Hi guys

Computer packed up recently and is going to cost upwards of £100 to fix, now its getting a bit dated only 5 gig and 266mmx pent II. So my reconing is that is not worth spending money on it - but the screen and keyboard etc is fine.

Main requirements is internet access and enough power to play wolfenstein and half life (ithink 700 and above should be plenty) DVD while an advantage wouldn't be top of my list.

 

So what sort of money should I be looking at and where are the best places to go - second hand, recon etc is fine.

 

Thanks in anticipation

Mark

Find a local small company and get a ready built system from them if you don't want any hastle. The high street prices tend to be a couple of hundred over the odds and the customer support tends to be premium rate. Mail order is really good value and excellent systems but you can get pissed about something cronik.

 

If you know where they are you can go and shout at them if you have a problem.

 

Phil.

Be careful about mail order companies. Some don't offer Return Policies. My folks ordered one a while ago with what was listed as having a 17" monitor.

 

When received, it was a 14" screen. We rang to complain but they referred us to the small print in the inside cover of the magazine, about 400 pages away from the computer equipment pages which stated that monitor sizes are measured from the external edge of the frame! Not diagonally across the screen...

 

As there was nothing tecnically wrong with it, it couldn't be replaced.

 

Also, the modem failed after about a month. A phone call to the technical support people and various questions later illicited some disks being sent out with the instructions to insert Disk 1 and type in Format c:. Great support....

What's broke on the original system ? It might be a dead easy fix, but one that costs £100 when they want you to buy a new one !

 

I got a quote to fix my excellent, but 10 year old video and they said it was not economical. Well I got the repair kit, it cost me £11 and fitted it myself - sorted.

 

[This message has been edited by AndyP (edited 12-02-2002).]

for what it's worth, i frequently build pc / software setups for individuals and small businesses. Keep an eye on the market and if you're looking for good quality, good value PCs I'll recommend Dell any day. I've had a couple of problems with bits of kit (out of over a hundred PCs with all the others perfect is not too bad!) and both times it was fixed next day. Trick with Dell for a single purchase is to find a business PC (tends to be good spec without all the knobs on) deal in the papers or on their website www.dell.co.uk and upgrade it with whatever graphics cards, etc. you want. The business side of it results in excellent after care.

 

Another option, again reliable, is to go to someone like www.action.com. A few months ago they had some superb details; HP Brios were v good PCs and their replacements (Vectra, currently starting at around £400 without monitor) are rumoured to be just as good. You can pick up high quality monitors for a further £300; I'd recommend IIyama as I've had a few problems with Sonys and the IIyamas are just as good.

 

Hope this helps.

i've got a p3 850 with a 40 gig hard drive 256meg of pc133 ram an nvidia geforce 32 meg graphics card internal 56k modem cd rom/writer and 8-8-32 and a dvd rom and soundblaster live 1024 soundcard 2 usb ports and 2 game controller ports for £450 if ure interested......no monitor though its less than 18 months old and cost me £1300

I can build to order so if you decide on a spec I'll give you a price mate.