buying a new pc...im stupid and need help. hold my hand.

haggered

Loyal Freddie
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Feb 2, 2004
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44
just finished university and am looking to replace my laptop with a shiny desktop pc.

i looked at mesh, their elite premier plus pc, with the upgrade to the 256MB nVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT card making a grand total of £634. but mesh have a really bad reputation, so im not sure if its worth the risk.

mesh pc link: MESH Computers - Award Winning PCs Since 1987

the other pc i found was on cube 247, who seem to have a good reputation but ive never heard of them, not that that means much.

i was looking at their Zeta ST10 system with the upgrade to the nVidia GeForce 8600GT 512MB meaning it comes to £624.

cube 247 link: Cube247 - Zeta ST10

well basically i was looking for some advice about which would be a better choice or should i be looking else where for a desktop pc for around £600.

to me the cube one looks a better package and has a better reputation but the processor looks slower. where as the mesh one looks quite good but the graphics card is only 256 where as the cube one is 512. does this make a difference.

is either of these worth getting?

adam
 

Alan

Fledgling Freddie
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Aug 3, 2004
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Had my mesh delivered yesterday - great PC so far - trashed vista and reinstalled with XP, managed to find drivers for everything on the net.

Ive always had a Geforce card and always will 8800GTX on this new box

What bad things did you hear about mesh ? I looked around and didnt find anything really bad.
 

haggered

Loyal Freddie
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Feb 2, 2004
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about mesh i heard that they had bad customer services, which maybe doesnt sound so bad because alot of companies do. but this web site had alot of bad stuff which just tanits my image of them.

Are you a customer of Mesh Computers?

all that worries me. apparently they've been on watchdog to which is never a good sign.

which mesh system did you buy? if you dont mind me asking.

ps i cant afford the 8800 :(
 

dysfunction

FH is my second home
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I have had 3 Mesh PC's and had no problems with them at all.
In fact I would buy from them again.

Never needed their customer service so can't comment on that.


What are you going to use the PC for? Graphic Intensive gaming? Or mainly for emails and excel/word stuff?
 

haggered

Loyal Freddie
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Feb 2, 2004
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i guess it comes down to 2.13 processor and 512 graphics vs. 2.33 processor and 256 graphics.

i still dont know which is the better choice though.
 

dysfunction

FH is my second home
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Have you looked at Dell?

May be worth calling Dell and Mesh up and see if you can get a good spec with the graphics card you want. You may be able to get a slightly smaller Hard Drive in the Mesh PC and get the higher spec Video Card.

I think perhaps the slightly slower processor and the higher spec video card if you are going to be doing gaming.
 

Alan

Fledgling Freddie
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3,972
about mesh i heard that they had bad customer services, which maybe doesnt sound so bad because alot of companies do. but this web site had alot of bad stuff which just tanits my image of them.

Are you a customer of Mesh Computers?

all that worries me. apparently they've been on watchdog to which is never a good sign.

which mesh system did you buy? if you dont mind me asking.

ps i cant afford the 8800 :(

I wen ta bit overboard, got the DX10 i think it was, 2.66 Dual core, 4GB ram, 1000w PSU and the geforce 8800gtx 768mb. Cost about 1400 in total, and another 300 for the samsung screen due tomorrow :)

Mesh must send out hundreds of pc's per week - compare that to the number of posts on that forum and youll see it in context. Ok sure there customer support could be below par and they do have a premium rate support number (for software) but i work with computers so shouldnt have to call it.

Quite a few people in our guild have MESH and thats what made me order one, those who had called the support line said it could be a struggle - but the components and build was good.


edit: oh i did have one problem with it, my Razer USB keyboard and mouse didnt work, when connected the machine wouldnt go past its POST screen (the other keyboards and mice I have here worked fine) - upgraded the bios and that fixed things.
 

Kryten

Old Cow.
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Dec 22, 2003
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I don't think there's any large dealers with a good reputation as far as customer services go - this is only something you can expect from a small local dealer these days, but then you'll certainly be paying the price for it up front. Everyone knows how bad Dell are on this front, yet my dealings with their business support systems have been very good. Mesh used to be alright but all I hear these days is whinge and moan. Same goes for Acer, who have a bit of a quality issue currently.

I can find holes to pick out of any ready-to-go system dealership - that's just how it goes. But on the bright side, for those of reading this will already be part of a community online and have access to many others who are more than willing to help with any issues you might otherwise have to spend hours on hold for on an 0870 number to an indian you can't understand who doesn't know what a PC is anyway.

With prices as low as they are for these fully built systems, the biggest thing going for self-builds these days are the warranties - if something goes wrong with your Dell/Mesh/Acer/Packard Bell/Advent/Lenovo/HP etc etc, you've got a year then you're stuffed, unless you pay silly money for 2 more years.
With the kit you build yourself - you've got 5-10 years on your hdd, lifetimes on your graphics, 5 years on your power supply, 10-lifetime on your RAM, etc etc. Just means you've gotta self diagnose the issue to claim on it :)
 

Jonty

Fledgling Freddie
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Dec 22, 2003
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Hi haggered

Just a quick post. Firstly, Kryten's spot on about the customer service: you will always hear horror stories about every big company. Yes, some are worse than others, but just remember that happy customers are usually off enjoying their system and don't post their experiences, which leaves the upset customers to vent their frustration, hence these things sometimes provide a bit of a distorted view.

As for the CPU speed vs. graphics card RAM question, it's a tough call. Ordinarily I would say go for the slower CPU and the greater RAM, because new and future games are using ever larger textures, and the graphics card RAM can offer significant performance jumps. That said, the 8600 GT doesn't really have the raw 'horsepower' that will take advantage of this. So unless you can afford the upgrade to an 8800 series graphics card, I would maybe just choose the faster CPU for now (which will provide a small performance improvement for all tasks, but it will only be small) and then consider upgrading later. But it's very debatable; ask 10 people and you'll likely get 10 different opinions :)

Anyway, good luck, and be sure to listen to the others' sound advice. They have more experience in these things than I do.

Kind regards
 

thergador

Fledgling Freddie
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Apr 20, 2006
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may be look at overclockers.co.uk

system 1 £703.83 inc VAT
clicky
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600 2.80GHz Dual Core CPU
- AMD approved cooler
- Abit KN9 (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
- OcUK 2GB PC2-6400 CAS5 (2x1GB) Dual Channel Kit
- 250GB Western Digital Enterprise 16MB Cache SATA-2 Hard Drive
- NVIDIA 8800 GTS 320MB GDDR3 VIVO HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) DirectX 10 Graphics Card
- Samsung 18x DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black)
- Black Sony Floppy Drive
- Antec NINE HUNDRED Gamers ATX Case
- Antec 550W Next Generation Power Supply

its just the system its roughly in the same price braket but has the 8800 gts add to that that you get both full system warranty and you can also use the parts warranty
 

Alan

Fledgling Freddie
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But its AMD... ok yeah sure there a good CPU, but everyman and his dog is buying interl dual core (or quad core) now.
 

dysfunction

FH is my second home
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Yes. I have always been and AMD fan but I think these days Intel have the upper hand at the moment.

Not sure about the new chips coming out soon though. AMD's may well piss all over Intel...
 

haggered

Loyal Freddie
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Feb 2, 2004
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thanks for the replys. the amd system looks good, but as someone said its amd and i have no tft monitor or mouse or keyboard = too many extra expenses. currenly using my laptop therefore i dont own all the usual stuff.

i think i'll go with a dell system that they just reduced, very similar spec to the mesh one. has a 256 nvidia 8600gt card, which isnt the best but i can upgrade that in maybe a year or something.

cube247 pc looks so nice with the 512 version but with delivery it all comes to 664 which is just too much for my budget. very tempted to to just splurge out on it.

christ i thought i'd decieded on the dell but in the process of writing this ive talked myself out of it. i need to be punched in the head.
 

Alan

Fledgling Freddie
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Yes. I have always been and AMD fan but I think these days Intel have the upper hand at the moment.

Not sure about the new chips coming out soon though. AMD's may well piss all over Intel...


Same Ive had AMD for about 10 years, but the new box is intel dual core.
 

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