PC at home....

[bridgdav]

A new thing for me...Only really use my PC at work.

Basic run of the mill PC Package wanted for home.
Standard Software required - Office suite etc.
Scan, Print, CDRW, Digi Camera?


I want to use it for general surfing, PH etc.
Any large stuff can be done at work.
I would like to be able to work from home, general office based stuff.

What should I be looking for..? Any suggestions..?
Where should I get one..?
How much will I expect to pay..?
How much memory should I get?
What should I avoid..?
Any good sites to explain all this..?

I might want to upgrade graphics and sound at some point, so seperate cards would be a must.

Sorry for all the questions, I've got to start somewhere....

Cheers
Dave

[dontlift]

Just go to dell's website and order a cheap home PC sorted, you wont get much better value

[BrianTheYank]

Go with Dell, theyre perfect for those run of the mill home pcs. I would never have one though, terrible for gaming.

[Liszt]

I'd agree with Dell.

[page3]

Seeing as you own a TVR and therefore know how not to be a sheep, perhaps take a look at an Apple Mac.

Less time screaming at your PC, more time enjoying it - after all, you're on your own time at home

[warmfuzzies]

You could always try Novatech, or Watford or Evesham, they all have packages to suit, with ahem, no offshore support.......

Kevin

[BrianTheYank]

page3 said:

Seeing as you own a TVR and therefore know how not to be a sheep, perhaps take a look at an Apple Mac. Less time screaming at your PC, more time enjoying it - after all, you're on your own time at home

I find myself spending no time yelling at my non-mac pc. Both have their pros and cons to them, lets just try to refrain from turning this into a mac vs windows battle.

[page3]

BrianTheYank said:

I find myself spending no time yelling at my non-mac pc. Both have their pros and cons to them, lets just try to refrain from turning this into a mac vs windows battle.

Agree - perhaps I was being a little unfair, but I was just trying to get an idea across.

I'm simply suggesting that a Mac should be on everyones list of PC's to investigate before spending this sort of money. Obviously the decision of what platform to go for should depend on what the computer is needed for, what applications need to be run and some personal preference on OS etc. It should never be discounted simply due to towing the PC line.

[Bodo]

BrianTheYank said:

page3 said: Seeing as you own a TVR and therefore know how not to be a sheep, perhaps take a look at an Apple Mac. Less time screaming at your PC, more time enjoying it - after all, you're on your own time at home I find myself spending no time yelling at my non-mac pc. Both have their pros and cons to them, lets just try to refrain from turning this into a mac vs windows battle.

I don't think there is anything to debate.
Yelling doesn't help, since speech recognition isn't that well developed for all systems.

IMHO a Macintosh is well considerable . Macs cost more, but don't need so much maintenance in terms of secondary applications against virus/worm attacs, spyware and adware. After all you get a Unix machine, that is ready to play with out of the box.

[bridgdav]

I've been searching around a bit....

How about MESH...?


Basic Dell system - Dimension 2400 2.8GHz,Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition,All-in-One Printer A920 (Print, Scan & Copy),80GB (7200rpm) IDE Hard Drive,Intel Pentium 4, 512MB DDR Ram (1x512MB)...etc
About £650 new

Basic G4 and ancillaries(no printer)
My Missus uses Macs at work, (graphic Designer)
She would ideally like a Windows based PC as she will learn how to use that O/S....
At least £950 new

Any sites that do package deals...?

Cheers for all the info...

Dave

Mesh comment added..

>> Edited by bridgdav on Wednesday 31st March 14:36

[simpo two]

I'd recommend you go for a 17" (or bigger) TFT, if it's not already included.

[Plotloss]

Two options:

If you are comfortable with the concept of computers then build it yourself, its child play. About 100 times easier than changing your brake pads. If you are not comfortable with the concept of computers buy a Dell. Its difficult to fault their overall package.

[page3]

bridgdav said:

I've been searching around a bit.... How about MESH...? Basic Dell system - Dimension 2400 2.8GHz,Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition,All-in-One Printer A920 (Print, Scan & Copy),80GB (7200rpm) IDE Hard Drive,Intel Pentium 4, 512MB DDR Ram (1x512MB)...etc About £650 new Basic G4 and ancillaries(no printer) My Missus uses Macs at work, (graphic Designer) She would ideally like a Windows based PC as she will learn how to use that O/S.... At least £950 new Any sites that do package deals...? Cheers for all the info... Dave Mesh comment added..

The Mac would come with a monitor (assuming you've looked at the iMac.)

No denying it will cost more though - although I could put together a strong arguement to say it doesn't if comparing like with like. Our new company spec Dell PC's at work (I'm the one responsible for speccing them) cost £1500 by the time they were upgraded to include essentials for a business (ie: XP Pro, Office Pro, Digital 17" TFT, 1Gb RAM, amazing how quickly it all adds up).

I'm aware this is a home machine for you, so priorities will be different.

[simpo two]

Plotloss said:

If you are comfortable with the concept of computers then build it yourself, its child play.

But what if it doesn't work...?

[meeja]

simpo two said:

Plotloss said: If you are comfortable with the concept of computers then build it yourself, its child play. But what if it doesn't work...?

You put it on eBay as an "unfinished project"

[warmfuzzies]

Why should it not work?
I started building my own 6-7 years ago and haven't looked back, we all need to start form somewhere.
Building your own gives you complete control over the quality of the parts that go in the box.
Buying one requires more effort than you think, lots of these cheapo boxes have onboard graphics, no agp slots, some even have cpu's soldered onto the motherboard. that leaves you with an expensive coffee table in 2-3 years........There's many an online guide to assist, should you decide to build your own, and if a part dosen't work.......simple send it back.
There is a law that protects you from bad selling, the distance selling act 2000, if the part dosen't work, you don't like it, or have changed your mind. return it within 7 days for a complete refund.
YMMV, you pays your money and takes your choice, just go armed with data from everywhere.

Kevin

[d-man]

I don't think building a PC is worth the effort for most people these days. If you want to specify exactly which graphics card, motherboard chipset etc that you want then go for it. Otherwise save yourself the hassle.

It used to be the case that off the shelf PCs were horrendously expensive, came without essential items (like monitors) and used proprietary components that made it difficult to perform any sort of upgrade. Now they're cheap, to the extent that its very hard to build one cheaper and compatible enough that minor upgrades like memory or a new hdd shouldn't prove any sort of hassle.

Motherboards with integrated graphics and no AGP slots are no concern unless you're a gamer and I've not heard of a CPU soldered onto the board for a number of years. Of course if you get to the stage where you want to upgrade the CPU, the motherboard will be obsolete so you'll have to replace it anyway.

As for that PC it looks like a good solid system. I'd consider going to 1Gb of RAM though as XP is such a memory hog, even if that means dropping to a slightly slower processor.

Also take a look at the Dell Outlet store if you haven't already - http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/default.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=dfo

They're returned Dells and come with a full Dell warranty. I've only seen laptops from there, but all of them were in perfect condition and I can't see why the desktops wouldn't be too.

[simpo two]

I think the point, warmfuzzies (nice name!) is that to you - and several of my friends - building a PC from bits is easy. You know what you want and you can order it and fit it all together. If you hit a snag to know what to do.

But to someone who knows little of the intricacies of the different types of RAM, mobo/CPU combinations, bus speeds, BIOS setups, which channel to connect the CD writer to, etc etc, they simply won't know what to order, and if for some reason it fails to work perfectly on start-up, they'll be stuffed as to what to do about it. Which is why, in this particular case, I think a box with everything in it, tested and working, is the answer.

[bridgdav]

simpo two said:

I think a box with everything in it, tested and working, is the answer.

Dell looks the best so far..'Package Value for money'

I've tried ..

Dell
Mesh
Apple
EuroPC.co.uk
Novatech.co.uk

Thanks for the advice...

Dave