Which PC?

[marinyork]

This display looks good.

LINK

Comes with a three-year warranty and only costs £135 (elsewhere) Spec looks as good as the benQ?

No HDMI listed. The contrast ratios claim to be the same but the claimed dynamics aren't. The claimed response times are also different, although that one is a pretty dubious point.

I've seen that acer in action though.

 

[Mr Pig]

I've seen that acer in action though.

And? Is it any good?

I noticed the lack of HDMI. My son said it wouldn't make any difference. I suggested that if it made no difference why did they fit it to the products? What's good about HDMI?

The specs are very similar but I know that's not the whole story. Two products can look similar on paper yet be quite different in the flesh.

 

[marinyork]

I was impressed for what it is, thing is it's older technology in it. I don't know about the BenQ (that might be, some of their stuff is) one but that Acer is a TN screen. It's why it has that price and not having HDMI. If you're constrained moneywise and have a budget of exactly £150, you know yeah why not. A year ago it wouldn't have been a big deal but as time goes by it's harder to justify. Thing is one of the monitors I would recommend is getting on for £300 more for the same size.

HDMI doesn't really make a difference from a PC point of view as there are plenty of ways to plug it in. It's when you start wanting to plug it into something else or a few years down the line when it becomes a hand down and all of a sudden so and so has a monitor with HMDI. It's useful, but it's just a forward planning issue. Pretty much everything will be HDMI in future. I haven't got a HDMI monitor, nor have most of my mates but it'd be bloody useful to have.

 

[Mr Pig]

We had a look at the stuff in Currys today, 24 inch is a BIG monitor! Should be ideal for watching TV. I think he's set on what he's getting now.

Athalon 2.8 Gh Dual Core.
500 Gb hard drive X2.
4 Gb RAM.
256 Mb Graphics Card.
24'' Monitor.

Plus the usual DVD burner, keyboard etc.

 

[Van Nick]

Hi there,

My son is looking for a new PC, a desktop, not a laptop, as he'll get more bang for his buck. Any recommendations? Seen any good deals?

He doesn't play games on his computer but does watch DVDs and TV often so a big, sharp display would be good. Lots of storage for music and TV programs. He's got about £600 to play with.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

I would recommend that you get the Dell Studio XPS with the latest Intel Core i7 processor. I have one and it's fantastic.

See http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/p...top-studioxps-435mt?c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1

You can currently get a 10% discount if you use the code shown within the following website

http://www.hotukdeals.com/all/vouchers/new?expired=false&mf=28

 

[Ben M]

HDMI uses the same signal as DVI. The only benefit of HDMI over DVI is that you can also transmit sound across an HDMI cable.

Don't worry about not having HDMI, so long as your monitor has DVI it's fine. Most graphics cards have DVI outputs anyway, so if you were to use HDMI in on your monitor, you'd only have to use an adaptor anyway (ati cards come supplied with dvi-HDMI adaptors, I'm not sure about nvidia)

As for the quad core debate, unless he is carrying out tasks which specifically benefit from multi-core processors (video rendering, photoshop etc.) then a faster clocked dual core processor will be better.

 

[Bokonon]

Thats interesting. Was this dealing in client machines (ie workstations) or servers?

Unless you have "gold support", getting support out of dell is impossible. (or at least this is my experiance)

Client machines. No additional support package, though on the rare occasions I do call them it is to explicitly request replacements for failed parts rather than just giving a vague "computer's broke."

 

[Mr Pig]

unless he is carrying out tasks which benefit from multi-core a faster clocked dual core processor will be better.

That's what I thought. To get an Intel Quad 2.33Gh chip was a lot more expensive than the AMD 2.8 Duo.

 

[marinyork]

That's what I thought. To get an Intel Quad 2.33Gh chip was a lot more expensive than the AMD 2.8 Duo.

I already said the quads are a waste of money unless you have serious money, the suggestion of getting a nehalem system for what you outlined seemed even more crazy. The 5400+/5600+s are decent enough chips.

 

[Mr Pig]

getting a nehalem system seemed even more crazy.

Wasn't Goliath one of those? ;0)

His monitor arrived today so he's a happy boy. Computer should be built up the next day or so. Thanks for all the input :0)