talkmagic.co.uk

Seeing as about 3 years ago you guys were great at advising on a lap top, can you please advise on a desk top.

If you had up to £700 to spend on a desk top (just the unit is fine as I have a TV I can use as a monitor) what would you spend it on and why?

I'd like to do video and photo editing, and the usual stuff, I know I likely don't need to spend that much but can go up to that amount but don't mind cheaper. Things like a memory SD card reader will be required.

I know nothing about computers but I would like to last 3 to 4 years so don't mind investing now.

Thank you

For photo and video editing, you'll need as much RAM as you can get, and lots of storage space -- consider an external hard drive for archiving. You really should get a better monitor than a TV as well, since you'll be squinting at pixels all the time.

Don't bother about a built-in card reader. Just make sure you have at least two USB slots that you can access easily, and get a USB card reader. I've got "stick" ones that work perfectly well -- basically put a card in and then treat it as a USB memory stick -- and these are very cheap. In fact, I got mine as freebies.

Speaking entirely for myself, my first stop for shopping around would be Morgan Computers. They sell surplus, end-of-line, and refurbished computers. Their stock changes all the time, but if they have what you need, you can get a lot more computer for your money. The budget you mentioned should get you a high-powered desktop model plus a good monitor.

Yup. Whatever you want to do, get the biggest, fastest one with the most of everything.

The HP Z800's nice...

....custom spec, so fill it with as much RAM as possible (if you're doing video editing you'll want a decent video card too)
....not sure on price though

If it was me, I would build it myself from the components and put Linux on it, but I know that not everyone wants that, or is able to do that.

Jing wrote:If it was me, I would build it myself from the components and put Linux on it, but I know that not everyone wants that, or is able to do that.

I built one in 2001 from new parts in about an hour and put Red Hat on it. It's still sat under my desk humming away as a file server (running Ubuntu). It's the machine on which I wrote all the analysis code for my priming stuff. Lovely machine.

Find/save/conjure up another £300 and get an iMac...

I could find the rest of the money but surely I don't need to spend a grand
Cheers for the help guys, I was kinda hoping people could point me at some links to these things as I have no idea what I'm doing clearly

The man speaketh the truth!! you dont need to spend a grand to get a Mac, we have one of these.

http://www.apple.com/uk/macmini/" target="_blank

With stuff like iCloud and automated backups, you will never need to lose a file again.

If you havent used one before, you can go instore for a full demo and they can give you training if you buy one, but they are very easy and nowadays not too different from a windaz PC.

I used to scoff at people who bought Mac's as I always used to use windows PC's, I soon learned how to dissect them, install memory or new pci cards for this that and the other. I became accustomed to installing drivers for every peripheral that was plugged into it and having to re-install windows after the bi-annual b.s.o.d. but I bought my first macbook in 2006 and never looked back. I now have a macbook for one business, an iMac for the other and a macbook pro for personal use (when I get the time).

They work straight out of the box. You can plug anything in to them and well, they just work. They very rarely get viruses or crash and they are so intuitive with trackpad and mouse gestures. And the 21.5" screen on the most basic iMac is beautiful and ideal for design, photo or video work.

The Mac comes with some great bundled software too.

Well I had like 2 computers before I built my current one for roughly around 900 or so dollars.

Though for me I pretty much built it for College AND near high end gaming.

One of my friends built a top spec computer for around £700, with specs better than that of a £900+ one.

+1 for a Macmini

And if you want to start editing video, the iLife suite is great. iMovie is good for beginners. Then you will want to upgrade to final cut when you get better.

I think desktops are on their way out. Companies such as HP are pulling out of that market.
The future seems to be tablet or laptop these days.
Unless you need a shared network server, you may find that a high spec laptop is all you need.
Try looking at docking stations. A docking station sits on your desk and is permanently connected to a good screen, keyboard, etc. Just slot your laptop into it and you have a system as good as any desktop. Also you have the portability of a laptop when you are not your desk so best of both worlds.

It's all very well building your own PC if that is for you and you know what you are doing but even then it's whether you can be bothered.

I can and have built desktops from the ground up, I have run everything from NetBSD to Minix (ahhh Minix where is that floppy?).

A few years ago I bought a £400 PC from Comet that was on sale. Yes I could have built something much better for less, yes it runs Vista and no it doesn't have the vogue of owning a MAC or the geek-cred of running a nix platform - It does however do everything I need it to do and was quicker and more convenient than buying the parts and building it myself.

If you know little about computers and do not have a good friend to fix it when it breaks down, I would just buy something reasonably priced from Comet or similar in sale, alternatively try a local computer store as they will sometimes be able to offer a better deal and should help if anything does go wrong. Try not to be misled by flashing lights and shiny doo-dahs, as already said lots of RAM and lots of HDD space (RAM is where the active processes have room to work so for high quality pictures, essential, HDD space is the storage, a raw 10mp file will average about 25mb or in English about 40 x 10mp pictures for every GB of hard disc space).

One techy bit I possibly would consider is an external hard drive caddy so you can back things up. I personally work on the basis that I would rather have two hard drives than a single, larger hard drive, for the same price as then I can back up twice, internal hard drives are generally cheaper than external drives as they have less bits. If you baulk at the idea of this then look at external drives but use the same principle, two smaller for the same price as one larger. Oh and always double check your back up before you delete the master copy.

Monitor and video card could be important for working with graphics but be careful not to buy a gaming machine as the spec is not optimized for photographs and your money may be spent on aspects you will never need. If you do opt to buy from a chain store, make sure you have a very clear idea of what you want before you go in and try to stick to that as the sales "adviser" may well sideline you in to something you did not really need or want.

Purely personal preference but I dislike MAC's, although many people I know who used to do lots of graphics work swears by them, I believe the playing field has levelled somewhat over the past few years though especially when you factor in price.