time for a new 'puter. recommendations?

[sludgeguts]

Time to upgrade. I'm thinking about linking my 4y/o pc to my telly, perhaps put the os on a new drive for fast bootup.
But what to replace it with? I really want something that won't drag its heels when I'm playing with the video files from my hi def camcorder so guessing I need powerful processor, loads of ram & a good graphics card. I'm thinking about self build. But what to go for?
Last time i built my own i was told to be wary as some makes of component don't always get on with others. So do i look for a bundle? A while back i saw an ad for dabs - are theirs any good?

 

[AndyRKett]

You can't go too far wrong with a Intel i5 or above for what you want,

about two years ago i got my Lenovo laptop for £600 which will happily munch its way through gigabyte after gigabyte of HD video from my digital SLR, it also has 4Gb ram so its perfectly suited to what I need.

I'm not saying thats what you should buy but an i5 or above at least 4-6Gb of ram is a fairly good starting point oh and as much hard-drive space as you can afford

i tend to just buy a PC these days I used to build my own 5-10 years ago but i generally use laptops these days we have a Mac as our home PC and I can't be bothered with all the faffing about of PC building installing windows etc, i'd rather plug it in and go

Dabs is pretty good been using them for years never had a problem but worth noting sometimes Ebuyer is cheaper for some stuff and occasionally even play.com can be surprisingly cheap for bits and bobs

 

[sludgeguts]

Just been looking at an i7 bundle on dabs. £640. Trouble is, not sure how good the components are. Obviously i7 is good.

 

[dave]

dont forget http://www.scan.co.uk/ and ebuyer and see if they are on cashback sites first too

 

[AndyRKett]

Having a look you can get a fully assembled i7 pc without monitor for about that sort of money

 

[sludgeguts]

Having a look you can get a fully assembled i7 pc without monitor for about that sort of money

Got a link?
(Having to do all this on my tablet

 

[AndyRKett]

Got a link?
(Having to do all this on my tablet

http://www.dabs.com/products/lenovo...-1tb-win-8-pro-8C39.html?refs=441030000&src=3

Am on my iPad most of the time, dabs is good from a filter point of view you can go to either i7 core processors or down to any one specific processor type, then you can trim down to memory or hd size etc, anyway that looks pretty good for the money I would consider a video card upgrade but that's it

 

[dave]

2.02% cashback for dabs on top cashback http://www.topcashback.co.uk/dabs/

 

[sludgeguts]

Typical, just missed the deadline for an additional £40 off

 

[Papa P]

I just bought myself a new PC from http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk specifically for gaming, but their support when deciding which build to go for and then what tweaks I wanted to make was first class.

They have various different builds and systems available which you can then configure the way you want them!

I too built my last PC from components but this time I decided that someone else could do the work for me!

 

[sludgeguts]

And so the confusion begins.
Do I pay £755 for the x79 i7 3820 quad core 8gb ram amd hd7750 No software

£610 for the lenovo i7 3770s quad intel hd4000 Win 8

And today got an email from medionshop...
£739 for a medion i7 3770, 8gb ram, nvidia gtx660
64gb ssd
Win 8
Win essentials 2012
Cyberlink power2go
Cyberlink power dvd
Win 8 apps pack
90 day kaspersky

 

[dave]

90 day kaspersky is just crap to delete

that medion will probably be in aldi soon for 500 quid and a 3 year warranty

 

[sludgeguts]

90 day kaspersky is just crap to delete

that medion will probably be in aldi soon for 500 quid and a 3 year warranty

I get emails from medion as a long standing customer. My desktop is 4yrs and showing its age. Really slow to work with hd camcorder files.
Problem now is that since medion was absorbed into the lenovo stable, they don't seem to have much to do with aldi in the UK. Germany is a different matter. Aldi have regular stocks of medion puter stuff over there. Trouble with trying to compare computers is that you can't compare like for like. The components interact differently. I would expect the 3820 core to be better than the 3770 but the machines each use different graphics cards...
I suppose as I'm not hard core gamer or decoding for seti then the difference would be negligible?

 

[dave]

ive not kept upto date since broadband i spend more time here than reading computer mags.
mesh used to get good reviews for pre built not sure if they still do http://www.meshcomputers.com

there was another one like medion that had a 2nds shop, racking my brain trying to remember it, it might have even been medion

 

[AndyRKett]

don't rule out play.com and don't get hung up on brands

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/-/3230/2493/3-/Refine.html?searchfilters=c{3230}%20ae60{Intel%20Core%20i7}%20&ob=4&cpage=1

even the most unheard of PCs use the same components as the very cheapest

 

[sludgeguts]

don't rule out play.com and don't get hung up on brands

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/-/3230/2493/3-/Refine.html?searchfilters=c{3230}%20ae60{Intel%20Core%20i7}%20&ob=4&cpage=1

even the most unheard of PCs use the same components as the very cheapest

Soooooo tempted - even looking at spending a bit more than the others
http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/-/3230/2...Core+i7}+ae233{-800}+ae37{16-32}+ae61{1000-}+
But not too sure about integrated graphics (I can't see mention of graphics cards on any of their PCs.)

 

[dave]

Soooooo tempted - even looking at spending a bit more than the others
http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/-/3230/2...Core+i7}+ae233{-800}+ae37{16-32}+ae61{1000-}+
But not too sure about integrated graphics (I can't see mention of graphics cards on any of their PCs.)

spec for that mobo here http://uk.msi.com/product/mb/B75MA-P45.html#?div=Detail

 

[sludgeguts]

spec for that mobo here http://uk.msi.com/product/mb/B75MA-P45.html#?div=Detail

Doesn't exactly say (or is my eyesight going?) but there is a socket for output to a screen.

I had a mobo in the past that had onboard graphics & it would eat the ram - slowing everything else down.
Eventually, the onboard graphics fried & I ended up replacing the mobo with a bundle that included graphics card.

 

[AndyRKett]

Some of those on play state in the product title nvidia or radion graphics cards seems to be a choice between good graphics or an operating system in most cases though

 

[dave]

Doesn't exactly say (or is my eyesight going?) but there is a socket for output to a screen.

I had a mobo in the past that had onboard graphics & it would eat the ram - slowing everything else down.
Eventually, the onboard graphics fried & I ended up replacing the mobo with a bundle that included graphics card.

to me it looks like its got onboard but also a slot so you could disable the onboard and add a new one