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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

Best PC make to go for?


ultra_supra

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hi all,

my comp seems to be on it way out & i've been in need of a new one for some time now, but what is the best to go for? the one i have at the moment is a Dell 2400 (few years old) although its a Pentium4 etc it runs like a bag of :taped: this is probably due to all the music on it i spose.

 

i'm basically after a system for various multi-media perposes ,music,games,internet etc

 

can anyone recommend somewhere apart from Dell that may be worth checkin out?

 

my budget is around £600 (for a complete package) maybe more if i decide to sell my uk spec rear bakes :(

 

thanks!

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i got mine from mesh computers:

 

Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q6600 Quad Core Processor(2.4GHz,8MB Cache,1066MHz)

Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium Edition

Digital & Analogue TV Tuner PCI Card

Aluminium ATX Midi Tower + Muskateer Display + 550W PSU - Black

PCI-Express Mainboard - SLI nForce 650i SLI(C55) - Intel Core 2 Duo/Quad-Core - ATX

4GB DDR2 667MHz Memory -( 4x 1GB )

750GB (1x 500GB + 1x 250GB) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 16MB Buffer

LightScribe Super Format 18x Dual Layer DVD Writer +R/-R/RW/RAM

LightScribe Super Format 18x Dual Layer DVD Writer +R/-R/RW/RAM

768MB nVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX - Dual DVI, HDTV, TV-Out

22" Widescreen LCD TFT Digital Display with internal speakers (DVI, 5ms)

Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Sound Card (oem)

Logitech S500 - 5.1 Speakers with Subwoofer

Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard + MX Revolution Cordless Rechargeable Laser Mouse

Free Microsoft® Works® 8.5 + 60 Days Microsoft Office Trial

Free Cyberlink Video Editing Suite - 7 titles (oem)

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2

2x IEEE1394 Firewire (onboard)

1x Gigabit LAN (onboard)

Multi-format Memory Card Reader

Gold - 2 Years On Site Service - UK Mainland Only (Home Service)

Saitek - X52 PC Flight Control

Creative Labs HN-700 noise-cancelling Headphones

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Best thing to do is to buy PC Pro when they're reviewing the sort of PC you want (e.g. £600 desktop PC group test) and follow their advice.

 

Building your own is an option, but if you want to do it legit then the cost of a Vista license will bump the cost up.

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Building your own is probably not cost effective, but you can choose the best components, the look etc, but yes an OS would be more. Im sure YOU could build one, most mags do a how to every few months, look up reviews on various components and away you go its suprisingly easy.

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cheers guys!! thats a nice spec cap'n chaos!

 

problem is i'm not over-familiar when it comes to parts for computers so if i were to build one myself i would probably have to give sumone the money & have sum1 do it for me for a fee!

 

If you wanted to go the custom route drop me a PM, I have built a few for the guys here in the past :)

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recommend you go the 'build your own' or 'custom PC' route.

This way you can specify exactly your needs and the components you wish you use by manufacturer.

 

buying pre-built or manufacturers systems, you rarely get to choose the Graphics cards and Hard drives and any other things. If you can choose one like the GFX card, more than likely won't be the type of HD you want.

 

One thing i don't like to do is use one large HD, i prefer to split things down into smaller capacities. Atm, i am using 4 HD for safety and security of data. If you are doing Multimedia work, this is the way to go.

 

Take advice from the forum on people that have built them recently and you can't go wrong.

 

ja ne

Ian

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i got mine from mesh computers:

 

Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q6600 Quad Core Processor(2.4GHz,8MB Cache,1066MHz)

Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium Edition

Digital & Analogue TV Tuner PCI Card

Aluminium ATX Midi Tower + Muskateer Display + 550W PSU - Black

PCI-Express Mainboard - SLI nForce 650i SLI(C55) - Intel Core 2 Duo/Quad-Core - ATX

4GB DDR2 667MHz Memory -( 4x 1GB )

750GB (1x 500GB + 1x 250GB) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 16MB Buffer

LightScribe Super Format 18x Dual Layer DVD Writer +R/-R/RW/RAM

LightScribe Super Format 18x Dual Layer DVD Writer +R/-R/RW/RAM

768MB nVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX - Dual DVI, HDTV, TV-Out

22" Widescreen LCD TFT Digital Display with internal speakers (DVI, 5ms)

Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Sound Card (oem)

Logitech S500 - 5.1 Speakers with Subwoofer

Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard + MX Revolution Cordless Rechargeable Laser Mouse

Free Microsoft® Works® 8.5 + 60 Days Microsoft Office Trial

Free Cyberlink Video Editing Suite - 7 titles (oem)

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2

2x IEEE1394 Firewire (onboard)

1x Gigabit LAN (onboard)

Multi-format Memory Card Reader

Gold - 2 Years On Site Service - UK Mainland Only (Home Service)

Saitek - X52 PC Flight Control

Creative Labs HN-700 noise-cancelling Headphones

 

 

dont think he need a spec as high as that, unless hes playing a lot of high end games or using memory intensive softwear packages, photo editing etc.

 

excellent spec tho how much did you pay for that lot may i ask???

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The thing about custom-built PCs is, if you know what you want (and crucially are interested enough in it to care), chances are you know enough to build it.

 

If you're a "power user" (e.g. into high-end games, programming, graphics manipulation, for use as a media server or simply like tinkering with PCs in general) then I think a custom PC makes sense. If you want "something that just works" (e.g. email, web surfing, storing your photos and home videos, watching DVDs, wordprocessing, the odd game), then it might be a bit overkill, because they tend to be more expensive than an off-the-shelf jobbie.

 

Not trying to put you off a custom-built PC chap, and if the guys on here can build one for a comparable price to a similar off-the-shelf PC, then you get the best of both worlds, but the normal home user doesn't usually need (or care) about the bells and whistles.

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Guest WrathChild

Im also close to getting a new PC, I'm a seasond custom PC builder, so i usually go down the self build route. But this time I have been toying with the idea of getting it custom built by some one on the web. Been doing some research and I've found a few promising looking places, if you google some of these you'l get an idea. Most offer customisation options, also if they dont have what you want you can request bespoke builds, as always prices vary.

 

Cheapish ones:

 

Scan.co.uk

Element Tech

Wired2fire

ccl-online

 

More expensive options:

 

Alienware

Voodoo PC

Vadim

 

Also check out custompc.co.uk its a website for custom PC enthusiasts and has alot of good information. Check the reviews section especialy the elite section.

 

That is all.

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thanks for all your replies guys!!! very helpfull indeed, i'm gonna try some of the sites n mags & get abit more knowledge of it all. i like the sound of self-build alot but just not sure if i'm that much 'involved' in the pc world plus i'd probably lose my pacience (sp?) n break somethin :D but will definately look into it. i can definately see it being the better route to go down!

 

thanks again & will probably PM afew of you if i go further with the self build idea :)

 

oh & if anyone wants any UK spec rear brakes....lol :D

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Guest WrathChild

(sp) Patiance. Well its not as hard as you might think, its pretty much plug and go with the components theres not many components that can be put int the wrong slots. Take around an hour to two hours to do a build possibly even less. Just be gentle when handling components, hold the pcbs on the edges dont touch the circuitry. Make sure your hands are dry, and it may also be worth buying an anti static wrist band (usualy i just touch a radiator or something similar to disipate any static). Follow the instructions that come with the motherboard most have sections on installation that cover pretty much everything. Its important to sourse quality components that work well together, http://www.custompc.co.uk is your best place to find good components as they review and lab test most.

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