Build me a PC

[mharvey]

Hi all,

Pretty useless here.

I use my computer A LOT, whether for work related things, photoshopping, designing stuff in sketch up, surfing the Internet, downloading/converting media. Storing photos.

It does most stuff I want but is dog slow.

Prepare to lol...It's running Xp and has 1gb of ram, back when it was built (years ago) it has top spec graphics and sound cards.

I'm looking for a new computer that's reasonably future proof.

I'm not actually fussed about operating system, I've barely used 7 or 8 but in all honesty xp does me great.
Hard drive really doesn't need to be big as I have external ones, 20gb plus would be plenty. SSD maybe?

My girlfriend has a Sony Vaio laptop and it cost her a small fortune circa 2 years ago.
It has an i3 processor (unsure which) and 4gb of ram...it's horrific, even worse than my PC above. It takes ages just to open Internet browser and don't try and do 2 things at once. Is i5 worth the extra money?

So what can people recommend? A laptop for me is a luxury, don't really need it, would rather a better spec tower than lower spec laptop but is there much in it?

I do like toys and like playing with new tech, have PS3, iPhone running ios7, Apple TV. Would like something that can do more than I need to it can expand my uses for it.

Budget is roughly £350

Seen this with a 3 year warranty but is there better for the money?

Thanks


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[mharvey]

https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/specialbu...ly/product-detail/ps/p/multimedia-desktop-pc/

I know it's aldi but 3 year warranty??


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[Jack!]

My suggestion would be, if you don't want to actually build it yourself, then use somewhere like Play.com, or eBay (official sellers) to get a PC that is custom built by a company, rather than one that is for general retail.

About a year ago, I bought a pre-built PC from Play.com, built by some small company, but had piece of mind buying it through Play.com - it's been a dream, it cost me about £300 and had amazing spec for that price at the time, was by far the cheapest way I could find to get i5 - any equivalent retail PC running with an i5 was £500+

Tbf, that Aldi one seems quite good for the price, when considering it has an operating system - but I know little about AMD, always run Intel because I run dual-boot Mac OS X and Windows.

EDIT: Something like this is much better value than the one from Aldi: http://www.freshtechsolutions.co.uk...b-8gb-ddr3-1600mhz-hd-gaming-pc-computer.html

That's the company I got mine from, via Play.com. Only thing letting down the one I linked is that it's using onboard graphics.

This one has an independent graphics card: http://www.freshtechsolutions.co.uk...-8gb-ddr3-1600mhz-ati-6450-1gb-gaming-pc.html

I can't speak for individual components, because I'm only ever up with it after doing research around the time I'm in the market for upgrading, but that seems pretty good for me; maybe just check whether that specific i5 can be overclocked if that's something you want to get into.

 

[supptora]

Check out overclockers.co.uk They do prebuilt bundles and full systems, or everything on its own.
​Been using them for years for various builds I've done, spent a good few thousand with them and never had an issue, prices have usually been competitive and they do 'deal of the week' etc which can yield some good bargains!

 

[richd]

this^^^^ or novatech or scan, some really good prebuilt sytems their

 

[Jack!]

I don't find Overclockers and the like to be that competitive, especially Overclockers these days where you seem to pay a premium because they're the big name. Buying parts from them and building yourself may still be cost effective, but tend to find using their builder system or buying packages brings a premium; only my experience mind.

 

[l33th3tr33]

I don't find Overclockers and the like to be that competitive, especially Overclockers these days where you seem to pay a premium because they're the big name. Buying parts from them and building yourself may still be cost effective, but tend to find using their builder system or buying packages brings a premium; only my experience mind.

No, it's just that everyone's scared to say it. Overclockers can be a rip off and most of the time won't price match.

 

[supptora]

Orders from Overclockers come with a bag/bags of Haribo, hate on them all you want, but they know my sweet spot huehuehue~

Jokes aside, like richd pointed out, Scan are quite good as well!
I guess it depends where your loyalties lay and what deals you can get.
Personally, I shop where I feel most comfortable and can order the items that I want from the same place in one big swoop; if it costs me an extra £10 or whatever I'm usually not too bothered.

I wouldn't recommend ebuyer or dabs, as I've only had bad experiences with them, however I have friends and family who would use them due to not having any issues (that being said, those people don't tend to order much/often/expensive stuff anyway)

 

[Gareth]

I mainly use Scan, but have never had problems with eBuyer, I avoid Overclockers unless I can't but again haven't had any issues with them, but postage can be pricey with them.

 

[GiT]

ChillBlast worth a snoop.

 

[B00mer]

I used PC Specialist when i bought mine a couple of years back.

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/