I'm thinking of buying a computer at home, as some of you know I only have internet access at work so this limits my UM time, not to mention time spent animating avatars and competing in the chess tournement - so really it's in everyone at UM's interest that I get one!

I'm fairly clued up on the subject and have done some, and will do more, research into the best deals but I'd like to know if anyone has any recommendations, or conversly nightmare stories of who I should NOT buy from, last thing I want is to be ripped off.

I'd like to spend no more than £500 and I'm not bothered about a printer or scanner for now although if I can get them too that's great. I'd like a CD writer but it's not essential and I'm not bothered about a DVD drive either.

So, where did you get yours? Are you happy with it? And how much did you pay?

Thanks in advance for any help given

This is what I did. I went to a company called PC Medic and had them build me a comp from scratch. The benefit to having your comp built is that you won't be paying for the bullcrap that you would pay if you bought it at a department store and you know the parts are all brand new. It cost me about $1700 CDN and here are the specs:

Pentium 4 3.03 Ghz processor
128 megabyte graphics card
Sound Card
15" LCD monitor
CD burner
Wireless Mouse and Keyboard
Small 24 watt speakers with bass
Windows XP home with service pak 2

and some more but I'm at work and don't know the exact specs.

So if you get yourself a built computer from a credible company in your area you won't have to deal with ads and spyware already on your system. If your going to be buying programs as well I would go to a specialist.... they'll sell you the CD that has the program and all the instructions in it... if you go to a regular store you'll be paying for heavy manuals you'll never use. XP was priced at $179 CDN and at Future Shop it was $399 CDN.....

Thanks Black Ops, appreciate the advice

well, are you just going to use for internet, avatar making, and cd burning, or will there be gaming

No not gaming really, I prefer consoles for gaming action, primarily I'd like it for internet use, also avatar animation and eventually music composition at a hobby level

I bought mine from a comouter shop in stevenage, payed £499 for it:

AMD sempron 2600 (2.6ghz)
Geforce FX5200
512mb RAM
DVD rewriter
15" LCD monitor
Soundblaster Surround
120 gig HDD....

A excellent buy if you ask me, brand new. Your best bet would be to check out either 2nd hand computer stores, or small computer business stores, they always have the best deals.

Would you mind telling me which shop? Stevanage is only up the road for me.

You can build a pretty sweet system on dell. Just make sure you get the RAM upgrade to 512.

oh, if your going to be mixing/editing/creating music, i would reccomend an Athlon 64 system

HP and Dell has a refurb link. you can get a refurb, which is new...just had some issues and are now fixed and tested by the company. you can get them for as little as $300. and you can also get them upgraded, i think, for a little more. you might want to check it out.

Just find one for free.
Get the recovery cd for that pc and its brand new again.
At least you need pentium 3 and update the ram.

That's a good idea....I may even take a look at this link and see what they've got.

I'd say just built a pc, you get more for your money

yeh. i'd agree. if not check these sites:

www.ebuyer.co.uk
www.pcmanuk.com
www.morgancomputers.co.uk
i got mine from pcmanuk for £521 inc vat exc os a year ago and the4se are the specs:

AMD Athlon 2600+
512Mb DDR333
120GB Hard Drive
onboard snd
17" CRT screen
128Mb Geforce FX 5700
CDRW/DVD

there are other decent sites out there that do good deals but cant remeber now. hope this info helps.

www.tigerdirect.com

i have not seen a site with better deals anywhere, and remember name brands dont mean better, its what inside that counts

www.overclockers.co.uk

are the best site for the UK, I must have spent thousands on that site over the years... not my own money of course, but building pc's for people

I bought mine worth $2000+ CDN, costumed made at Computer Boulevard in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The specs are:

+ P4 Processor
+ 128 MB Radeon 9800 Pro Graphics Card (Video Card)
+ IS7 Series Motherboard
+ 1.024 GB of RAM (I think two slots of 512 MB )
+ 340 GB of Hard Drive.
+ Lite-On DVDRW (All in One)
+ 5.1 Logitech Speaker System
+ Logitech Keyboard & Optical Mouse
+ IBM 19" Flatscreen Moniter (Sold Separatly $300 CDN)
-------
= (Overall) $2200+ CDN

I'm studyin' to get my Web site Development and Digital A/V Production certificates... so the specs are perfect for my courses.


It's best if you buy a comp with a good graphics card, and P3 or P4 processor, if you intend on doing animations. That way your comp won't have any problems doing sophisticated animations, if you plan on purchasing softwares like Macromedia Flash or Adobe Illustrator.

But it's all up to you B-man. It's your money. Window shop around... to get the best prices... on components.