Desktop Package Required, Suggestions?

[MacB]

Crackle, on the speakers side I'm looking at a few from elsewhere on e-bay and there seems to be a choice between powered seperately and via USB.

Now I'm guessing that powering it by USB from the PC will mean that sound will only work when PC is switched on. Is this right or could they be plugged into a USB port on the monitor?

 

[Crackle]

Crackle, on the speakers side I'm looking at a few from elsewhere on e-bay and there seems to be a choice between powered seperately and via USB.

Now I'm guessing that powering it by USB from the PC will mean that sound will only work when PC is switched on. Is this right or could they be plugged into a USB port on the monitor?

I'll have to check but my best guess is, PC ones running off the motherboard won't, running off a powered USB hub they probably will (almost certainly) and running off a monitor that's on, again, almost certainly. You should be able to confirm any of that by taking a USB device which charges (MP3 player/ipod, Garmin etc..) and plugging it in. If it starts charging, it's live.

 

[MacB]

I'll have to check but my best guess is, PC ones running off the motherboard won't, running off a powered USB hub they probably will (almost certainly) and running off a monitor that's on, again, almost certainly. You should be able to confirm any of that by taking a USB device which charges (MP3 player/ipod, Garmin etc..) and plugging it in. If it starts charging, it's live.

oh dear, that actually makes sense to me, what am I becoming???...thanks mate

 

[cyberknight]

Last pc i bought i got from pcspecialist, you can configure what you want based on the sort of system you need and what software you want....
http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/

 

[SavageHoutkop]

I recently had to purchase a pc for someone and the best deal was Dell. Got an all-in system including screen for £470.

 

[MacB]

Well Crax, bought the one you suggested from Palicomp, with the suggested upgrades and all is good. From opening the box to surfing the web, including installing MS Security Essentials and a couple of others, took about an hour. Upgraded to the Logitech speakers to make sure they were powered seperately, so that XBox sound works without turning on PC. They were the hardest bit to work out...never seen a sub woofer doodad before. Probably not great quality, not at that price, but son was mightily impressed and his brothers rather jealous

thanks again hombre....Al

 

[Crackle]

Well Crax, bought the one you suggested from Palicomp, with the suggested upgrades and all is good. From opening the box to surfing the web, including installing MS Security Essentials and a couple of others, took about an hour. Upgraded to the Logitech speakers to make sure they were powered seperately, so that XBox sound works without turning on PC. They were the hardest bit to work out...never seen a sub woofer doodad before. Probably not great quality, not at that price, but son was mightily impressed and his brothers rather jealous

thanks again hombre....Al

You're welcome. All good news then.

I recommended Palicomp to someone else because they still supply XP pc's and they haven't sent him an order receipt and have tried to flog him something else over the phone. He wasn't impressed with that and nor was I. Presumably you're happy with their service though?

 

[MacB]

You're welcome. All good news then.

I recommended Palicomp to someone else because they still supply XP pc's and they haven't sent him an order receipt and have tried to flog him something else over the phone. He wasn't impressed with that and nor was I. Presumably you're happy with their service though?

You've got to be tough with them, I expect the hard sell nonsense and it is pretty hard but everything else has been faultless:-

1st PC they called me to let me know a part wasn't in stock but they could build immediately with an upgrade at no extra charge so I agreed - this translated into another £60 charge made up of something or other and a £25 queue jump charge Some disagreement ensued and their 'finance' dept is remarkably hard to get hold of. So I rang their sales dept and told them that if they didn't refund my £60 that day then I would reverse the whole amount I'd paid through Paypal and they could take me to small claims for it....I got my money back same day

this PC they were pushing the extra warranty really hard, at a discount for a returning customer of course, but I flat refused...then they sent me a payment request for the value through paypal anyway and I just cancelled it, but would be easy to be fooled into paying it

I'm sure if anything goes pear shaped, which thankfully neither have, then I'll find them a bunch of cowboys on the customer service front. But I did factor that in when buying and I'm quite capable of switching out internal parts/upgrades myself. Strange considering I'm all at sea on specs but I've happily followed online instructional videos to install hard drives, additional memory, sound cards and wireless cards before. One of the reasons I like a nice big roomy desktop over a laptop.

 

[Crackle]

You've got to be tough with them, I expect the hard sell nonsense and it is pretty hard but everything else has been faultless:-

1st PC they called me to let me know a part wasn't in stock but they could build immediately with an upgrade at no extra charge so I agreed - this translated into another £60 charge made up of something or other and a £25 queue jump charge Some disagreement ensued and their 'finance' dept is remarkably hard to get hold of. So I rang their sales dept and told them that if they didn't refund my £60 that day then I would reverse the whole amount I'd paid through Paypal and they could take me to small claims for it....I got my money back same day

this PC they were pushing the extra warranty really hard, at a discount for a returning customer of course, but I flat refused...then they sent me a payment request for the value through paypal anyway and I just cancelled it, but would be easy to be fooled into paying it

I'm sure if anything goes pear shaped, which thankfully neither have, then I'll find them a bunch of cowboys on the customer service front. But I did factor that in when buying and I'm quite capable of switching out internal parts/upgrades myself. Strange considering I'm all at sea on specs but I've happily followed online instructional videos to install hard drives, additional memory, sound cards and wireless cards before. One of the reasons I like a nice big roomy desktop over a laptop.

Oh, I didn't realize that. I may not have recommended them to him if I'd known as he's a bit deaf. Mind you I don't think he'll have any problems sorting out issues with the sale as he needs the PC to complete the editing on his new book - Consumer Law!

 

[MacB]

Oh, I didn't realize that. I may not have recommended them to him if I'd known as he's a bit deaf. Mind you I don't think he'll have any problems sorting out issues with the sale as he needs the PC to complete the editing on his new book - Consumer Law!

It didn't cross my mind to mention it before as they met with my expectations but in hindsight I should have done as not everyone would have the experience or expectations to be able to deal with this sort of thing and be unfazed by it.

My error coz it's info I'd want to know if someone was passing me a recommendation

 

[Crackle]

It didn't cross my mind to mention it before as they met with my expectations but in hindsight I should have done as not everyone would have the experience or expectations to be able to deal with this sort of thing and be unfazed by it.

My error coz it's info I'd want to know if someone was passing me a recommendation

Don't worry. I think I would still have recommended them to him but just warned him what to expect. They are still one of the few to do XP, so choice was limited and I didn't want to build him one.

I think they're about to get an email from him explaining in what way they are breaking the law by not doing x,y and z. I expect they'll sort it out quick sharp when they see it signed by someone who is a professor and ex-barrister, I know I would.

 

[Downward]

Why not go over to av forums and have a look in the classifieds ? 600 will get you a very very top spec pc. We picked up a quad core with win 7 for 225. Windows experience score is 7.1 going to up to for the graphics out of 7.9

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Laptops have advantages and can be as good as any Desktop system.

I dont know of any laptop capable of running 4 individual screens.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

So the Palincomp one, running down the specs to see what may be
CPU Cooling - is it worth upgrading for £15?
Keyboard & Mouse - would upgrade to the USB ones for £10
Cooling - for £10 is it worth adding two case fans?

Extra cpu cooling is handy if the ambient temp is high, though as Crackle says is probably not necessary like wise the case cooling.
There can sometimes be a problem with wireless k/b & mice, sometimes if windows has to recover from an unexpected shut down, then menu system that windows shows on recover sometimes wont respond to a wireless input as it's software based and not hardware based (i.e. connected to the system by a wire), though modern b.i.o.s's (basic (not the language) input output system) may have over come this, the b.i.o.s is low level and it is how the motherboard connects all the bits together so it all works.

 

[ian turner]

XP support runs out in 2014 so don't source an xp based machine for someone unless you expect this to be their last PC because it's only going to be more difficult for them to move onto whatever replaces Win 2008 due to even more changes from XP. Also consider that at some point companies will stop providing drivers for xp so component replacement might involve replacing the OS.