buying a new computer is doing my head in!!!!!!

Well like everything in life, buying a computer is harder than it first seems. i got myself a budget of £750 or their abouts so i go hunting on the net only to find out its not so easy as i first assumed.

I have looked in a good many places and the choices are just getting silly. I have got myself down to 2 systems which i would like some opinions on.

Firstly we have -

-Intel® Pentium® D 945 Dual Core Processor (3.40GHz, 800MHz fsb, 2x2MB cache)
-2048MB Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz [2x1024]
-250GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurst
-16X DVD+/-RW Drive
-256MB ATI Radeon® X1300 Pro PCI
-17" Flat Pannel Monitor

Grand Total coming to about £800

Now we have-

-AMD® Athlon 64 X2 processor 4200+
-1GB DDR RAM (PC3200) 400MHz (2x512MB)
-200GB SATA Hard Drive with 8MB Cache
-256MB DDR NVIDIA 7300GS PCI-Express graphics
-17" Analogue (Black / Silver) TFT
-Multi Format 16x Dual layer DVD re-writer

Coming to a total of about £750

The first one is a littlew over budget but i am tempted more by it what do you guys think?

First of all, there are a few questions that you need to answer-

What do you intend to use the pc for? Gaming, blogging, graphic arts, etc.

Do you intend this to be a system that you can regularly upgrade, or just get by with?

Can you buy parts and have a local pc store put it together for you for £65 or so?

Sorry i did put that in my post but i think i may have deleted too much when i deleted a load of junk i typed by mistake.

as far as upgrading goes i don't think i will be. Its for some LIGHT gaming, nothing too much, im not botehred about super detail or anything just to get the games to load and play in some form unlike my current pc :bnghd:

I do know that their is a pc store that will put a pc together for you, not sure on the price, if your saying 65 then i will take that as a rough guide, so i geuss its a possability but unless the saving is a fair bit im not really in the mood for the extra trouble of sorting it all out.

The pc will be used for Internet, storing photos and light gaming ontop of word processing etc which any pc can do.

[edited]

Just thought i would add the intel processor is from dell and the amd is from a uk based company www.evesham.co.uk.

[edit on 9/9/06 by manta]

I'm in the States, so I was using £65 as a base. Around here, the cost to put together a basic pc would range from about the equivilent of £60 to £90.

Reason I mentioned it is that it might be much cheaper to buy all of the pieces online, have them shipped, then have someone put them together.

From Newegg.com"

Processor: $164.00
www.newegg.com...

Memory: $160
www.newegg.com...

Hard Drive: $69
www.newegg.com...

Dvd/RW: $33
www.newegg.com...

Vid Card: $120
www.newegg.com...

Monitor: $160
www.newegg.com...


These parts come to $706, or £378.

You'd still need a motherboard, powersupply, and case and such though.

Here's a mobo for £40:
www.newegg.com...

Here's a snazzy case with powersupply for £30:
www.newegg.com...


Big difference, eh? These come to a little over £400, call it £500 with shipping. Get someone to put it together for £75 and that's a total of £575, which sounds a lot better than 750 or 800.


Do NOT go on my suggestions only. I merely took examples that I found quickly, for the purposes of comparison. Some of these pieces might not be compatible, so ask an expert

Originally posted by Reality Hurts

Big difference, eh? These come to a little over £400, call it £500 with shipping. Get someone to put it together for £75 and that's a total of £575, which sounds a lot better than 750 or 800.


Do NOT go on my suggestions only. I merely took examples that I found quickly, for the purposes of comparison. Some of these pieces might not be compatible, so ask an expert

Yeah thats a mighty price drop alright, thanks for that. by looking at your selectons from newegg im geussing you would say the intel based package was the best one of the 2?

I just went with an intel based system because of personal preference.

Had Evesham PCs for about 5 years and had no problems, great service and a well built system. If anything did go wrong they would be straight out and fix it there and then!!! Only negative I can say is there getting a bit expensive compared to mesh and dell.

I would only go with Intel for there brand new core duo not the old dual core based on the pentium, AMD x2 are a lot faster and less hot than the pentium dual core.

[edit on 13-9-2006 by Kurokage]

I forgot to add that for any hardware comparisions try a few websites like Anandtech, Xbit labs and toms hardware guide.