Our main computer is on it's last legs (9ish years old Dell dimension 2400)so much that it's a pain to use it, so I have been looking around for something new. We have a 4 year old Mesh comp which has been reliable so far and they sent a newsletter with these sale items and was wondering what you wiser tech heads thought:
http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default.aspx?PAGE=PRODCATEGORYVIEWPAGE&USG=APPLICATION&ENT=APPLICATION&KEY=136463&x=1
So I was fancying this one
http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default.aspx?PAGE=PRODUCTCONFIGPAGE&USG=PRODUCT&ENT=PRODUCT&KEY=1005691
At a push depending on how much of a discount they give for students ( 1 kid at uni and 1 doing graphic art &design at 6th form next year) I could be seduced by Apple but will have to change all the editing software and wouldn't want to get into being Apple dependent, so has anyone knows/heard of better deals around!
TIA Irv
Have a look in dixons/currys/pc world refurb section, you may get more for your money. i have had 2 laptops and a desktop and have no complaints. Had problems with the latest desktop but they sorted it with no problems.
Simon
Thanks Simon but my foster son had a refurb lappy from PCworld and had the opposite experience to you! He had nothing but grief with it :(
The Mesh PC looks ok, but for that price only 4gb memory and 1tb hard drive isn't very good. Have a look at this one: http://www.dabs.com/products/hp-pavilion-h9-1040uk-core-i7-2600-8gb-ram-120gb-ssd-gtx-550-ti-w7hp-7PZ0.html?src=3 OK, it's a bit pricey and doesn't include a monitor. Set up correctly this will fly through anything you throw at it, and if Windows is set-up on the SSD, start-up will be two seconds, with all the applications you need ready started. ;D
Nice machine, but he's only £100 shy of a nice 27 iMac with Thunderbolt...
I mean, what's not to like about a shiny 27" iMac, and thunderbolt technology?
As for his kids - Dad would become so cool 8) getting an iMac, especially with their educational stuff :tup:
I have a 80Gb SSD in my latest home built PC - boot up is quick, but not 2seconds quick - about 30 from cold. I didn't g o for the fastest SSD available at the time, but an Intel one which has better reliability.
Programs do start very quickly though - they are a couple of seconds -even CS5 only takes a few seconds :)
Quote from: picsfor on January 20, 2012, 03:37:26 PM
Nice machine, but he's only £100 shy of a nice 27 iMac with Thunderbolt...
I mean, what's not to like about a shiny 27" iMac, and thunderbolt technology?
As for his kids - Dad would become so cool 8) getting an iMac, especially with their educational stuff :tup:
Lion. A lot of software that worked with Snow Leopard don't work with Lion. That's why I haven't upgraded.
I'd be slightly wary of Mesh as they've not had resounding feedback on delivery times - and they did go bust not that long ago (but were picked up and carried on by their current parent company)
If you're going for 64bit it's pretty pointless not going for at least 8GB - but be prepared for some of your older peripherals having probs connecting through lack of 64bit drivers. SSD drives are OK but they don't actually prove to be much faster in the real world (set up 'doze on a 10k rpm drive with nothing else loading and you'd see - as you load additional startup apps and drivers it all slows down)
Quote from: picsfor on January 20, 2012, 03:37:26 PM
I mean, what's not to like about a shiny 27" iMac, and thunderbolt technology?
Let's start with 'shiny'. Followed by 'white'. It could only be worse if it was pink. :D
Quote from: Markulous on January 21, 2012, 08:58:30 AM
If you're going for 64bit it's pretty pointless not going for at least 8GB - but be prepared for some of your older peripherals having probs connecting through lack of 64bit drivers. SSD drives are OK but they don't actually prove to be much faster in the real world (set up 'doze on a 10k rpm drive with nothing else loading and you'd see - as you load additional startup apps and drivers it all slows down)
Yes, I'd forgotten about that, neither of my perfectly functioning HP items (scanner and printer) had 64 bit drivers so when I went Mac, I was forced to replace them. :'(
Quote from: Hinfrance on January 21, 2012, 09:32:16 AM
Quote from: picsfor on January 20, 2012, 03:37:26 PM
I mean, what's not to like about a shiny 27" iMac, and thunderbolt technology?
Let's start with 'shiny'. Followed by 'white'. It could only be worse if it was pink. :D
It's the 'shiny' bit that drew me to mine. But the 'white is at the back, the screen has a nice 'black' border and the bottom trim is brushed aluminium. But, like with Lion, 'thunderbolt' is a) too new and b) too proprietary, making it c) too expensive.
Thanks for the replies guys, I thought this would happen and I'm now more indecisive :-[
OB I couldn't stretch to that much and to be honest I'm not a shiny kind of guy Andrew you've seen me and I how I dress :2funny: :2funny: :2funny:
The hunt will go on! :legit:
This probably won't help, but what I do is wait for whatever is my current PC to go belly up, and then hunt out the highest spec just obsolescent PC from the supermarket (we don't really have Currys type shops here, the supermarket sells Apples too). I don't worry too much about the hard drive size as all my data are on external drives anyway.
The last one was a bargain - a Packard Bell 32bit (3 years old now) that even with only 3gb RAM runs faster than our brand new 64bit lap top. Don't know why, it just does. I think it must have eaten some apples, because it's got 4 cores apparently ;)
Quote from: irv_b on January 21, 2012, 01:37:24 PM
Thanks for the replies guys, I thought this would happen and I'm now more indecisive :-[
OB I couldn't stretch to that much and to be honest I'm not a shiny kind of guy Andrew you've seen me and I how I dress :2funny: :2funny: :2funny:
The hunt will go on! :legit:
You are a plumber in London! Money is no problem. 8)
Quote from: Oldboy on January 21, 2012, 05:41:31 PM
Quote from: irv_b on January 21, 2012, 01:37:24 PM
Thanks for the replies guys, I thought this would happen and I'm now more indecisive :-[
OB I couldn't stretch to that much and to be honest I'm not a shiny kind of guy Andrew you've seen me and I how I dress :2funny: :2funny: :2funny:
The hunt will go on! :legit:
You are a plumber in London! Money is no problem. 8)
Ha ha if only ;D
what's with the price of hard drives at the moment. I just went to order a couple more and on eBuyer they appear to be just about double the price I paid for the same drives last summer?
Quote from: Cathus on January 21, 2012, 11:54:48 PM
what's with the price of hard drives at the moment. I just went to order a couple more and on eBuyer they appear to be just about double the price I paid for the same drives last summer?
Floods in Thailand have destroyed the factories that made the majority of HDD. All of the major computer parts sellers in my area will only sell you one HDD at a time.
Quote from: Cathus on January 21, 2012, 11:54:48 PM
what's with the price of hard drives at the moment. I just went to order a couple more and on eBuyer they appear to be just about double the price I paid for the same drives last summer?
As Spinner says, it's the floods in Thailand cause a shortage. Haven't noticed the prices increase by much on the 2tb drives. 8)
I haven't priced any in my area since well before Christmas, they seem to be up about $25-$30 Cdn. on a 1 TB drive.
I get most of m PC stuff from Ebuyer and have done for donkeys'
Toshiba 500gb 2.5 HD £33.38 in July, now £65. (I use them in caddies as plug in backups - have about a dozen of them)
Hitachi 2TB 3.5 HD - £43.65 in July - they don't do the exact model now but 2TB HDs are now between £96 & £140
Prices will rise even further. It will last till 3rd quarter of this year. It will take that long before production will be back to demand. (according to importers to wholesale)
I believe the DVD and CD market is feeling this as well.
I'm pretty close to sorting out the new comp from a independent builder and I'm pretty much looking at this ;
.
> intel Core i7 2600k Quad Core 8M Cache 3.40 GHz,
> 8GB DDR3 Corsair 1600 single module x2, or 8GB Corsair Memory DDR3 1600 (4 x 2GB)
> 1155 ASROCK Z68 PRO 3 - Z68 chipset - 4 x DDR3 2133 - Gig Lan - SATA 2 & 3 - USB 3 & 2,
> 2000Gb SATA Hard Drive SATA 3,
> DVD+/- RW - 24X (Pioneer DVR-S19LBK),
> ATI HD 5450 1024MB PCI Express DDR DVI,
> CiT 2206 Black Midi Case with 500W PSU,
> CiT 500W Black Edition PSU,
> Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler,
> Integrated Sound Card,
> Windows 7 Home premium 64 bit,
> TP-link wireless PCI adapter TL-WN350G,
but I would like to know which is better to have 2x4gb ram or 4x 2gb ram or does it not really matter. The price difference is £6.50 and the mobo has 4 memory slots
Thanks Irv
Quote from: irv_b on January 26, 2012, 10:52:00 PM
> 8GB DDR3 Corsair 1600 single module x2, or 8GB Corsair Memory DDR3 1600 (4 x 2GB)
but I would like to know which is better to have 2x4gb ram or 4x 2gb ram or does it not really matter. The price difference is £6.50 and the mobo has 4 memory slots
Thanks Irv
Always go for the 2x4gb ram as that will leave two slots free, in-case you need to upgrade to more memory at a later date. Otherwise, the rest looks great. :tup: