[Dave Canon]

My PC is now almost 6 years old and though I have upgraded it, I think it is about time to buy a new PC. I do not wish to initiate a PC v Mac debate. I would like a Mac but but need PC compatability for a number of reasons so will definitely stick with a PC. I am looking for recomendations/advice in respect of PC's.

Any recommendations of where I should buy it and models/configuration?

Should I buy duel-core or quad-core?
Vista or stick with XP?
Blue Ray drive?
4 G bytes RAM?
What graphics card (I do not normally play games)?

My main uses are:-

Photoshop CS3, Elements 5, Painter, Pictures to exe, Microsoft Office 2007, Quicken 2002 etc.

My main concern is that if I choose Vista, I may not be able to transfer files accross my home network; all of the other computers on the network use XP. I am particularly concerned that Quicken 2002 may not run on Vista. I am prepared to upgrade quicken to 2008 except that Quicken no longer sell or suport this product in the UK.

[Dave]

I know Steve spent a lot of time looking at PC specs. You may find this of use :- So I finally got my new pc built...

[silkstone]

Right at the moment I'd go for dual-core, 2GB or 3GB (32-bit won't address more), XP Pro (32-bit), a decent but not top-of-the-range nVidia card, a combi drive, maybe Blu-Ray, masses of USB ports, maybe a card reader, and a reliable power supply (e.g. Seasonic).

I don't think it's worth going for anything more. Whatever you get will be obsolete in six months, and if it's not a gaming machine that should be more than sufficient.

There are problems with 64-bit - drivers etc - so I'd leave it alone. Vista may sometime become as good as XP, but right now its additional features are offset by resource demands, DRM and (allegedly) glitches in video playback. If you're happy with XP, there's no good reason to change.

Just my 2p as always.

[spacepacker]

I agree with Silkstone, stay with XP; avoid Vista if you can!.

[Dave Canon]

Thanks for the advice so far. A question though. I had the impression that Blu-Ray Optical drives were only supported by Vista (at leat I read this on the Dell site). Is this not true?

Dave

[stupot]

Just upgraded mine Dave and echo what silky said about Ram bought 4GB but system only recognises 3.25GB. I went for Quad core phenom and runs like a dream however read some reviews on benchmarking had some of the higher spec dual core intel processors running faster but at a £160 for my CPU i am very happy. Finally went for Vista and i like it, i've installed all of my own programs with no problems and the existing hardware all had upgrades available as for being a resource hungry OS i have a CPU and RAM monitor running and it isn't that hungry, and my system is coping very well. At this precise moment i'm online, running a virus scan, Limewire running and mail inbox open and Small Vista 'gadget' utilities running on my desktop and i'm using 1.4GB and fluctuating between 20-30% of processor power.

[Dave Canon]

Stuart, thanks for that. According to Epson even my old 1270 printer is now supported by Vista and I found a guy who has successfully run Quicken 2002 on Vista. I am gradually coming round to going for Vista. More recent comments like your own suggest that things are not as bad as they were. Thanks for the help.

Dave

[Dave]

I know some people slam Dell, but I've had my system for last 2 years & not a problem with it. I found the price to be very competitive at the time & found the PC case to be an excellent design in terms of accessability to components & quick release clamps to remove / change items.

Re Duo vs Quad CPU, I would say unless oyu are running applications that can make full use of the Quad, a similar priced Duo seems to make more sense in terms of faster speeds.

Memory, as it's so cheap then 4GB seems worthwile ... never know the 3.2GB limit may come off in future ?

Blueray ... not sure of prices for h/w & media, but I would say with hard disks being so cheap , I would have extra disks for backup & consider sticking to Dual Layer DVD's.

Dual DVI from graphics card would be worthwile, in case you want to run 2 monitors at some point.

Just my 2p worth.

[Dave Canon]

Thanks, Dave. I will probably order the new PC next week and almost certainly from Dell. According to Which? only Apple and Sony are more reliable. Dell do seem to be offering good prices. You will not get above the 4 Gbyte RAM without moving to a 64 bit machine. Anyway, I tend to agree that, although you only get 0.25Gbyte extra usable memory in most cases it is not much more to buy a 4G rather than 3G.

I am still not sure about Blue Ray, I will get a DVD anyway and may think about adding Blue Ray later when it is much cheaper.

[Sonsey]

I did a self build with a Quad core, 4gig of ram and Vista 64bit and despite a couple of drivers being a bit late in coming I cant say I've had an issue, it's been very stable and very fast. With Vista service pack 1 arriving in a month or two I would reccommend it as long as the 64 bit drivers are available for everything you need

[Dave Canon]

Is there a quick way of finding out if all the drivers I need are available for Vista. I tried running the Vista Upgrade Advisor but it will not run on my current Machine.

Dave

[Sonsey]

Sorry but the only way I know of is to visit the sites of the software developers, which ain't exactly quick!