feline......Hi,i am a fellow Brit and i have fitted quite a few computers up for people who like you want to buy a package from a retailer.

The most important thing in my opinion is quality of components and after sales care.

For quality of components and for that matter price (which is also important).....and i have seen many machines recently.......go for a MESH. Pop down to your local supermarket or newsagent and pick up a computer mag like Computer Buyer and you will see that MESH have a large 10 page advertisement and you can just pick the system you want. They will also add any add-ons you want as well. They also have a good website that is worth visiting. Their systems are constantly tested in the labs by various mags and they consistantly do very well. Their customer support is very good and they are one of the few manufaturers that offer a 3 year ***on site*** warranty which is included in the price of your system. That says a lot about the confidence they have in the systems that they build. MESH have also been around for many years so you will not have to worry that they are one of these 'fly by night' companies.

I cannot speak highly enough about MESH and the system i am using now is a MESH which is 3 years old and which i have recently upgraded myself.

As Boxxi said DELL are good also and if you catch them right you can get some very good deals but on the whole when you compare a DELL and a MESH system at the same price the MESH usually has better quality components but occassionally DELL do some stunning deals which outgun anything else on the planet so do not rule DELL out.

I hear what FUZZY says about ADVENT and PCWORLD but you can get more components and quality elsewhere.

Good Luck

Athlon 64 FX

yes I was talking about that one!

The new FX51 is also $800 for just the chip...

The P4 3.06 is only 100 bucks cheaper. no big saving there

Kona.....3.06 P4 in Oz is $705 AUS.....NOT US..... 490 USD, or 210 bucks cheaper.

I know it was not US dollars you were speaking of.

Here at my local electronics store the 3.20 Ghz P4 goes for $$$

http://shop4.outpost.com/product/3682175

I know it is not the 3.06 but that's not much cheaper either.

You can buy a complete system for the price of $490 - LOOK-

http://shop4.outpost.com/product/3797006

Well each to his own but I would have got a whole system and saved some $$

Oh well... back to the drawing board!

Kona...before inserting foot you'd have to remove the one there already first....

Thompsons Computer Warehouse Online
http://www.tcwo.com

INTEL Pentium 4
Product Name Summary Price
Pentium4 1.7 256k Retail Box 3 Yr Manuf. Warr. $127.00
Pentium4 1.8A 512k Retail Box 3 Yr Manuf. Warr. $129.00
Pentium4 2.0A 512k Retail Box 3 Yr Manuf. Warr. $151.00
Pentium4 2.2A 512k Retail Box 3 Yr Manuf. Warr. $204.00
Pentium4 2.4A 512k Retail Box 3 Yr Manuf. Warr. $173.00
Pentium4 2.4B 512k 533FSB Retail 3 Year Manuf. Warranty! $166.00
Pentium4 2.4C 512k 800FSB HT Retail 3 Year Manuf. Warranty $189.00
Pentium4 2.53B 512k 533FSB Retail 3 Yr Manuf. Warr. $198.00
Pentium4 2.66B 512k 533FSB Retail 3 Yr Manuf. Warr. $206.00
Pentium4 2.6C 512k 800FSB HT Retail 3 Year Manuf. Warranty $223.00
Pentium4 2.8B 512k 533FSB Retail 3 Yr Manuf. Warr. $262.00
Pentium4 2. 512k 800FSB HT Retail 3 Year Manuf. Warranty $279.00
Pentium4 3.06B 512k 533FSB HT Retail 3 Yr Manuf. Warr. $382.00
Pentium4 3.0C 512k 800FSB HT Retail 3 Year Manuf. Warranty $407.00
Pentium4 3.2 512k 800FSB HT Retail 3 Year Manuf. Warranty $614.00


Intel D865PERLK w/ Pentium4
Product Name Summary Price
INTEL D865PERLK DDR MB/1.8AGHZ P4 3 Year Manuf Warranty! $283.00
INTEL D865PERLK DDR MB/2.0GHZ P4 3 Year Manuf Warranty! $305.00
INTEL D865PERLK DDR MB/2.2GHZ P4 3 Year Manuf Warranty! $358.00
INTEL D865PERLK DDR MB/2.4BGHZ P4 3 Year Manuf Warranty! $320.00
INTEL D865PERLK DDR MB/2.4CGHZ P4 3 Year Manuf Warranty! $343.00
INTEL D865PERLK DDR MB/2.4GHZ P4 3 Year Manuf Warranty! $327.00
INTEL D865PERLK DDR MB/2.53GHZ P4 3 Year Manuf Warranty! $352.00
INTEL D865PERLK DDR MB/2.66GHZ P4 3 Year Manuf Warranty! $360.00
INTEL D865PERLK DDR MB/2.6CGHZ P4 3 Year Manuf Warranty! $377.00
INTEL D865PERLK DDR MB/2.8CGHZ P4 3 Year Manuf Warranty! $433.00
INTEL D865PERLK DDR MB/2.8GHZ P4 3 Year Manuf Warranty! $416.00
INTEL D865PERLK DDR MB/3.06GHZ P4 3 Year Manuf Warranty! $536.00
INTEL D865PERLK DDR MB/3.0CGHZ P4 3 Year Manuf Warranty! $561.00
INTEL D865PERLK DDR MB/3.2CGHZ P4 3 Year Manuf Warranty! $768.00

Might look here, service on RMA's is easy and not a hitch, but it is also some place to
look over pricing for compairing and such...

I think somehow you all missed the title of this thread. All these USD prices are irrellevant and off topic!

So PC World http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0387446443.1066901720@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccgadcjjiljhjjcflgceggdhhmdfif.0 may not be the cheapest place, but the one I have has worked flawlessly for a year plus I can take it back if it does go wrong. One tip to remember is all the kit on display can be bought base unit only - you just have to ask.

I'd rather sacrifice a (negligible) amount of speed for reliability. You get what you pay for...

feline is going to think about this a bit

first, to try and side step some of the more energetic suggestions, i am not going to buy anything cutting edge, it is simply to expensive.

it seems that one of the key things to do with 1 gig or more of ram is to make a ram disk. interesting point, so i will leave off extra ram for the moment, and simply make sure i can add more once i have a working machine.

re quality of components, where i work sell computers, but i am not sure i trust the quality of the components. once burnt, twice shy. on one memorable occasion they had a load of cheep ram, and most of the company brought some. a couple of months later, and a LOT of machine crashes later, over half of the ram had been returned! nearly everyone had at least one bad stick. an extreme, but not unheard of event

so, i am very loath to buy a machine from work, even with the staff discount. i prefer to pay more for better quality.

AMD vs INTEL, i have NO strong opinion, and am not about to be converted to either side i have had both over the years, and the last 3 CPU's have been AMD simply due to price. ignoring the current **** main machine (no one knows the problem, so blaiming the CPU doesnt help anyone), AMD have been fine for me.

buying online, i tend to be cautious when spending many hundreds of pounds, and prefer a shop i can go and shout at in an emergency

Voodoo_FreaK - here's good choices of Full systems. I shop here quite alot and really recommend their stuff such a big range.

a few people at work have also recormended overclockers.co.uk , so i will check them out for a price comparison, thanks

at the moment, i will probably just buy something at PC World IF i can find something close enough to my needs at an ok price. not a very exciting solution, but i have had more than enough hardware excitement with the current machine

feline plops down
after a LONG and rather epic day, i have a new computer!

it took a while to replace winXP Home with winXP pro, and now i am hunting for drivers, etc.

more news when i have had time to work out what food is

Hope this one works much better for you

I see you edited your post...hehehe
[Message Edited]