Desktops...

[craig180p]

What's good?

Would like at least 2gig of memory, ideally 1Tb hard drive, decent video out and soundcard

Will mainly be using it for surfing, storing photos and uncompressed music, a few spreadsheets, word docs etc etc.

Cba getting someone to build me one so will buy one out of the box.

£500 budget for base only.

Hit me...

[Brenz]

Honestly you have picked a slightly odd spec.

Although 1TB HDD's are becoming more common you won't find many computers with 1TB storage and just 2GB RAM, in fact PC World had 1.

All computers will have on-board sound unless you go into high end gaming PC's and again with Graphics, unless you go for a Media/Entertainment/Gaming PC you will find most have on-board graphics which will suit all that you have mentioned fine.

Still if you wanted to save money I would look into getting one built or building on yourself, PC World is a rip off.

[Brenz]

Sorry for double post, completely forgot the link lmao

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pav...02366-pdt.html

[craig180p]

At least 2 Gb

Are there any recommendations with decent sound and video out of the box?

[Brenz]

Really sound quality will really come down to the speakers. I have Bose Companion 5 speakers. They use USB so have a dedicated sound card built in.

What are you planning on playing through the sound card ? If its just music the on-board sound will be more than sufficient and most now support "HD" Audio with 5.1 surround sound.

Again with the Graphics, what do you plan on using graphics wise ? Many computers will now come with support for HD and will play Movies perfectly fine. Personally I do a lot of Gaming so have a nVidia GT 240 graphics card and that runs two screens with the latest Battlefield Game with maxed out graphics and it was just £70 when I purchased it.

If you do want something really powerful I would recommend building it yourself. Here is a quick build I have put together using Maplin and Ebuyer with a Quad-Core processor, 2GB RAM, nVidia GT 240 graphics card, Blu-ray and DVD/RW+ drive, 1TB Storage, a 550 Watt PSU and a Case all for £350 +delivery costs.

B Grade Quad Core AMD Phenom™ 9450 X4 Board Bundle - http://www.maplin.co.uk/b-grade-quad...-bundle-503534 - £99

OEM 3.5in SATA II Hard Drives 1TB - http://www.maplin.co.uk/oem-3.5in-sa...d-drives-36450 - £60

Crucial 1GB DDR2 1066MHz Ballistix Memory CL5(5-5-5-15) 2V Unbuffered Non-ECC x2 - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/190906 - £40

CIT 550w Power supply GOLD 12cm 24pin sata model 550U - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/255693 - £24

Casecom 6788 Black Mid Tower Case with Full Black Interior/Exterior 120mm Blue LED Front Fan - No PSU - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172779 - £30

Plexus Serial ATA 2.0 to Right Angle SATA 7-pin Cable (Red) 61cm / 24" x2 - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151962 - £4

LG CH10LS20 10x BD-ROM with DVD±RW & LightScribe SATA Blu-Ray Drive - OEM Black - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/194807 - £50

Inno3D GT 240 512MB GDDR3 DVI VGA HDMI Out PCI-E Graphics Card - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/179468 - £51

[craig180p]

Cheers for that. Audio will be going through a Denon AVR3805 av amp and Kef Q series speakers for audio and some audio production.

Video out will be to a 50" Pioneer plasma for video playback and for picture slides

[Brenz]

Yea, on-board graphics or a basic graphics card will be fine for standard video playback and slideshows. My card runs a 21" LCD and a 50" projection without any problems.

If you do want to go for a dedicated sound card something like the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio 7.1 PCI Soundcard from ebuyer. A lot of PC Gamers I know who don't use USB have Sound Blaster cards installed and are really impressed with them.

[haz_pro]

If you want good quality sound output then go for a soundcard IMO.

Fair enough some of the higher quality mother boards will have decent on board sound quality, how ever in a prebuilt mass manufacture PC i would doubt highly that the sound will be any good.

I would reccomend: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...d=1078&subcat=

I know you said you want say "prebuilt" but these guys offer a great service from my experience any way, and you will get a better PC for the money, as well as still getting a 12 month return to base warrenty.

Since its under 400 you would still be able to buy a good soundcard and install it yourself, or buy one from them and they will install it when they build it.

It doesnt have a 1tb hard drive but im sure they will install one in place of the 500 if you request for a small fee, or you could always install your own (piss easy).

This is the best PC (along with good SQ) you will get for under 500 i believe.

Hope this helps (dont be scared that its not from a highstreet store, they have been going for ages).

EDIT: Didnt notice above, if you are not scared to build the PC (dont be its easy), then go with the above! Otherwise what i have posted is your best option IMO.

[markpitchford]

Originally Posted by saxo180

Cheers for that. Audio will be going through a Denon AVR3805 av amp and Kef Q series speakers for audio and some audio production.

Depending on your audio production, you might want to consider one of the M-Audio sound cards rather than a gaming card or onboard.

[Eskimo]

Buy mine, will do what you require easily! Check my threads.

[Bound]

The cheapest way of doing it is Something like this;

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/251310

Then buy something like this;

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/189741

Yes it is a generation old.. But price : performance.. And you will be unable to max that card anyway. That will last you a long time.

Soundcard.. Can't help you there.

But because I like rimming mods I will do this for ya;



-Quad core proccessor
-4gb RAM
-1tb hard drive
-ATi 5770

£426

- Chop and change bits if you want to like the motherboard/RAM.. you could get slightly better.. but they surpass adequate by far. The case I just chucked in for pricing.. Can chose anything that's not a mini one obvs. Only thing I left out was a sound card because I don't know enough to chose one.. These were hasty decisions to give you an idea.. took like 15 minutes to put it together but that would be a extremely powerful PC for the money.. E.g. - It would max anything you throw at it.

The hard drive/PSU/CPU/RAM is extremely strong though, stuff like the dvd rewriter isn't important how much you spend on that, or the case really, just aesthetics mainly (maybe slight cooling advantages).

Avoid integrated graphics if you ever plan to use it even slightly graphically intensively.