Hi,
I have an aging desktop that is starting to fail, HDD(IDE) and Memory. The windows install is corrupted in someway which won't allow me to do updates.

So the question is do I buy a cheap box http://www.ebuyer.com/251310-extra-value-desktop-7873-1036

or do I spend some more (£500?) to get a bit more longevity out of it? what is suggested?

It totally depends what you expect from it.

Unless you play games, it'll be fine and last a few years. I can vouch for the decent enough quality of those cheap Zoostorm machines because we have a few at work. I chose the i3 model with 6GB ram and Windows 7 pre-installed for the most recent office machines (including mine which runs a dual monitor setup from the on-board graphics), but we have one pretty much that spec we got a couple of years ago for a similar price and it's fine with XP.

If you do play games, then it's probably best to pick a graphics card first and go from there.

I would like to play games, but none of the current will run on my current pc.

what spec would I be looking at for a machine to play games on?

I'm the wrong person to answer that question in detail because I'm really not much of a gamer, but cheap PCs come with on-board graphics which will struggle with anything modern and their PSUs probably wont cope well if you add a powerful graphics card. My i3 at work will only manage 5 frames per second in Minecraft, which is hardly a graphically intensive game!

What monitor do you have? The resolution is important when deciding how much GFX power you really need.

I have an old 17" philips non HD monitor - so would probably need a new monitor at some point in the near future if I go for a 'good' machine.

It does depend what you can canibalise from your own machine. If all you need is the core upgraded (CPU, Memory, Motherboard, GPU) then £500 is fine. If you need to do the whole lot for £500 then it becomes a bit more challenging.

Edit: Noticed you have HDD issues, unfortunately due to events in Thailand, prices have just shot up, that's going to make this rather more difficult. 1TB drives are currently about £100, 750GB is about £60.

If you can reuse your current case, PSU and ODD and OS license, then I'd suggest the following:

i5 2500K - £170
Asus P67 Pro - £110
8GB DDR3 Corsair Memory - £40
750GB HDD - £60
GTX 550Ti GPU - £105

That comes in at just under £500.

I guess 'everything' could be canabalised, don't know what the psu is rated at though..

The Bit-Tech affordable all-rounder is £500 http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buyers ... ber-2011/2

I'll have a look when I get chance to see what can be knocked up. It might help if you can post your current spec to see what can be salvaged too.

what sort of info do you need,I'm at work so may struggle a little.

have keyboard, mouse, 17" non HD or wide monitor...

I was thinking along the lines of are the PSU and case reusable, etc.

I've just noticed too that HDD prices seem to have gone through the bloody roof!

case & psu should be fine I think. I know what you mean about the HDD prices...

Yeah, it's a knock on effect from the flooding in Thailand apparently, as that's where the vast majority of all HDDs are manufactured. If memory serves the Seagate factory there had about foot or so of water in it.

I know AMD haven't been particularly popular recently especially when compared to the i5/i7 range but for gaming you could go for:-

Phenom II X6 1100T
Patriot 8GB DDR3
Asus M5A97 --- all three items a £267 bundle from eBuyer
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB --- £95 from Overclockers
ATi 6870 1GB --- £130 from eBuyer

£492

The 6870 is by far a better card for gaming

How about a Bulldozer rig?

AMD Bulldozer FX-4 Quad Core 4100 Black Edition -- £89.82 (eBuyer)
Asus M5A97 PRO AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard -- £78.42 (eBuyer)
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 -- £37.99 (Overclockers)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache -- £94.99 (Overclockers)
Sapphire HD 6950 1GB GDDR5 -- £184.98 (eBuyer)

£486.20

Or if you're not sold on Bulldozer you can keep the excellent 6950 but swap the FX-4 for a AMD Phenom II X4 955 for the same money (+/- £3ish)

And finally an i5 system all from Overclockers

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz -- £159.95
MSI ATI Radeon HD 6850 Cyclone Power Edition 1024MB -- £113.99
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache -- £94.99
MSI P67A-G45 Intel P67 -- £89.98
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 -- £37.99

£496.90