Hi,
I joined this forum after being very impressed with OCUK. Our television went ping and a friend recommended this company saying he gets all his computer/electrical goods here. Have to say we are all extremely happy with the product and superb service really was top-notch.
Now my dad is looking for a new computer; we have used various ‘well known’ brands/companies and are now totally disillusioned with the sheer number of re-occurring hardware faults, inadequate support (basically format and hope it works, despite some being hardware issues!), disgraceful service, and paying for over-priced systems that involve a constant compromise with what we really want. My friend, two years ago, built his own and said he will never go back to off-the-shelf but he is a techie and to be honest we are amateur in the extreme, yet I personally do have this itch of really wanting to build one and learn more (pals basically converted me fully!). I have done fairly extensive research on it and have learned a fair bit; however the lack of experience and uncertainty having never done anything like this before is nagging at me despite what I have picked up. So, I guess my first question is how easy it is for one/two raw newbie’s to build a good, fast, stable computer?
(Can post on separate thread if easier)
Secondly, assuming we are up to the task lol, could you please spec us a machine. We will require everything including the monitor, case etc –: except a keyboard, speakers, and mouse. My dad’s budget is anything between £550 to £650 (you may exclude delivery, but include VAT
).
What we would like from the machine is it to be very fast, reliable, quick for a number of demanding applications, normal office work, Internet browsing/downloading/ordering etc, DVD burning/playing etc, music, but would also like the option of playing decent games (kind of a casual gamer just now if you could call it that). Essentially we want it to do anything, but realise probably asking a lot for the budget, however would like to know your opinions on the best overall system we could get for that money.
Additionally, my dad would strongly prefer it to be wireless as there could be an issue over physical location, would want a monitor size of 19” no bigger or smaller, and would prefer the operating system to work with our old printers/software/programs/apps etc (I don’t know if getting Vista 32bit would guarantee this, or if better getting XP and upgrading later on?).
I also prefer Intel processors if it’s possible given the budget, and would desire 2GB of RAM at least. My dad would also like it to be reasonably future proof, to the point in something like three years if he wants to upgrade he just needs to unplug old stuff for new, so this may mean we need a DDR2 and DDR3 compatible motherboard, that’s if budget permits it, or if indeed you feel its worth it. Finally, I would definitely consider overclocking (what the hell may as well go full hog!), certainly the CPU if not the RAM.
Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated, and sorry about the length lol.
I joined this forum after being very impressed with OCUK. Our television went ping and a friend recommended this company saying he gets all his computer/electrical goods here. Have to say we are all extremely happy with the product and superb service really was top-notch.
Now my dad is looking for a new computer; we have used various ‘well known’ brands/companies and are now totally disillusioned with the sheer number of re-occurring hardware faults, inadequate support (basically format and hope it works, despite some being hardware issues!), disgraceful service, and paying for over-priced systems that involve a constant compromise with what we really want. My friend, two years ago, built his own and said he will never go back to off-the-shelf but he is a techie and to be honest we are amateur in the extreme, yet I personally do have this itch of really wanting to build one and learn more (pals basically converted me fully!). I have done fairly extensive research on it and have learned a fair bit; however the lack of experience and uncertainty having never done anything like this before is nagging at me despite what I have picked up. So, I guess my first question is how easy it is for one/two raw newbie’s to build a good, fast, stable computer?
(Can post on separate thread if easier)
Secondly, assuming we are up to the task lol, could you please spec us a machine. We will require everything including the monitor, case etc –: except a keyboard, speakers, and mouse. My dad’s budget is anything between £550 to £650 (you may exclude delivery, but include VAT
).What we would like from the machine is it to be very fast, reliable, quick for a number of demanding applications, normal office work, Internet browsing/downloading/ordering etc, DVD burning/playing etc, music, but would also like the option of playing decent games (kind of a casual gamer just now if you could call it that). Essentially we want it to do anything, but realise probably asking a lot for the budget, however would like to know your opinions on the best overall system we could get for that money.
Additionally, my dad would strongly prefer it to be wireless as there could be an issue over physical location, would want a monitor size of 19” no bigger or smaller, and would prefer the operating system to work with our old printers/software/programs/apps etc (I don’t know if getting Vista 32bit would guarantee this, or if better getting XP and upgrading later on?).
I also prefer Intel processors if it’s possible given the budget, and would desire 2GB of RAM at least. My dad would also like it to be reasonably future proof, to the point in something like three years if he wants to upgrade he just needs to unplug old stuff for new, so this may mean we need a DDR2 and DDR3 compatible motherboard, that’s if budget permits it, or if indeed you feel its worth it. Finally, I would definitely consider overclocking (what the hell may as well go full hog!), certainly the CPU if not the RAM.
Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated, and sorry about the length lol.
