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Advice on a PC

Shaun.P

Shaun.P

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Hi there,

I am thinking of buying a computer to compliment my MacBook. It will be mainly used for watching videos, DVDs and playing games. Not necessarily the latest and greatest games, RTS strategy games, Sims 2 and the like.

One I have my eye on is: This HP.

The computer is £459.99 with a 20" HP Monitor. I'd be able to get it all for £416 (10% discount).

I don't know too much about these processors, or if the graphics memory is any good.

More information on the computer is here.

Please let me know what you think.

Thank you so much,

Shaun
 
Yeah but I work for Comet, so I'd like to use the 10% discount and also take advantage of the 9 months buy now pay later credit we're offering!
 
Ati 3450 HD is a quite crappy video card. but sims isn't a high demand game neither. you can just purchase it, and if necessary, add a new graphic card later.
 
Ahh see I thought the graphics was good being 256MB and all 🙂. How will this run Vista?

Will opening the case void the warranty?
 
How can a PC compliment a MacBook get an iMac =)


on topic:

Check out open box stuff in best buy etc and you can get some great deals.
 
Looks decent. Seeing as how all you're doing is playing stuff like Sims 2 and watching DVDs, it'll be more than enough for what you need.

It's a good deal with the monitor and your discount and all. The 3gb of ram should be able to handle Vista decently well.

So yeah, looking at the other stuff available from that website, it looks like you have a good deal. I'd say go for it. 🙂
 
Decent looking system for the price.

I've had HP and Compaq computers and can't complain about either.

My current Compaq (from HP since Compaq is HP now) is a very nice machine. I've had it for about 3 years. It's been very reliable.

The HP I had before that was also a great machine for what it was. It was a lowly Celeron system. But, still great reliability and decent performance for a cheap Celeron.

I say go with HP. But, check out the Compaq systems in the same price range. When I got my Compaq, I found that for the same price I could get a slightly better system. And, they both come from the same company.
 
I used to find HP desktops VERY unreliable hunks of junk.

However, two of my friends have HP laptops and I was surprised to see that the the quality has improved a lot and they work well.

Have you thought about a macmini?
 
i personally wouldnt buy it, i would make one. its much much cheaper, the AMD processor is a bit weak, the GPU is a bit lame. you could build a very nice system for that price.
 
DoFoT9 said:
i personally wouldnt buy it, i would make one. its much much cheaper, the AMD processor is a bit weak, the GPU is a bit lame. you could build a very nice system for that price.
Click to expand...

Seems weak if you are not familiar with AMD processors.

The 2.2 GHz processor will perform quite admirably. The price for a PC is not really cheap. It's about average. And, the last two machines I've purchased from HP / Compaq in that price range were great.

The AMD CPU's are generally intended to perform better than their MHz speed would indicate. They rate it as a 4400+ which means that by their measure, it would roughly equal a 4.4 GHz Intel system.

Now, I do admit AMD could use some better optimization routines. But, generally, their rated spec will be fairly close. For example, my AMD 3400+ is fairly comparable to a Intel 3 GHz machine of comparable vintage.

With Intel's new Core2Duo processors, the AMD advantage may be slightly behind if they haven't updated their ratings to compare against the Core2Duo (I haven't been following them lately). But, AMD's processors are definitely no slouch when it comes to performance. They do perform better than their MHz rating would imply.

For years, AMD has been all about optimizing to produce more efficiency at a given clock rate. They are quite good at it, and compare very favorably. It's only been since the CoreDuo and Core2Duo that Intel has finally started focussing on efficiency instead of clock rate.

I'd consider AMD a strong contender.

In some specific benchmarks they'll fall slightly behind, but in others, they'll exceed significantly. It usually evens out pretty well.
 
^ has probably not compared the two for a while

To the OP:

Well - by compliment, if you mean reinforce your false feelings of OS X superiority by buying a completely crappy machine that will struggle to run today's Windows software at a decent clip, let alone anything in the near future - that seems like a great machine.

HP make some excellent machines, but like anything if you buy at the absolute bottom end, you get what you pay for.

There's actually nothing on the Comet computing website I would say 'get' in terms of desktops apart from - well, the Apples.

I'd say look elsewhere and not to think about the 10% discount. You could start with something like a Dell XPS 430 chassis. It's quiet, not too trashy all around, has an interesting 'Sideshow' display that may come in handy or not (and either way you're not paying significant amounts for it) and is fairly flexible. It's not a monster gaming PC as the power supply is common with lower-end consumer machines in terms of power, but you can upgrade to a single decent gaming card down the line.

Building your own PC is simultaneously a good way to get exactly what you want, as well as a good way to build yourself an unreliable machine which you'll curse if you don't know what you're doing. I'd say for most people - especially Mac users from what I've seen - avoid.
 
To the OP:

Are you at all capable of building your own PC? I presume you are tech savvy on a certain level that it won't be too difficult to do.

And if you're in London, there are plenty of members local that can help in one way or another. You could build a fairly decent computer, including OS and screen from parts off the web - where they also offer 12 months 0% interest free payment plans etc.
 
Why do you need to "compliment" your Macbook? Do you think it will work better when some other computer sings songs to it?
 
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