Advice On Pc Bits

[Purvesh]

My new PC should arrive in the next few days along with my new Broadband connection :D . But I need your help in finishing of my system…

I need to buy the following:

Printer (£150 to £250):

Either all-in-one or colour inkjet.

The one’s I’ve been recommended are; EPSON RX620, RX700

Speakers (up to £230):

I’ve got the creative audigy 2 ZS 7.1 soundcard, and want either a 5.1 or 7.1 system.

A couple of recommendations are Logitech Z-5500 digital 5.1 and Creative Gigaworks 7.1

TV Card (USB 2) (up to £100):

Must include free digital freeview etc.

A few recommendations are WINTV NOVA-T-USB 2 (£80), Avermedia TV Box 9 (£99) and Nebula.

Webcam (upto £90):

So far I’ve had a recommendation of Logitech Pro 4000

Wireless Router/Modem and cards:

I have no clue in this area and budget isn’t an issue here. But I’ve heard good things about Belkin Pre N?. I need a modem/router, 2 usb cards for my 2 desktops and a laptop card.

I’m looking to buy in the next couple of days so any help and advice on these items would be much appreciated. :winky:

[Rodders_UK]

I would always buy a HP printer - just my preference but I've never been disappointed with them. I have a HP PSC2500, which is colour printer, colour fax. copier and scanner and 100M ethernet all built in (USB 2 too) - been very happy with it.

I'm using a NetGear modem/router - which has been excellent - and has an onboard firewall.

If I was buying a souncard I'd buy Creative every time - they pretty much invented PC sound cards and you'll never have any compatibility problems if you use CL stuff.

HTH

(don't buy from PC World unless you're rich)

[Bazza]

i would recommend a canon printer, mines a pixma ip4000

superb quality and lots of nice features

ie: double sided printing, print direct on cd`s, two paper sources (change from photo paper to normal at the flick of a switch

and best of all probably the cheapest cartridges of all printers :D

just bought a all in one canon for the office, so far so good

[derekyau]

Easy Purvesh,

Printers, just bear in mind running costs vs quality... HP and Epson generally do best quality. Canon definately not bad either (mine's a Canon BJB-3000 - old, but still going!). Consider if the replacement cartridges are seperate ink tanks (for each colour, or one unit for all 3 colours - more expensive), and whether they have the actual print head built in (e.g. HP, more expensive, but at least you get a new print head each time), or if they're just the actual ink carts (e.g. Canon - cheaper to replace).

Speakers, just go to Richer Sounds (i'd personally just ignore the "PC specific" ones).

TV cards with digital there's not that much choice.

Web cams there are loads, cheap and expensive. Up to you really. Some have microphone built in, some can be used as a standalone digital camera.

Wireless modems, routers etc. is all pretty easy. PM me if you want some tips/help. No particular brands i've heard of have problems, but I personally use 3Com and have installed 3Com and Netgear makes for people.

A very good place to get your stuff from is Ebuyer

:winky:

D

[eXOBeX]

For speakers, buy a cheap amp and speaker setup from Richer Sounds, as Derek pointed out. When it comes to PC speakers, it doesn't matter whether it claims to put out 200 watts or 1,200 watts - PMPO figures are a load of bull. The RMS figure gives the true power of an amp.

£180 spent at Richer Sounds will get you a Yamaha RXV350 AV receiver that puts out 90W RMS per channel, plus a Yamaha NSP100 six-speaker package to go with it. The sub has its own 100W amp built-in, so you've got a total of 550 watts RMS to annoy the neighbours with!

Oh, don't forget to take out the Richer Sounds Supercare warranties, they're dirt cheap and you can cash them back in if you don't use them!

Even more info on the RXV350 here and the NSP100 here.

[stevenage_saint]

For printer go for cannon. Epson are the better printer, but you can not change your print head very easily and have to have the printer sent away to do that. Cannon pixma printers are some of the best on the market and do fall in to your budget.

Speakers, go with Logitec over the creative. They have a richer pure sound over the creative speakers.

The wirless router go with netgear, i know loads of people who have problems linksys, and Belkin products including me, most of them have not had any problems with netgear.

Hope that helps. If you want a search to source your bits, Aria, lowestonweb, Ebuyer, Komplett were some of the cheapest places when I built mine earlier this year.

[Purvesh]

Thanks for the tips and advice guys :) Definately some good help there..

Got a bit of thinking to do now, PC is coming tomm between 5 and 9pm, can't wait :D

[Parthiban]

Hey mate,

Some of the computer speakers are actually quite good, we have a Logitech 5.1 set, can't remember which one but its a few years old, and it has surprisingly good quality and power. Obviously won't compare to a proper audio system, but they work out to be quite a bit cheaper

With wireless routers, as the others said, think most of them are pretty good, had a buffalo one, now a netgear one, and both have been fine. Only reason for the change is that the netgear one is a WiMax one (is that the right name ) which provides much better coverage around the house.

What pc you getting? Is it custom or pre-built?

Just wanted to add, Epson printers are the best quality you're gonna get, but the HP ones are a great tradeoff between quality and speed (especially the all-in-ones)

Edited August 22, 2005 by Parthiban

[Niraj]

Purvs man, you forgot to tell them about the system that will be delivered!!!

Give us all the specs and watch everyones face turn green with envy (couldn't find a envy face but found that cat ) hehe

[Purvesh]

lol..Cheers dudes..

Here's the specs for your perusal:

Dell Dimension 9100

Intel P4 630 with HT 3 ghz, 2mb L2 cache 800mhz fsb

Xp home edition

1024mb dual channel ddr2 ram

750gb sata HD

20" wide aspect ultrasharp monitor

256 nVida geforce 6800 graphics

Creative soundblaster audigy 2 ZS 7.1

16x DVD +/- RW dual layer

48x CD-RW

Logitech Di Novo 2.0 Media Desktop (Bluetooth)

Floppy Drive and Media reader

All for the price of £1350 to my doorstep. :D

On the note of Routers, I was initially going to go for AOL BB -

but was told by PC World they are only compatible with Netgear hardware.

(Which they told me is no good, as it is having major hardware faults) - they've had many people complaining and returning the units.

In the end I've opted for Plusnet BB (activation date 27th Aug) which I'm going to

couple with a choice of router from your recommendations.

The printer choice is becoming a tough one!!

[Anees]

Thats one wicked pumped up PC you have!! 750Gb SATA HDD! I thought my 250Gb RAID was alot when I got it a few years back. :D Great graphics card too.! I prefer ATI Cards, but thats just me....

With Routers, I have always used and recommeneded Buffalo. A local networking firm I deal with for work also use and install Buffalo kit in all their jobs, unless they are doing big jobs (building to building links) where they go for CISCO. I have found Buffalo kit to be great once setup, but can be difficult to get setup right. The newer models are easier however.

Have you seen Bulldog Broadband? They are offering 8Mb Broadband + phone for £25 a month for 6 months and then £40 a month after that. Seems pretty good.

Printers, again I personally always prefer Epson over HP. You can get quality compatible cartridges for the Epson (JETTEC) that makes the total cost of ownership much lower then HP. The HP cartidges have the print head bult into them so compatible cartridges are not alot cheaper then the originals. If you plan on using the printer regularly then Epson is the way to go!

Lemark also make some nice printers, but the cartridges cost a fortune!

The Logitech Pro 4000 is a very nice webcam...I have the older version (Pro 3000) and its great.

Regarding speakers I am not an audiophile so others are problably better able to assist you here but I have found Creative labs 7.1 suround sound kits to be very good.

PS Did you get anywhere with the Sat Nav stuff?

[Jiberjaber]

T

With Routers, I have always used and recommeneded Buffalo. A local networking firm I deal with for work also use and install Buffalo kit in all their jobs, unless they are doing big jobs (building to building links) where they go for CISCO. I have found Buffalo kit to be great once setup, but can be difficult to get setup right. The newer models are easier however.

←

I'd go for Linksys every time... esp since they are now owned by Cisco ;)

[eXOBeX]

In the end I've opted for Plusnet BB (activation date 27th Aug) which I'm going to

couple with a choice of router from your recommendations.

←

Dammit, you could've put me down as a referrer, I'd get 50p off per month then!

[Purvesh]

Dammit, you could've put me down as a referrer, I'd get 50p off per month then!

←

Niraj beat you to it :P

Cheers for the info Anees; yea I got the tomtom go 500 in the end, cost me £400 from dixons duty free. I haven't installed it yet though, as I wanted to get my computer and BB sorted so I could make full use of the tomtom plus services. That way it would give me a better idea if I wanted to subscribe to it.

I did see Bulldog, but they don't cover my area yet... and for more reasons not to go Bulldog, speak to Ahmet...

I'll definately consider what you guys say about routers etc.

I went into Richer Sounds today, and they said the system eXOBeX suggested. Would sound better than the Logitech Z-5500 system and save me £50! I took their catalogue to have a whizz through. Can I add a mini deck to the amp, which plays mp3's/cd's radio etc? (i know I could just do it through my computer, but I can be lazy )

I owe a lot of the spec recommendations to Ahmet, he advised me well. There's a free plug for you mate...

[eXOBeX]

Can I add a mini deck to the amp, which plays mp3's/cd's radio etc? (i know I could just do it through my computer, but I can be lazy  )

←

Here's a picture of the arse-end of the amp. What do you think? :D

[Purvesh]

Woah... there's millions of holes!

I saw it in the flesh, it's a chunky piece of kit..

What do you think of the Sony STRK670 for the same price, I know it's down 15Watts per chan on the Sony, but anything else drastically different?

I also had my eye on the slim version which is Sony STRKSL500 which is £30 more, but looked very slick..

Choices choices...

[SteveL]

I went into Richer Sounds today, and they said the system eXOBeX suggested. Would sound better than the Logitech Z-5500 system and save me £50! I took their catalogue to have a whizz through.

←

Purvesh, have you tried peter tyson online, you can get the next amp up in the series (357 rather than 350) plus the speakers for £170 plus delivery, which i think is about £8.50. They actually have it down as the AV57 package. Its the same as the picture but without the dvd player :)

Also, dabs.com has some good prices too for computer bits

Edited August 23, 2005 by SteveL

[Hando]

I'd go for Linksys every time... esp since they are now owned by Cisco ;)

←

From my personal experience avoid the Linksys WAG54G (all-in-one router/DSL modem/wireless thingy) - it has fundamental flaws and they never released it stateside so it gets f-all support.

h

[eXOBeX]

What do you think of the Sony STRK670 for the same price, I know it's down 15Watts per chan on the Sony, but anything else drastically different?

I also had my eye on the slim version which is Sony STRKSL500 which is £30 more, but looked very slick..

←

Was talking to a guy who worked for Sony the other day, he said he never buys Sony, and he'd even get staff discount!

They seem to be all about looks and style, nothing about performance and reliability these days. Their Digiboxes are stylish but slow, their games consoles are stylish but burn out their drives due to poor design, their TVs are stylish but when they break down it's cheaper to buy new. Do I need to go on?

[Brettster]

I agree with you about the sony stuff being pap, I used to deal with alot of sony products, most of them would fail and i was surprised as how much of the sony products are not even made by sony, plasma's and LCD's are made by Samsung or LG, the cheaper end of their DVD players/ Recorders are made by LG/ Samsung etc. the only exception is Sony Products that are made in Japan they still retain the original Sony Quality.

[Purvesh]

Thanks guys for the info... I'm getting closer to making some decisions!

From what you said I'll be ignoring the Sony option for sure.

Got my PC yesterday morning :D and what a beast it is..

Just waiting for Saturday for my line to be activated.

You guys have helped me a lot so far, any recommendations on the TV card?

Thanks...

[Hando]

(Again from personal experience) I'd say avoid Avermedia cards.

Other than that can't offer a firm recommendation.

This link might help? Some reviews there.

h

[Niraj]

hey now, i'd disagree with any Sony stuff being crap.

i like stylish things. but come on, sony are as reliable as all japanese things are. :D

who likes the sony x-black lcd screens?

how about the vaio laptops?

yes they're expensive... but you have to admit it... they're good!

[ColinBarber]

Most Sony things I've owned have had problems. Vaio laptops - the newer ones are ok but still have issues, older ones were rubbish.

[Bobski]

I'm using Belkin Pre N as i type and it works really well.

I wanted the better coverage and value so looked at them all Netgear, linksys etc...

also considered security.

The Belkin dealt with all these and was the best value.

Look at buying from dabs.com, or ebuyer.co.uk.

As for printer, stick with HP or Canon.