ok my computer is getting really bad and slow... its 4.5 years old and half dead.

in a month or so its time to buy a new computer (the tower thing only).. Last week I a bought a new monitor as the old one shiat itself so now I just need a new machine.

what should a new machine have?? how much RAM, hard drive capacity, processor speed etc etc??

can anything decent be had for up to a grand?

and whats a good buy??

any advise greatly appreciated

Tis a bit like asking how much to paint a house

What do you need if for Jetters? What size hard drive have you currently got and is it full? Do you intend to play games or watch movies on it?

havent got a clue what I have now tab... just bought it through dell years ago... I knew nothing about computers then and I still dont... hence asking what a decent computer should have.

I dont do too much... I download a fair bit of music.... watch some net TV such as live feed formula 1... play the occasional game but not often enough to warrant a special need for my gaming addiction... the wife downloads a farking bucket load of photos on it that are never looked at again... I copy cds etc on it... do all my work quotes invoices etc....and other then that I just surf the net.

I guess I just dont want to by a bucket load of shiat just because I know nothing about them... hence asking for help from people in the know

I always recommend Dell, so if you’re content with them then stick with it.

Going by there current deals they have an Inspiron 530s with a starting price of $749. Increase the RAM to 2GB (+$80), increase the hard drive to 250GB (+$50) and then either ask them to drop the monitor off in the checkout process which would shave a hundred or two off - or just sell the monitor later on to recoup. The config only comes with MS Works, so if you want MS Office it’s another $300.

This will give you a fairly basic but capable system.

And just for your own piece of mind spec up a system on the Dell website, then print it out and take it down to your local PC store and ask for a comparison. They’ll all bag Dell for no particular reason, but unless they can match the price, customer support and warranty then walk away from them.

Or, You can build a Custom PC. . . My main PC is a Custom one, It rocks!

I recently had a custom PC built just the tower like u need for a grand total of $900

consists of

AMD 5600+ dual core cpu

asrock m-board (gbit lan bla bla bla)

2gb clockers ram

500gb hdd

250mb DDR4 HIS HD2600XT video card

asus dvd burner

thermaltake soprano case

this pc for the cash is a little weapon im so glad I decided to give the old one the boot.

sumthing along those lines is a bang for buck performer, anything above would be a REALLY good pc.

but as it stands, this PC should last me for a good 4 years +

Yeah, If you Custom build a PC, You can get quite a powerhouse for Under $1000

yeah custom built is the way to go!

I got my mean machine for 1500 fully loaded with everything about 2 years ago. it still goes hard!

I always recommend Dell, so if you’re content with them then stick with it.

Going by there current deals they have an Inspiron 530s with a starting price of $749. Increase the RAM to 2GB (+$80), increase the hard drive to 250GB (+$50) and then either ask them to drop the monitor off in the checkout process which would shave a hundred or two off - or just sell the monitor later on to recoup. The config only comes with MS Works, so if you want MS Office it’s another $300.

This will give you a fairly basic but capable system.

And just for your own piece of mind spec up a system on the Dell website, then print it out and take it down to your local PC store and ask for a comparison. They’ll all bag Dell for no particular reason, but unless they can match the price, customer support and warranty then walk away from them.

Only issue I will raise about Dell is that there help desk and afte sales service is in India. I believe the custom is the way to go becasue you get topick and choose everything you want and it is very easy to do and find ppl to do for you.

Last time I built mine, was 4 years ago, by buying all the components from the computer fairs and saved heaps of $$$. PC's are just like one big pience of lego they go together quite easily.

I.B.

Definitely a valid point, but all big name brands are the same. And I’ve heard some absolute horror stories from local PC stores.

Custom build is all well and good if you have the nous, but if not I definitely wouldn’t recommend it. Another hurdle is a self built will be individual warranty (usually a max of 12 months) on the parts, if a hard drive fails for example you have to remove it yourself and take it back to where you bought it from.

With a Dell (and a few others in the same league) if something goes wrong, you call customer support and put up with their inability to speak English, and they’ll send someone around to fix it. Warranty also ranges from 1 to 5 years on these as well.

All that being said yes you will get a system much cheaper of you put it all together yourself, but if you’re not real sure about it (no offence intended Jetters) then buy one “off the shelf”.