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"Buying A New Computer Is A Little Harder Than Expected..."

Recently inspired by how easy and cheap it is to shop online from the States and an article in a PC mag, I've decided that it's too tempting just to get a new PC, with XP for my iTunes and A faster processor for my games. However, many queries arose after just a few minutes of investigation.

1) Win XP Pro

against

Win XP Home

What's the difference? I only skimmed over the specs of a couple of comps, but XP Pro seems to merit another 20 or so dollars. What makes it more pricey and would XP Home be perfectly good for my needs (see top of page)?

2) There's a manufacturer called Acer. Never heard of them myself, but do you guys know anything useful; reliability, etc. My current comp is an Evesham, although I would have prefered a Dell, and found out a treasure chest of problems. Like ME's inefficiency with system resources and how Eveshams over heat...

3) Anyone know the HMCE site better than me and can direct me to the import tax for computers or electricals in general.

Any help would be great!

:)

When I got my PC stuff, I got some of the bits from the buyer of E.

(Processor, motherboard)

Some other bits from planet-micro

(Case w/PSU, Hard Drive)

I got my RAM from crucial

And other little bits from eBay

(CDRW, Graphics card, CPU fan)

gamesfreak wrote:
> Pfft.
>
> After all that help I offered you this morning, now you want to build
> one!

And I can't thank you enough! But I want to see the difference between retail and build. From what I can see from "reyubE" I could get a top of the range computer for £600 USING MY VERY SKETCHY ADDING UP.

> And choose all of your gear from there.

Really. Surely you can hunt out cheaper places? Or is it like Amazon?

Nah. I fancy a 3.2 Pent 4.

What is the website address of this shop you speak of, rah?

Ebuyer.

You should use Ebuyer. Ebuyer are really good. I'd say Ebuyer are better than SR.
Yeah, use Ebuyer. Because Ebuyer are really really good.

Pfft.

After all that help I offered you this morning, now you want to build one!

Anyway, in my opinion, the best way to go about things is go to

*cough* ebuy *cough* er

(SR probably won't appreciate us talking about competitors etc)

And choose all of your gear from there.

Oh yeah and personally, I'd reccomend an Athlon XP processor more then anything.

I'm biased though, but they are a lot cheaper.

Tyla wrote:
> Some people just want the moon on a stick!

It's just so milky white god dammit!
:)

> Do you have you requirements sorted yet?

Basically upper end, but not beastly. I don't need monitor, keyboard, speakers. Just the tower.

-Pent 4 or equivalent
-noise isn't particular problem/ overheating is
-2.8 - 3.4GHz
etc.

> What's your budget?

£400-650

> What you planning on doing with your PC? Games, office/internet?

Suitable for Itunes and music, database heavy games (ie. not graphics heavy), DVDs, internet, Word and Powerpoint (no special image or graphics packages)

I'm looking for speed and XP more than anything else.

Some people just want the moon on a stick!

Here's a hint...

Find a stock PC you like the specs of, whether it be Alienware, DELL, IBM, Acer etc

Then take a trip to Overclockers UK or Ebuyer and select the individual components to match that pre built spec.

Keep tweaking until you got what you want for the budget/requirements you have.

Do you have you requirements sorted yet?
What's your budget?
What you planning on doing with your PC? Games, office/internet?

Everyone in here could spec you up a beast of a PC, but we all need more info to be able to keep within your constraints!

FWIW: (based on "oh, thats nice" theory

Akasa Eclipse-62 Aluminum Case
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express
AMD Athlon FX55 (Socket 939)
Corsair 1GB DDR XMS3200XL Pro TwinX (2x512MB) CAS2
Connect3D ATI Radeon X850 XT PE 256MB DDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-E)
2 x Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 250GB SATA 8MB Cache - OEM
Samsung TSH-552B 16 x 16 Dual Layer DVD±RW ReWriter
Apple 23" Cinema HD Widescreen LCD Monitor
Antec NeoPower 480W ATX2.0 PSU
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS 7.1 THX Sound Card - OEM
SpeedLink Powerstixx SL-8251 Ultra 5.1 90W Speakers
Logitech MX1000 Laser Cordless Mouse
Auravision EluminX Illuminated Keyboard - Black
Microsoft Windows XP Professional

= +/- £3000

EDIT:

Extra fans:

-where from
-how much

Operating System (XP):

-where from
-how much

Internal Modem:

-where from
-how much

thanks.

BUILDING A COMPUTER:

Case

-where from
-how much

Motherboard

-where from
-how much

Processor (about 3.0 GHz)

-where from
-how much

Memory

-where from
-how much

Video Card

-what exactly
-where from
-how much

Floppy disk drive/CD Drive (Play DVD + RW CD)

-where from
-how much

Hard Drive (40-80GB)

-where from
-how much

Sound Card

-what exactly
-where from
-how much

Drive cables

-where from
-how much

Also, anyone who has built a computer:

-how long did it take?
-how much did it cost?
-what problems did you experience?

Thanks.

It also brought up some past answers to the build/buy argument.