Topic: Is it time, New PC, but what?

[Sandra]

Thats a big jump Michelle  

I would avoid Tiny and go with Dell out of the two options you mentioned due to better support if necessary from Dell as opposed to lack of from Tiny  

The best value for money PC I have seen recently was the one that Lona got from Aldi, that P4 Median at just under £700 but that was just the tower. Having said that it did come with XP Home preinstalled and the proper full XP cd not just a restore one as you would probably get with a Tiny or Dell one.
£800 leaves a lot of pennies left over to get a monitor, scanner, printer, speakers, keyboard and mouse doesnt it  

[Michelle]

ah bugger - dell seem alot more expensive than tiny.

This is what I fancy - although Athlon not intel.

www.tiny.com/packages.php?prodid=11924

I don't really need the whole bundle - just the new monitor

Aldi? tis cheap. I'll look - I might have to have a trundle round pc world at the weekend just too see what the choices are and get some advice. If I can wait that long lol

[Sandra]

The spec looks fine Michelle but it seems dear to me  

[Clive]

As Sandra has said, if you have any problems with a Tiny you will have to pay £1 a minute for support.  There is also a very naughty modem issue whereby the installed modem will only allow you to dial Supanet.  Personally I would steer well clear of a company which went bust a few years back and refused to honour orders which had already been paid for after the company had been rescued by Time.

Bear in mind also, that Packard Bell machines supplied by PC World can be cheap and nasty and made to a price.  PC World will also put a lot of pressure on you to take out very expensive extended warranty.

I am also in the market for a couple of new machines and after reading about the stolen faulty AMD chips I am going for Intel.  I would almost certainly end up with the faulty AMD's!  

What is a reasonably specced machine these days?  They will be used for Office applications and Internet mainly, with a small amount of Paint Shop Pro.  I know that I don't need a top of the range chip since I saw very litle difference (if any) between my Athlon 1200 and Athlon 2200.  Any suggestions will be gratefully received.

[Lona]

Hi Michelle

I would pay a visit to www.medion.co.uk. Have a look at the MEDION TITANIUM MD8383.

That's where mine came from although I got it in Aldi's.

It came with wireless keyboard and optical mouse but no monitor or speakers.

I had my old speakers and 19" monitor from my old pc.

I haven't had any problems with it so far and it looks very stylish.

It has so many functions that I will never use but I would say it was excellent value for the money. £699.

[Michelle]

Thanks for the advice everyone, I will take them onboard (pc talk lol)

Okay I'll stick with the intel then, I didn't really want to stray from that.

I'll try medion, thanks for the link lona.

I thought the tiny one was well cheap for all it has on it. (including the 19" monitor) But I have only just started looking in that price range.

[Simon]

The Tiny ones are 'well cheap' because they use 'well cheap' components, Michelle, and are almost impossible to upgrade afterwards.  Whatever you do, make sure you have an AGP slot, in case you want to upgrade the graphics card at some future stage.  Many Tiny / Time machines don't come with one, as they use onboard graphics, and don't give you the option to upgrade.

[Tony]

I am also in the market for a couple of new machines and after reading about the stolen faulty AMD chips I am going for Intel.  I would almost certainly end up with the faulty AMD's!  

What is a reasonably specced machine these days?  They will be used for Office applications and Internet mainly, with a small amount of Paint Shop Pro.  I know that I don't need a top of the range chip since I saw very litle difference (if any) between my Athlon 1200 and Athlon 2200.  Any suggestions will be gratefully received.  

An AMD XP2200 with 512MB memory at a guess? is what you already have, and you have told us what you want to use your PC for.

So the real question that puzzels me is, why do you think you need a bigger spec PC ?  

[Clive]

I just get nervous when equipment gets old Tony.  I know that I don't need to upgrade the spec that much although I would probably double the RAM to 1024 Mb.  Besides, it's tax deductable isn't it?  

Should I be looking for a P4 2.8?

[Tony]

from a AMD XP2200 to a P4 2.8....not worth them cutting the tree down to make the cardboard box to deliver it in. Give £800 to a village in Africa, they'll build a school dig a well and still have money left for a herd of goats, and its tax deductable.  

[Clive]

[Simon]

[Sandra]

You could always commission one of our very own Chuckle Brothers to build you one to your own specifications Michelle  

[Simon]

Chuckle, chuckle...  

[Tony]

Chuckle Simon ..........uuuuuuuuuuuuuuu a job for Mich...leave her   jumpers to me bro....I'm good with jumpers