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I always buy my PC's off this guy I know called Ray. He's really reliable and proffesional at buiding PC's. I gave him some specs for a new PC and he said he could do all of them except, he said that the Pentium4 chip and 3000mghz board costs around 400-500 alone.
So he suggested that I get a 2.4ghz PC as it's a lot cheaper and most of the games nowadays have a 600mghz minimum requirement speed. So he said that in roughly 5 years, the minimum requirement might just be up to about 2ghz. And we always change our PC's after about 5 years anyway.
The other specs are:
512MB
80GB
GeForce 4 Titanium 4200 128MB DDR graphics card with free games.
No modem as we have Broadband
Sound Blaster Live 5.1 Dolby Digital sound card
Microsoft Windows XP home edition
Surround sound speakers.
And obviousley all the other programs like Word, paint and Excel.
He said he could build that for £1098
Do you think it's a good deal?
One I saw in Pc world which I was interested in had all of the above except surround sound speakers and the speed was 3.6ghz. BUT, it was by a company called Advent and I'd never heard of them.
So I asked Ray and he said the problem with Advent is that they build all of their components onto the mother board so if one goes wrong, they all go wrong where as Ray builds all of his stuff separately into it. He also creates drives C, D, E, F and G each with like 15GBs on them so again if I got a virus on one drive, wouldn't have to format the whole comp.
Oh I'm waffling on, anyway, do you think it's a good deal for £1098?
Thanks.
So he suggested that I get a 2.4ghz PC as it's a lot cheaper and most of the games nowadays have a 600mghz minimum requirement speed. So he said that in roughly 5 years, the minimum requirement might just be up to about 2ghz. And we always change our PC's after about 5 years anyway.
The other specs are:
512MB
80GB
GeForce 4 Titanium 4200 128MB DDR graphics card with free games.
No modem as we have Broadband
Sound Blaster Live 5.1 Dolby Digital sound card
Microsoft Windows XP home edition
Surround sound speakers.
And obviousley all the other programs like Word, paint and Excel.
He said he could build that for £1098
Do you think it's a good deal?
One I saw in Pc world which I was interested in had all of the above except surround sound speakers and the speed was 3.6ghz. BUT, it was by a company called Advent and I'd never heard of them.
So I asked Ray and he said the problem with Advent is that they build all of their components onto the mother board so if one goes wrong, they all go wrong where as Ray builds all of his stuff separately into it. He also creates drives C, D, E, F and G each with like 15GBs on them so again if I got a virus on one drive, wouldn't have to format the whole comp.
Oh I'm waffling on, anyway, do you think it's a good deal for £1098?
Thanks.
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TFT screens rock!
Ive got one here. The picture quality really is fantastic compared to the CRT monitors.
Ive got one here. The picture quality really is fantastic compared to the CRT monitors.
And you'd better be getting DVD/CDRW with that :O]
First of all, I congratulate you in going to a person who knows about PCs, rather than popping down Currys or whatever. Ray is right when he says his PCs are incomparably better than what you might find in PC World.
Now, as to the PC spec you've listed, it could be a good or moderately bad deal depending on the exact details of what you get. First of all, is the software licensed? A private seller will often bundle unlicensed software, which can be a good thing - as long as you get that money off, or spent on other things. Bear in mind that Word and Excel aren't a part of Windows, but of Microsoft Office, which is like an extra £200. Find out if you are paying for this, and consider whether you really need it.
Secondly, what about the monitor? You want either a 17" CRT or 15" TFT (CRT are the bulky old style, CRT are the wafer thin jobbies :O) as an absolute minimum, and tbh a big monitor on an average PC far outclasses an average monitor on a fast PC. If that setup comes with a 19" (or possibly even a 21", they are as little as £220 on letsbuyit.com) monitor then that's a bonus.
Ray is right about the processor speeds as well - you will pay through your nose for a 3Ghz PC, and the only difference between it and a 1Ghz PC is that one will load Word in a blink of an eye and the other will do it in a fraction of a blink of an eye. 2.4Ghz is right on the edge of the realms of affordability (the threshold at which buying faster means throwing money away) - I assume he means a Pentium 4? A 2.4Ghz Athlon XP is spectacularly rapid, more so than you require, so if he's building you an 2.4Ghz Athlon system you might want to ask him to put together something a little cheaper.
Beyond that, it entirely depends on component quality - make sure he isn't putting in some crapola 300W power supply and a case made of tin foil, you want 400W minimum in a machine like that.
I build my own systems and some for other people, and I recently specced up a machine for a friends Dad that was roughly similar to that spec you listed, except it had a 2Ghz Athlon, a cheaper graphics card and unlicensed copies of Windows XP and Office. It came to roughly £800. If he's giving you all that you listed, plus a 19" monitor and licensed copies of Windows and Office, then that's a good deal.
Now, as to the PC spec you've listed, it could be a good or moderately bad deal depending on the exact details of what you get. First of all, is the software licensed? A private seller will often bundle unlicensed software, which can be a good thing - as long as you get that money off, or spent on other things. Bear in mind that Word and Excel aren't a part of Windows, but of Microsoft Office, which is like an extra £200. Find out if you are paying for this, and consider whether you really need it.
Secondly, what about the monitor? You want either a 17" CRT or 15" TFT (CRT are the bulky old style, CRT are the wafer thin jobbies :O) as an absolute minimum, and tbh a big monitor on an average PC far outclasses an average monitor on a fast PC. If that setup comes with a 19" (or possibly even a 21", they are as little as £220 on letsbuyit.com) monitor then that's a bonus.
Ray is right about the processor speeds as well - you will pay through your nose for a 3Ghz PC, and the only difference between it and a 1Ghz PC is that one will load Word in a blink of an eye and the other will do it in a fraction of a blink of an eye. 2.4Ghz is right on the edge of the realms of affordability (the threshold at which buying faster means throwing money away) - I assume he means a Pentium 4? A 2.4Ghz Athlon XP is spectacularly rapid, more so than you require, so if he's building you an 2.4Ghz Athlon system you might want to ask him to put together something a little cheaper.
Beyond that, it entirely depends on component quality - make sure he isn't putting in some crapola 300W power supply and a case made of tin foil, you want 400W minimum in a machine like that.
I build my own systems and some for other people, and I recently specced up a machine for a friends Dad that was roughly similar to that spec you listed, except it had a 2Ghz Athlon, a cheaper graphics card and unlicensed copies of Windows XP and Office. It came to roughly £800. If he's giving you all that you listed, plus a 19" monitor and licensed copies of Windows and Office, then that's a good deal.
But Gerrids also right, you're all saying wait for a few months then get it cos the price will drop. But then they'll release somit higher and I'll just say I'll wait some more. And anyway, 200mghz doesn't make much difference. Games won't require 2ghz minimum for at least another 3 to 4 years.
I remember when I got this comp like 5 years ago and the minimum requirement for Half-life was like 300mghz and today SOF2 requires at least a 450. And thats 5 years later. So if you see what I mean, you don't need a mega powerful one right now.
I remember when I got this comp like 5 years ago and the minimum requirement for Half-life was like 300mghz and today SOF2 requires at least a 450. And thats 5 years later. So if you see what I mean, you don't need a mega powerful one right now.
froots wrote:
> Possum in a bottle wrote:
> One I saw in Pc world which I was interested in had all of the above
> except surround sound speakers and the speed was 3.6ghz. BUT, it was
> by a company called Advent and I'd never heard of them.
>
> Right, firstly, 3.6ghz? Are you absolutely positive?
Yes Froots, I'm absolutely positive.
> Possum in a bottle wrote:
> One I saw in Pc world which I was interested in had all of the above
> except surround sound speakers and the speed was 3.6ghz. BUT, it was
> by a company called Advent and I'd never heard of them.
>
> Right, firstly, 3.6ghz? Are you absolutely positive?
Yes Froots, I'm absolutely positive.
gerrid wrote:
And the problem you are going to encounter from buying a PC from a
> small time manufacturer, such as this Ray, is that he won't give you
> any support if it breaks. Also, building a computer from scratch by
> hand causes many problems if it breaks, as the components aren't
> integrated, as they would be in a manufactured PC, and so it would be
> harder to isolate and fix the problem, and more expensive.
> Large companiees like Dell and Msh provide excellent support, and if
> something does go wrong, it will be much simpler to fix, and they will
> do it for you if you can't sort it out yourself.
Er.. . . as I said earlier, Ray is very reliable and he DOES support us if things go wrong. He has come round many times within the past 5 years to check up on our comp and I trust him much more that a computer company like Dell. Don't ask me why, he's just cool. And he buys the stuff and keeps the receipts and gets like Xyears guarantees on them so he can return them if they go wrong.
And the problem you are going to encounter from buying a PC from a
> small time manufacturer, such as this Ray, is that he won't give you
> any support if it breaks. Also, building a computer from scratch by
> hand causes many problems if it breaks, as the components aren't
> integrated, as they would be in a manufactured PC, and so it would be
> harder to isolate and fix the problem, and more expensive.
> Large companiees like Dell and Msh provide excellent support, and if
> something does go wrong, it will be much simpler to fix, and they will
> do it for you if you can't sort it out yourself.
Er.. . . as I said earlier, Ray is very reliable and he DOES support us if things go wrong. He has come round many times within the past 5 years to check up on our comp and I trust him much more that a computer company like Dell. Don't ask me why, he's just cool. And he buys the stuff and keeps the receipts and gets like Xyears guarantees on them so he can return them if they go wrong.
Yeah, should it not be 3.06 GHz?
Possum in a bottle wrote:
> One I saw in Pc world which I was interested in had all of the above
> except surround sound speakers and the speed was 3.6ghz. BUT, it was
> by a company called Advent and I'd never heard of them.
Right, firstly, 3.6ghz? Are you absolutely positive?
> Oh I'm waffling on, anyway, do you think it's a good deal for
> £1098?
Secondly, I don’t think that that’s a particularly fantastic price, no.
> One I saw in Pc world which I was interested in had all of the above
> except surround sound speakers and the speed was 3.6ghz. BUT, it was
> by a company called Advent and I'd never heard of them.
Right, firstly, 3.6ghz? Are you absolutely positive?
> Oh I'm waffling on, anyway, do you think it's a good deal for
> £1098?
Secondly, I don’t think that that’s a particularly fantastic price, no.
Well not worth it now eh o.O
AMD Athlon XP 2600 (2.13GHz)
ATX 400W Alum Midi Tower (AMD/P4)
512MB 333MHz DDR RAM Seagate 80GB Hard Drive 7,200RPM
CD Re-Writer 48/12/40 BURN PROOF
DVD-ROM Drive 16x Speed
1.44MB Floppy Disk Drive
128MB DDR GeForce4 Ti4400 AGP
Creative SndBlaster Audigy 2 Player
Network Card PCI 10/100
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
All for £1,000 i know some companies where the price of the pc drops as the price of each part change every week.
ATX 400W Alum Midi Tower (AMD/P4)
512MB 333MHz DDR RAM Seagate 80GB Hard Drive 7,200RPM
CD Re-Writer 48/12/40 BURN PROOF
DVD-ROM Drive 16x Speed
1.44MB Floppy Disk Drive
128MB DDR GeForce4 Ti4400 AGP
Creative SndBlaster Audigy 2 Player
Network Card PCI 10/100
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
All for £1,000 i know some companies where the price of the pc drops as the price of each part change every week.
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