Ok people, need a hand here.

 

I'm getting a nice new PC tonight, now I've got a choice of 2 I can get at mate's rates ;)...

 

 

Choice 1 - £449

 

Product Features

Intel Celeron 2.2GHz Processor

256Mb RAM

60 Gb Hard Drive

16x DVD Drive

24x CDRW Drive

64Mb Shared Graphics card

17" Monitor (15.7" V.I.S.)

4 USB connections

Windows XP Home Edition

1 Year FREE Onsite Warranty

 

Choice 2 - £649

 

Product Features

Intel Celeron 2.4GHz Processor

256 Mb DDR RAM Memory

80 Gb Hard Drive

DVD-RW Drive

64 Mb Shared Graphics

15" TFT Monitor

3 No of PCI Slots

4 No of USB connections

Windows XP Home Operating system

1 Year Free Onsite Warranty

 

Both are Packard Bell and come with the same Win XP and software, but are the extras/upgrades on 2 worth paying the extra £200 for? And do I really need them? :D

 

Thanks :)

 

Pete

Do you wanna play games or just use it for home use?

 

Games = expensive option as faster processor

Homes = Cheaper option.

Would like to get broadband for gaming, would there be a noticeable difference between the 2 processors?

neither!!

 

i wouldnt get a system with on board graphics! but thats just me

Originally posted by Paul C

neither!!

 

i wouldnt get a system with on board graphics! but thats just me

 

What are they? Whats the difference?

 

Cheers

 

Pete

If you wan't to play games, then I suggest you get one with a Geeforce 4 card, otherwise, go someplace else.

 

Mike

Just to echo what others have said - if you want to play games on it, dont' get one with onboard graphics.

 

What that probably means is that;

 

a) It's a slowass graphics chipset

b) It uses part of the main memory (part of that oh-so-impressive sounding 256Mb) as it's graphics memory. So not only are you using really slow (comparitively) memory for the graphics storage, you're also losing memory that could be used to run the program.

 

 

I'd also say;

 

For the love of god man, don't buy a Packard Bell!

 

:)

Its not just the processor thats extra, the memory is ddr, better, the hard disk is 80gb, 20gb bigger = more storage. The screen is 15" TFT so very flat and easy to put somewhere. The dvd drive is a re-writable one so you can write DVD's and have a lot more storage on them !

 

Don't worry about an on-board graphics card, it just means its already built in, not ideal but it is 64mb which is fine and you can upgrade later and turn it off !

 

I do agree with the others though that Packard Bells can be a nightmare !!! BE WARNED.

 

Olly.

See if you can get a different graphics card for it, instead of the extra 20GB HDD space. It will make all the difference ;)

 

Go for the GeForce 4ti card as suggested above.

 

TFT screens are VVV nice :)

 

Not a great deal of difference between the 2.2 and the 2.4 celeron chip, its just a little faster.

TFT screen are not VVV nice. They are VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV Nice:) No more eye strain.

 

The larger hard drive would be good news. The latest software offering (games or otherwise) eat hard disk space.

 

Under no circumstances go for a graphic card that uses onboard memory. Performance will be crap.

 

Have a look at Mesh computers. They are consistently high in the value for money stakes. I have two which I use for working from home, so reliability is an issue. They have never let me down.

Another thing to consider as well as all the other stuff thats been mentioned is how long your gonna spend infront of the screen and if you tend to get head aches or not this is due to the flicker (or refresh rate of the monitor) which is much better on the tft and therefore you will suffer less from head aches.

Secondly For me there would be no choice it would have to be the second as the first is only expandable by USB while the second has the onboard pci slots which will basically allow you to expand to anything you like at a latter date ie better graphics network card sound cards etc etc

 

Enjoy which ever way you go

Glyn

forget about the GeForce Ti, there old hat!! get a GeForce FX card!!! :D

 

id also go for an AMD athlon system - far more performance per pound

 

those 2 systems are entry level spec now days & theres some good deals out there so shop around

 

like was said, try Mesh - very good company, or Evesham Vale, also very good

 

Packard Hell sucks!!!

The first system is better value. There is a 'But'

 

1 - Unless you are stuck for space then a crt flat screen monitor

is better value £/£. (Make sure you get a flat screen)

2 - If you are serious about gaming then get the biggest screen

that you can afford or even a bit more than you can afford;

19" is good. Look for 0.25 dot pitch

3 - Games need POWER so go for the Athlon XP series cpu

4 - You'll need a high spec video board eg Geforce4 or similar

5 - Have you checked whether Broadband is available in your area?

6 - Unless you are really desperate and £500 is all you want to spend

then wait a bit, save up and spend more.

7 - If you go for a low spec system you will want to upgrade and

end up paying more than if you had it right first time.

8 - Trawl thro' eBay, there are some good bargains to be had.

9 - 512mb ram

10 - 60gig hd

Originally posted by Paul C

forget about the GeForce Ti, there old hat!! get a GeForce FX card!!! :D

 

id also go for an AMD athlon system - far more performance per pound

 

those 2 systems are entry level spec now days & theres some good deals out there so shop around

 

like was said, try Mesh - very good company, or Evesham Vale, also very good

 

Packard Hell sucks!!!

 

Do you know how much a decent GF FX car is, err, as much as the PC!!

 

Mike

True, however, you could go for the following:

 

Card MSI FX5600-VTDR128

From Simply 0870 727 2100

Price £106.00

 

Radeon based, not the fastest, but does come loaded with 3 games, and ViVo capability. Plus Digital or analogue video in.

 

What that means is, you can record TV to your PC (Pause live TV) and digitaly record your camcorder antics! ;)

 

For more info click on the link.Card info

Originally posted by Bigbscan

True, however, you could go for the following:

 

Card MSI FX5600-VTDR128

From Simply 0870 727 2100

Price £106.00

 

Radeon based, not the fastest, but does come loaded with 3 games, and ViVo capability. Plus Digital or analogue video in.

 

What that means is, you can record TV to your PC (Pause live TV) and digitaly record your camcorder antics! ;)

 

For more info click on the link.Card info

 

Beware, some of the cheap, GFFX card are about on par with a fast GF3 card. I would recommend a GF4 4800SE, there as 'cheap as chips'

 

Mike

I'd also recommending looking at the ready-built systems that Aria sell (http://www.aria.co.uk/newAriaSystems.asp) - they seem to be quite an efficient company, and all the kit for my latest PC came from there.

 

(Also lots of gadgets and stuff if you fancy getting into overclocking)

 

And personally, I went for an ABit Siluro GeForce FX5800 graphics card.. (http://www.aria.co.uk/ProductInfoComm.asp?ID=7894) But it was a tad pricey :D

i used to work in pc world and to behonest your best bet is go for an Advent system if u really must get it from them

 

for decent online gaming depending on what games u play u would need a minimum of

 

512 ram pref ddr

2 gig cpu, NOT celeron tho

an xp 2400 would be ideal or above

and at least a gforce 4

 

hd drive down to personal pref but min of 60 these days

i mainly play ut2003 and spearhead and my system of

512 ddr

xp 2800

gf 4200

give well over 100 fps online.

you;ll probably find there shipped with the mx series cards tho which arnt that good.

hope this helps

Originally posted by Herman Munster

Beware, some of the cheap, GFFX card are about on par with a fast GF3 card. I would recommend a GF4 4800SE, there as 'cheap as chips'

 

Mike

 

Very true, the MX badged ones are not up to scratch.

 

However, the MSI one was the one I suggested because of the balence of performance and cost, plus it came second in the PC Pro review :)

 

The fastest is the PNY Verto GeForce FX 5900 Ultra. However, you would be paying in excess of £350 for it.

 

Getting back to the point though, pay the most money you can afford. You will get a PC that will last you longer before you need to upgrade.

 

Personaly, I would never buy an off the shelf PC, I build my own. But if you dont have friends with PC knowledge, you should buy one with a good reputation for after sales support. That way, you can feel better at ease incase anything went wrong.

 

Just my 2p worth :)

Originally posted by Paul C

forget about the GeForce Ti, there old hat!! get a GeForce FX card!!! :D

 

With the greatest respect you are very very wrong.

Check your local paper for computer fairs and go and have a look they sell ready built systems or all the components you need and are usually very cheap.

 

Also unless you intend to copy DVD's there is no real point in getting a DVD writer just ensure you get a fast Cd writer.

 

I also agree with earlier comments about getting an athlon and if you can afford it get the new Barton chip from athlon (celeron is just a cheap and cheerful oentium wannabe).

DDR memory was really cheap recently and I picked up 512MB for

£38 so this is a cheap upgrade if you can't get a system with plenty in.

 

zedhot

Also something worth noting, don't just get any TFT monitor if you are going to be playing games, you'll get a major ghosting effect. This is because they don't update as quickly as crt's, make sure refresh time is 25ms or less.

Originally posted by senna

With the greatest respect you are very very wrong.

 

whys that?? i thought the latest FX cards were the fastet out (at the mo)

 

thanks for the respect tho ;)

Ok boys I went for secret Option number 3...

 

EMachines 410

 

Product Features

Intel Celeron 2.4GHz Processor

512Mb RAM

80Gb Hard Drive

48x CDRW drive

16x DVD ROM drive

64Mb ATi Radeon 9200 Graphics Card

6 USB Connections

3 PCI Slots

Windows XP Home Edition

1 Year FREE Onsite Warranty

 

It was £599, but I haggled a bit and got 15" Samsung TFT, half decent printer + USB cable for an extra £50 :D Bargain!

 

Is this a more suitable graphics card?

 

Trouble is now I've got to reconnect to BT Openworld on the new PC... :rolleyes:

 

Cheers for the help :)

 

Pete

Just bumping this old thread up from when I bought my pc :D

 

Right, now I want to upgrade my processor :D Any ideas what is good, to fit the spec above?

 

I've got 1.5GB Ram now, but still the oringal 2.4GHz Celeron. I've got not idea of the merits of Pentium/Celeron/Xeon etc, I know that more GHz is better ;) - any input would be ace cheers.

 

I just want a fast running pc, capable of opening huge folders with me having to sit and wait, and to be able to run a few applications at the same time without slowing up a lot. Don't do that much gaming on the pc, but it's been fine with what I have done :)

 

Cheers :bow:

 

Pete

Oh my god.

 

I just bought and made a PC for £700 ish that blows that away. wish id seen it earlier mate.

 

Go visit http://www.scan.co.uk they have without doubt the best deals out there and 1st rate customer service and backup