PC advice

[sheepshagger]

Granted - and fair point they are shite for trying to upgrade - but take out the 3 year on site warranty and they are excellent - one of my colleagues has a Dell notebook and it has gone down twice in almost 3 years - both times they were with him next day and new motherboard one time and new screen the next - all sorted within an hour at zero cost....

[Samdy Gray]

But you shouldn't have to take out a 3 year warranty.

If I'm going to spend £500 on something I'd expect it to last 3 years without breaking.

[sheepshagger]

why ?

This is the "consumer" argument I guess I will never understand......

12 months is the warranty that almost ALL electrical goods come with - washing machines, dishwashers, TV's, camera's etc....

Why should a computer be any different ?

As it goes the individual components in a PC are usually covered by the component manufacturer for 2 years - it's just that Dell chooses to cover the first year in the same way as the electrical guys - and make money on the extended warranty as they all do.....

[Simon Pieman]

The point is, when your warranty runs out you're fucked. If it's broken down twice in almost 3 years, chances are it's gonna go shit soon after. If you buy the individual components you usually get a minimum 3 year warranty anyway. In fact, my motherboard has a lifetime warranty. If it goes wrong the manufacturer will usually ship out a new replacement next day delivery, you swap it for your knackered one and it's job done. Granted, you don't get the technical expertise, but there are plenty of people about these days that can do it for you.

Dell is cheap and convenient but that's really about it. I don't think there is as much value for money as is made out. Saying that, they aren't bad value for money, You could probably find better stuff in the sales or find someone to build you a pc for a few pints.

If it's only for internet and word processing you could easily put something together for less than £500, at least £100 less including the monitor. Don't forget if you want Microsoft Office it will cost you more to get a legal copy.

[sheepshagger]

Horses for courses Si - you want lifetime warranty you pay for it in the cost of the motherboard (or whatever device) - simple as that....

You will not build a PC to the same spec as the Dell one with a lifetime (or even 3 year next day on site) warranty - I challenge you to do so....

I do not believe it is possible....

On the cards I sell (graphics cards) we offer a 2 year warranty and it is ample - no one has ever once complained - to be honest there is so little to go wrong with them - but this lifetime warranty stuff is all marketing bollocks anyway.....

[Colin Todd]

Hello Boffins

Need some advice about how to upgrade my PC on the cheap.

It was built for a mate about 3 years ago so I'm now the 2nd less than carefull owner

The basics are

- P.4 2.4 ghz processor
- 512k Ram  (already looked at upgrading to the max 2gb, about £75 on cruical memory.com is there anywhere bettter?)
- Graphics card is an ATI radion something or other I think.
- Fuck knows what the motherboard or any of that bollocks is

Would it help if I posted the full spec?  And errr, how do i find that out easily?

I use it for games and general use. Most games play alright on it at the moment, although its obviously not cutting edge the more current graphically intensive ones tend to play at less then optimum settings. That dont really bother me that much. Still looks ok to me and I dont have £6-700 to spend on a shit hot new machine currently

any help much appreciated.

[magicroundabout]

budget?

[Colin Todd]

£200 tops

[Samdy Gray]

If it's just to speed up your games etc. then I'd suggest:

- New CPU. Something like the E6550. Around £90.
- More RAM. 2GB of Kingston is around £25.
- New graphics card. Prices vary but you could pick up the latest ATI card for £50.

[Simon Pieman]

The potential upgrade of the cpu might depend on what socket type your motherboard is.

Don't pay more than £25-30 for your ram. Corsair value has done me alright in the past.

New graphics will also depend on what your motherboard socket takes (agp or pci-e).

I'd concentrate on upgrading the stuff like the cpu and memory before graphics, as these will limit the potential of graphics anyway.

[Colin Todd]

Thanks lads.  :thumbs:

is there an easy way of telling what socket type the motherboard is?  ie without opening the thing up?

is fitting a new Cpu complicated?   I can handle opening the box and replacing one card for another like the memory, anything more complicated than that then I'm in trouble.  I do have a mate who could do it, but he's working away a lot currently