Serious technical question *updated*

[Cassandra]

Not specific to the forum....just puters!

Anyways we are looking to upgrade the pc. The one I am currently typing on is about 10 years old. Well loved well used, but is not keeping up with the faster pace!

Went to check out a computer place in Viewpark. We don't need a monitor, keyboard, mouse or speakers..just the hardware in the tower.

AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core 5600+ processor
256mb GeForce 7300GT PCI-X
16 bit Sound card (on board)
10/100 Network card (on board)
Hi Speed USB 2.0 ports
1.0 GB DDR2 800 RAM
250GB SATA II Hard Drive
1.44mb Floppy Drive
16x DVD Rom Drive
16x DVD Rewriter
all complete with windows XP pro.

We gone for pro cos Vista is currently full of bugs. All of that for £441

Anyone got any feedback on how good this price is?

[Enid]

Just asked C - he thinks it is good for the money. Maybe a bit more RAM if you were being picky.
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"My little dog - a heartbeat at my feet" - Edith Wharton

[Magz]

heck out pc world reconditioned, all good pc's fraction of the price, me and my sis got ours from there never any probs. pc world

[Cassandra]

[John Thomson]

seriously good spec..if you run any photo or graphics packages 2gb ram would speed things up ( photoshop or Coreldraw)
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John Thomson
www.cumbernaulddogtraining.co.uk

[Cassandra]

oh to have photoshop *sniff*

I have paint shop pro. Would love the animation package to go with it...but at the moment would be content with a decent spec pc

[Magz]

I must admit I do prefer to build my own, apart from my laptop, I built all the other pc's myself. You really need to think about what you are going to use the pc for. you would want a really decent processor plenty of ram and a decent graphics card. hard drive wise I would go for no lower than 100 gig these days. personally you dont really need 2 dvd drives unless you are going to copy disc to disc. I would say xp professional still wins over vista at the moment due to teething issues. I have also noticed that alot of the new pc's come with card readers already installed which is really handy for your digital photos saving you connecting them up via usb as the slot sits at the front, freeing up your usb ports. good tip is to haggle might get you money off or thrown in extras, I always try but then hubby says I have a brass neck

[StuartW]

2Gb RAM.. definately

[Cassandra]

Well I build websites, surf the net, download music, and other day to day home admin. Going to be using it for my uni work when that gets started. I would play a few games on this one but its 10years old and a bit slow for most of the decent games.

We checked out the motherboards and they all have four slots which will support 2GB of RAM each, so there is room to upgrade there later.
I may see if I can get the graphics card upped as well...but was comparing that PCs with what evesham are supplying I think we on a good deal even at 441....but it not going to hurt to push is it

Am not very good with the hardware stuff to be honest. Ask me anything about the net and I am in my element, I know a bit about software but its extremely limited and my hardware knowledge is even worse lol

I was looking at maybe upgrading the digital camera as well.

I heard way back when XP was released that the next Microsoft OS system was due to be released in 2010, so I can't help thinking that Vista is the fall guy for that system...just like millennium were for xp...and then they still didn't get it right.

[Mike]

To Vista or XP?? When I got my laptop it had Vista on it. It did not run well - but was it Vista's fault? Probably not.

Vista requires 1 meg RAM at least to run properly - and the machine only had 512. Once more RAM put in - it worked much better.

Some programs did not seem to work - until I realised that the desk top short cut installed on the machine - went to the wrong program. Again - that sorted - and all is well.

Last thought on the matter just now.

Vista came out to replace XP which in turn replaced 98. Now 98 is no longer supported by Windows automatically. The same is likely to happen to XP in the future.

How long do you expect to keep your machine?

Mike

[Cassandra]

We hoping it will last at least as long as this machine, but I would rather purchase Vista once everyone else has sorted the bugs out and the hackers have got through all Gate's holes.

All else fails I could always go to linux

[Cassandra]

Okay here is my update. We went back to the computer shop today.

Just a refresh

When we went in at the weekend we were quoted £441 for the following not including the price of a case to put it all in. Bearing in mind this is just the hardware, we don't need monitor, keyboard, speakers, and mouse.

AMD Athlon 64 5600+ x Dual Core Processor
256mb GeForce 7300GT PCI-X
16 Bit Sound Card
10/100 Network Card
Hi Speed USB 2.0 Ports
1.0GB DDR2 800 RAM
250 GB SATA II Hard Drive
1.44mb Floppy Drive
16x DVD Rom Drive
16x DVD ReWriter

Installed with XP Pro.

Went in today and we asked for an additional 1gb RAM and an upgrade on the hard drive to 320gb. Got quoted £495.
So I asked him to drop it to £450. He told me if we got the XP Home rather than the XP Pro he could do it.
We agreed. He re-wrote his quote sheet again...took the deposit...then realised he hadn't added the price of the case on which was £35
mwuahahahahaha
we got that for nothing

So glad I didn't point that out now . He had just put the prices up on all the systems and components in the shop...but even based on Saturday's price we have only paid £9 more than we were originally quoted.

Should have seen his face when i asked him to do it for £450...he looked like a deer caught in headlights bless him. I think I caught him off guard a bit.

I now have a week to back up this pc before we collect the new one next weekend...yayayayayyayayayayayayyayayay

Also picked up a nice canon all in one printer for £99.99 off ebuyer...happy bunny!!! *bounce bounce*