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Treacodactyl
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Sat Jan 08, 05 11:27 am Post subject: New PC

It's finally come to the time when I leave the old Pentium II behind and buy a new PC.

I have thought about upgrading an old unit, but as I also require a TFT monitor and windows XP it is cheaper to buy a whole new outfit.

In the past I have used Dell as I know people with them and compared to some companies people are happy with Dell.

I can justify a little extra expense as it will also be used for work, but I'm not going for a high end games PC as we don't play them. Just a good solid PC for surfing and writing.

The problem with Dell is that they 'give away' too many free deals that I don't need. At the moment there is a 'free' printer and a 19 inch TFT upgrade from 17 inch. As I don't need these things I either wait for another offer, which can take several weeks, or look for a different make. I am also not sure about a 3 year on site warrantee as some people say TFTs can be a little short lived but I don't need most of the back up as I can build a PC from scratch if I had to.

Does anyone have a favourite make? I'm almost tempted just to pick up a cheap PC from one of the large PC shops and then build another with an old unit as it would be useful to get to grips with networking. Has anyone any good / bad experience with the large PC shops?

Finally, what do people think of the TFT screens. Some I've seen are a bit unclear while others are very good.

jema
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28238
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sat Jan 08, 05 11:44 am Post subject:

With prices as low as they are getting, it is at least not an area where mistakes can be as painful as they were in the past

Shop carefully and you will not see that radically a cost cut next week I hope.

It is also the case, that if you are not playing games/dvds and just want a browser/word processor, then the spec hardly matters.

For this type of work, I much prefer the tft I have. As you probably know I work a tft and crt side by side, so you can drag windows from one screen to the other. I read emails on the crt, but generally type and browse with my mediocre tft.

tft's do still vary a lot in quality. the contrast, response times and colour are all factors. When we were doing the colours for this site, I often got at cross purposes with Tahir as my tft did not show differences in colour that he could see.

So what should you do? Well you do know that a reasonably good spec machine without the fairly pointless warrenties can be had with xp and a tft for around the �300 mark delivered. I'd have a look round the shops and see if they come close. having alook of course at things like keyboard quality.

If nothing does, then Dell is a fairly safe bet.

jema

mrutty

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 1578

Posted: Sat Jan 08, 05 12:20 pm Post subject:
Ebuyer have some good deals on bare bones then just add a good screen.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Sat Jan 08, 05 12:55 pm Post subject:
Would a modern motherboard fit into a 4-5 year old chassis? The upgrade path does appeal to me but I don't even have a CD writer so I would be buying everything apart from a floppy drive, mouse and keyboard. I also need XP Pro for work, that on it's own costs a fortune although you can get it bundled with a CPU. Spec would matter a bit for image editing and work.

neilk

Joined: 24 Nov 2004
Posts: 241

Posted: Sat Jan 08, 05 1:06 pm Post subject:

With prices coming down so much I wouldn't bother at all about 3 year warranties, even if like you say, TFTs may be short lived. Mine's about 4 years old and still going strong and perfectly fine. I can't play games on it, you'd need a 16ms response time or lower for that, but it also sounds like that's not an issue for you. The cheapest 17" tft is a little over �130 ATM I think, so they're cheap to replace.

Dell do have a lot of cheap deals - mine's a dell. When pricing up, it may be worth considering going for the deal and then selling the printer/scanner/components you don't need on Ebay.

Also, definitely consider the cheaper ~�300 deals from Dell and upgrading with components from Ebuyer - that works out at way cheaper than letting Dell upgrade your system.

Just had a quick look at www.dell.co.uk/tv:

DimensionTM 2400
Intel� Celeron� Processor (2.40GHz, 128kB cache, 400MHz FSB)
Microsoft� Windows� XP Home Edition
15" Analogue Flat Panel Monitor (15.0" v.i.s.)
Free Dell 720 colour Printer
Save �50 (inc VAT)
From:
~~�429~~
�379
Price inc. VAT & Del. Save �50.
Due to End 12/01/2005.
Pay Nothing for 12 months

Have a look at www.dell.co.uk/outlet for some reasonable deals from time to time.

HTH

PS Don't forget stuff like XP can be obtained by more dubious means.....

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28238
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sat Jan 08, 05 1:09 pm Post subject:

neilk wrote:

PS Don't forget stuff like XP can be obtained by more dubious means.....

But only if you are prepared to risk not being able to get the security updates at some stage. Not a good idea IMHO.

jema

sean
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Sat Jan 08, 05 1:16 pm Post subject:

jema wrote:

neilk wrote:

PS Don't forget stuff like XP can be obtained by more dubious means.....

But only if you are prepared to risk not being able to get the security updates at some stage. Not a good idea IMHO.

jema

Aha, the makings of a conspiracy theory......it's what the web's for

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Sat Jan 08, 05 1:23 pm Post subject:

I'm actually one of the only people I know that runs all legal software.

I will actually try an use Linux as much as possible but XP Pro is for me to learn (I'm already viewed an XP expert at work after only using for a couple of months

but this may help in some more work

) so I would like to be legal on that.

I've looked at Dell today, but the system I like comes with the free printer and 19 inch TFT. I'd rather just have some extra memory but they don't do that.

I use 19 & a 21 inch TFT at work and just don't need the extra inches

One thought, how easy is it to run two 15 inch TFTs in XP? Would this be as good as one 17 inch, it would be about the same price and would be ideal if one failed or for use on another PC.

I agree about the warrantee, especially as we'll have a backup PC.

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28238
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sat Jan 08, 05 2:11 pm Post subject:

Treacodactyl wrote:

Assuming the graphics card supports it, it is built in. Running two monitors is the coolest the useful thing I have done on the PC in a very long time

Just now as I'm typing this, I glance right and see an email notification that you or someone has replied on another thread for example

jema

culpepper

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 638
Location: Kent

Posted: Sat Jan 08, 05 2:44 pm Post subject:

Hub is an imaging technician for gettys picture library, they use CRT screens because the flat tubes are limited in resolution and can lose pixels. May be worth keeping in mind if you are wanting to do picture editing.

Re will a new mobo fit in an old case....
Depends on the format of the case and motherboard.
We had 2 mini AT format pcs about 5 years ago and when we upgraded them, both new mobos were too big for the old case, however ATX cases are quite cheap. Not sure if mini mobos would fit the old cases but they are limited in upgradability.

mrutty

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 1578

Posted: Sat Jan 08, 05 6:22 pm Post subject:

Treacodactyl wrote:

Would a modern motherboard fit into a 4-5 year old chassis? The upgrade path does appeal to me but I don't even have a CD writer so I would be buying everything apart from a floppy drive, mouse and keyboard.

I also need XP Pro for work, that on it's own costs a fortune although you can get it bundled with a CPU.

Spec would matter a bit for image editing and work.

Yes a new notherboard would fit, but you might have to swap out the PSU. I was think more along this sort of barebones system where you'd use your current kvm. You could add a CDRW at the same time. Most ship with XP

neilk

Joined: 24 Nov 2004
Posts: 241

Posted: Sat Jan 08, 05 6:40 pm Post subject:

With regard to the hooky software and updates - just depends how hooky it is, doesn't it?

But I will qualify that, and say that my two copies of XP are legit!

I imagine you'd need to fit another graphics card for two monitors - I had to - doddle though and cheap as chips - unless your current graphics card has two outputs.

By the sounds of it, I have a similar set up to Jema - one 15" tft and a 15" crt - he's right, it is very good - would be better with two tfts, but beggars can't be choosers - a doddle to set up in XP too.

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28238
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sat Jan 08, 05 6:50 pm Post subject:

neilk wrote:

By the sounds of it, I have a similar set up to Jema - one 15" tft and a 15" crt - he's right, it is very good - would be better with two tfts, but beggars can't be choosers - a doddle to set up in XP too.

can't resist a "mines bigger than yours" I have 17" tft and 19" monitor which of course by the strange logic of size measurement means that they are very close in size, which helps make it a little more seamless.

jema

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Sat Jan 08, 05 6:50 pm Post subject:

Good point about the graphics card, but this would be easy, I was worried about finding out if a computer would be capable of using two monitors but this seems a good back up plan.

The problem with buying a bare bones PC is that I will not be reusing the old case, PSU fans etc and that seems wasteful (I've got three to choose from

) and I may as well go for a complete system as, last time I added up the bits, it costs about the same.

I'll make a list, take a trip round a large PC shop and look at the links provided and see.

Thanks for all the tips.

If anyone else has any comments, keep them comming!

mrutty

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 1578

Posted: Sat Jan 08, 05 7:00 pm Post subject:
Why not wack the tower into a cheap file server, cheap motherboard �25, low spec AMD CPU and fan �40 RAM and huge HD. I'm just about to set one up for all my ripped CDs

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