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[supermop]

hehe unlucky. Some manufacturers underestimate the importance of a good power supply unit (henceforth known as a PSU). Dell usually aren't too bad, but a lot of packaged unknown brand PC's put crappy 300W PSU's in them which have unstable voltage rails. Not only bad for the ultra-sensetive components, but barely adequate wattage to run them. When they blow, a decent PSU will have double protection (or fused) to prevent any damage to components. Cheap nasty ones don't and can end up taking most of the major parts down with it.

[TheBoy]

For the uses you have specified, you do not need core duo chips. Are you going to need Vista? Do you want to play games (if so, buy a bloody games console!).

For straight 'office' type work - surfing, emails etc, even the cheapest, slowest thing Dell sell will be more than adequate. For XP don't go below 512Mb RAM.  Just had to spec up a couple of machines for my brother to use in his office - 2.8G P4 dual core, 1Gb RAM, 250G HDD, 17" lcd, DVD writers, wireless keyboards/mice comes out at about £450 each inc delivery (and a coupon for Vista when out, not that he'll use that), though you can get cheaper.

Celeron is good budget chip if you only need to do office type work.
P4 is particularly good at multimedia and video editing. Fan noise in many systems could become a problem due to cooling requirements (Not Dell, as they use the excellent BTX system in most systems)
AMD chips (all variants) are superb at integer type work, and last generation games. Fan noise as above. Weak in multimedia/video compared to Intel.
Core 2 Duo is the current king in the x86 arena (forgetting about the quad cored extremes).

[Jimbob]

Can confirm the Dell is just about silent, very quiet indeed!

When I build systems myself, I always start with a very good power supply and motherboard, without those 2 being good, you have no change of a decent reliable system.

[TheBoy]

If you do go down the DIY route, make sure you use proper ESP equipment.  Many will tell you its not necessary - they lie, it is.

[Jimbob]

If you do go down the DIY route, make sure you use proper ESP equipment.  Many will tell you its not necessary - they lie, it is.

Seconded

Yes, many people don't use any, and have been lucky, hence say 'why bother'
Once they've broken one, they change their tune.
Always ground yourself before working on a pc.
Plugged in, but switched off at wall, and connect yourself to the case is a good way.

[TheBoy]

If you do go down the DIY route, make sure you use proper ESP equipment.  Many will tell you its not necessary - they lie, it is.

Seconded

Yes, many people don't use any, and have been lucky, hence say 'why bother'
Once they've broken one, they change their tune.
Always ground yourself before working on a pc.
Plugged in, but switched off at wall, and connect yourself to the case is a good way.

People may think they've been lucky, chances are, the damage has been done.  It doesn't always show as a failed device, it may show as system instability some months down the road. But damaged it is...

Be careful with the plugging in but switched off thing now, Modern computers do not turn off - S5 is lowest power state, and that is not a fully off state....   ....much better to wear a strap, and ideally do on a mat as well...  ...and not in air conditioned room, unless it has a humidifyer...

[supermop]

If you do go down the DIY route, make sure you use proper ESP equipment.  Many will tell you its not necessary - they lie, it is.

liar! i built mine without one...

wait, maybe thats why it didnt work

Agreed about the fact that he probably wont need any of this dual core or latest equipment stuff for what he wants to do. Although saying that, a few people I know now moan at me for building/recommending them a cheap PC cos they can't do half the stuff they NOW want to (having not realised it was easy/possible before).

Balls to buying a console for gaming too! Un-necessary expense - PC games are the forefront of most graphical detail and innovation. Not to mention you can rig your PC to do anything any single console can do - game pads can be converted to USB, keyb/mouse, internet, tv output, emulators when you just cant wait for a PC release. The list goes on

[Jimbob]

If you do go down the DIY route, make sure you use proper ESP equipment.  Many will tell you its not necessary - they lie, it is.

Seconded

Yes, many people don't use any, and have been lucky, hence say 'why bother'
Once they've broken one, they change their tune.
Always ground yourself before working on a pc.
Plugged in, but switched off at wall, and connect yourself to the case is a good way.

People may think they've been lucky, chances are, the damage has been done.  It doesn't always show as a failed device, it may show as system instability some months down the road. But damaged it is...

Be careful with the plugging in but switched off thing now, Modern computers do not turn off - S5 is lowest power state, and that is not a fully off state....

Yes, switched off at WALL is only safe way

[TheBoy]

If you do go down the DIY route, make sure you use proper ESP equipment.  Many will tell you its not necessary - they lie, it is.

Seconded

Yes, many people don't use any, and have been lucky, hence say 'why bother'
Once they've broken one, they change their tune.
Always ground yourself before working on a pc.
Plugged in, but switched off at wall, and connect yourself to the case is a good way.

People may think they've been lucky, chances are, the damage has been done.  It doesn't always show as a failed device, it may show as system instability some months down the road. But damaged it is...

Be careful with the plugging in but switched off thing now, Modern computers do not turn off - S5 is lowest power state, and that is not a fully off state....   ....much better to wear a strap, and ideally do on a mat as well...  ...and not in air conditioned room, unless it has a humidifyer...

Opps, misread post - yes, plugged in at wall but switched off at wall

Still need strap (and ideally mat etc etc)

[supermop]

as long as you're grounded and dont touch any sensetive parts (i.e. IC's, metal bits etc) your fine. I've only damaged one component through static - granted it was an expensive graphics card

the above post was a joke also

[Jimbob]

as long as you're grounded and dont touch any sensetive parts (i.e. IC's, metal bits etc) your fine. I've only damaged one component through static - granted it was an expensive graphics card

the above post was a joke also

Personally wouldn't touch them at all, unless grounded.

[JesterRT]

   I'm now intrigued by iMacs...  they look great.  One of my mates claims no crashes for almost 2 years.  I can't get that kind of solid uptime on a home PC for even two weeks...  work's different, they just don't get the same kind of abuse.
The missus was trying to talk me into Laptop's but I can't stand them - I'd break it.  I'd drop it, forget where I'd left it etc - things tied to the wall are safer  She wants something that doesn't take as much space - I've had all sorts of combinations, the best being a twin 21" setup.  CRT's take up so much space though.

I'm leaning towards the bottom end of the duo things now.  

I've put quite a few PC's together myself, but simply can't be bothered with the hassle now.  I can't see the savings that I'm sure used to be available by a self-build.

How about software for Mac's...  Go in any shop and the PC-DVD/CD software is all over the place, but how about the Mac?  Anyone found it difficult to get hold of software, or a heck of a lot more expensive?

Might wait, like tunnie says - the dual OS thing sounds interesting.  Time to go and dig around the 'net  

[supermop]

Mac's are only good for installing windows on it. I dont believe anyones had a 2 year uptime from a Mac, unless they left it on doing nothing for 2 years. OSX crashes all the time, with its over the top fanciful graphics n stuff. I dont hate mac's entirely. They DO look good. Useless to me though, as I like tinkering with my stuff, adding new bits to it, upgrading etc.

[TheBoy]

I agree with supermop - Macs aren't hugely stable now. The old classic OS was, but since the move to a Linux type kernel, it isn't that good.  A few class leading apps, very expensive though.

Linux (as a desktop) uptimes aren't very good either. Aside from instabilities in the kernel, the graphical side is still quite buggy.  A handful of really good apps.  However, Linux is starting to get expensive as the distro producers one by one are putting prices up...

Which, as always, leaves Windows. The kernel is very stable - NT kernel always has been. But a bad driver can blue screen it. Vista, whilst the RTM hasn't crashed on me yet, somehow doesn't inspire confidence in its stability, and I don't know why.  I am probably doing MS a huge injustice, but I would be inclined to stick to XP.  There are some very, very nice and useful things in Vista (esp for corporates), but also some things that I really do not like the sound of...

[TheBoy]

Incidentally, on subject of uptimes, my brothers NT4 Proliant (now sadly decomissioned) which was his file, print, Exchange and SQL server had an uptime of over 4yrs. Wasn't really directly internet connected so never got patched much.