BlameThePixel!

give us a taster of the specs then

I fear for people who buy computers as a package. They get ripped off way too much compared to what they could get for same price if they built their own.

erm Specs...
Celeron Processor
40 GB for the Hard Drive
Five hundred something RAM

and lot's of buttseckz

(The rest is regular stuff)

Erm... if you're getting a packaged deal, it usually doesn't cost much to upgrade the hard drive from 40 GB to 80 GB (for Dell computers, it only costs $20 extra). Just commenting on that...
And I believe it would be 512 MB of RAM.

I was supposed to get a free upgrade to 80 GB, but then my dad forgot to put that in :X

package deals are gerneally cheaper - especially from dell. This disadvantage is that you dont get to pick exactly what you need.

always thought it was cheaper generally to buy them in parts, don't have to pay for labour on building them - but not sure really.

Zogger!$1is getting a new comp (in parts, to be built by me), including:

Athlon XP 2600+ (333FSB)
512MB RAM
Asus Radeon 9600SE 128MB (w/ DVI out)
120GB hard drive w/ 8MB Buffer (don't need all that space, but meh, lol)
Acer AL1721HM 17" TFT (DVI)
52-32-52x CD-RW w/ 16x DVD drive

as well as XP home

for £681. As always the monitor is the most expensive thing, was about £230

£94 of that is tax tho. grr.

Abd, shame its a celly. A p4 would be a massive improvement.

zog. I assume its for uni, but a word of warning is that the silent edition cards are twat.

But if you aint playing any games bar worms. it wont be trouble.

Apart from that, nice machine. The Screen is nice.
Shove it an pretty case now

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the home built ones are generally a few quid more expensive, but then if you want an upgrade beyond RAM. you arent hindered by a manufacturer specific board and cheap low wattage psu. + you recieve so much experice in building the computer, you wont get ripped off on repars no more.

IT really is surprising how well computers fit together, not complex at all.

the graphics card was pretty cheap, true it's not as good as the 9800s, but it's gotta be better than the 9000 in this comp

and the case. lol I don't want my case to look nice I just want everything to fit. Can't afford to go round buying expensive cases.

noooooooooo dont get XP home, it sucks, you can get an licenced OEM edition of Pro for £100 anyway.

I'm getting a licensed OEM home edition for £65.

There really isn't much diff, methinks. We're using XP pro (licensed, but bought on eBay) on this comp which cost about the same as the one I'm getting, but it takes too long for that really...

Looking at the list of differences on http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_home_pro.asp
there's really nothing on there that I care about, and is worth that extra money.

if ur already using XP pro cant you just install that?

And the advanced networking and file access permissions are a big bonus, i hate not being able to set proper permissions in home edition, but cant bring myself to upgrade.

Yeah, ReadMe. Microsoft was just idiotic to do such shit to XP Home Edition. I'm using Professional though.

Windows 98 sucks

well no, it's a single computer license...

I don't need the features you're talking about readme, not atm, it's not worth an extra £40. (actually it was only £58 for home).

The stupid thing is that ME OEM is more expensive than XP Home OEM, it really shouldn't be sold for anything more than £5...

true about the gfx there zog. But you dont need an over the top case for it to look good, the chieftec dragons are awsome cases, and arnt expensive.

The case i use was around 30 pounds, inc a 400w PSU. And its not a case of weather everytihng will fit, its wether it will fit and be neat in my case : / windows ar nice, but my wiring took ages and it needs re-worked for all these lights.