Time for a new PC. I would appreciate the opinions of the knowledgeable people (again)......

Had current Tiny PC (:o ) for 4.5 years, running:
Pentium 4 1300Mhz
256 Mb RDRAM
60Gb hard disk
DVD ROM
CD RW
Windows ME (:o )
1Mb broadband with Ethernet cable & card.

It goes without saying it's been creaking for a while.....

I do nothing professionally on the PC, and am not an avid online gamer (except poker, but that doesn't really count).
I use the PC mostly for general home useage, Internet, storing photos/music for camera/MP3 player, burning photos/music/MPEG's:cool: etc....

I have acceptable speakers, printer and scanner.
I have no interest in building a PC from scratch.

I want to future proof the spec to some extent, in terms of CPU, storage and graphics. Hence the example below may be (?) a higher spec than what I currently need for the usage described above.

I've been told this Overclockers ready built PC looks like a good example in the price range I'm looking at (<£1k), and that most of the components listed are considered to be of decent quality:
For £818:-
- AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice CPU
- AMD approved cooler
- Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra PCI-Express Motherboard
- GeIL 1GB Value (2x512MB) DDR PC3200 CAS2.5 Dual Channel Kit
- 160GB Western Digital Serial ATA-2 8mb Cache Hard Drive
- NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS 256MB DDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card
- Pioneer DVR-110 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter
- Onboard 6 Channel Audio
- Floppy Drive
- Antec SLK-3800B-UK Silent Midi Tower Case
- Antec 400W Silent ATX Power Supply
- Hyundai L72D+ 17" 8ms LCD Multimedia Monitor with built in speakers
- Logitech Media Keyboard (Black)
- Logitech S96 Optical Mouse (Black)
- Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Pre-Install & Supplied with CD/License

Any opinions of this spec and Oc built PCs would be appreciated.

not a bad spec pc for that price, sounded quite cheap, so i had a look at the site. You might have a typo there isnt the one you listed £881.

not a bad spec pc for that price, sounded quite cheap, so i had a look at the site. You might have a typo there isnt the one you listed £881.

Titan Vantage Complete is £881.19 Including VAT.

Sounds OK then?

It looks good, buts its a bit overkill for what you want to do with it. You could get something a fair bit cheaper that will do everything you want it to and a lot more.

just lost my reply :-( Anyway, it's overkill, save your money.

Try dell, they have a sytem
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?null_errmsg=Please%20enter%20the%20ent ire%20E-value%20code&space_errmsg=The%20E-value%20code%20may%20not%20contain%20spaces&cs=ukdhs1&c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&kc=UKDHSONL&oc=D02911a&x=12&y=11
for £588 inc vat+del.
Specs:
Intel® Pentium® D 920 Dual Core Processor (2.80GHz, 800MHz fsb, 2x2MB cache)
1024MB Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz (2x512) Memory
160GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive
16x max. DVD+/-RW Drive
Dell 17" TFT
256MB ATI Radeon® X600 HyperMemory graphics card
Dell 2 Button USB Scroll Optical Mouse
Free 15 month McAfee Security SW upgrade
Windows® XP Professional, SP2

Or
for £388
Pentium® 4 Processor 630 with HT technology (3.00GHz, 800MHz fsb, 2MB cache)
Windows® XP Home Edition, SP2
512MB Dual Channel DDR2 RAM
80GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive
16x max. DVD+/-RW Drive
15" Flat Panel Monitor

You might want to upgrade the monitor on that though.

Ginner

Do pretty much the same as you and my pc's 7 yeas old and similar spec except;

PII 450, 50 Gig HD & windows 98.

Not planning to upgrade for another year or two yet.

only fools and horses buy from del.

299*
no income tax, no VAT, no money back, no guarantee,

Avoid intel chips, they run far to hot to be reliable in the long term. When they overheat they throttle, so you don't even notice (except they're going slow). You'll end up with a slightly dusty fan in 1 year and you 3.6 ghz chip will be going at 1.2ghz.

Thanks for the comments everyone.
...it's overkill....
Yeah, I realise that, but I'm looking for a PC that will last me at least another 5 years so I want something a little OTT for my current requirements.
I guess I want to try to legislate for how my PC usage may change (or may not), or how software/web browsing may change. I would hope this spec would not be found wanting in a few years time.

@Longcol - I keep reasonably good basic care of my current PC (regular defrags, upto date AV, clear down unneccesary files etc) but the crashes and hangs have become more and more frequent.
I understand Win ME wasn't MS' best offering and I'm a little concerned it becomes completely non-supported from June '06 (as does Win98). I know that could be sorted by changing OS, but I just think the PC in general is tired. I wouldn't fancy putting XP on it. Manipulating and burning images and video has become a real ball-ache.
It's definately feeling the strain even under everyday useage.

only fools and horses buy from del.
I looked at Dell originally but was pointed in the direction of this one as it has decent branded components (well, at least those listed).

Anyone got any experience of Overclockers pre-built systems and service?

overclockers is a decent brand, but so is dell. Future proofing is a sensible plan, but why spend £500 more than you need too now, you could simply spend £500 now and £500 in 3 years time, the 2nd pc you bought would be more powerful at that price than a £1000 pc bought today, and you'd have had £500 in your pocket for 3 years longer.

overclockers is a decent brand, but so is dell. Future proofing is a sensible plan, but why spend £500 more than you need too now, you could simply spend £500 now and £500 in 3 years time, the 2nd pc you bought would be more powerful at that price than a £1000 pc bought today, and you'd have had £500 in your pocket for 3 years longer.
Yeah. I see that logic. The c£400 example you gave above would wipe the floor with what I have now, which cost double that amount 4ish years ago.

Mmmm. Food for thought. I think I need to go try some examples out to see what a 'modern' PC can do.

Thanks for everyone's input.

try a local computer shop rather than buying off the internet; they can normally be pretty competitive, and a decent one like 'the real computer shop' on ecclesall road has staff that actually know what they are on about...but without talkin all techy!

much better for advice, and support - no dodgy call centres, you can pop in or call up anytime -

Dell's quality control is patchy at best, and the others like overclockers tend to have crap returns policies - i.e be lucky to get through to anyone if anything goes wrong, and swapping parts might take weeks...

and certainly avoid the pc-world/dixons bunch - don't go that route!

whatever you decide to do, good luck;)

I would also reccomend avoiding Intel and nVidia, I have nothing but bad experiences with both of them...

Funny that...Ive had nothing but good with Nvidia, and bad with ATI.

You're always going to get Intel vs AMD and nVidia vs ATi debates but that's not what is being asked.

I'd say, decide a budget and do some research on getting the best components or system for your money :) Any new computer you buy today will be fine for what you want to use it for. Just try and get at least 512Mb RAM and as big a hard drive as you can afford if you want to store all your music and photos etc.

If you can it might be worth getting either XP Pro or XP MCE2005 as they have better networking features, though there's a list of differences somewhere on Microsoft's website.

If you want to try a local pc shop, we've got some great kit over here at Very PC. 399 Langsett Rd hillsborough.

I would say that computer looks great if you have the cash. DON'T buy Dell, Dell make cheap crap. It's good if you want cheap crap but avoid their more expensive stuff, they are still very badly made with poor quality components, but they cost more. Otherwise ask Pete to make you something of a similar spec and see if he can produce the goods. :)

Dell sell extremely well priced kit with a 3 year warranty. It's not going to win any awards for cutting edge design or blistering performance, but it's well put together, well supported (compared to most etailers anyway) and very well priced.

Some headlines from bbc about dell:

* Dell to employ 50% more in India

* PC giant Dell sees profits fall

"Competition in the personal computer market is fierce
The world's largest maker of personal computers, Dell, has reported a fall in third-quarter profits after taking a charge to repair faulty parts

.... $300m for repairing faulty parts in business machines.

Earlier this month Dell said sales had missed forecasts amid weaker demand for PCs in the US and UK.

Sales for the quarter were $13.9bn, compared with forecasts of nearer $14.1bn. "


(Thats well over 2% of they're turnover.)


"Not good enough?
Dell has been cutting costs as it seeks to head off tough competition from rivals such as Hewlett-Packard. "

Also, check this out, it's quite widely claimed that dell installed spyware as standard on new pc's, supposidly having an undercover contract with a spyware company.

http://www.dailygadget.com/2005/05/dell-installing-its-own-spyware.html

Dell PC's are crap, ask any of the people who bought a Dell GX260 for example. Infact anything with a Dell motherboard...!

How about anyone with a dell that doesn't have a dell specific motherboard?
PC world are crap, dell sell what you expect for the prices they charge. Oh and the 3 year warranty suggests that they must have at least a little confidence in their own machines.

Hi everyone.

Thanks for all the input, both via thread and PM. It's given me food for thought....

In the meantime can I ask that this thread doesn't descend into a Dell v's PC World v's independant retailer or AMD v's Intel arguement.
I think those discussions have taken place on other threads, tend to go round and round in circles, and wasn't what I was asking for.

Once again, thanks for the advice :thumbsup:

You're going to love the difference between ME and XP!!