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[Elite Pete]

Get someone to build me a PC or do I buy one from Dell or PC World or do I get the old one I have upgraded. I am poo with PCs and only know how to turn them on and off. I dont play games so it will be used for the forum, ebay and using to write the odd report when I can be bothered to do some work

[ians]

I'd get a standard one Pete, unless you want something special.  At least that way you get a warranty on the whole thing.   I doubt a build it yourself would be any cheaper.

[STMO123]

If that is SERIOUSLY all you're going to use it for, buy a cheap one. You can pick them up for a couple of hundred quid now.

And...when Jaime comes along later and disagrees and says I am talking bowlocks, dont listen to him, he knows nowt

[Golfbuddy]

Get someone to build me a PC or do I buy one from Dell or PC World or do I get the old one I have upgraded. I am poo with PCs and only know how to turn them on and off. I dont play games so it will be used for the forum, ebay and using to write the odd report when I can be bothered to do some work

If that's all you do, why bother changing at all?

[Elite Pete]

I have been looking at these dual processor things on Ebay which cost about £250 to £300 but look quite good spec (but what do I know ) but in the feed back there are a number of complaints about the back up phone number costing and arm and a leg to call but dont they all. Also am I better paying £300 on Ebay with no software or say double that at Dell for less spec?

[Elite Pete]

Get someone to build me a PC or do I buy one from Dell or PC World or do I get the old one I have upgraded. I am poo with PCs and only know how to turn them on and off. I dont play games so it will be used for the forum, ebay and using to write the odd report when I can be bothered to do some work

If that's all you do, why bother changing at all?

The PC I have at the moment takes forever to come on, the hard drive sound like an express train passing through and it seems to freeze up all the time. I have used C cleaner and defraged it and put all my work pictures onto disks but its still ssssssssssooooooooooooooo sssssssssssssslllllllllllooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwww

[STMO123]

I have been looking at these dual processor things on Ebay which cost about £250 to £300 but look quite good spec (but what do I know ) but in the feed back there are a number of complaints about the back up phone number costing and arm and a leg to call but dont they all. Also am I better paying £300 on Ebay with no software or say double that at Dell for less spec?

What yer on about Pete? Any of these small shops around town will sell you a computer for £2-250. And if it goes wrong,just take it back. Ebay? No!

[Markjay]

Buy brand name, they are so cheap these days to the extent there is no money to be saved by buying a PC that has been assembled in someone's garage... or even by buying the components and assembling it your self.

If you were after serious gaming, or just enjoyed putting PCs together, then this would be another matter. But the economical approach would be get a branded one. And when I say 'branded' I mean Dell or HP, forget about PC world / Dixons / Currys 'own brand' type of PCs...

[STMO123]

http://www.computerbargains.co.uk/shop/catalog/index.html

[Jimbob]

PC's do get sluggish with age and accumulated crap.

As you have very little actual requirements, you could just wipe it and rebuild, may well give it a new lease of life.

I presume you run antivirus and spyware / adware checks as these can slow things down a lot.

If you run Norton antivirus, you could change it for the free version of AVG, which is a lot less resource hungry.

[Paul M]

I agree with much of that posted above... personally I always build my own boxes because I like to spec everything exactly, and I used to do the same for family and friends as it can work out you get a better machine for less. But these days I just tell them to buy one from Dell etc... if you spend a little time looking around you can find some really good deals, Dell are often doing special offers so just bide your time until something that suits your spec and budget comes up.

Personally I still build my own because I enjoy it and like it to be tailored to my personal spec, but in reality it doesn't really save me any money and I don't have a warranty on the system. The latter is fine if you're tech savvy as there's a good chance you can diagnose the faulty component if the system goes down and return that individually. If you're not it's easier to have tech support come and diagnose it, or send the whole box back depending on your warranty support contract.

[davlad22]

am I better paying £300 on Ebay with no software or say double that at Dell for less spec?

a £600 PC, that will go like a rocket ship! You only need to spend half that! Heck, I remember when a decent PC was 1500-1800 squid!  

Have you got any 'factory restore' disks with your current machine? These will work a treat. You tend to find that as your PC skills progress you tend to learn better how to keep 'on top' of maintainence and keeping everything tidy   Unlike when you first learn how to use a computer, everything piles up and eventually, grinds to a halt!

[Danny]

If that is SERIOUSLY all you're going to use it for, buy a cheap one. You can pick them up for a couple of hundred quid now.

And...when Jaime comes along later and disagrees and says I am talking bowlocks, dont listen to him, he knows nowt

I agree, I bought my first "own" computer for £1300 back in april 2000 and looking back on it's "stats" its a big pile of crap, and a slow pile of crap at that!!

i didnt really need a new computer but for about £550 i got a decent one built to my requirement from www.pcspecialist.co.uk, i opted out of getting a floppy drive and got a 23-in-1 card reader since i have phones and cameras using all kinds of different cards (early card readers werent XD compatible) it has a fast enough processer to be able to run my internet as well as watching DVDs and stuff or listening to music, I dont play games on it, and i got a big handful of office software included

by buying a build-your-own, you can opt out of the crap you dont want, ie i got a new mouse and keyboard and a flat panel LCD monitor but chose not to have a modem installed, no speakers as my own are top end, and no printer or scanner as i found preferred ones cheaper than their options

and even now you can still get quite a bit more for less than what I paid, as more and more PC packages and offers come out, they can be out of date within 6 months!

[Danny]

or you could upgrade  

[Martin_1962]

I have no CD Rom - got a DVD burner!

Oh make sure you get XP!