Desktop Package Required, Suggestions?

[Crackle]

I should have known

So the Palincomp one, running down the specs to see what may be needed above the £500 price tag:-
CPU Cooling - is it worth upgrading for £15? I'd think about this, cooling fans are noisy and if it's going in a bedroom a quieter machine is nice
PSU - it's a 650W standard should I go higher? 650 is plenty
Keyboard & Mouse - would upgrade to the USB ones for £10 I'd stick with the ps2 ones. When they break you can buy USB replacements
Card Reader - do we need one and what's it for? Memory cards off cameras, MP3 players etc, useful but available as an external add on for cheaper on Amazon
PCI Slot - do we need one and what's it for? It's not the slot, it's asking if you ant to add a PCI card which gives you more USB slots or a firewire slot. If you have lots of things you plug into USB ports then it's useful, though personally buying an external USB extension is cheaper and more convenient. Or for Firewire do you have a camcorder with firewire connection f not, you don't need it.
Cooling - for £10 is it worth adding two case fans? Wouldn't say so, only needed if you are running a gaming machine

All the other bits seem fine.

 

[MacB]

I should have known

I've ordered it

 

[Crackle]

I've ordered it

You do know someone stole my login yesterday? I reported it to Shaun and all .......

















Nah! Good man, it'll be fine.

 

[MacB]

You do know someone stole my login yesterday? I reported it to Shaun and all .......

Nah! Good man, it'll be fine.

don't do this to me, I'm a terrible procrastinator and am already suffering from buyers remorse. Strange, as it's for someone else I seem to worry more. Whereas I bought the PC I'm using right now as a box only deal on the web, loaded the operating system myself and set it up, with few qualms. Still, being me, I'll be convinced this will be one of those disaster PCs right up until the moment it isn't.

 

[beanzontoast]

don't do this to me, I'm a terrible procrastinator and am already suffering from buyers remorse. Strange, as it's for someone else I seem to worry more. Whereas I bought the PC I'm using right now as a box only deal on the web, loaded the operating system myself and set it up, with few qualms. Still, being me, I'll be convinced this will be one of those disaster PCs right up until the moment it isn't.

I've procrastinated over buying every pc I've ever owned!

 

[Crackle]

don't do this to me, I'm a terrible procrastinator and am already suffering from buyers remorse. Strange, as it's for someone else I seem to worry more. Whereas I bought the PC I'm using right now as a box only deal on the web, loaded the operating system myself and set it up, with few qualms. Still, being me, I'll be convinced this will be one of those disaster PCs right up until the moment it isn't.

As one procrastinator to another (see my kids mtn bike thread and the 9 months from consideration to purchase), I felt you needed a shove. Besides, I have spare bits should you need them (which you won't, honest). And I believe it's called post-purchase dissonance not buyers remorse. You can get pre-purchase dissonance too, I'm a sufferer of pre, mostly.

 

[MacB]

As one procrastinator to another (see my kids mtn bike thread and the 9 months from consideration to purchase), I felt you needed a shove. Besides, I have spare bits should you need them (which you won't, honest). And I believe it's called post-purchase dissonance not buyers remorse. You can get pre-purchase dissonance too, I'm a sufferer of pre, mostly.

Cracks, me old buddy I'm back on this, or at least son No 2 now needs his own PC. All I've done so far is buy the desk, chair and monitor.

So anything remarkable changed in the last 18 months, or any specific suggestions, same sort of price bracket £600 for the base unit?

 

[Crackle]

Cracks, me old buddy I'm back on this, or at least son No 2 now needs his own PC. All I've done so far is buy the desk, chair and monitor.

So anything remarkable changed in the last 18 months, or any specific suggestions, same sort of price bracket £600 for the base unit?

Oh blimey. £600 will buy you a very good base unit these days. I haven't looked at whole units for a bit. We've moved onto assembling our own out of components, which is son no1's imminent next project.

What does he want it for, gaming, school, watching DVD's, etc....

 

[MacB]

Oh blimey. £600 will buy you a very good base unit these days. I haven't looked at whole units for a bit. We've moved onto assembling our own out of components, which is son no1's imminent next project.

What does he want it for, gaming, school, watching DVD's, etc....

Actually I was kind of hoping £600 would cover the whole lot, I paid £131 for a screen, so round that up to £200 by the time I've bought keyboard/mouse(if they don't come with base unit), splitter cables and switch box so that he can change between Xbox and PC, and any other sundry bits we need.

If a decent base unit can be had for £400 then I'd be delighted - useage will be a general mix but if any of them ever want a super duper gamer then they pay for that themselves. None of them game via PC it's all Xbox, the PC is for school work, 'networking', probably DVDs(which play via the Xbox anyway) and watching stupid clips on Youtube. But it will need an operating system as our home licence is maxed out.

 

[lordloveaduck]

I have always had laptops. The spec has gone way up and the price has come right down. £399 can get you a lot of processing power and ram.

 

[MacB]

I have always had laptops. The spec has gone way up and the price has come right down. £399 can get you a lot of processing power and ram.

agreed but you don't have my kids and their track record for laptop destruction if they want one they can save for it, I'll only foot the bill for desktops.

 

[Crackle]

Actually I was kind of hoping £600 would cover the whole lot, I paid £131 for a screen, so round that up to £200 by the time I've bought keyboard/mouse(if they don't come with base unit), splitter cables and switch box so that he can change between Xbox and PC, and any other sundry bits we need.

If a decent base unit can be had for £400 then I'd be delighted - useage will be a general mix but if any of them ever want a super duper gamer then they pay for that themselves. None of them game via PC it's all Xbox, the PC is for school work, 'networking', probably DVDs(which play via the Xbox anyway) and watching stupid clips on Youtube. But it will need an operating system as our home licence is maxed out.

That shower you bought the last one from get decent reviews and they do one at 370, including software. I might be tempted to pick a better graphics card and a silent fan for the bedroom, so probably just over 400.

http://www.palicomp.co.uk/home/office-pcs/intel-home/office-pcs/phoenix-flash/prod_356.html

If you were building it yourself you could probably couldn't do much better.

Or the AMD version, (not quite as well praised as the i5) at 319

http://www.palicomp.co.uk/home/office-pcs/amd-home/office-pcs/carbon-amd-tft-19-system/prod_241.html

 

[MacB]

That shower you bought the last one from get decent reviews and they do one at 370, including software. I might be tempted to pick a better graphics card and a silent fan for the bedroom, so probably just over 400.

http://www.palicomp.co.uk/home/office-pcs/intel-home/office-pcs/phoenix-flash/prod_356.html

If you were building it yourself you could probably couldn't do much better.

Or the AMD version, (not quite as well praised as the i5) at 319

http://www.palicomp.co.uk/home/office-pcs/amd-home/office-pcs/carbon-amd-tft-19-system/prod_241.html

First one looks pretty good to me, so running down the list:-

Case - I'll go with standard
Power Supply - is this the bit to upgrade to quiet fan, say the 650W at an extra £25?
CPU - stick with standard
CPU Cooling - or is this the bit you meant re upgrade to silent?
Motherboard - stick with standard
RAM - is this worth an upgrade?
Solid State Hdd - leave alone?
Master Hardrive - 500GB should be fine
Slave Drive - None
RAID - forget it
Master Optical Drive - is this worth an upgrade?
Slave Optical Drive - none
Graphics Card - what to upgrade to here?
TV Card - none is fine
Software - the Windows 7 is fine
Extra Software - none
Performance tuning - none
Keyboard and mouse - is it worth upgrading to the wireless or just leave it until the supplied ones go pear shaped?
Speakers - should I add some as the Monitor I've ordered seperately does have some built in?
Card Reader - we have a seperate one already we all share
Front Fan Controller - I don't know what this is
Networking - the standard spec states it comes with a 1gb LAN does that mean I don't need to add anything for it to be internet ready?
Extra USB - not needed, there are plenty and we have plug in extension ones as well already
Extra Firewire - not needed
Sound Card - standard is fine
USB Flash Pen Drive - none
Cable Management - none
Cooling - is this the bit I should add on?
Noise Reduction - is this worth adding?
Warranty - standard is fine

your fine input would be great mate, and I owe you several drinks now!

 

[Crackle]

First one looks pretty good to me, so running down the list:-

Case - I'll go with standard
Power Supply - is this the bit to upgrade to quiet fan, say the 650W at an extra £25? No
CPU - stick with standard
CPU Cooling - or is this the bit you meant re upgrade to silent? This bit. Did you buy a silent fan for the last one and if so is it silent?
Motherboard - stick with standard
RAM - is this worth an upgrade? Only if you are wanting a performance m/c is my view and then other things would be in the mix too
Solid State Hdd - leave alone? Again a performance booster but SSD's will probably replace HD's as they are more robust and reliable but currently more expensive
Master Hardrive - 500GB should be fine
Slave Drive - None
RAID - forget it
Master Optical Drive - is this worth an upgrade? If you're going to watch Blu Ray movies, yes, if not standard should do
Slave Optical Drive - none
Graphics Card - what to upgrade to here? The AMD radeon 5450 is a bottom end graphics card but it will be much better than the onboard one. AMD have faster memory as standard at this price point than nvidia.
TV Card - none is fine
Software - the Windows 7 is fine
Extra Software - none
Performance tuning - none
Keyboard and mouse - is it worth upgrading to the wireless or just leave it until the supplied ones go pear shaped? I find wireless a pain but some people love them, so personal choice there
Speakers - should I add some as the Monitor I've ordered seperately does have some built in? Monitor one is fine for general system sounds, not for movies or mp3 playback, so again, personal choice.
Card Reader - we have a seperate one already we all share
Front Fan Controller - I don't know what this is That makes two of us but I'd say no
Networking - the standard spec states it comes with a 1gb LAN does that mean I don't need to add anything for it to be internet ready? If you're cabling it up, no, if it's wireless connection, yes
Extra USB - not needed, there are plenty and we have plug in extension ones as well already
Extra Firewire - not needed
Sound Card - standard is fine
USB Flash Pen Drive - none
Cable Management - none
Cooling - is this the bit I should add on? If I was a gamer overclocking my processor and running a hefty graphics card I'd add these but in your case I'd say not, plus the basic case probably won't take them.
Noise Reduction - is this worth adding? Only worth it if it's going to sit in the front room next to the telly as a multimedia PC and you don't to hear all the fans running, so no
Warranty - standard is fine

your fine input would be great mate, and I owe you several drinks now!

That's my tuppence worth, as ever, someone might add something else to the mix, particularly on the graphics card as it's a real chore trying to keep up with the ever changing spec and standards. It's probably the first thing that would need changing if they decide to play xbox type games or want the best definition in Minecraft or decide that 3d movies are the way forward but for youtube, movies and applications you don't need anything to fancy.

 

[MacB]

That's my tuppence worth, as ever, someone might add something else to the mix, particularly on the graphics card as it's a real chore trying to keep up with the ever changing spec and standards. It's probably the first thing that would need changing if they decide to play xbox type games or want the best definition in Minecraft or decide that 3d movies are the way forward but for youtube, movies and applications you don't need anything to fancy.

Didn't by a silent fan last time, I think I ballsed up and got the wrong ones, is only complaint from No1 son, it gets a bit noisy....not my problem.

Thamsk, that's enormously helpful.