Tag Archives: pc

My new homebuilt PC – is it worth it?

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Well, after many months of wanting to do it, I have finally built myself my own computer. It was great fun – for a tech nerd like me – and it also saved me a lot of money!

Here’s what I bought myself:

  • An AMD Entry Level Barebones PC kit costing £140 – that includes the case, motherboard, a dual core AMD processor and 2GB RAM
  • A 512MB Gigabyte HD4550 graphics card costing about £35
  • A 250GB hard drive costing about £25
  • A DVDRW drive costing £18
  • A 19″ LG monitor costing £92
  • A Microsoft wireless keyboard and mouse set costing £17

That was it. If my calculations are right that comes to £327 and in my opinion that is a bargain. I’ve got a really good spec PC and a nice monitor and keyboard/mouse set to go with it. Perfect!

It does go to show how much cheaper it can be to go for the build your own PC option. It is much cheaper so is perfect if you’re on a tight budget, plus it can be really good fun if you enjoy working with computers.

I wouldn’t recommend this way of getting your hands on a nice new PC if you consider yourself a novice with computers. You do have to be careful – put the wrong component in the wrong place and you’ll be adding costs for replacements. Also, make absolutely sure that you have some sort of anti-static kit for your hands. Static electricity and internal computer components do not mix!

If you like a challenge and have a few hundred pounds to spare give this a go! You might be really pleased you bothered!

    USB 3.0 to be shipping with PCs by end of year!

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    It’s good to know that USB 3.0 is expected to start arriving on PCs and laptops from the end of this year.

    The new Superspeed USB means that transfer speeds will rise from 480mbps to a whopping 5gbps. That means that if you are constantly transferring big files to USB drives, you’re in luck.

    It’s being predicted that the new USB format will start shipping towards the end of the year, with it being available in a few high-end PCs. From 2010, it’s expected that about 26 million PCs will ship with USB 3.0. And by 2012, it’s expected that the number of PCs with USB 3.0 will be way over 300 million.

    I’m very excited by the news, but it does mean that my laptop and PC will probably need upgrading. I can probably just upgrade the motherboard in the PC, but in the laptop it will be a bit more difficult. In addition, all of my USB 2.0 devices will seem horribly slow after USB 3.0 arrives.

    Ah well, no worries for now. But you know, it’s a bit of a pain when you have so many outdated USB devices that transfer really slowly. Never mind.

    Rumour: Windows 7 Free Upgrade Program starting 26th June?

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    There’s a little rumour going around the internet at the moment.

    If you remember, when the launch of Windows Vista was approaching, Microsoft did a ‘Free Upgrade’ program, meaning that users who bought a PC with Windows XP Media Center 2005 from a certain date (I think that was the case – maybe it was all versions of XP… I can’t remember) would get a free express upgrade to Windows Vista when it was launched.

    Well, it would appear that Microsoft are taking this approach again, but for Windows 7. So, if the rumour is true, if you buy a Windows Vista PC (Home Premium, Business or Ultimate I think) anywhere from June 26th and October 22nd (Windows 7 launch date), you’ll get a free upgrade to Windows 7.

    So if you are thinking of buying a new PC or laptop, hold off a couple of weeks and wait for the campaign to start.

    Here’s another little rumour going round too: As well as Windows Vista preinstalled machines having a free upgrade to Windows 7, it would appear that Microsoft is planning to start the Upgrade Program on boxed versions of Windows Vista too. So if you buy a separate copy of Windows Vista Home Premium, Business or Ultimate, the chances are you’ll get a free upgrade to Windows 7 too.

    Bare in mind this is all rumours – Microsoft still hasn’t confirmed what is happening with the Upgrade Program this time round as yet, so we’ll have to wait and see if the rumours are true.

    PC sales to fall in 2009… except for netbooks.

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    Gartner has today announced that PC sales are set to fall across 2009 by 11.9% (per cent) to around 257 million units. The company has said that this is going to be “the sharpest decline in history”.

    According to Gartner, the PC industry is facing extraordinary conditions due to the economic downturn. When it seemed as if PC and notebook sales were increasing rapidly in 2008, we are beginning to see how the credit crunch is affecting the PC industry.

    However, Gartner have also said that they are expecting an increase in the sales of laptops and notebook – more specifically the new mini-laptops or netbooks. 

    So we’ll have to see what happens to sales over the course of this year, but it looks like many brands could be in trouble. I would like to hope that the rush of new technology might help ease the pain of the economic downturn on computing, but we’ll have to see what knock-on effect the downturn has this year.

    Update on the Freecom Network Drive

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    Well after an almost unbelievable 2 months and 3 contact attempts I finally have a return slip.

    I contacted them for a third time today using their online returns form and to double check I rung them up after I’d sent the RMA request to be 100% sure they got it.

    Finally, late aternoon yesterday, I got a response via email. They have finally sent me the return slip. After 2 months of contact attempts!

    Anyhow, I checked the RMA to make sure its all correct. All good. Sadly, the terms and conditions weren’t so excititng. Firstly, I only have 14 days to get the ruddy thing to them or the request is void and I wont get a replacement. Kinda sad? But worst of all, I have to pay postage to get it to them! They refuse to pay the postage and packaging to get it to them so I had to pay £10 to get it over to them first class. 

    So I’m still not really happy, but we’ll see what happens when the drive gets to them. I’ll be off to the Post Office today to send it over there.