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

[skx.livejournal.com]

http://www.novatech.co.uk/

[adjectivegail]

I bought myself enough parts to put together a working computer in 2001; my brother dictated to me everything I'd need and he made me get it all from scan.co.uk as in his opinion they were the best place to go. I had no problem with them, and was very happy with the results. But personally, I've no idea :)

[silverclear.livejournal.com]

I've just bought from Dell, am waiting for delivery - so this isn't a recommendation as such - but I bought without any peripherals by using the warehouse/outlet thing. PCs that have been built to an order but not sold, there's nothing wrong with them.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

Well poo on you for going to Alternator and not coming to Popstarz! Glad you had a good time, though.

[ex-purplekaz150.livejournal.com]

I was at Alternator too, but I didn't see you. Left about 1.30 though, and we were on the metal floor most of the time.

[keirf.livejournal.com]

I once recommended Scan, but since then I've received several defective parts from them, as have a couple of people I know...

[djm4]

We went through a phase at Sibelius of custom-building stuff from Scan. It mostly worked, but they were very poor on the occasions when it didn't - quibbling like mad and refusing to replace stuff that didn't work claiming that we must have broken it when we put it together. And the computers just don't seem to last as well as anything we've got from Dell.

I'd regard this as 'anecdotal' rather than 'significant data', though.

[purplerabbits.livejournal.com]

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

[grumpy-sysadmin.livejournal.com]

Who do you prefer to buy from?

Well, for my next whole-computer purchase, I'll probably be going here (http://www.dealmac.com/). ("Look ma, it's Unix now." Also, "Plays well with Sony Ericsson phones.")

[mr-tom.livejournal.com]

http://www.apple.com have some very nice computers.

[babysimon]

Of course these play DVDs if that's all you care about. Plus you can sprawl on the sofa while gaming.

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.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

I do not recommend Scan. Their attitude when returning anything broken is poor, their after-sales service is lacking, and when you return something they do not actually give you the money back on your credit card.

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.

[cairmen.livejournal.com]

Not tried 'em, but given that HP's business machines are offered in both Linux and XP flavours, they might be worth a look.

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

I believe Aria sell complete machines - the company is good value, decent service and conflux gets trade prices. Worth a look.

Have heard bad things about Dell when things go wrong, but not necessarily any more than any other large company.

[cairmen.livejournal.com]

BTW, if you're looking for decent DVD playback, you'll go a long way to find a PC that can equal a good DVD player. I can point you at some Home Cinema resources if you want to try, but the price starts to skyrocket. TV-Out functionality is a particular problem.

I assume you'll be watching DVDs on your monitor as a break from doing other stuff, though?

[lovingboth]

The basic question is 'what's the budget?'

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?

[conflux.livejournal.com]

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?)

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.

[ex-meta.livejournal.com]

Build one. All the vendors I know of use crappy parts. You can build a machine yourself that's faster, cheaper, quieter, smaller or more expandable, and more Linux compatible, and you won't have to put up with DVD-ROM drives that fail or won't rip CDs, or hard drives that whine.

[simm42.livejournal.com]

Build one or pay a friend to build one for you

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.

[his-angel.livejournal.com]

i don't know how uk dell differs from us dell but ..
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~