Attn: PC Building geeks

[faz]

So my current set-up is getting kind of sluggish trying to cope with newer versions of photoshop (and I've recently started to dabble with video editing) so I'm looking to get a new pc. The one I'm currently using is a few years old now and is one I built my self, a process I had never done before and to be honest not one I look forward to repeating.

As well as needing something with a lot of power for photoshoping and what not, it would be nice to also use it as a media pc (my current set up is used for watchig movies, dvds, hdrips, and all my music). Blu ray and hddvd player would be ideal. I have a 5.1 speaker setup which I'm more than happy to keep when I upgrade.

So, to be honest, I'm not really wanting to build a new one and have pretty much decided I would buy one premade. I've had my eye on one at my local tescos (I know, this isn't the first place someone would look) it seems like it would pack quite the punch for the price. Its reviewed here (http://www.trustedreviews.com/pcs/review/2008/12/05/Medion-Akoya-P36888-Multimedia-Center-PC-with-Blu-ray/p1). It comes with a blu ray and hddvd player, 3gbs of ram and a 1000gb hard drive.

I already have a nice monitor and speakers so this gives me more money to spend on a stand alone desktop. But its been a while since I knew what was going on in the world of cpus etc so I'm not too sure if this kind of set-up will be good enough for my needs. I know its going to fail at gaming, but I don't plan on playing any games on it. I've got a 360 for that.

Any ideas? Or anyone know of any other set-ups in that price region? Or shall I just try build one again....

[jabumbo]

those quad cores are pretty nice. i find it kind of funny that the memory requirements seem to have shot up a lot while processor speed hasn't really jumped much at all...

the graphics card is sort of hit or miss though


but for that price, it looks to be a solid buy

[faz]

Yeah, the one thing holding me back is the lack of its upgradeability, no more room for memory, limited extra pci slots. But, theoretically, it would be easy enough to just buy a new bigger mother board and a new case in the future and transfer every thing over to that, right?

[jabumbo]

well, 3gb of ram should be pretty sufficient. i mean, real experts would probably recommend more, but really how much do you need? vista does hog a good bit, but if you are sparse with erroneous applications, you'll have no problems.

and if you feel the need to upgrade, you probably can. its probably 2 slots with 1.5 each. pick up a 2 or 3gb stick and swap it out, no big deal there.if you play it right, that can be cheap as well. i got myself a 2gb stick for my laptop for about $35 when i saw it on discount.

but that hard drive space and disc drives would certainly be easy to switch over to a new custom machine

[faz]

Man, I so want to head down to tescos right now and buy this machine. I'm just anal about spending this amount of money at once :)

[faz]

Bought it :)

Now all I have to do is transfer 100's of gbs of music, movies and tv shows to it.....

[Adam]

glad you bought it.

I've built loads of PCs in the past and 5 years ago it used to be that you'd save £200 building your own PC. These days is far more economical to buy in a box.

Obviously Dell you can spec stuff to suit needs, pointless building own now apart from a hobby or you work for in a factory buildning 'em.

[faz]

So far the tv tuner cant pick up a signal (due to my house though, I've never been able to get a good signal on a tv). The bundled software only plays bluray, not hddvd and my mouse and keyboards extra buttons don't work too well under vista.

Yay. Not that big a deal so far, I guess. Once I get all my old stuff transfered over I should be a happy bunny.