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"So I'm buying a new PC"

Brand spanker, off the shelf, well, sort of.

A Dell XPS Dimension with various additions I stipulated. Yes I'm getting my pants pulled down over the price, but I'm a lazy git and I can't be assed either building or saving up for the parts to build my own.

I had a look at Alienwares efforts, but I don't have Liberias defecit in my sky rocket so this monkey will do.

I'm quite happy with what I have created, it's sorely needed as the memory on my wind up fossil here has died and I'm basically sick of the sight of it.

The only real reason I'm telling you is in case you guys have some better suggestions for the use of £1800 with regards to a PC.

I'm talking ready built, not parts. I am more than capable of building one up, but of course I'm a lazy bast so off the shelf is preferable.

Also, how much will I get for :

Pentium 700Mhz
256meg RAM
MX440 GFX Card
No frills sound card
17" monitor
20 gig HD
all the rest fairly standard, but is a full system.

Only £171 over you budget, but here's my current home build:


Lian Li PC 71 Aluminium Full-Tower (No PSU) - £146.88
Antec NeoPower 480w - £88.07
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) - £129.19
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester 90nm (Socket 939) - £199.69
Corsair 1GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX (2x512MB) CAS2 - £152.69
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 160GB 6Y160MO SATA 8MB Cache - OEM- -£59.34
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 160GB 6Y160MO SATA 8MB Cache - OEM- -£59.34
Samsung SW-252F 52x/52x/32x CD-ReWriter (Black) - OEM - £16.92
Samsung TSH-552B 16X Dual Layer DVD±RW ReWriter (Black) - OEM - £46.94
Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 XT 256MB DDR3 VIVO TV-Out/DVI (PCIe) - £328.94
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS 7.1 THX - OEM - £52.76
Viewsonic VP201s Pro Series 20.1" LCD - 1600x1200 - £634.50
Logitech MX1000 Laser Cordless Mouse - £46.94

£1,962.20

Gone a bit OTT with the case option, may go with the Eclipse62/SavRow instead at half the price, but the PC71 is one damn sexy case!

Obviously if you drop the monitor too, to something a little more sensible, then more room to play with, I've just gone excessive as I really do need the 1600x1200 now that my freelancing has taken off.

FWIW, is there a major difference in performance between the Clawhammer, Winchester and Newcastle?

Was origonally going to go for the Newcastle 64/3800+ but head that the Winchesters are a lot better?

Erm, admittedly i got a little carried away.

Asus A8N-SLi Deluxe nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-087-AS)
£159.95 £159.95
Crucial 1GB (2x512MB) DDR PC3200 Ballistix Dual Channel Kit (MY-033-CR)
£149.95 £149.95
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 NCQ 300GB 6B300SO SATA 16MB Cache - OEM (6B300S0) (HD-040-MD)
£114.95 £114.95
Leadtek GeForce 6800 GT 256MB DDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-049-LT)
£259.95 £519.90
Viewsonic VX912B X Series 19" LCD Monitor - Black (MO-014-VS)
£339.30 £339.30
Coolermaster Wave Master - Silver (No PSU) (CA-037-CM)
£87.50 £87.50
Antec TruePower 480W PSU (CA-017-AN)
£63.50 £63.50
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Winchester 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-097-AM) (CP-097-AM)
£119.95 £119.95
Subtotal £1,555.00
VAT £272.13
Total £1,827.13

You would need a dvd drive, mouse and keyboard. But 2 geforce 6800 GT's in SLI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nimco wrote:
> Try Mesh Computers. You can get a system like the one you're getting
> for about £400 less.

Go for Mesh if your into bad Customer Service and support. PC's aren't to bad, though slightly over priced.

Have a look at Evesham PC's, excellent pricing, good build options and the best support I've ever had with a system.

Other wise, DIY. With a budget of £1800, you can build a system close to my latest project (-monitor) which will see you for a long time.

Try Mesh Computers. You can get a system like the one you're getting for about £400 less.

If you want to play games, best performance (and best bang to buck) is to be found in an Athlon 64 based system. And Dell are expensive. Overly so. Look around a bit, you can get better for less money.

As for your current PC, not much. If the processor is a Slot 1 processor as opposed to a socket 370 Pentium 3, then it would be worth a bit more if you flog the bits on ebay. Slot 1 CPUs held their value better.

unknown kernel wrote:
> Er, I'm quite drunk so this isn't the best time to ask me. (Edit:
> this IS the time to ask me whether quite ugly women are quite fit.
> The answer is yes.)

Forever preserved!! (So you can't edit it tomorrow!) Excellent :-)

I am quite drunk also, have to say I'm quite enjoying it.

I haven't signed anything yet so it's ok. I have a week to think about it, I shall find a system of unimaginable power by then. :)

Er, I'm quite drunk so this isn't the best time to ask me. (Edit: this IS the time to ask me whether quite ugly women are quite fit. The answer is yes.) I wouldn't buy a Dell myself because they tend to use non-standard components, or at least they used to, so they're a pain to upgrade. And I think they also moved their customer service to India, and last I heard the people on the other end of the phone didn't know what they were talking about. Might be different now but if I was looking for a stress free PC I'd buy elsewhere.

well I could build it. how much would it cost, in your opinion, to build a system like this :

[URL]http://www.hardwarecentral.com/hardwarecentral/reviews/4838/1/[/URL]

CPU : 3.4GHZ Pentium 4
Radeon 256meg 8600 GFX
SATA RAID 2x 74Ghz drives
19" monitor
etc

I meant 'lovable git', by the way. Couldn't you get some geek who does have a lot of time on his hands to build it for you for fifty squid?