hi a nice dilema

[dtr44]

hi everyone i have a dilema ,
i've got £1000 spare [long service award from my work[25 yrs] i have a laptop and a pc .i'm thinking of upgrading my pc but dont know if it would be cheaper to build my own or buy from dell (xps 700)is just 1099 or their 920 at 899 seem ideal
i want a good graphic card and motherboard [use it for gaming ] etc any reccomendations ?
my current pc uses an agp nividia 5700 128 meg and i have a gig of ram processor is pentium 4 2,4 gig
cheers

[ellies14me]

.....and I thought you wanted to give it to the first one that responded!

Is it not worth waiting till Vista loaded machines start shipping ?

Regards,
Ian.

[dtr44]

windows vista worries me [i remember when windows 95 was the bee's knees ] then 98 ,98 se ,me, xp and now vista ,microsoft dont put a decent operating system out [it takes about 2 years b4 it's even stable ] think it was mr gates who said "theres no need for any computer to have more than 32mb of memory" i think vita needs 4-5 gig just to start up [as scottie from startrek said "the better the system the easier it is to muck up the plumbing " think i''ll stick with xp at the moment [although i thought 98 se was most stable

[skalpel]

Building your own is always *so* much cheaper if you're going for cutting-edge stuff. My current machine (dual-core Athlon 4800, GEForce 7800GT, 2G dual-channel RAM, etc, etc, etc) cost me 600 quid for the parts for everything but the monitor and HD, which I supplied myself. Cheapest pre-built I could find of equivalent spec was 1100 at the time, and wouldn't have had a meaty enough case or PSU for my hard drives.

As to Vista, never buy any Windows OS before Service Pack 1. Ever ever ever. XP will still be supported for at least 5 years and probably 7, and Pro is £92 OEM from Microsoft and most shops, making it a much better bet for the medium term IMO.

Edit: On the monitor front, if you've a big enough desk, you can pick up reconditioned 21" Trinitron CRTs for about 60 quid, and you'll get picutre quality that will kick the **** of any LCD available for less than ten times the price.

[dtr44]

never tried a build myself [mates a techie so could get him i suppose] vista may bring the price of pc's down [many wont be able to run it ]so many companies may get rid of old stock so i might just hold on for a few months as i think the 1st reply was refferring to this . do you think an upgrade would be as good [my pc is pretty stable and hasnt crashed for 2 years ]my ram can get another gig and although i dont have pci card i think agp is still alrite [or am i way wrong lol]and agp graphic cards are way down on price compared to last year ,[or is a 3 year old machiune getting to old to upgrade ? any thoughts

[Amaboknaai]

As a Mac and Wintel user, I would suggest buying an iMac with the best spec you can afford. This way you can buy the best quality machine that will run Mac OS X (at the moment by far the best OS available) and then XP (rubbish, but better for gaming, I must admit) as well as uBuntu ("best - read easiest" Linux variant) all on the most complete hardware...DOH - theh 20" begs for your bucks!

[ellies14me]

Yes, spot on.
Just as everyone now wants a Laptop, prices have plummeted, when the Vista loaded machines ship, there will be some fantastic deals on current hi-end components or systems.

As we all know now with SKY BB, jumping in on something new is never too wise - wait till all the teething problems are sorted!

Regards,
Ian.

[LNB]

Custom build (or built), but make sure it is Vista ready for the future.

[dtr44]

yup i made my decision ,its gonna be a leather 2 seater [well when i say i made my decision i mean the wife came in and said ohh that "bonus " u got has bought us [yeah note the us ]a new settee and u even have £100 left ,still apparently whats mine is hers and what hers is her own

[Keiran2K8]

Lol,
I would (if your good with IT) Build it to your own specs!
If you know the right people you could get the parts at fairly reasonable prices!

Also a MUST is

1GB Ram (2gb if you could)

With building it yourself it will be to the specs you needs! etc ect!

If you do decide to build it yourself, Let me know I might be able to help you out!