Buying a computer
Jan. 12th, 2004 04:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ciphergothMy 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 ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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!)
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!)
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Date: 2004-01-12 08:40 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2004-01-12 08:49 am (UTC)I'd regard this as 'anecdotal' rather than 'significant data', though.
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Date: 2004-01-12 08:50 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2004-01-12 09:14 am (UTC)Shame about the Prices,
And the policy of keeping drivers secret crippling Linux's ability to use some of the nice hardware.
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Date: 2004-01-12 09:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-12 09:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-12 09:42 am (UTC)These days I am very down on the idea of building your own PC. I built my current workstation and it really doesn't work well. The CD burner only makes coasters, and occasionally won't read CDs either. The HD intermittently causes ext3 to corrupt itself. And I don't know how to fix it - new motherboard? Drives? IDE cables? Who knows?
If I were buying for myself I'd definitely buy a brand name PC.
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Date: 2004-01-12 09:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-12 09:45 am (UTC)Locally, I would buy from World of Computers, but I don't know if they'll deal with London. They are honest, competent, and their stuff works.
PS2
Date: 2004-01-12 09:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-12 09:51 am (UTC)Update
Date: 2004-01-12 10:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-12 10:23 am (UTC)Have heard bad things about Dell when things go wrong, but not necessarily any more than any other large company.
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Date: 2004-01-12 10:26 am (UTC)Soph x
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Date: 2004-01-12 10:34 am (UTC)I assume you'll be watching DVDs on your monitor as a break from doing other stuff, though?
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Date: 2004-01-12 10:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-12 10:39 am (UTC)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.
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Date: 2004-01-12 10:40 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2004-01-12 11:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-12 11:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-12 11:18 am (UTC)You can get very nice kit, for a price, but it'll be half the price in a year's time. I've always gone for what was state of the art about a year ago and stuffed more memory in.
Is second-hand a possibility for you?
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Date: 2004-01-12 11:19 am (UTC)Scan tend to be fine unless something needs to be returned, and then they get a bit crap. I've only dealt with the business arm of Dell, and they were a nightmare.
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Date: 2004-01-12 11:21 am (UTC)No you never did, thank you for reminding me. Yes I'll be at the BU tomorrow and will be happy to talk computers then or more fun things. I've always found that buying trade price computer bits and building my own machine to be the cheapest way to get a decent machine. I have had to send bits back that didn’t work on a couple of occasions though so check the returns policy. The time consuming bit is always installing all the software. aria.co.uk do some good prices but there are cheaper places although they may not be as good.
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Date: 2004-01-12 11:32 am (UTC)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.
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Date: 2004-01-12 11:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-12 11:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-12 11:53 am (UTC)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...
Aria
Date: 2004-01-12 11:56 am (UTC)Re: Aria
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Date: 2004-01-12 06:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-13 02:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-13 12:37 pm (UTC)This was what I popped in to leave a comment about - I've heard nothing but dire warnings about Scan due to their incredibly poor after-sales. They do tend to be cheap, but not cheap enough to justify the incredible hassle of trying to get them to exchange something, apparently.
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Date: 2004-01-14 05:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-14 07:53 am (UTC)Most geeks are happy to make you a PC and charge say £50 for their time.
For the same price you will normally end up with a far better PC - though I can understand if you dont want the hassel of building one yourself.
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Date: 2004-01-19 03:29 pm (UTC)i have a dell that i absolutely love. Took some time getting used to the XP though since i had 98 before. my S.O.'s brother has a dell and a friend of ours we see frequently has a dell also. i've never had a problem. And someone else mentioned shipping ... Here Dell offers "free shipping" from time to time. Worse comes to worse, it can't hurt to call and let them know what you want to do and what you want w/o all the speakers, monitors and such and see if you can get a workable price.
His ~angel~