the last PC I bought I walked into the TinyPC shop & bought it

It has a CRT monitor, the fact it had CDRW drive was a total novelty & I found it hard to actually find somewhere that SOLD dvd's, it's on its way out

where is good to get em these days

I want one that can run all the adobe apps nae bother

Play.com is a decent place to buy them onine free p & p

The Dell Outlet always has a few bargains

** Clicky **

Ignore this advice.

I'd recommend Dell. If I ever buy another PC (unlikely, I'm a mac convert), I'd buy from there again.

Agreed. Isn't Dell free p&p anyway?

The best machine will always be the one where you handpick the parts with help from an expert. The next best thing is Dell.

No, I don't think it is. But if you phone them and haggle, it's easy to get it taken off your bill

If you want a good custom build, then go somewhere like scan (www.scancomputers.co.uk or just scan.co.uk).

Dell XPS420 is a great choice and not too dear, and will play all the latest games at a decent rate, but you cant muddle with them by overclocking the processor.

The current intels are so good for overclocking, it makes sense to buy a cheaper machine, or build one yourself and clock the nuts off it, for example, my daughters pc cost me £200 to build, £40 processor running double its rated speed.

If you want to do editing and stuff, go for a quadcore, it will make light work of it.

Mine came from pcspecialist.co.uk and I am very happy with it. Can't be arsed building them any more!

Can't recommend it highly enough. I recently got one of these and, after about 30 Windows updates within the first 2 days, it's been running beautifully ever since.

Meshcomputers.com do some really good packages. But if you know nothing about computers and you just want a decent PC, Dell are good.

For God's sake don't go to PC World, Dixons or any of the big high street shysters.

I'll add my Dell recommendation.

I need a new PC too. Previously had a wee Shuttle and the motherboard blew after 6/7 years service.

Budget wise, I guess its best to build your own, or is it? I'd be comfortable building my own PC, I have a Windows XP disc for example already, a HDD I can use, the rest, monitor, case, power supply, memory, etc I'd need to source myself. I strongly dislike pre-built machines that are loaded with crap software slowing the system down.

Anyone got a decent PC spec of decent good quality components? Say budget between £500 and £750. Getting the right components that work with each other is my only concern.

Dabs, and scan good places to use?

Reasons for PC, probably video editing mostly, following by other misc multimedia stuff, phototgraphs, music. I'm a professional IT person, but wouldn't use it for work, or well maybe...you never know. Needs to be reasonably powerful I suppose, and upgradable (unlike the Shuttle was)....

Any help gratefully received.

Looking for help for my parents, they want a lap top, any advice re what to get ,budget of around £400 ish ,also whats the best internet provider,routers etc,
Should you avoid the high st they have had a look in Currys!!

thanks

Any specific reason for wanting a notebook rather than desktop?

What sort of applications do you expect them to mostly run?

Building your own is cost effective if your old PC is salvagable, which depends how old it is. Within 5 years most parts of it should still be useful. However you need to know your way around a screwdriver, and it can pain you tears if you can't get it all to fit together and work!

A few years ago it was always recommended to build your own, however with the cost of complete pre built machines dropping a lot, and combined with you getting more bang for your buck, you might well end up saving only £20-30 or nothing at all, i build my own, but only do so now because i enjoy it, not to save money.

Aye, The Gray Ghost used to build his own, but the likes of Dell do stuff even cheaper, and it isnt really worth the effort of building your own, unless you enjoy that sort of thing.

Nothing major maybe brain training, sims, etc e mail for reaching there granddaughter.
I may highjack it from time to time

Not sure why they want lap top i guess thet can use it in the garden.



Also given the post,s on routers any advice?