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[tuftedduck]

TD is contemplating buying a new PC. and was wondering what the opinions may be on the Aldi 3rd. October special buy.

http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/special_buys3_15795.htm

[UncleUB]

Looks ok for the money.

Good size HD (1TB)

Onboard graphics....not too good,but if you are not in gaming then is adequate

Intel® Pentium® E5700 processor (3.0 GHz, 2 MB L2 Cache, 800 MHz FSB)...the latest Intel proccessors are the i3 and i5,but are more expensive.

3 year warranty.........no doubt that will be back to base?

3GB Ram....most systems now come with 4GB as standard,but I would imagine 3GB is fine.

Its nowhere near cutting edge spec,but if the system meets your need then go for it as imo its s very good price for the money. 

[roseway]

Medion seem to have a pretty good reputation for customer service, as well as good prices. They have an active forum where you can discuss any technical issues. I would say that this model is good value, and will easily do anything you want of it (apart from zapping aliens, as Phil said. )

[tuftedduck]

Thank you, unkyUb and roseway for the comments.

I only noticed this because the "special offer" status has knocked about £100 off the normal price.

Will put on thinking cap.....but cannot help the niggle in the back of my mind that looking elsewhere and upping my budget a  bit is the way to go.

Thanks again. 

[roseway]

If you're prepared to spend a bit more, then I would suggest that a good local computer shop (if you have one) might be the best bet. That way, you can get exactly what you need, and have local support if anything goes wrong.

Please don't go to PC World or Currys.

[silversurfer44]

FWIW I purchased a new computer from a company called pcspecialists.co.uk. I was very apprehensive of buying a big ticket item from the web, however I have not had any reason to regret it. I recommend taking a look at this website. On the website you can build the machine you would like and get a purchase price for that machine before getting to the checkout stage. Of course with all the information in hand you could then go look at other sites/stores and compare. The machine I had built comprises of :-
AMD ATHLON 300ghz
4gb Ram
6USB Ports
250GB Hard Drive
512MB Nvidia Gforce graphics Card

Quite extensive specs. But I'll stop there. I didn't have an Operating system installed as I wanted to be free to install my own. The case and motherboard are large enough for expansion. The CPU fan is on of those super quiet ones, which is quiet.
The whole kit came to slightly less than what the Aldi Offer is.

Certainly worth a thought.

[tuftedduck]

Thank you, gentlemen, for the further suggestions.

The hardware on my current machine is relatively new, and good enough and more to run Win 7 32bit............thinking of buying that at £72 from Amazon and installing after wiping disc. I think my Photoshop CS2 will run on 7 32bit ok....that's my main concern as I could not buy a new machine and a new Photoshop.

TD trundles off, pondering..

[BritBrat]

Do you qualify for a student licence for Windows 7?

Who can buy software at Software4Students?
Primary and Secondary students: All currently registered students of primary and second level schools in the UK

University and college students: All currently registered students of universities and colleges in the UK

Parents, grandparents and guardians: If you are a parent or guardian or have a grandson or granddaughter for whom you would like to license the software, then you can purchase the software. The main requirement to purchase is that the end user licensee must be a student or be a faculty member in one of our listed educational institutions.

Teachers: Teachers employed by an accredited primary or secondary school, or a public or private university or college

http://www.software4students.co.uk/FAQ.aspx#q1

[tuftedduck]

Good morning, BritBrat..........unfortunately no, I don't  ...................but I might know a man who can, if he is willing to shell out the money and then hope for a repayment from me...

Thanks for reminding me of that. 

[BritBrat]

Good morning, BritBrat..........unfortunately no, I don't   ...................but I might know a man who can, if he is willing to shell out the money and then hope for a repayment from me...

Thanks for reminding me of that.  

Some employees get Microsoft software discounts too the NHS is one I know of.

Ohhhhhhhh Dear:

What about the Home User Programme (HUP)?
 
The Home User Programme was available to all NHS Employees as a Software Assurance (SA) benefit. This offer gave NHS employees the opportunity to purchase Microsoft Office at a discounted rate of £8.95.

Unfortunately, as the Enterprise-wide Agreement has not been renewed, NHS employees can no longer take advantage of this offer.

Microsoft understands the concerns of NHS employees regarding the sudden requirement to uninstall any copies of Microsoft Office licensed via the Home User Programme (HUP).

The NHS decision not to renew the Enterprise-wide Agreement (EwA) that enabled NHS employees to benefit from the HUP was unexpected for us too and did not allow us any time to pursue other ways in which NHS employees could continue to benefit from the HUP. However, we are now working with a number of NHS organisations to try to find local solutions to enable continued home use of copies of Microsoft Office licenced via the HUP.
We therefore recommend that all NHS employees who have purchased a licence for Microsoft Office via the Home User Programme refer to the IT department within their organisation for further information before uninstalling the product.

However, NHS employees whose organisation are not covered are required to uninstall their HUP version of Microsoft Office from their home PCs. More details and uninstall instructions can be found below.


http://www.microsoft.com/uk/nhs/pages/licensing/post_ea_hup.aspx

[UncleUB]

I have always used Dell for my pc's.

Tbh I don't think I would go anywhere else.Been very satisfied since my first Dell was purchased in 1995.

The good thing with a Dell pc is that they are very customisable to your own requirements.

Thinking about you using Photoshop TD,I would think a decent size processor and plenty of ram would be a must have requirement,other components not as important.

I will second Eric's comment.....keep away from the big high street stores. 

[tuftedduck]

@ unkyUb..............for Photoshop a really fast processor is not so important, although of course it would help,......my current 2.8 Ghz is fine. What is wanted is a lot of RAM, as you suggest, and a nice big scratch disc. For the purposes of Photoshop, it is very much better to have that scratch disc on a HDD seperate to the one on which is installed P/S.

My current machine with it's 3 Gb DDR2 ram and the second HDD runs it very well.......which makes me think of updating the OS rather than a new machine.

On the other hand, it may be ridiculous to think of anything new at my age.........probably peg out before it was even delivered...

[geep]

Hi,
For a smidge more than the £379.99 you could build your own with a fairly similar spec.,
and be sure that it's got quality components in critical areas like PSU and RAM.
I just built a PC for my brother and it totaled @ £395.93.
AMD Phenom II X2 550 @ 3.1Ghz + Asus M4A785D-M Pro board.
Win7 64 bit, 1Tb Seagate disk, onboard sound and graphics, (only!) 2Gb RAM from Crucial,
Microsoft Wireless Mouse + Keyboard, Antek Case + 430 Watt PSU.
But no wireless LAN - already had Netgear dongle.

Beware that Win7 might not support your existing peripherals.
Had to install a virtual Win2k (using VMWare Player) on brother's PC to support his old HP Scanner.
HP didn't bother to provide Win7 drivers.
Luckily he had a Win2k licence and disks from his old PC.

And if you run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor - http://tinyurl.com/37lhlq2 - to check if your peripherals are supported - beware! It lies!
It claimed my HP Laserjet 1010 is supported by HP with Win7 drivers. HP say it isn't.
Check carefully on the peripheral suppliers websites for Win7 drivers.
And even then sometimes only 32bit supported, no 64bit.
 
Cheers,
Peter

[UncleUB]

On the other hand, it may be ridiculous to think of anything new at my age.........probably peg out before it was even delivered. 

 

Better pay extra for next day delivery then 

[tuftedduck]