Computer Base Unit advice request

[Ian Price]

Morning all,

I've had my current PC for 8 years now and have never upgraded it. For the last year or so it has been getting slower and slower and is now at the point where I can't run too many things at the same time without it throwing a wobbly and crashing. It also overheats fairly regularly.

I'm now on the lookout for a new base unit. Any advice from anyone? I'm not looking for state of the art/top of the line stuff - I generally use the PC for basic office functions, internet browsing, video editing and recording.

Budget wise I reckon I would spend up to £600 maximum.

Any opinions welcome!

Cheers,

Ian.

[TheIronBeast]

You could definitely get a pretty swell base unit in the budget of £600.

Since your computer is 8 years old I'm guessing it's the processor that is slowing things down. My advice would be to look for a base unit with a decent sized HDD and one with a Quad Core Processor. Avoid a Celloron processor as they run pretty slow, with my experience.

Dell, Packard Bell and Acer make some nice ones.

[dobbins]

Get a base unit from Novatech. Get what you want inside it and also you won't have to buy latest windows if you want your old O/S on it. I've never had a problem with them and when I wanted to exchange something it was no questions asked.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/

[Ian Price]

Get a base unit from Novatech. Get what you want inside it and also you won't have to buy latest windows if you want your old O/S on it. I've never had a problem with them and when I wanted to exchange something it was no questions asked.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/

Cheers for that. I'm a bit of a computer dunce though so would rather go for something off the shelf (I know it will cost more!).

[TheIronBeast]

Get a base unit from Novatech. Get what you want inside it and also you won't have to buy latest windows if you want your old O/S on it. I've never had a problem with them and when I wanted to exchange something it was no questions asked.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/

Cheers for that. I'm a bit of a computer dunce though so would rather go for something off the shelf (I know it will cost more!).

After having just a quick browse, something like this looks good for the price:

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pavilion-slimline-s5306uk-04144127-pdt.html

[Plexi Ken]

My main desktop died during the week. It's probably just the PSU (its 5yo) but it had lots of other issues, placed an order for one of these last night,

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/minicat/new/upsell/inspiron-580-D005810?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs

... added the performance pack (better CPU and more RAM for £40) fpr a total of £569 inc VAT & shipping.

Intel® Core™ i3 Processor 530 (2.93GHz, 4MB) - u/g to Core i5-750
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
4096MB Dual Channel DDR3 1333MHz [4x1024] Memory - u/g to 6144MB
1TB (7200rpm) SATA Hard Drive
16X DVD+/- RW Optical Drive (DVD & CD read and write)
ATI Radeon™ HD 5450 1GB DDR3 graphics
Integrated 7.1 channel audio

[JDC]

not sure how deep into recording and video editing you are, but for all the general stuff you want at least 4Gb of ram

[_tom_]

Got my current PC for about £600 and it still runs really well. Probably only worth about half that now so you could easily get a bargain on one. Actually, I'm considering selling it in the next month or so if you'd be interested for about £350 ono? Spec is:

Antec 900 case (excellent condition with a couple of nicks/scratches)
DVD "multi recorder" (whatever that means)
Q6600 2.4GHz quad core processor
4GB OCZ RAM
8800GT 512MB graphics card
2x250GB Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm (I think) HDDs
OCZ StealthxStream psu

Could either supply with blank hard drives or legit version of Windows XP or maybe Windows 7 if uni will give me a different serial so I could do a fresh install..

I use that for all my uni work which involves audio recording/production, video editing and compositing, 3D modelling and animation, photoshop, then all the usual internet, music etc. Hasn't really had any problems at all. Coming to the end of uni now though and I really don't need all the power it has so its just a waste of electricity!

/plug :lol: