Help me buy new PC

[DJW]

All you PC freaks, help me buy a PC to be used mostly for PS work.

Currently have following HTPC :-

Enermax whisper power supply 350w
Asus TUSL-2 motherboard
Intel Tualatin Celeron 1.4ghz CPU
Zalman CNPS6000-Cu heat sink & fan
512mb Crucial cas 2 sd-ram pc-133
M-Audio Revolution 7.1 rev 2 soundcard
60gig Seagate Barracuda IV HDD
Life View capture card
Sapphire Atlantic Radeon 9600 graphics card
Intel Pro 10/100 NIC
Pioneer 106s slot loading dvd-rom (flashed firmware to enable all region playback)
External DVD Writer

Just seen the thread by RobertP that lists bargain Dells here

Now what do people advise from following options :-

a) Sell above HTPC complete, then buy Dell of correct spec...eg 1GB RAM, 200GB drive, 256MB dedicated graphics card eg. £329 ?
b) Sell above HTPC complete, then buy cheapest Dell @ £129 & upgrade with new bits (memory, HD & dedicated graphics card ?)
c) Buy cheapest Dell, then nick Graphics card & DVD writer from above & sell HTPC.

Anybody advise what % increase in processing power there is between the different CPU's on the Dell list ?

BTW , already have the nice Belinea Monitor which I'll be keeping

Thanks in advance

 

[RobertP]

On the BT site the 'DELL HIGH END DESKTOP DIMENSION 5100 ' link goes to the product description....but the description says it is a 5150 - a higher model.

I'd say just get one of them! If it should turn out you hate it or can't upgrade what you want you should be able to sell it on with little loss.

 

[RobertP]

Oh and flog off what you don't want in the local paper.

 

[Glen]

My f-in-law just got a Dell 9150 3.4GHZ 320HD 2 GB RAM etc.....upgrade on monitor, wireless keyboard & mouse very nice it is..£972 all in.

 

[Steep]

Why not just upgrade the machine you've got? new mobo, powersupply, processor, gfx card and bobs your mothers brother as it were!

 

[CT]

Why not just upgrade the machine you've got? new mobo, powersupply, processor, gfx card and bobs your mothers brother as it were!

That's what I'm gonna do with Jan's machine I think. I've been loooking HERE

Providing all the other bits are up to spec it seems the best plan. Mind you, looking at how prices have come down on complete CPUs major self builds hardly seem worth the bother.

 

[noah]

agreed with steep. if you already have the case and some bits like dvd writers, sound cards, graphics then just get the stuff you need. a nice AMD dual core chip a new motherboard and 2 gig of ddr400 ram and a 500w psu from one of the big names (fsp/antec/enermax etc) and you'll be set for another couple of years

scan.co.uk are a good reputable retailer with good prices.

Asrock AR-939 has pci-e and agp so you can upgrade the gfx card if you ever need to, yours should be fine at the min for all but games tho. and is only £40

for about £200 you can get an AMD 3800 or 4200 dual core which will be a massive improvement.

£135 will get you 2gig of fast(ish) corsair ram (ddr400 3200 2-3-3-6)

£55 will get you an FSP 500w psu - they only make psus and are very good at making them. i have one and it's nice and quiet and energy efficient.

£58 will get you a 250 gig sata samsung drive. nice and quiet and very reliable in my experience. the newer driver will load everything faster so would be a nice edition.

that's less than £500 so should leave you enough to get an apple 20 inch or dell 24 inch display

edit: didnt see you already had a monitor, sorry.

 

[Warspite]

Why not just upgrade the machine you've got? new mobo, powersupply, processor, gfx card and bobs your mothers brother as it were!

I'd agree with that, if you want a better machine, build it from what you have already, no point buying something else and upgrading that.

 

[RobertP]

I've always built my own and its the best plan if you are the sort that likes to upgrade and add things as you know what in the box already.

If you just want a PC that does the job and don't intend to tinker you are not going to build the same (with licenced OS) for the same money.

Intel Pentium 4 3.4Ghz
1024MB RAM
200GB Hard drive
Graphics card with at least 256MB V RAM
DVDRW
Scroller Mouse
keyboard
V.92 56K
MS Windows XP Home
MS Works 7

for £330 don't sound bad to me.

One site says the graphics card is a Radeon X300. I'm out of touch with the latest cards but it must better than onboard graphics!

 

[noah]

very good point about the OS, that is great value but i'd still rather a dual core processor for photoshop and 2gig ram, of course you can always add the ram at a later date tho

 

[Steep]

Mind you, looking at how prices have come down on complete CPUs major self builds hardly seem worth the bother.

You need to look hard at what you are getting though CT, there's always something about those deals that make them less attractive than they look. Unless you want the most basic of machines to send email surf webby type stuff type the odd letter that is.

 

[DJW]

agreed with steep. if you already have the case and some bits like dvd writers, sound cards, graphics then just get the stuff you need. a nice AMD dual core chip a new motherboard and 2 gig of ddr400 ram and a 500w psu from one of the big names (fsp/antec/enermax etc) and you'll be set for another couple of years

scan.co.uk are a good reputable retailer with good prices.

Asrock AR-939 has pci-e and agp so you can upgrade the gfx card if you ever need to, yours should be fine at the min for all but games tho. and is only £40

for about £200 you can get an AMD 3800 or 4200 dual core which will be a massive improvement.

£135 will get you 2gig of fast(ish) corsair ram (ddr400 3200 2-3-3-6)

£55 will get you an FSP 500w psu - they only make psus and are very good at making them. i have one and it's nice and quiet and energy efficient.

£58 will get you a 250 gig sata samsung drive. nice and quiet and very reliable in my experience. the newer driver will load everything faster so would be a nice edition.

that's less than £500 so should leave you enough to get an apple 20 inch or dell 24 inch display

edit: didnt see you already had a monitor, sorry.

Thanks to everyones comments & especially Noah for going into this level of detail. Only problem with the case I have at the mo is it only allows slot loading optical drive.....& I can't find a slot loading DVD writer :thumbsdown: So I think starting from scratch is a good idea.

 

[Steep]

New case, £20

 

[noah]

^^^ what steep said.

plextor do a slot load dvd writer but its about £70, i was looking at it the other day as im not impressed by my NEC coaster maker (they only last a few months )

 

[Sonsey]

im not impressed by my NEC coaster maker (they only last a few months )

My NEC 2510 is still going strong after a couple of years and many well written discs (only ever 1 coaster) :shrug:

 

[noah]

yeah, i seem to be the only one that has a dud. everyone else loves them, ah well.