It's time to replace my Evesham PC and I am considering having one built by PC Specialist Ltd. However having just read some reviews on the dooyooCommunity, it seems that people either love or hate this company - with no shades of opinion in between! Does anyone have experience of using them?

Reviews on pcspecialist.co.uk Look at tests, reports and read reviews: dooyoo.co.uk

What sort of PC you after and whats your budget?

I had a loptop custom built by Kobalt Computers. Would recommend them to anyone. as ive had horror experiences from both Alienware and Rock.

They also monitor their forum and answer any questions that you have.

Rob

What about just building your own?

Far more fun and you can choose exactly what goes in there!

Phil

Brother in law bought a PC from them a couple of years back. He's had no problems. His PSU went the other month but thats just one of those things nothing to do with them.

I bought a PC from them 2 or 3 years ago and my mum got one 6 months later.

No problems at all. Not as cheap as a self build but very efficient.

Another vote for self-build here.

I priced up one from a known vendor - their own system and one i built myself using parts from them.

Self build was £200 cheaper.

it really is simply plugging bits together like Lego. As has been said above, you get the exact spec you want (almost to the point of being anally retentive.......or is that just me?)

Build your own. It's really not very hard at all.

But it's not the cheapest way.

I always used to build my own (I was a hardware engineer for many years), but when I wanted a straightforward, basic machine a few months ago I got a Dell from Tesco!

Phil

Why not get a bare bones system from Novatech and then add what you need

Barebone Systems : Computer Supplies and PC Components from Novatech

never had any problems with them in 10 years

No idea on that lot, but i tend to avoid the love/hate companies.

This lot are very good and used to do a base system where you could chose the parts they built into it. Not sure if they still do but well worth a look.

CCL Computers - Awarded Best Online Retailer 2008 for PC, PC Components, Laptops, Notebook, Computer Components, Intel Servers, Hard Drives, PC Memory

A vote for CCL here too.

My mum bought our first computer from them close to when they first started up.

They have grown in stock and popularity since then and the service is top notch!

Still would build my own though... wouldn't even give it a second thought... depends what you want from the system really.

Phil

Self-build is great if you know what you are doing and are prepared to spend more generally, especially when using legit software

I've built loads and loads of PCs myself of various sorts, from el-cheapo to super high spec including some servers. It is not that hard to do if you spend the time specifying it, and you can get exactly what you want.

Dont underestimate what you may be able to get from the big retailers these days though, often you can buy a cheap memory upgrade, or alternatively buy less from the retailer and buy the memory elsewhere instead.

Unless you want something quite specific (high end graphics and sound for example) then building your own is no longer cheaper than an off-the-shelf PC from Dell.

If you include the cost of an operating system you can't buy components as cheap as you'll get a full system from there. I used to build my own (and do them for friends) but it really isn't worth it anymore for most people.

The days where you could save a couple of hundred quid on a complete system are long gone.

What sort of budget did you have in mind.

I'm sure someone will be along to say you can do it cheaper if you re-use your old CD drive , monitor , case and so on , but that just leaves you with half a PC.

Much better to buy a complete new system and sell the old one as a working machine to offset the cost of a new one.

I could be doing Denis a disservice here , but he doesn't strike me as a gamer so a "standard" PC will more than meet his needs.

Have a look at www.dmxdimension.com for some good dell deals , especially the Vostro 220 or 420.

http://www.dmxdimension.com/dell-uk/vostro-deal-comparison/

Many thanks for all the useful advice. I've had some not so good experiences of buying PCs. A state of the art Dell XPS P200 some 12 years ago was utterly reliable but I can't afford their current gaming machines. A Panrix 8 years ago was problematic and the company went bust before the PC was fixed - taking my 3 year warranty with it. Most recently an Evesham has also been problematic - needing 2 new motherboards, new power supply, new memory, new graphics card (with an inferior one eventually being fitted because the original was no longer available) and, finally, 2 new HDs! That was a £2000 PC - and the third year of warranty died along with Evesham! With an AMD 3500+ and ATI X1800 card, it won't run COD World at War and I would prefer to pass it on to my daughter rather than try and upgrade it. SWMBO's £2000 Dell XPS M1710 laptop is just 2 years through its 4 year onsite warranty and has already had 2 new graphics cards plus an LCD screen - so opting for a extended cover has paid off.

This time around I am looking to spend not more than £1500 - inclusive of a decent 24" monitor - for a PC which will cope with latest games and be upgradeable as hardware come down in price. I would prefer XP Pro to Vista, then upgrade to Windows 7 when it is released. I haven't a clue about 32 bit and 64 bit OSs other than that the latter is needed to cope with more than 4 Gb (ish) memory, inclusive of graphic card memory. What I don't know is what problems I may have with current hardware devices and software I use. And which processor do I go for - AMD, Intel Core 2 Duo or Quad, or the i7? There is a bewildering choice out there. Each time I start customising a PC online, the price usually ends up above my budget - and sometimes without a monitor!

Not sure about that lot - I didn't trust myself to build my own from scratch and only needed certain bits as I transferred various items across from my old machine so finished up with Dino PC in the end. The machine has been fine so far and was delivered promptly - as were the two other machines I ended up buying from them...

Got a basket made up on Scan.co.uk and has come in under budget (£1300) with a 24" Sansung Monitor.

Intel i7 920

Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R Mobo

3GB Cosair XMS3 DDR3 memory

1TB Sansung F1 HDD

1GB GTX 285 OC GFX

And other bits (case, cpu cooler and some nice quiet fans).

No idea on that lot, but i tend to avoid the love/hate companies.

This lot are very good and used to do a base system where you could chose the parts they built into it. Not sure if they still do but well worth a look.

CCL Computers - Awarded Best Online Retailer 2008 for PC, PC Components, Laptops, Notebook, Computer Components, Intel Servers, Hard Drives, PC Memory

Thumbs up from me too, there warehouse is 5 mins down the road from SWMBO's mothers, and its open to the public. Spent far too much money in there.

Looks like they still do the you spec we build for you:

Custom Build Services from CCL - Awarded PC Pro Best Online Retailer of the Year 2008 for PC, PC Components, Laptops, Notebook, Computer Components, Intel Servers, Hard Drives, PC Memory

FWIW, the silly case if probably not to your (or my) taste, but this is a pretty good system and inside of your budget:

Buy CCL Professional Gamer PC - Core i7 920 (No Operating System Installed) CCLGAME6 from CCL - Online Retailer of the Year 2008, 2007 & 2006 for laptops, desktops and computer hardware