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

[conflux.livejournal.com]

So why didn't you talk to me about your PC problems? Hardware can fail and it is often the memory, which can impact everything else. When hardware is failing I use a simple diagnostic program to pin point any problems so that I can fix it.

The same thing can happen with off the shelf computers. In my last company we found DELL and Simply Computers to both be a PITA about fixing faulty systems.

[babysimon]

I didn't think you'd be in a position to help.

If you are, I would really appreciate it. I don't believe the problem is in the memory - memory faults tend to lead to distinctive compile failures on linux boxes and I haven't had any of those.

If you're up for helping me, could you send me an email or talk to me when I see you? I'm sure Paul's getting pissed off enough with the O/T comments here...