Quick response appreciated, Acer or Zoostorm

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madmardle

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Ken
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Having taken advice from TP members, I have decided to go for an i5 processor and I've narrowed it down to two, (for my budget of £400 maximum) and would appreciate your views on the them. The first one is an Acer Inspire XC-6005 which has 8GB memory and 2TB hard drive, (PC World) The other is a Zoostorm i5-4460 which also has 8GB RAM, but " only" 1TB hard drive (Argos). So both are more or less the same spec. and the same price, ( £399.99)but the biggest difference is the size of the tower on the Acer which is only about the same size as a laptop, i.e. 100 High, 367 wide, 269.5 deep. Incidently I'm not fixated on the smaller size of the hard drive on the Zoostorm, but I do wonder if the smaller size of the Acer might have the same restrictions as a laptop, although I don't invisage ever having to upgrade. Both run Windows 8.1
I think these offers end shortly hence my request for a swift reply.
Many thanks,
Ken
 
Wouldn't touch either of 'em personally but I've built my own PCs since 1989. The main problem is usually lack of expandability. For example, you might want to add a better graphics card. It sounds like you've got no chance with the Acer and who knows if the Zoostorm (WTF make is that?) has a good enough power supply. I think there's a general rule that no-one buys a second PC from PC World as they've learnt enough by then to do better and I can't think why anyone on here would want to buy a PC from Argos.

You'd be much better off buying from a component supplier that builds the PCs themselves. Have a look at what you can get for the same money from the likes of Novatech or Scan as they can tailor the build to what you actually need.
 
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I've bought a PC from PC world (Argos, PC World, Currys.. they're all the same, kind of when it comes to computers) and it lasted me a good while. Though reason being that I wanted one I could just walk out with that day as my laptop had been stolen that week and had to get a new one to work from. I wouldn't not get another one from PC World or similar but if I had more time on my hands I'd have a look around. Me and my sisters have just bought my mum a Zoostorm PC, true they're not as well known as Acer, HP or Samsung but they have good specs and good reviews.
 
Never had a problem with the Acer laptops I've had :)
 
I've bought a couple of Zoostorm PC's in the last year and both seem to be running fine. Zoostorm are a system builder (based in Warrington), in the same way that Novatech are, so you'll get UK support and advice. Personally I'd go for the Zoostorm over the Acer, as SnapSh0t said, there's more options on expandability with a tower/desktop system and also the ability to swap out components to upgrade or if any of them fail.

EDIT. Oh and I bought mine through Ebuyer, they have the i5 Zoostorm with 2Tb HDD and 8Gb Ram for £399.99 inc VAT here [http://www.ebuyer.com/662249-zoostorm-desktop-pc-7260-1014]
 
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You could try cougar-extreme,PC specialist,scan,chillblast or overclockers all have configuration to build one to your spec,if you can't build it yourself.Its not always cheaper to buy and build yourself as these firms buy bulk and get big discounts.Post what your looking to use it for and I'm sure there will be plenty of advise.
 
Thanks folks,
I use the PC for web browsing, e-mail & Family Tree maker etc., not for gaming, but I do have Adobe Elements 7 on which I do ( at the moment) basic photo editing, although I would like to progress to more adventurous tasks. My current PC is quite an old Medion running XP and is now quite slow, two reasons why I thought of changing. I've just checked the specs and I have 2GB of Ram and the processor is a Celeron (R) CPU 2.66Ghz, I'm not sure what the hard drive is, probably quite small as the Ram was only 256 mb until I upgraded it, so all I wanted really was something more powerfull and faster, and was advised a minimum of i3 or i5 if I could afford it. I asked a couple of local independant shops and both said I would be looking at starting £600 which is out of the question as my maximum budget is £400 which is why I looked at PC World etc.
Thanks again,
Ken
Ps. I've had a look at the equivilant priced Novatech and they seem to be Windows 8 and I thought 8.1 was better!
 
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Windows 8 will update itself to 8.1 so that's not a problem but I would speak to them to see which it really is.
 
gramps said:
Never had a problem with the Acer laptops I've had :)
Click to expand...
Neither have I but that doesn't make the desktop PCs worth considering when you can do much better for the same cost.
 
thumb_CASE_PHO1-4.jpg

Phoenix i5 Sphere
PHO1∞£434.99£434.99
WARRANTY: 3 YEAR RETURN TO BASE Warranty
Q-JUMP: STANDARD - Upto 10 Working Days - FREE UK DELIVERY
DELIVERY: Monday - Friday Via DPD 1 Hour Delivery Window
NEW CASES: COLOURSIT Knight Black Interior Mesh Front Case
POWER SUPPLY: 450W PSU
INTEL HASWELL CPU: Intel Core i5 4440 - 4 Cores @ 3.1Ghz (Turbo 3.3Ghz) + 6MB CACHE
INTEL HASWELL MOTHERBOARD: ASUS H81M-PLUS - USB2.0, USB3.0, SATA6 + VGA,DVI & HDMI
CPU Overclocking: STANDARD SPEED - FOR OVERCLOCKING ENSURE CPU IS A 'K' EDITION
CPU COOLING: HEATSINK/FAN FOR CPU INCLUDED TO COVER OVERCLOCK IF APPLICABLE
RAM.: 8GB DDR3 1333Mhz - CRUCIAL
SOLID STATE HDD (SSD): NONE
SOLID STATE HYBRID DRIVE (SSHD) (SSD+HDD IN ONE): NONE
MASTER HARD DRIVE: 500GB SEAGATE SATA3 - 6Gb/s, 7200 RPM & 16MB Cache
SLAVE HARD DRIVE: NONE
RAID: NONE
MASTER OPTICAL DRIVE.: SAMSUNG 24X DVD+/-RW Dual Layer & Dual Format
SLAVE OPTICAL DRIVE: NONE
GRAPHICS CARD (PCI-E): nVIDIA GeForce GT620 1GB
TV CARD: NONE
SOFTWARE: WINDOWS 7 Premium - 64 Bit Inc DVD/Licence
EXTRA SOFTWARE: NONE
PERFORMANCE TUNING: NONE
TFT MONITOR: NONE
MONITOR CABLE: NONE
KEYBOARD & MOUSE: NONE
NEW SPEAKERS: NONE
HEADSET: NONE
CARD READER: NONE
FRONT FAN CONTROLLER: NONE
WIRELESS & NETWORKING (No Wireless As Standard): NONE
Extra USB Ports: NONE
Extra Firewire Port: NONE
SOUND CARD: ONBOARD Standard Min 5.1 Or 7.1
USB FLASH PEN DRIVE: NONE
CABLE MANAGEMENT: NONE
COOLING: NONE
NOISE REDUCTION: NONE
del.gif
- Remove ItemDiscount:£0.00
Subtotal:£434.99
VAT No : 837433712 Tax:VAT Included
Shipping:Login/Register for Amounts
Basket Total:£434.99
 
Bit late to this and have not read all above but I too have 2 Zoostorms both run great. Got mine from ebuyer.

Gaz
 
I bought 7 Zoostorm PCs for a client and they've all been faultless.
The OS install was fairly clean too.

Customer service on the other hand, a mixed bag.
I'd still go with them over Acer though.
 
Thanks Daniel,
I'm 99% ordering an i5 Zoostorm tomorrow, the reason it isn't 100% is because I'm still not sure that an i3 wouldn't do the tasks I need, When I think that my old PC is nowhere near ( I assume) an i3, it would I be satisfied with less than i5. I understand that it would be an expensive mistake to make if I bought the wrong one, but I would have to live with that as there is no way I could just buy another one, it's just that I could also do with getting a new printer , and what I might save on getting an i3 instead of an i5 would pay for one
 
Quick response and you're still mucking about? :rolleyes:

Go for the i5.
 
OK Mike, you've shamed me into making a decision, I'm going for the i5. ( the quick response was because I thought the offer ended that weekend, I should have known better really)
Cheers,
Ken
 
Yeah get the i5 and the computer in the biggest case : both choices will be better for photo/video stuff and upgrading in the future.

Last computer we bought was an i5 and it has been impressive and reliable.
 
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