new pc advice

[richmagpies]

Probably been asked loads of times before on here but theres a few techies who might be able to help.....I've finally decided I've had enough of my slooooooooooow laptop which I've had for about 4 years and want to invest in a decent desktop now I have more space. Lappy is ok but the hard drive is almost full despite regular cleaning/defragging etc and it struggle when I have a coule of poker skins (especially ladbrokes), poker tracker and a couple of browsers open never mind if I want itunes or some video streaming at the same time. Its XP and has 750mb ram which is upgradeable to 1gb only.

What I want is a decent spec desktop with probably 3gb ram, decent processor, a decent hard drive say 300gb+, a 20 inch screen....something that can handle a couple of poker skins, poker tracker, a few browser screens and probably radio/itunes/bbc iplayer without grinding to a halt. Not that bothered about a super whizzy graphics card as not gonna be playing pc games. Anything like that around for about £500? Always had laptops previously but always seem to be able to get a lot more for your money if you buy a desktop?

Grateful for any ideas / places that do good deals!

Cheers!

[Graham C]

Dell do some great offers.  I'm not sure you can build your own for the price of a new Dell these days.  We've just got one at work and it's lovely.  Was around £600 without the monitor but it's sooper quick.

[lazaroonie]

Probably been asked loads of times before on here but theres a few techies who might be able to help.....I've finally decided I've had enough of my slooooooooooow laptop which I've had for about 4 years and want to invest in a decent desktop now I have more space. Lappy is ok but the hard drive is almost full despite regular cleaning/defragging etc and it struggle when I have a coule of poker skins (especially Ladbrokes), poker tracker and a couple of browsers open never mind if I want itunes or some video streaming at the same time. Its XP and has 750mb ram which is upgradeable to 1gb only.

What I want is a decent spec desktop with probably 3gb ram, decent processor, a decent hard drive say 300gb+, a 20 inch screen....something that can handle a couple of poker skins, poker tracker, a few browser screens and probably radio/itunes/bbc iplayer without grinding to a halt. Not that bothered about a super whizzy graphics card as not gonna be playing pc games. Anything like that around for about £500? Always had laptops previously but always seem to be able to get a lot more for your money if you buy a desktop?

Grateful for any ideas / places that do good deals!

Cheers!

if you are happy to have a 19inch monitor then you will get closer to your price range - above 19inch still seems to have a premium on the price.

Also using Athlon CPU over Intel will make it a bit cheaper.
If you are going to run XP then I would think 2gb ram will be sufficient, 4gb if you want vista.
Disks are cheap, but dont always go for cheapest per GB - a good drive will improve performance quite surprsingly.

Similarly a seperate graphics card (even if not a whizzy one) will take that task away from the memory and mainboard, for a big improvement.

If you are looking for an example spec and price, drop me a PM.

[Suited_Jock]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-084-OK&groupid=43&catid=1078&subcat=&name=%22Primo%20Lite%22%20AMD%20Athlon%20X2%205200+%202.60GHz%20SILENT%20DDR2%20System

Looks ok and definitely value.. No screen though

[richmagpies]

thanks for the advice guys - appreciated.

[Raindogs]

I got my monitor from this crowd and found them to be very good.  They are basically Dell resellers which means the stock they sell is Dell cancelled orders and is brand new.

http://www.sterlingxs.co.uk/scpages/desktopcomputers.html

The Optiplex range is good value as it is primarly aimed at business users and as such does not have as much expandability as a standard PC.  They are perfect if you are not playing PC games.  I would recommend the Optiplex 755 for £352 (inc VAT).

As regards a monitor I prefer a standard aspect monitor to a wide screen.  The pick of the bunch is the Dell 20" 2007FP which has a max resolution of 1600 x 1200 which is enough to run 4 tables without overlap.  This means it is an excellent monitor for viewing photos.

http://www.sterlingxs.co.uk/scpages/cheapdellultrasharpmonitors.html

[Acidmouse]

I think you have to understand about Dell resellers, they are selling them cheaper but its normally a much lower spec, last years etc.

The XPS laptops on that site go for 1.1k but its a good 12months old spec's they cant sell.

[FROGMOUTH]

I had the exact same problems you described about a month ago, so after a nice mtt score i got this:  http://www.pcnextday.co.uk/products/ProductDetail.asp?ProductCode=3362-3309&GroupCode=WVHPD

its lovely and so fast even when doing about 10 tasks, and very quiet too. not good for graphics or gaming but very quick and has not crashed once since i've had it. 4 tabling, uploading hands, itunes, downloading a torrent, orded it online and it came about 7 days later, i v pleased with it . all runs fine with no hiccups and very decent price imo.

[richmagpies]

I had the exact same problems you described about a month ago, so after a nice mtt score i got this:  http://www.pcnextday.co.uk/products/ProductDetail.asp?ProductCode=3362-3309&GroupCode=WVHPD

its lovely and so fast even when doing about 10 tasks, and very quiet too. not good for graphics or gaming but very quick and has not crashed once since i've had it. 4 tabling, uploading hands, itunes, downloading a torrent, orded it online and it came about 7 days later, i v pleased with it . all runs fine with no hiccups and very decent price imo.

Thanks mate - does look good and as I wont be playing loads of latest games would do the job...also cheaper than the Dell one i looked at. 

[richmagpies]

I had the exact same problems you described about a month ago, so after a nice mtt score i got this:  http://www.pcnextday.co.uk/products/ProductDetail.asp?ProductCode=3362-3309&GroupCode=WVHPD

its lovely and so fast even when doing about 10 tasks, and very quiet too. not good for graphics or gaming but very quick and has not crashed once since i've had it. 4 tabling, uploading hands, itunes, downloading a torrent, orded it online and it came about 7 days later, i v pleased with it . all runs fine with no hiccups and very decent price imo.

Thanks mate - does look good and as I wont be playing loads of latest games would do the job...also cheaper than the Dell one i looked at. 

Took the plunge and bought the same one as you frogmouth. was the best i could find at around the price i wanted to pay so thanks.