This Week's Hot Purchases

[Kryten]

Prices not dropping as much as I'd like, being honest, but this is still worth a mention:

Our old friend, the G0 stepping (energy efficient) Q6600 processor, £110!
Ebuyer - Cheap Computers, Laptops, Digital Cameras, TVs & more!

 

[TdC]

just to plug that cpu a bit. it's simply awesome!

 

[Helme]

I'd like to mention the E8400, it's a monster of a CPU - beats the Q6600 in everything but video decoding, overclocks insanely well(3.6-3.8GHz on standard fan, probably around 4.4GHz on a good air fan) it's cheaper than the Q6600 aswell, and while it's not the "toprange" of the series, the E8500 is basically an overclocked E8400 for £20 more.

 

[Kryten]

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Socket 775 (3.0GHz) 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor - Ebuyer
Indeed, same price as the Q6600 and I've also heard of some stonking performance from it. Definately worth a look

 

[Helme]

Thats odd, it's like £15 cheaper than the Q6600 in Sweden

 

[Kryten]

Helme: sounds to me as if your shops haven't taken effect of the Intel price cuts (yet) where the Q6600 was one of the big guys slashed in price. I was expecting it to duck under or to around £100 though :|

 

[Helme]

Actually the E8400 just dropped £10 or so here

 

[Kryten]

One not to miss:

LG 22" Widescreen monitor, £130.
LG W2234S 22" TFT Monitor - Tesco.Direct

 

[Earl]

One not to miss:

LG 22" Widescreen monitor, £130.
LG W2234S 22" TFT Monitor - Tesco.Direct

Bought a PC yesterday, after I asked for help in another thread a while ago. Got it all from ebuyer and built it:

3Ghz core duo ( E8400 )
OCZ 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 1066MHz/PC2-8500 Reaper Memory HPC Edition Dual Channel
Zotac 8800GT 512MB DDR3 Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card
Seagate ST3500320AS 500GB Hard Drive SATA II 7200rpm *32MB Cache* - OEM
Corsair 520W HX Series Modular PSU - ATX12V v2.2 APFC
Antec P182 Gunmetal Grey Super Mid Tower Case - No PSU
Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3 iP35 Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard
+ dvd writer

Came to £569 inc delivery so was quite pleased, performs well..

I am after a new monitor but don't really have the money right now. Is this LG one a bargin? As I could dip into savings if it is not going to come along again soon.

 

[Yaka]

its a bargian but its lacking dvi, not really a big issue tho

unless you notice the differances between vga and dvi, very few peeps do most arnt bothered

 

[Kryten]

Yeah, only just noticed that, but for the money, especially on a tight budget, you're not really going to notice.
Generally speaking people only tend to notice the lack of DVI using very high resolutions and doing precision based work like CAD etc. Anyone telling you otherwise is pretty much talking arse

 

[Kryten]

Been a little while, sorry - lot on the mind!

HP PC with 15" LCD monitor, £140
BigPockets.co.uk :: PC HP D530 2.6 MHZ 512 Ram 40 GB HDD Plus 15 inch LCD £139.99

Nice, cheap but importantly, decent case and PSU combo £60
Coolermaster Elite 330 Black Case With CM eXtreme Power 460W PSU *SPECIAL OFFER* - Ebuyer

Or if you want a little more style (IMO) £70
Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Mid Tower Case - With 500W EarthWatts PSU - Ebuyer

2gb kit OCZ Platinum RAM, £30
OCZ 2GB DDR2 Memory - Cheap at Ebuyer!

Building a HTPC? HD capable video card, £12
Scan Computers UK: 64/256 MB, MSI HD 2350, PCI-E (x16), 32Bit 450MHz GDDR2, GPU 400MHz, DVI-I/S-Video, OEM

E8500 processor, £119
Scan Computers UK: Intel Core 2 Duo, E8500, S775, 3.16 GHz, 1333MHz, 6MB Cache, OEM

500gb HDD, £39
500GB Seagate Barracuda SATA2 16MB - Aria Technology

Old favourite, q6600 £105
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz 95W G0 Stepping (Retail 775) - Aria Technology

 

[DaGaffer]

Does anyone know of a free PCAnywhere-type solution? Need it to access my Ma's PCs in Cyprus.

 

[JingleBells]

Does anyone know of a free PCAnywhere-type solution? Need it to access my Ma's PCs in Cyprus.

Remote Desktop/Assistance?
VNC?

If she's running XP then the remote desktop client is already there, to get around any problems with getting an IP you could always use Remote Assistance, that will send an invitation out via email.

 

[Jimmae]

Zolved - Zolved Free Remote Control - Support and help for problems with iPods, computers, XBox, email, cell phones, PDAs, wireless networks, game consoles and Windows Vista

 

[Kryten]

Or of course LogMeIn which i think works on a trial basis.

 

[ECA]

Does anyone know of a free PCAnywhere-type solution? Need it to access my Ma's PCs in Cyprus.

Do you need to be able to use it when nobody is there or is it a remote support type thing?

Teamviewer or Mikogo are both free for the latter.

 

[MYstIC G]

Or of course LogMeIn which i think works on a trial basis.

Trial for advanced features, remote control is free, plus it just works.

 

[nath]

Gotta say, both Remote Desktop and Remote Assistance work pretty well.

 

[Nate]

I'm after a 24" monitor, with pretty nice specs but in the £250~ range. Any ideas, any brands you recommend? Will be primarily used for gaming but also some browsing.

 

[Kryten]

Just a quicky courtesy of OverDriven,

Samsung Spinpoint F1 1tb - £85, utter bargain
Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB Hard Drive SATAII *32MB Cache* - OEM - Ebuyer

And from uber:
Coolermaster CM330 case and XM 650w PSU bundle, £70

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148683

 

[Mazling]

Just a quicky courtesy of OverDriven,

Samsung Spinpoint F1 1tb - £85, utter bargain
Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB Hard Drive SATAII *32MB Cache* - OEM - Ebuyer

And from uber:
Coolermaster CM330 case and XM 650w PSU bundle, £70

Coolermaster Elite 330 Black Case With CM eXtreme Power 650W PSU *SPECIAL OFFER* - Ebuyer

Dabs have that hdd at only £3 more, and you can buy the same case/psu combo for only a fiver more. So, what's wrong iwth them ;-)

 

[DaGaffer]

I'm after a 24" monitor, with pretty nice specs but in the £250~ range. Any ideas, any brands you recommend? Will be primarily used for gaming but also some browsing.

I'm looking for something similar but I'm struggling to find anything at that price; I've seen this Samsung at £332 on eBuyer, which looks pretty good; best for the money is probably this Dell though, at £241. It has DVI, but no HDMI.

 

[Jorge Regula]

I'm looking for something similar but I'm struggling to find anything at that price; I've seen this Samsung at £332 on eBuyer, which looks pretty good; best for the money is probably this Dell though, at £241. It has DVI, but no HDMI.

The Digimate L2442WD is 24" and a good sum of them come with PVA panels that are superior to those found in most cheap monitors. Better colour reproduction and far wider viewing angles, although a slightly slower response time. Can be found for <£225. There's also the Yaruku YV24 which is basically the same except with HDCP.

OcUK are selling a 28" TN monitor for £260ish.

Thinking of getting a Hyundai W240D-PVA for £330, need a decent viewing angle so I can use it as a TV.

 

[Kryten]

Our favoured budget performance cooler, £14
Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-7P Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 Processor Cooler - Ebuyer

4gb USB flash drive, nifty at £5.50 and always useful
Extra Value Extra Value 4GB USB Flash Drive - Ebuyer

Killer graphics performance, Sapphire 4870, only £174
Sapphire HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card - Ebuyer

 

[Kryten]

This one's a bit speculative at the moment, but just read up on a couple of nice monitors on their way from Benq, the 22" E2200HD and 24" E2400HD. Reason for the interest, is the 16:9 ratio as opposed to the normal 16:10 making them cheaper & easier to manufacturer - the 22" is expected to hit us as around £150, and the 24" at £250. Some impressive pricing, will link a source as soon as I see them appear.

 

[Fast]

**B Grade** OcUK Value Hanns-G HG281DP 28" Widescreen LCD Mon

Unsure on quality but cheap for the size.

 

[Kryten]

Not bad, being honest for a budget brand Hanns-G isn't that bad

 

[ford prefect]

Dabs have that hdd at only £3 more, and you can buy the same case/psu combo for only a fiver more. So, what's wrong iwth them ;-)

There is one thing fundementally wrong with dabs... They are owned by BT, but you can't pick up a phone and talk to a human being there.

They used to be a good company, but now their customer service is appalling and completely web based.

 

[soze]

Scan Computers UK: 1TB (1000 GB) Samsung HD103UJ Spinpoint F1, SATA 300, 7200 rpm, 32MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ £76 Nice price.