UK PCs for under £500, s & conceivably d but mostly s.

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Is dell my only option? I can't go barebones 'cos I need a screen and wouldn't mind a new mouse and keyboard and OS, all of mine are fairly grubby.

It doesn't have to be stellar - it's basically an email-checking and mix-cd-burning machine, but if it could run AOEIII semi-tolerably it'd be worth a bit extra. Warranty would be nice. Buying just before christmas is dumb, right? Dell have lots of offers that they claim end today, but I think they may be trying to play me.

I am lost at this.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 12:49 (twenty years ago)

http://www.savastore.com/productinfo/product.aspx?catalog_name=Savastore&product_id=10284434&pid=5&rstrat=3169

This looks okay for £499 inc vat, comes with 19" TFT monitor.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 12:55 (twenty years ago)

build your own

― simple solution, Wednesday, 23 November 2005 12:55 (twenty years ago)

ss everytime I look into that (I don't hate the idea at all) even parts come to way more (+labour +no warranty +no OS)

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 12:58 (twenty years ago)

you're looking at the wrong parts then. any self-build pc will be cheaper than a pre-built with the same parts. most of the time, pre-builds come with dodgy match-ups anyway. www.overclockers.co.uk had fairly decent prices. PC Format has a build your own PC for £500 article every fucking two months, try to get hold of a few old issues. otherwise, there are always websites and such to help out.
please don't get a dell! what kind of specs do you have now?
are you looking for top of the range, or mid-spec gaming machine? i can suggest a bunch of parts if you like.

― simple solution, Wednesday, 23 November 2005 13:04 (twenty years ago)

onimo that looks interesting, thanks!

ss I basically have no pc at the moment - my machine is eight years old and so riddled with Things That Don't Work I'd be scared to take anything across at all into a new machine. The PC Format tip is useful, thanks - I will look at overclockers now.

I'm looking for a mid-spec gaming machine, I think.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 13:07 (twenty years ago)

i want a laptop, cheap as possible. basically, to play around with linux on, nothing else. recommendations?

― terry lennox. (gareth), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 13:10 (twenty years ago)

ebay gareth? I got my portable-nethack-machine compaq from there for £100 and it works great.

ooo, overclockers looks very interesting, those are some sweet cases too.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 13:13 (twenty years ago)

something like this would be decent enough:

AMD Athlon 64 3000 Newcastle 130nm (Socket 754) - £75
MSI K8N Neo Platinum nForce3 250 (Socket 754) - £60
OcUK Value 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 184pin DDR - £54
Leadtek WinFast GeForce 6600 GT 128MB DDR3 - £88

i'm pretty sure that memory will be ok with that cpu/mobo, but i'm only 90% sure. so get that double checked, maybe. all that stuff is on overclockers. i don't work for them! but i recommend them cos they deliver quickly and replaced a dodgy processor for me once, no questions asked. after that, all you need is a l33t case with lights and shit all over it so you look like the fucking daddy at lan parties. choose your own hard drive, i got a 120gb one for 70 quid about a year ago, so they don't break the bank. optical drives can be bought for a fart and a curly wurly these days. any help?

― simple solution, Wednesday, 23 November 2005 13:22 (twenty years ago)

i like that logged_out is no longer sad or doing anything controversial, but is now helping people build PCs.

― simple_solution, Wednesday, 23 November 2005 13:28 (twenty years ago)

I like it too!

That's very helpful, thanks. I guess this could squeek under 500 with a screen and a HD, that'd be pretty neat... How does one avoid paying VAT?

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 13:34 (twenty years ago)

no idea, that's not my area of expertise. get your work to order it, then take it home. "i'm working from home ffs! CS:Sauce is just research, mr taxman."

i think i just revealed my sekrit identity.

― not so simple solution, Wednesday, 23 November 2005 13:39 (twenty years ago)

Should I buy one of these, which seem to include a motherboard, instead of a motherboard, if I like the cases? Would that work?

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 13:39 (twenty years ago)

socket A is dead, man. XP cpus have been replaced with semprons, which are pretty wack (256 cache). i personally wouldn't bother with such gadgetry. the screen is the thing that's gonna cost the most in this equation and maybe pip it over £500.

― socket A!, Wednesday, 23 November 2005 13:42 (twenty years ago)

Screens I can deal with though - I can just use my current crappy one until I get a good one in a few months as a sort of no-interest loan.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 13:45 (twenty years ago)

Also this one is 754 no? Isn't that what was wanted?

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 13:46 (twenty years ago)

yeah, sorry, i was looking at the top one. well, it's your choice. as i say, i wouldn't bother with anything like that, i'd get a tower and stick in the mobo of my choice (msi have served me well in the past), cos i don't mind doing that kind of thing and i'm not terribly keen on these non-tower thingies. a computer's a computer, no matter how much you make it look like a briefcase. i'd be worried about moddability and upgradeableness too, but that's me being a geek. your choice though. your PC, you're the boss. i'm just stating my own preferences. and at the end of it all, you can sit back and be all "I made this! from bits! i put everything in that case! I AM FUCKING LEET!"

― ohright, Wednesday, 23 November 2005 13:56 (twenty years ago)

Haha I don't have many geeky friends, mine would mostly be all "it looks like a dvd player! HOW CAN IT WORK?". Ideally I want my computer to look like this obv.

Ok so help me here - when it says:

- AMD Althon 64/ Sempron up to 3200+ Socket 754
- North Bridge: VIA K8M800
- South Bridge: VIA VT8237R
- 2 x DIMM DDR 400/333 Support max. 2GB
- VIA UniChrome Pro Graphics
- 1 x UltraDMA133/100/66
- 1 x SATA
- LAN 10/100 Mbps

it means that the LAN for instance is included in the case but the athlon is supported, not included?

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 14:11 (twenty years ago)

I need to finally ditch the close-to-unusable 2001-vintage WinME desktop.

Obviously the monitor is still in good nick, so a bare bones WinXP machine would be good. I could drop in the LG and Plextor drives from the ME machine too - I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with them, it's just the OS that makes them screw up. I'd keep the Echo Darla s/card and install new drivers for it. Some of my audio software could be ported across too, I'd imagine. Also retain the Canon scanner and the Epson printer.

Now, is it worth keeping the case and the power supply and just fitting a new motherboard, memory, graphics card, OS? Or just start from scratch with a new chassis? Do you get OS and basic MS bundles with build-yr-own kits? Or is that an extra expense? Keeping the old HDD (full of precious stuff but probably fragged beyond help and riddled with weird little executables) and installing it alongside a fresh new one - good idea?

The plan would be to WLAN with the Sony VAIO laptop the missus is (or will hopefully be) working from home on.

Sorry, I'm fairly clueless about this. I should have a look at one of those magazines mentioned...

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 14:15 (twenty years ago)

you are correct, mr puzzleworth.

― yepyep, Wednesday, 23 November 2005 14:18 (twenty years ago)

OS is an extra expense, yeah. unless you're unscrupulous and use a keygen or something. or an old OS on the new system.
i dunno about getting an OS with build your own 'kits'. kits probably aren't much of a moneysaver. just get the parts yourself. you may be able to keep your power supply, depends on how new the new parts of the machine are. i exploded a 250watt power supply on a pretty low spec system (2600xp, ti4200 gfx card, 1gb memory) after 30 mins of installing. i was fucking livid. 350-400 watts should be more than enough providing you're not a usb device hoarder or something.
when fitting a new mobo/cpu, you can keep hard drives, optical drives etc and switch them into the new machine, but you WILL need to format and reinstall on the HDD, or it'll just BSOD on the new system.

― logged_out_geek, Wednesday, 23 November 2005 14:25 (twenty years ago)

OS is an extra expense, yeah. unless you're unscrupulous and use a keygen or something. or an old OS on the new system.

Or Linux!

― The Linux-Proselytising Forest Pines (ForestPines), Wednesday, 23 November 2005 14:33 (twenty years ago)

linux...
there was mention of playing games. linux is out of the question.

― linux, Wednesday, 23 November 2005 14:37 (twenty years ago)

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