[alex]

Originally Posted by tomc_020

Alex, it now turns out I need a monitor, keyboard + mouse too. :o:) This is becuase all of the computer I'm using at the moment is now going to be used somewhere else in the house.

The computer will be ordered quite soon. pcspecialist.co.uk have 19" normal and widescreen monitors for about the same price - do you recommend either one for my purposes? My option from wired2fired.co.uk is the Viewsonic VA903M, the others are too costly.

Can you also recommend a mouse/keyboard combo that should do a fine job, since they vary in price so much? I'd prefer not to spend a fortune on these things.

Can I also ask, why would you go for the pcspecialist system, apart from the cheaper price, as you mentioned in an earlier post?

Thanks again

If it was me i'd be going for the widescreen format monitor, it's basically the same resolution as a standard 4:3 ratio monitor (1280x1024) except the pixels are obviously set out in widescreen (1440x900). Better for viewing films at any rate.

I personally don't have much experience with Viewsonic's screens, but the one I had (a couple of years ago to be fair) wasn't all that inspiring, lots of smearing.

G'awd, there's a plethora of mouse/keyboard combo's out there at the mo, I wouldn't know where to start for a suggestion. Whats important to you with regards to these two? lots of typing? gaming? just to help me narrow the field down. But for a quick answer Logitech stuff is generally good.

I'd recommended pcspecialist because of the pricing, and the service is right up there with the best of them (they even invite feedback from customers to be placed on the site, also with email addresses of those people so you can contact them yourself, something I did prior to purchase, and they only had good things to say). Their cases aren't much to write home about from an aesthetic point of view, but you can't argue with the quality of build.

[tomc_020]

Hi alex. From browsing Amazon etc I think I have found a good monitor / mouse / keyboard for me.

Could you check this for me, it's a spec from Power Computing

CoolerMaster Elite 330 Black and Silver Midi Tower Case

• front panel with 2x USB ports, earphone and mic ports
• 600W Watt Power Supply
• 120mm rear fan
• Dimensions 480x 202x 435 mm

ASUS P5N-E SLI Socket 775 Motherboard

• Chipset: NVIDIA nForce® 650i SLI
• 4x DIMM sockets support up to 8GB DDR2 800/667/533, Dual Channel Architecture
• Front Side Bus 1333/1066/800/533MHz (1333 available when CPUs running at 1333 are ready)
• Integrated 6-ch Audio
• Gb LAN (10/100/1000)
• 6x USB 2.0 ports and 1x Firewire
• 2x IDE ATA-133 connectors
• 4x SATA2 (3Gb/s) connectors (Support RAID0, 1, 0+1, 5, and JBOD)
• 2x PCI Express slots for Graphics cards (Single VGA mode: x16 or SLI mode: x8, x8)
• 2x PCI Express x1, 2x PCI slots
• 1 x Parallel; 2x PS/2 ports for Mouse and Keyboard; 1x External SATA

Intel Core2 Duo E6320 Processor Dual Core (1.86GHz and 4MB L2 cache)
Kingston 2GB (2x 1GB) DDR2 667 PC2-5300 240-pin
250GB SATAII Hard Drive
NVidia GeForce 8600GT 256MB DDR3 Dual DVI
Samsung SH-S182 18x DVDRW MultiFormat LightScribe Black with Nero 6 and PowerDVD
2-year Parts and Labour warranty (Hardware only - Return To Base - free collect and return)

http://www.powerc.com/ps/code=998-66...1817062-1596//

How does it compare with the other companies? eg. the graphics card. There seem to be some benefits with buying from them, like a good warranty included and fast delivery.

[alex]

Originally Posted by tomc_020

Hi alex. From browsing Amazon etc I think I have found a good monitor / mouse / keyboard for me.

Could you check this for me, it's a spec from Power Computing

CoolerMaster Elite 330 Black and Silver Midi Tower Case

• front panel with 2x USB ports, earphone and mic ports
• 600W Watt Power Supply
• 120mm rear fan
• Dimensions 480x 202x 435 mm

ASUS P5N-E SLI Socket 775 Motherboard

• Chipset: NVIDIA nForce® 650i SLI
• 4x DIMM sockets support up to 8GB DDR2 800/667/533, Dual Channel Architecture
• Front Side Bus 1333/1066/800/533MHz (1333 available when CPUs running at 1333 are ready)
• Integrated 6-ch Audio
• Gb LAN (10/100/1000)
• 6x USB 2.0 ports and 1x Firewire
• 2x IDE ATA-133 connectors
• 4x SATA2 (3Gb/s) connectors (Support RAID0, 1, 0+1, 5, and JBOD)
• 2x PCI Express slots for Graphics cards (Single VGA mode: x16 or SLI mode: x8, x8)
• 2x PCI Express x1, 2x PCI slots
• 1 x Parallel; 2x PS/2 ports for Mouse and Keyboard; 1x External SATA

Intel Core2 Duo E6320 Processor Dual Core (1.86GHz and 4MB L2 cache)
Kingston 2GB (2x 1GB) DDR2 667 PC2-5300 240-pin
250GB SATAII Hard Drive
NVidia GeForce 8600GT 256MB DDR3 Dual DVI
Samsung SH-S182 18x DVDRW MultiFormat LightScribe Black with Nero 6 and PowerDVD
2-year Parts and Labour warranty (Hardware only - Return To Base - free collect and return)

http://www.powerc.com/ps/code=998-66...1817062-1596//

How does it compare with the other companies? eg. the graphics card. There seem to be some benefits with buying from them, like a good warranty included and fast delivery.

Hey up fella.

Overall it's not bad, but it has a return to base warranty (meaning you'll incur any carriage charges should you need to return the pc, and this is also on the hardware only) so the warranty is lousy to be frank.

Component wise its ok, but the 8600gt will not give you anywhere near the gaming experience of some of the other pc's i've spec'd, although it is DX10 gaming ready. Think of a 8600gt as a 7600gt to get a measure.

But you do know that the 530.00 price quoted on the link you've provided is without an operating system don't you? Add 60-80 quid to include an o.s.

Powerc are pretty decent, service wise.

[tomc_020]

Ah yes, I may have missed that. Thanks