New Desktop Computer Advise Needed.

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Brian WH

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I have an Evesham computer at the moment, but it is 4 years old and only has 60GB drive. I have been extremely pleased with it.

Now that Evesham have gone bust I am wondering who to use for a new one. I want it built to my spec, as I edit videos and need plenty of memory and a large hard drive etc.

Can anyone recommend a company and has anyone used these ones??

PCSpecialist.

Micrgate Computers.

Urgent help required please.
 
If you want it built to spec then Dell is a good place to start - although not cheap.

Thought of doing it yourself? - It isnt hard although buying a non oem version of windows canget expensive.
 
I didn't know evesham had gone bust - have had a desktop and a laptop from them - great customer service etc.....damn...



Brian - are you sure?? Their website www.evesham.com is still working and offering equipment...
 
If you want it built to spec then Dell is a good place to start - although not cheap.

Thought of doing it yourself? - It isnt hard although buying a non oem version of windows canget expensive.

Not keen on Dell I am afraid, don't really know why.

Haven't got the time to mess about doing it myself.
 
I didn't know evesham had gone bust - have had a desktop and a laptop from them - great customer service etc.....damn...



Brian - are you sure?? Their website www.evesham.com is still working and offering equipment...

Yes I know but if you google evesham they have been in difficulty since August time, someone was supposed to be taking them over, he was from the Tiny group. Then I saw the recievers were in and closure was imminent???
 
I didn't know evesham had gone bust - have had a desktop and a laptop from them - great customer service etc.....damn...
Brian - are you sure??


Bust they are......I think Richard was spending too much time at the Nurburgring....;)
 
IMHO, times for building pc's from scratch are long gone. DELL has a problem with support of desktops. If there is a problem you'll be connected to someone who reads from 'if then' scripts. I'd standardized supply of desktops to my clients from Fujitsu Siemens. They've been very reliable (> 300 pcs) and only time when dvd player failed someone was there next day with a replacement. At any rate I'd go for established vendor ie HP, FS or something like that rather then separate bunch of components which when something fails you'll just go round in circles with everyone pointing fingers at someone else.

HTH
 
I personally have had all the computers in the house to date custom built or built myself and have never ever had a major fault. The one thing I hate about ready made PC's including Dell is that they use un branded cheap parts which are just no good for heavy users and for the long run. That said thier not bad PC systems and Im sure some people may have had nothing but good experiences with them but my recomendation is that if you want a reliable and yet powerfull system then self made is perhaps the best sollution I can recomend. Plus you get to choose EVERYTHING from the case to all the parts which you deffinatly cant choose with factory built machines. Feel free to PM me should you need recomendations on make, spec and etc.
 
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Even the cheapest £250 dell now is very powerful compared to a 4 year old machine.

For £250 you get 2GB of memory, 250GB HDD and a dual core CPU. The money is all in GPU's now, the rest of the components are cheap as chips.
 
My problem with Dell is that when you want anything it is a captive market. Spares repairs and even printer cartidges for their printers are very expensive and you cannot shop around. :eek:

When you look at the computer magazines then Mesh seem to be highly rated. Anyone want to comment on Mesh Computers.:confused:
 
Sorry Brian, im with the mass... buy a dell, when it breaks, throw away...

i agree about the printers though and was surprised when i couldnt get a cartridge anywhere else..
 
I mainly use the laptop now but my dell was bought second hand a few years ago and have had no problems with it at all.
 
These are the best that I know of are http://www.meshcomputers.com/, they are well established and consistently get recommended for performance/value/service. Also worth a look at the A-List on www.pcpro.co.uk (a respected PC magazine).

We use dell at work (500+) and it's a mixed bag as far as reliability is concerned, I think you are better going elsewhere as a home user to get value for money. Dell are the Vauxhall/Ford of the PC world, only good value with fleet discount.
 
Sorry Brian, im with the mass... buy a dell, when it breaks, throw away...
i agree about the printers though and was surprised when i couldnt get a cartridge anywhere else..

Thanks but still dubious.

When you change machines it is such a headache to transfer all your programmes and personal settings, so I want one that will last another 4 years+. I am not in the throw away game, and am willing to pay for a decent spec and a longer term machine.
 
My problem with Dell is that when you want anything it is a captive market. Spares repairs and even printer cartidges for their printers are very expensive and you cannot shop around. :eek:

When you look at the computer magazines then Mesh seem to be highly rated. Anyone want to comment on Mesh Computers.:confused:

Sorry didn't read all the posts properly :crazy: , I second this opinion! :D
 
i didnt mean they break.. I have bought dell for a while now and i tend to find average life of a PC for me is about 5 years.. I have them at home and for business...

I just find they do what they say on the tin.. never had any problems and value for money is fantastic.
 
I personally have had all the computers in the house to date custom built or built myself and have never ever had a major fault. The one thing I hate about ready made PC's including Dell is that they use un branded cheap parts which are just no good for heavy users and for the long run. That said thier not bad PC systems and Im sure some people may have had nothing but good experiences with them but my recomendation is that if you want a reliable and yet powerfull system then self made is perhaps the best sollution I can recomend. Plus you get to choose EVERYTHING from the case to all the parts which you deffinatly cant choose with factory built machines. Feel free to PM me should you need recomendations on make, spec and etc.
My son builds all our computers, and they have always been far, far cheaper than anything I could buy. I go along with you.

John
 
Yes I know but if you google evesham they have been in difficulty since August time, someone was supposed to be taking them over, he was from the Tiny group. Then I saw the recievers were in and closure was imminent???


Yup just looked it up on Wikipedia


[edit] Financial problems and restructure

In 2007 the company encountered a number of financial problems. In March 2007 the Evesham Journal reported that credit insurers pulled the plug on the firm, although the company continued to trade. [1]
Documents filed at Companies House on 26 June 2007, showed the resignations of four of the five company directors, and it was reported that the company was up for sale [2] [3]
In 3 August 2007, the company was thrown a lifeline of $22m by Time UK founder Tahir Mohsan[4] . It was also revealed that the company had gone into administration, with the UK Government's decision to end the Home Computer Initiative being blamed. [5]
A new company, GeeMore Technology Ltd, was formed to continue trading under the Evesham name whilst the majority of staff were made redundant and showrooms closed following the arrival of bailiffs.
Evesham now trades as Evesham Micros Ltd, trading as Evesham Technology.
 
When you look at the computer magazines then Mesh seem to be highly rated. Anyone want to comment on Mesh Computers.:confused:

Mesh and Evesham are in reality very small outfits, cutting far more corners than you'd like to believe. I've worked for Mesh in the past. The PC's were built by half a dozen north london wide boys... anything but professional. The R&D budget is minimal, actually negligeable and the benchmark tests you see in the PC mags are done using very very carefully put together systems (and not built by the homies found wandering around the warehouse that would be building yours, or mine)

The reality is that Dell purchase in such large volumes that their price is very rarely beaten, even if you build it yourself.

If your not a gamer, you dont need anything high end, so just buy a £300 desktop and treat yourself to a nice 22"widescreen flat panel. Total cost £500 and every three years buy a new one. Next time round you wont need the screen. No-one can compete at this price, you get an awful lot for your money.

Its not true about Dell legacy parts either in most cases. The printer example you chose is not true as Dell rebadge Lexmark printers. The lexmark cartriges work fine.

Oh, and I dont work for Dell, nor did I recommend them for my company this time around (although I'm begining to regret I didn't).
 
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Thanks but still dubious.

When you change machines it is such a headache to transfer all your programmes and personal settings, so I want one that will last another 4 years+. I am not in the throw away game, and am willing to pay for a decent spec and a longer term machine.

But you dont need to Brian.

Sysprep your current HDD making sure that you have all the correct legacy drivers in the sysprep script, the big one will be for the mass storage devices. Then ghost your old disk to the new PC, and fire it up and you will be greeted by the same welcome to windows prompt you see on any new PC but it will fire up, creating a new hardware abstraction layer and install all the new drivers required for the new hardware but your image including data and software will be off your old PC.

Two hours or so total, and no scratching around for license keys.

Your expensive machine will only outlast a cheaper system because with an expesive system you couldnt justify the finantial loss of an upgrade so regularly. You will have a better faster machine for a higher percentage of the time and for less money if you buy at the sweet spot and change more frequently.

Again, if you're not a gamer, don't spend more than £500 on a desktop.
 
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