Contemplating a new desktop PC

[Deleted member 35268]

I bought a Packard Bell iMedia about two years ago. I was a bit sceptical and I would have preferred to get a Novatec machine.
Have been used to Dell for years.

I have to say, it has been trouble free and is fast. Cost about £250.00 (no screen)

Plenty of similar machines here
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/packa...-pcs/1093_8225_71255_1698_xx/xx-criteria.html

 

[Crackle]

Chillblast are reasonable as are a few of the other suggestions. As a fellow photo editor you don't need a lot to run photoshop, most dual core processors and most 1Gb graphics card will easily meet the requirements as will 4Gb of Ram but 8 is better. May I suggest though you consider two monitors. Very easy to set up and run and very useful when editing.

 

[Lonestar]

I've got 32GB ram...talk about overkill....

 

[SavageHoutkop]

I also like Scan but if you're unsure of your self-building capabilities perhaps a prebuilt. CCL also worth a look.

 

[John the Monkey]

I also like Scan but if you're unsure of your self-building capabilities perhaps a prebuilt. CCL also worth a look.

No.1 son's last two have been from CCL, and we've been very happy with them (I have the cast off as my PC now).

I echo Crackle's recommendation for two monitors as well - very useful, imo.

 

[Glenn]

Take a look at the list below in no particular order they are;

Scan
PCspecialist
dinopc
Overclockers
ComputerPlanet
Novatech

 

[Glenn]

I use a single Hazro 27" 2560 x 1440 monitor (the same panel inside as Apple uses apparently), anything else now looks small.

 

[DCLane]

Like @John the Monkey I've just bought a desktop from CCL. It seems to be decent enough and works far better than the touchscreen PC SWMBO uses.

 

[Berk on a Bike]

Both sons have desktops from PC Specialist. Both encountered problems requiring repair in the first year. One of them went pop in the first week. The company is not far from me, so on each occasion I was able to take the units in personally. I've also had to use their telephone support on one occasion which is ok if you're prepared to hold and hold and hold. Just my personal experience.

 

[drummerbod]

No.1 son's last two have been from CCL, and we've been very happy with them (I have the cast off as my PC now).

Been using CCL for years and their after sales service is excellent.

 

[srw]

I've bought a couple of times from PC Specialist - no complaints. The first one got me a machine with the slightly odd spec I wanted, the second a simple machine without having to fork out for keyboard, mouse or monitor.

 

[ColinJ]

[QUOTE 4235006, member: 9609"]I have just recently went back to using a desktop, i was getting tired of the continuous whirring noise of the fan on the lap top - I have situated the tower in a cupboard in the kitchen with a few wires through the wall to the pond room, 24" monitor, wireless keyboard and mouse. It is wonderful, no noise of fans or hard disks irritatingly drumming away. Its wonderful, I wish I had done it sooner, can hear all the birds singing away outside.[/QUOTE]
I just read through the other replies to see if anybody had mentioned noise!

You are lucky in having a quiet desktop PC - I have heard some horrendously noisy PCs over the years. Some of them were like having a hairdryer or fanheater blowing at you continuously.

I would make a point of listening to the PC before buying it. NB fans may be running at a slow, quiet speed until the system has been running for a while and then they fire up and create a racket.

If you can't listen to the PC, speak to the people supplying it and make sure that they know you don't like noisy machines! (Unless you intend to spend the entire time that you will be using it listening to music on headphones ...)

For graphics work I would be tempted to go for a 27" WQHD monitor such as THIS. (Read the reviews. It looks very good value for money. You could do a bit better, but not without spending a lot more.)

 

[slowmotion]

As resident ebay bore, dare I suggest a search of 'within 5 miles' of your home postcode, followed by a bit of googling of what comes up. I recently got this

Dell T3500 PC Workstation Xeon E5630 2.53GHz quad core, 12 GB DDR3, 2x250GB Raid 0 HDDs, Windows 7/10

• Intel Xeon E5630 Socket 1366 LGA
• 12 GB of DDR ECC RAM
• Radeon ATI FirePro 2260 Graphics
• 500GB (2 x 250GB) hard disks in Raid 0
• PCI RAID storage controller - up to 8 additional drives

Valid Windows 7 licence but loaded with Windows 10.

...for £99.

Good desktops by the likes of Dell very rarely go wrong - all the technology is so tried & tested - so you really can get a lot for very little, with peace of mind, with not a great deal of effort.

That's an awful lot of computer for very little money. If an overpriced piece of white plastic from Apple needed a replacement power supply, the Trekkie owner should seriously consider buying two of those machines for the same price as the cost of repair.

 

[Seevio]

Building PCs is like lego these days. If the OP is still watching this thread I would suggest stating exactly what the computer is needed for and stating a budget. I'm sure I, and many others, could spec out a suitable build.

 

[srw]

That's an awful lot of computer for very little money. If an overpriced piece of white plastic from Apple needed a replacement power supply, the Trekkie owner should seriously consider buying two of those machines for the same price as the cost of repair.

As we discovered when our Dell began to give up the ghost and need regular stops and restarts to recuperate, Dell uses the same build method as Apple - there are a lot of bespoke parts inside one* and you can only get those parts from Dell.

Which is why, for more recent PCs I've gone to a supplier which uses absolutely bog-standard parts.


*and I don't mean the leg-bandage...