New PC/Laptop

[danIT]

Im looking to buy a new PC or Laptop, I currently have a laptop and sometimes feel a bit restricted as far as upgrades expansion etc plus cost.

I want to spend around £1000 and get something thats going to last around two years,

I've looked at Dell etc but im unsure of which PC/laptop is going to give me best value for money.

Its bacially going to be used for VPN to work, web design bit of graphic work but only fireworks/ bit of photoshop, surfing the net bits and pieces as they come up, but i want it to be quick, so i was looking at 4Gb ram and dual core processor.

I can see the benefits of going with AMD = Price tag

Any tips, recommmended suppliers for personal use please would be nice.

[Ric_]

Speak to ICT-Direct (see http://www.edugeek.net/edugeekad/dis...rgid=8&adid=18 )... I'm sure that you aren't bothered about it being brand new so for a massive cost saving you will be able to get a decent workstation AND laptop!

[localzuk]

Or you could buy a mac (It had to be said!!!)

However, for a £1000 you can get yourself a serious machine really. I would say take a look at http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr...hs1&l=en&s=dhs. You can get a well specced machine with a 22" flat screen for just over £600, taking the special offers into account.

[danIT]

i already have a mac, im just being greedy!

[techyphil]

You could build your own and that way you'll know how awesome it is

£1000 could get ya something quite fancy. I mean, dell do offer good deals as we have machines that are spec'ed up nice in the office. 1gb dual channel etc 800Mhz bus bleh bleh with a Intel Pentium D's. But in all fairness, altho its got the figures it hasnt really got speed at all or the ability to add things to it.

I opened it up the other day to put in a laptop SATA HD to recover some stuff from it and blow me, the mobo was extremely basic with about 3 capacitors and 4 chips. 2 DDR2 slots each being used and 1 SATA port which again was being used. I've benchmarked it against a machine similar in spec only with a epox mobo same cpu, similar ram and the results was quite clear that its cheaper nasty stuff.

But I ent knocking dell as we use them all the while in school, laptops are really fast tho compaied to other branded laptops similar spec. Just if you do go for a dell machine, make sure its a good'un and you spend most if not all of it on a workstation as anything cheaper is cheap.

[danIT]

Im unsure of what components are compatible with what, obviously motherboard expansion will be limited with dell, but who should i got to for components, could anyone put something together for me for reference?

[Halfmad]

system without graphics card.

Processor - Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail - £191.51

CPU Cooler - Noctua NH-U12F (Socket LGA775/754/939/940/AM2) Heatsink £36.41

RAM - GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) - £117.49

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3P (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard - £88.11

Hard-drive - Samsung SpinPoint T HD401LJ 400GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM - £79.89

DVD Drive - Samsung SH-183LBEBN 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM - £22.31

PSU - OCZ GameXStream 600w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply - £70.49

Case - Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - £65.79

Vista - Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00788) - £75.19

total - £727.51

Then just stick in your choice of graphics card. All of those prices are from www.overclockers.co.uk but it's not the cheapest place

[john]

If you go over to the CCL Forums - http://forums.cclonline.com you will find various specs of PC up there for money etc and lots of advice and hints and tips on what to change etc