Please recommend me a PC - budget £750 inc. monitor, OS, Works

deadlyledley

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I have not upgraded in years: my current spec is:
AMD (single) 3200+
1gig ram
6600gt

I am looking to get a new pc with the following:
intel quad core (unless dual is a better option?)
4 or 8 gig of ram (do I need 8?)
250gig HD (I certainly do not need any more capacity)
"good" graphics card (8800gtx?)
20-24" monitor with low response time
Windows XP or Vista (I heard Vista was a bit terrible but better for quads?)
Microsoft Works (perhaps student edition)
No idea about MOBOs!

Can someone please help me out? I have not kept up to speed on PCs for a long while.

Thanks
 
Well an Intel cpu is the best option but whether core2duo or core2quad is best depends on who you talk to. I went for a q6600 G0.

2GB to 3GB will be fine for XP-32bit (XPPro if possible)
4GB will be fine for Vista 64bit (cant help with which Vista version, there's a lot of them and you need to know the limitations)

The retail version of either Windows XPPro 32bit or Vista 64bit are your best options but which you get depends on your needs. I prefer XP but I'd probably still buy Vista if I had to buy a new os as long as I could figure out which was a good version of it to get, they have so many and some of them are awful due to the limitations.

9800GTX seems good value (Novatech have one around £135 including vat and the postage and its better than a 8800gtx-ultra from what I read) but if you can't stretch to that then at least a 8800GT. For ATI I think a 4870 or better.

500gb drives are £42, may as well get one considering the price of 250gb drives isn't enormously lower.

22 inch monitors seem the best value. Try to get a DVI model as they handle lower resolutions better when you need to use them. I find LG models are good and 5ms is a good speed.

Microsoft Works is ok but OpenOffice is free and you can put the whole lot on a usb stick if you feel like it (portableapps.com)

Which motherboard depends on whether you're going for Nvidea SLI or ATI Crossfire or a single card and the relative costs. Whether noise is important to you etc. Personally I just got the cheapest SLI 780i board I could find which had all solid capacitors and an 8 phase power, passive heatpipe cooling and could take my choice of quad core without having to update the bios. Anyway I picked this Asus model but it would be a bad choice for an ATI video card.

You'll also have to think about your choice of case, I'd recommend the Antec 300 with a couple of extra 12 inch fans, it seems to have everything that made the 900 such a good case except it also has dust filters which I really wish mine had.

For PSU pick one with a good reputation as it can make or break your system (literally). Wattage depends on what you'll put inside and take note of the total amperage available to the 12v lines, A Hiper M or Hiper R 880W can handle a pair of 9800GTXs for instance.
 
HP Pavillion Slimline, full on media centre PC, card slots, 500 gig, comes with a 160 gig lump which inserts into the front or usb's in, 4 gig ram, HDMI out, wireless keypad and mouse, 4 USB on the back, two USB on the front, £500 notes inc vat at PC world, I might be wrong but I think the new one is a vera, but the best thing is the size, 27cm high, 10cm wide, 32cm front to back, not your average big numb lump !
Sorry, forgot to say, I bought mine with a 24" Samy SyncMaster 2493HM HDMI in monitor, £300 notes inc vat, if you could stretch it to £800.

Find somebody with a business, get them to pay for it, you pay them the net, they get the vat back and it's tax deductable and it's a cheap "HDMI" unit
 
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Ya not gettin' much help here mate, reckon the HDMI in and out bit as done all their heads in, there'll be alot of people out there just spent a fortune on big numb PC boxes (still on VGA) that are obsolete !, they were obsolete while on the shelf !
 
Find somebody with a business, get them to pay for it, you pay them the net, they get the vat back and it's tax deductable and it's a cheap "HDMI" unit
is this legal?

Curly
 
is this legal?

Curly

Sounds like I've just educated you on the bennefits of being self employed, I can even get the vat back on a pair of jeans, just run them through the ledger as "work pants", this HP Pavilion and 24" Sammy HDMI monitor cost £800, less the vat, it cost me £680, and it all helps to keep annual profits down, thus no tax bill !
 
is this legal?

Curly

No it isn't. And the best bit is that he is stealing from all of us...
My mum is self-employed and does not feel the need to defraud the country with frivolous expense claims.
I really hope he gets audited some day...:thumbsdow
 
No it isn't. And the best bit is that he is stealing from all of us...
My mum is self-employed and does not feel the need to defraud the country with frivolous expense claims.
I really hope he gets audited some day...:thumbsdow

Don't you worry !, Had a couple of investigations, ran a small motor bike through the books the other year, bought it for my son to play on, one of those cheap nasty chinese things, needed it to get to the middle of a field with spades and stuff at work (if you now what I mean). The "VAT MAN" was aware of it and simply let it go, due to his work load, he probably had to move on to other issues, the vat on a £350 bike isn't worth the grief. Like all government agencies, they are overworked and underpayed, and at 5 ish they just want to go home like the rest of us, if Gordon Brown thinks he's being ripped, let him sit up all night trying to find a few missing quid and then go to work the day after, and the day after, and the day after !
 
Look, all this is a different matter, I'm just trying to tell ya'all how to get a top end PC for the right money:smashin:
 
Don't you worry !, Had a couple of investigations, ran a small motor bike through the books the other year, bought it for my son to play on, one of those cheap nasty chinese things, needed it to get to the middle of a field with spades and stuff at work (if you now what I mean). The "VAT MAN" was aware of it and simply let it go, due to his work load, he probably had to move on to other issues, the vat on a £350 bike isn't worth the grief. Like all government agencies, they are overworked and underpayed, and at 5 ish they just want to go home like the rest of us, if Gordon Brown thinks he's being ripped, let him sit up all night trying to find a few missing quid and then go to work the day after, and the day after, and the day after !
So the upshot is it's illegal and your saying the VAT man is too overworked to care, if that is the case I wonder what Mr VAT mans boss will do if he saw you bragging about it in a public forum.. I digress, don't advise people to try/follow illegal practices on the forums.

Curly
 
So the upshot is it's illegal and your saying the VAT man is too overworked to care, if that is the case I wonder what Mr VAT mans boss will do if he saw you bragging about it in a public forum.. I digress, don't advise people to try/follow illegal practices on the forums.

Curly[/QUOTE

OK, fair dinkum, this was about getting somebody a good PC at 750 notes. "that was my best advice" and so here ends my sermon !
 
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This one seems to have hit a wall then, mmmh!,
Nobody HDMI out then ?
 
Both of them have HDMI out.

Well, you've read my spec below (2 permalink, whatever that's about), or get one of those two, I know which of the three is a lot smaller, has a 160 gig removable lump and has card slots, and with a Sammy 24" HDMI in panel, cost £680 + vat
 
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