Buying a computer

[ciphergoth]

My desktop isn't fast enough to play DVDs. I think I want to buy a computer. Whole. I'll dual boot between XP and Linux; I guess I want about half a gig of memory and a nice big hard drive (120Gb or more). It doesn't have to be fast, you can't buy one that isn't way fast enough these days. I don't need a monitor; I already owe conflux £50 for a very nice one (or did I ever pay you? If not, are you at Bisexual Underground tomorrow?)

Who do you prefer to buy from? Recommendations so far include

http://www.scan.co.uk/
and of course http://www.dell.co.uk/ (but they insist on throwing in a monitor and speakers and suchlike)

UPDATE: Two people so far have suggested I buy an Apple. No further discussion of this possibility is needed. Thank you. Update to the update - the same goes for PS2s, thanks...

(PS I didn't do what I said I'd do - I went to Alternator. Blame goth peer pressure. Had a damn fine night though!)

Comments

[purplerabbits.livejournal.com]

out of interest, how fast does a machine have to be to play DVDs?

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Don't know. Faster than a 400MHz AMD K6-III - FWIW the quality of playback suggested it was only a bit underpowered. I doubt you can buy a machine so slow it won't play DVDs well these days, but it'd be good to hear that confirmed by someone more knowledgeable.

[gnomatron.livejournal.com]

I have a 1ghz athlon machine that's getting on for about 3 years old; it used to play dvds pretty well before I upgraded it to win2k. A current machine will probably be at least 2ghz, and probably more, so I doubt you'll have any trouble performance-wise with dvds.

[countess-sophia.livejournal.com]

That's strange, as my my old K6 would play them OK. Mind you, I do have a really funky DVD drive (which writes and acts as a DVD ram too) so perhaps that made a difference.

Soph x

[lovingboth]

That's right - I had a AMD K6-III/450, and it could just do it.

When I wanted a new PC, I looked at Morgan (www.morgancomputers.co.uk) until they had something too good to miss. A P4/2G cost me £299+VAT just over a year ago. At the moment, it looks as if they only have HP/Compaqs which are a mixed blessing.

Building your own is dead simple of course.