Wanna proof my mate wrong :) in a nice way

iMacMart · 10 Apr 2007 at 09:17

Guys

My friend went off against my better judgement and spent £720 at a large PC shop over the weekend and brought a new pc as his old one blew up, what he got for his cash is below, I thought I MUSt be able to build him a better machine by purchasing from OCuK and building it for him?

2.1 Intel dual Core Processor
2gig RAM
256mb Nvidia graphics card
Case
Motherboard
17" TFT monitor

Sorry he is not into specs so can't tell me much more....!

Can we better that from here?

Thanks for your help

z0mbi3 · 10 Apr 2007 at 09:37

Ok so you could make some changes here and there but it's still a purple shirt beater.

edit:

swap the gfx for a 320 mb model and you'll be in budget.

Mint_Sauce · 10 Apr 2007 at 09:41

That doesn't take in to account a monitor as well though.

cssreg · 10 Apr 2007 at 09:43

not a bad spec there really - i was looking at something similar with a lesser graphic card for £703 but you posted first

MeatLoaf · 10 Apr 2007 at 09:44

Or the operating system

lee87 · 10 Apr 2007 at 09:44

I'll assume that the pc he got has a low end graphics card and vista basic included. (most pre built pc's have an OS)
This would have a better graphics card and vista premium plus a 19" widescreen for the same price.

sahjin · 10 Apr 2007 at 09:49

that is a very good spec above.. as most of the components in the pc the guy's mate bought will be budget i reckon.. i spend £630 on a pc from a well known place last year... and most of the parts are..

Drefsab · 10 Apr 2007 at 10:33

Seeing as his old computer blew up couldn't you drop the operating system from the spec and use the license from the old pc and transfer it to the new system? Your certainly right though you can build a better pc for the money.

Phil99 · 10 Apr 2007 at 10:46

Using similar components from OcUK (went for the cheapest options where something vague like 'motherboard' was listed) I get a total of £661.33 inc VAT & Postage. Then if you factor in the cost of getting it built (unless you were going to do it for him) then he hasn't got a bad deal. Not great, but he wasn't ripped off.

The best option would be something like lee87 posted though, drop the CPU a bit and improve other areas of the PC.

iMacMart · 10 Apr 2007 at 11:50

Thanks guys

Will be talking to him later about this

Thanks again

Corasik · 10 Apr 2007 at 18:31

Drefsab said:
Seeing as his old computer blew up couldn't you drop the operating system from the spec and use the license from the old pc and transfer it to the new system? Your certainly right though you can build a better pc for the money.

Probably not, Microsoft OEM license allows for old computer to be repaired, but not for transfer to a new computer.

Technically possible, but not necessarily legal.

However, one might imagine that his old screen could be reused, allowing for more of the budget to be spent on the PC itself, assuming he was 'happy' with his old screen.

Trigger · 10 Apr 2007 at 19:27

Drefsab said:
Seeing as his old computer blew up couldn't you drop the operating system from the spec and use the license from the old pc and transfer it to the new system? Your certainly right though you can build a better pc for the money.

No, unless his old license was a retail one (Which it won't be if it was included on a previous pre-built system) then it can't be transferred. It stays with the motherboard it was initially installed upon. Simple as

Corasik said:
Probably not, Microsoft OEM license allows for old computer to be repaired, but not for transfer to a new computer.

That's an awful interpretation of Microsoft's EULA. If the motherboard breaks then it can only be replaced with a completly identical one- you can't just 'repair' it with any old random thing. Windows may activate with a completley different motherboard in (It shouldn't do though) but it doesn't mean it's legal.