Wanted: Advice on PC selection
Discussion
Firstly Ted, sorry for going off topic (again) but I will try and not mention the k**b gags.
Due to an ICE (Involentry Career Evaluation) I am in the market for a PC to replace the company lap top that will have to go back. I am looking for a PC that will cope with some development work, perhaps as a database server, as well as having all the usual toys. I am keen to get a CD-RW with it for back up.
Is there anyone out there who can recommend a machine/site or supply words of advice to a luddite such as me. I have been pointed towards P4s, but was wondering what level of memory I should go to. I am hoping to find somewhere where I can get Office and other things, since I am trying to make a dent in my own business.
TIA,
Chris.
Due to an ICE (Involentry Career Evaluation) I am in the market for a PC to replace the company lap top that will have to go back. I am looking for a PC that will cope with some development work, perhaps as a database server, as well as having all the usual toys. I am keen to get a CD-RW with it for back up.
Is there anyone out there who can recommend a machine/site or supply words of advice to a luddite such as me. I have been pointed towards P4s, but was wondering what level of memory I should go to. I am hoping to find somewhere where I can get Office and other things, since I am trying to make a dent in my own business.
TIA,
Chris.
well, there's no harm in going for a P4 but you'll get more bang per buck from an Athlon XP.
Go for as much memory as you can reaaonably afford - 512Mb is absolute minimum especially if you're compiling.
The area you could 'skimp' on is the graphics card - for business/development usage, a £50 card is plenty good enough - no need for the latest GeForce4/Radeon type thing (which'll set you back hundreds) as these only come into their own with games.
Finally, get the best, largest, monitor you can afford - 19" minimum for serious work - and read reviews of the one you're likely to buy - a good or bad monitor can make or break the long term usability of a system.
For ready assembled PCs, I'd recommend:
i) Systemax from www.simply.co.uk
ii) Mesh PCs - www.meshplc.co.uk
Or buy a copy of one of the PC buyer mags and see what's on offer right now.
CDRWs are dirt cheap nowadays & you'll be able to specify one on any PC you buy.
Edited to say: And fer chrissakes don't buy software for personal use - I'm sure you'll find some sort of PHer assistance available in that field..
>> Edited by CarZee (moderator) on Thursday 28th November 09:32
Go for as much memory as you can reaaonably afford - 512Mb is absolute minimum especially if you're compiling.
The area you could 'skimp' on is the graphics card - for business/development usage, a £50 card is plenty good enough - no need for the latest GeForce4/Radeon type thing (which'll set you back hundreds) as these only come into their own with games.
Finally, get the best, largest, monitor you can afford - 19" minimum for serious work - and read reviews of the one you're likely to buy - a good or bad monitor can make or break the long term usability of a system.
For ready assembled PCs, I'd recommend:
i) Systemax from www.simply.co.uk
ii) Mesh PCs - www.meshplc.co.uk
Or buy a copy of one of the PC buyer mags and see what's on offer right now.
CDRWs are dirt cheap nowadays & you'll be able to specify one on any PC you buy.
Edited to say: And fer chrissakes don't buy software for personal use - I'm sure you'll find some sort of PHer assistance available in that field..
>> Edited by CarZee (moderator) on Thursday 28th November 09:32
Relatively easy to build the little bu**ers! If you're not feeling confident yourself (and if I can do it, then any animal with opposable thumbs is capable) you might get someone (here?) to build you one - then it'll be to the spec that you want and not bundled with a load of rubbish and save acouple of £££s.
Mind you there's a few places out there (without naming and shaming, so I won't mention any firms with names like "QD Earth") who really don't know what day of the week it is and should be avoided like a dose of the plague with added clap and ricketts. Otherwise, settle for something not quite the latest spec and grab a bargain!
Mind you there's a few places out there (without naming and shaming, so I won't mention any firms with names like "QD Earth") who really don't know what day of the week it is and should be avoided like a dose of the plague with added clap and ricketts. Otherwise, settle for something not quite the latest spec and grab a bargain!
Believe me when I say there's nothing to be saved on self build especially when you take into account the complictations regarding warranties etc..
Choose your package properly and you won't get lumbered with tat like joysticks, tinny speakers an a crap scanner.. Simply allow you to swerve all that and specify a bare system - you can even opt not to have an OS installed if you like.. I'd recommend against that though.
Building your own PC is a day in your life which could be better spent in a million oher ways..
I do build my own when I need something specific, but everytime I've supplied for someone else I've used pre-built - saves a whole bunch of arsing about.
Choose your package properly and you won't get lumbered with tat like joysticks, tinny speakers an a crap scanner.. Simply allow you to swerve all that and specify a bare system - you can even opt not to have an OS installed if you like.. I'd recommend against that though.
Building your own PC is a day in your life which could be better spent in a million oher ways..
I do build my own when I need something specific, but everytime I've supplied for someone else I've used pre-built - saves a whole bunch of arsing about.
We use Dell Optiplex computers at work and as well as being very good value for money they are extremely reliable, but the thing that impresses me the most is how quiet they are! Seems a small point I know, but I really regret not buying an optiplex for home - a point that I am reminded of everytime I switch on my home PC and the sound of a number of small hoovers fills my office!
You can also save a bit with Dell when buying from their factory outlet center - just don't rely on their on-line list, give them a call instead.
Happy shopping.
Igg
You can also save a bit with Dell when buying from their factory outlet center - just don't rely on their on-line list, give them a call instead.
Happy shopping.
Igg
Evesham Micros are very good - they do off-the-shelf PCs (or build to spec), and their support people will happily talk you through if there's anything extra you think you need (or anything you want to take off the standard spec). And their aftersales support is pretty good too - one of my PCs was a couple of days out of warranty when a bit fell off it (metaphorically speaking), but they helped me out.
Hmm.. I do largely echo comments about Dell - I've been immpressed with their kit for a long time.
However, as Fer is 'between jobs' - I was thinking of raw VFM as being of utmost importance.
You *will* get a better deal from Mesh/Simply/Evesham than from Dell - and Dell's customer service is not all that it could be in my experience.
However, as Fer is 'between jobs' - I was thinking of raw VFM as being of utmost importance.
You *will* get a better deal from Mesh/Simply/Evesham than from Dell - and Dell's customer service is not all that it could be in my experience.
Would agree with you CarZee - but, Dell factory outlet is typically 15% cheaper than a new Dell and supplied with 3 years on-site maintenace included. We had cause to use them when a hard drive 'stuck' and they were here the next day at 9am - put in a new (bigger) drive, transferred all the data across etc. V. impressed! (also have 6 Mesh computers in the office - they have proved to be less reliable and support from Mesh wasn't much to shout about either).
CarZee said: You *will* get a better deal from Mesh/Simply/Evesham than from Dell - and Dell's customer service is not all that it could be in my experience.
CarZee - I agree. Never had a problem with Dell personally because I just don't buy their machines, but I know of a few people who've had fun and games trying to sort out problems with them. FWIW.
Would echo SGirls Evesham reccomendation, we use their Pc's in our office as they are the only people I know who will sort out a problem on the spot if you need it, I took a hard drive back and they checked, re-formatted, checked again and them replaced all within the hour. Depends where you are though!
Nick
Nick
This is marginal for most applications...
Fatboy said: If you're going to be doing any serious number crunching, I'd suggest you don't go for an Athlon over an Intel, there is a marked difference in their ability (for the very intensive number crunching I do, the intel Xeon is light years ahead of the athlon)...
Unless you're doing something like modelling (wind tunnel simulation?) or rendering complex 3d stuff you'll never notice the difference and Xeons are gruesomely expensive.
Cheers Carzee - not sure what Fer meant when he said 'development', so I thought I'd chuck my 2p in (that's about a weeks salary for me so be grateful 
). BTW I do computational chemistry at thw Quantum Mechanical (DFT) level which is really CPU intensive, which is probably why I managed to notice a difference .
). BTW I do computational chemistry at thw Quantum Mechanical (DFT) level which is really CPU intensive, which is probably why I managed to notice a difference .
CarZee said: Believe me when I say there's nothing to be saved on self build especially when you take into account the complictations regarding warranties etc..
Choose your package properly and you won't get lumbered with tat like joysticks, tinny speakers an a crap scanner.. Simply allow you to swerve all that and specify a bare system - you can even opt not to have an OS installed if you like.. I'd recommend against that though.
Building your own PC is a day in your life which could be better spent in a million oher ways..
I do build my own when I need something specific, but everytime I've supplied for someone else I've used pre-built - saves a whole bunch of arsing about.
Whilst I agree about the @rsing about IMHO build your own/built to spec is well worth it. You get exactly what you want no extra cr@p and it is much cheaper. For example I built a PC for a friend recently (took about 2 hours from scratch). Cost to him 1 bag of fish & chips. Saving him an absolute fortune. For example 19" monitor bought on-line saved him £100, graphics card saved £50, etc.
Warantees arn't worth the paper they're written on. Esp these extended warantees that come from the likes of high streets. A component in a PC will either work (it will then last for the life of the machine) or it will fail straight away. The only exceptions are moving parts (HDD, FDD, CD-RW etc.) and they are covered by the manufacturer for a year anyway.
If your building is not upto scratch far better to go to your local small computer supplier and ask them to build for you. You will still save money and if it goes pear shaped you can plonk it on the desk and ask them to fix it.
Large companies = large delays for repair (and sometimes for delivery). Definately get the O/S on seperate disks and not some stupid "recovery disk". The common trick is to tell you the disk is on the hard drive. Which is fine for changing settings but if you lose the HDD you're completely stuffed. I personally much prefer installing all software myself, it allows you to select the options you want not have loads of cr@p. (for example I don't want a choice of office assistants or have the complete screensavers/wallpapers and so on)
Finally don't be afraid to haggle. Just my 2p worth
hope that helps.
smeagol said:
...what I was trying to say, only better. There's a huge difference in component prices out there.
I find www.pcindex.co.uk is useful (although I can still find some components cheaper).
Maybe this is beyond your price range, but have you thought about dual processor. I use a dual processor machine for work, and I would find it very hard to go back to a single processor machine.
If you are doing serious number crunching it's invaluable. One processor tends to end up crunching the numbers, and the other one is available for you to carry on working.
Even if you're not doing anything difficult (I frequently run complex simulations), I find it two processors make the machine more stable. Only one at a time tends to get locked in a loop. You can then kill the process easily, since you still have the spare processors attention.
If you are doing serious number crunching it's invaluable. One processor tends to end up crunching the numbers, and the other one is available for you to carry on working.
Even if you're not doing anything difficult (I frequently run complex simulations), I find it two processors make the machine more stable. Only one at a time tends to get locked in a loop. You can then kill the process easily, since you still have the spare processors attention.
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