinkpad that way for not much more than £300). My main 'work' desktop is a Dell 2400 that cost just under £100, new and delivered (no monitor though). It needed some more memory and has a hardware spec that will give Richard nightmares, but it's still far more powerful than it needs to be for what I use it for (MS Office, MindManager and Lotus Notes). If you buy a bottom of the range system you may need to boost the memory a bit (I agree with the others, 512Mb is a minimum) or swap out a couple of components, but that's cheap to do and if you're a novice there are plenty of places that will do it for you - track down your local independent computer shop, they're usually good for advice on whatever you want to do and they'll fit it too. And if that all sounds like too much trouble, then you wouldn't go wrong ordering the system Richard picked out. Mesh are a good company. :) edit: one further comment about Dell - I agree again with Binos that they're a good way of finding out a benchmark price and, at times, they can be stunningly good value. However, the quality of components isn't great and i'm not impressed with their customer support, so i'd hesitate to recommend them. |
Evo,
I was looking for a smaller CPU, but it looks like the 2800+ is the smallest of the AthlonXP line that Mesh currently sells. When you are looking for the best power/price ratio, the AthlonXP is they best you will find. :ok: Take Care, Richard |
Richard, I suppose what Evo and I were both saying is that your enthusiasm for the AthlonXP may be well founded technically, but for Helen's purposes a 900 Celeron would fulfill the same functions perfectly well. It's sometimes difficult for someone who KNOWS all the advantages of various things to accept that a lot less is still acceptable.
Helen, if you take Richard's suggested make, you can't go wrong as long as their support is reasonable. Signed, Non Expert :8 |
Once again many thanks to you guys. Your helpful guidance very much appreciated.
H49 |
Helen49,
Do report back when you get your computer. We would all like to know what you end up with and what you think of it. Binoculars, The difference between the smallest Celeron sold (Cel 1.7) and the AthlonXP 2800+ is about $20.00 which is peanuts when you compare to the total price of a computer, but is huge when you compare performance. As for a Cel 900, you would be ending up with a used CPU, since its production stopped years ago. There is just not enough savings over the rock bottom priced AthlonXPs. ;) Take Care, Richard |
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