buying a computer

gonker

ooops deleted a message instead of editing it. I am not a male I am a female. thanks again ill keep reading. this is interesting stuff.
gonk

spongebob

Dell have upped their prices, they were better a month ago.

can santa have a flat tyre on teh night and arrive ...say ....end Jan?

M

uch

DVD is handy on PC but try and get a combo cd-rw\DVD as it's a bit more functional for a home user, also for a novice you'd probably be better off buying from Dell as their aftersales service is pretty good for someone who can't fix it themselves.

MondaySpuds

Personally i dont think a comp is worth getting Just to watch DVDs..


if you are thinking of somehting for the Kids maybe a Playstation 2 may not have crossed your mind..

its a Gaming console... with a DVD Player..

DVD Look better on a TV anyways...

you can Buy DVD players for 150 euro now... and it will look better and sound better on a TV then it will on a screen..


But alot of software and stuff can come on DVD so a DVD Rom may not be a bad idea for a Comp..

gonker

Yeah I know you can get dvds very cheaply now. But you still have to buy another tv. Remember three kids. A lot of the kids dvds have dvdrom capabilities so that would be an added bonus too. They really like the idea of cdwriter too to backup stuff as the amount of music cds they have damaged.....
Anyway keep coming with your answers....
gonk.


ps

"can santa have a flat tyre on teh night and arrive ...say ....end Jan?"
Do you not know anything Muck...Santa doesnt travel on wheels. He flys through the sky and his sleigh has runners not wheels Dohhh:)

G

I am not a male I am a female

sorry love

MondaySpuds

I see how this conversation has unfolded.. and maybe i was wrong... the way to go would be a new PC..

and Dell maybe the way to go.. but coming up to christmas may or may not be a good time to buy...

After christmas sales.. stores are more likely to Keep there prices untill after christmas on some machine...

conZ

Yep, definately get a DVD drive.
IMO CDROM's wont be used much in the near future, instead games etc will be on DVD - Especially now that DVD writers are becoming popular. It is worth your while getting one. A dvd drive for your PC is only about €50.

The PC i listed below would be perfect for at least 2-3 years of with young kids using it for a few games, word processing and browsing the net.

PC's in computer stores like PC world are really bad quality. They show the good bits like P4 2ghz !!!! CDRW - DVD - huge 17' monitor - 60gig HDD - WOW, but everything else is just plain crap - onboard sound, 32mb shared graphics etc and your pc will be in bits after half a year.

Typedef

Basically a computer's potential usefulness hardware wise is a function of the amount of cash you spend on it.

Spend too little and you end up with a heap. Myself I would be inclined to get the best one I could afford, because the more it costs the better components used, the more future proof and the more potential to put the thing you use one has.

If in doubt, spend the cash, in a capitalist society, one has to let the money flow.

On topic. Definitely get a DVD drive. Get a CDRW if you want, if it were me and I had the choice, it would be a DVD drive I invested in, before the CDRW.

What can I say, I'm a material girl... err no wait a material guy.
/You know what I mean.

Ruu_Old

u'll probably get a coverplan or insurance type thing with ur pc when u buy it, should u not..make sure to get one. Mine has come in very useful otherwise id have paid a small fortune 2 monitors have failed, 2 cdwriters and a dvd to date. They were all replaced. good luck pc buying

BigEejit

You could order your computer without a DVD drive and then buy it youself and fit it yourself, Komplett have them for 60 euro .. it is surprisingly easy, but you may need a new IDE cable and an internal power splitter cable if you buy dell .. to keep down costs they have been known to ship PC's with IDE cables with only the two connectors on them .. You must also make sure that you have a 51/4" drive bay free..

Raskolnikov

If you're new to using computers then just go and buy off Dell, you'll get a PC with decent build quality, at a decent enough price delivered to your door.

http://commerce.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config/frameset.asp?b=37372&m=eur&l=en&s=iedhs&sbc=iedhsprimary&v=d

Just go here and add on a modem DVD drive and CD rewriter and for E1,303.80 you'll get this delivered to your door

2.0Ghz Pentium
256MB DDRRAM
40GB Hard drive
17in Monitor
DVD Drive
56k Modem

If you're not too fussed about playing the latest games then you'll get years out of this

Gerry

Originally posted by Ruu
u'll probably get a coverplan or insurance type thing with ur pc when u buy it, should u not..make sure to get one. Mine has come in very useful otherwise id have paid a small fortune 2 monitors have failed, 2 cdwriters and a dvd to date. They were all replaced. good luck pc buying

DO NOT get coverplan. You will end up paying perhaps 20-25% extra for it. Why not just ensure that the pc comes with a decent warranty. You have to wonder why so much stuff failed on you as well. The average is much, much lower.

And rasholnikov, you could add a geforce2 mx to that dell for €49, and get semi-decent games playing out of it.

VOGAD

Wow gonker thats a whole load of advice for buying one pc isn't it So what have you come up with at the moment?

Kali

gonker, thanks for posting here.. unfortunaly a lot of people tend to lose sight of the original post, i.e. a family pc thats easy to use, manages all the latest game and wont have your credit card company ringing every second day.

Buying a family PC used to be real easy.. took the form of pointing the person at Gateway...

Unfortunaly with their demise in Ireland, you're left with three choices for a complete PC:

a) Overpriced comuter retailers with poor parts and poor warranties and poorer support.
b) Underpriced computer retailers with great parts, manufacturers warranties and no support.
or
Dell... the medium ground between the above two with decent parts and good warranties and support.

If you are not a technical person than buy a Dell. The support are (for the most part) helpful and patient... plus and not one person has mentioned this, they are an absolute doddle to take out of the box and setup (which is THE most important thing on christmas day)... and no I don't work for them, but put myself out of a lot of callout work by reccomending them damnit

One technical point though, mention to the salesperson (or if you're buying from dell.com check it yourself) that you want a proper graphics card. The rest of the machine will chug quite happily along for the next 3 or 4 years... that is the only part that sees the biggest performance decline imo.

Raskolnikov

Originally posted by Gerry

And rasholnikov, you could add a geforce2 mx to that dell for €49, and get semi-decent games playing out of it.

Opps, didn't notice that Without going overboard you can get another 10gigs in the hard drive for E12, if you've got the dosh then why not splash out

I think the general consensus here is to go for a Dell, i've never owned one myself but i know people with them and they seem reliable. Kali is right about setting it up too, all the bits like graphics cards, monitors, mice etc are all Plug and Play so all you've got to do is just stick in the wires and turn the machine on and you're ready to go.

gonker

Thanks ,
I didnt know that there was so much stuff to know about computers etc., Still listening. Only 6 and a half weeks till Santa comes so have a little while to go.

gonk

ps. Must thank the real gonk for lending me her name to post this.
thanks g. when i get online i will register for real I really think this is a great board. She will keep me informed of any more posts.

Raskolnikov

Just get the specs of the computer which you decide upon and leave them here and you can get some opinions.

damien_gill

I'm probably a bit late coming into this thread.

But just so y'all know my laptop is an Iqon and they have EXCELLENT tech support it's second to none and I should know.

Plus they are very reliable machines except the CD-ROM keeps going on my laptop for some reason (2 times in a year)

Just thought Id add that in prob doesnt help but there ya go.

BTW I could get ya a custom PC for very cheap whats your price ceiling?