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186
 
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 13/03/2008 19:06:40
Posts: 86,
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Opinions:
How about a poll to show the percentages of readers regarding the level (pricewise) that they can afford to buy at? Even though MM caters for all, it does tend to veer towards the "money no object" reader at times. Until I had to give up my job a few years ago to care for an aged parent, I had no problem paying £200 for a graphics card. Now I have to scrabble around the bargain bin (Ebay) in order to afford even a minor upgrade for my system. I am sure there are others who can't afford the latest or greatest components now available so it would be interesting to know if I/we are in the minority. This could also give the brilliant  people in the MM office idea's for future articles/reviews. Sometimes your reviews (of budget items) are slightly negative. I know MM is at the forefront of technology but please keep us poor users in mind.
I haven't put this very well but hope you can see where I am coming from and even if you ignore this I still think MM is the best magazine ever 
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Armor ATX case with Thermal Guage 400W PSU
ECS KV2 Extreme AMD64 939, AMD64 3000+ Winchester o/c 2Ghz (9x222)
Elixir 1Gb (2x512mb) DDR400 Dual Channel,
ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro 512mb AGP,
1x80Gb Sata + 2x40Gb Eide
Samsung DVD-RW 16x (TSSTcorp TS-H552U)
WinXP Pro SP2, NTL 2Mb Broadband
Second Machine:
MSI Socket A, Duron 1300, Geforce MX2 440 64Mb, Generic 512Mb
Maxtor 40Gb, CDRW, DVD, Win98 SE/WinXP Pro/Suse Linux 10
Manureds
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5V4G
Group: Moderators
Last Login: Yesterday @ 01:29:03
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Well, you will get a small pile of tightwads like me posting at £55 for the lot, then all the "mine is bigger than yours" going for a couple of grand. 
Oldphart:The original grumpy pedant!
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Pentium
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 09/11/2008 15:35:37
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Docarooney (19/08/2006)
Opinions:
I am sure there are others who can't afford the latest or greatest components now available so it would be interesting to know if I/we are in the minority.
yep 
=-=-=-=
Core 2 Duo E4400, Gigabyte GA 965P-S3, 580W Hiper TypeR,
4GB Patriot PC6400, 512MB Sapphire X1950Pro, Linux Mint 5 x64
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Pentium
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 13/10/2007 00:31:54
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Hi, all!
I thought I was in a majority of one. 
I build to a budget and sell-on.
Occasionally I lash-out (no, not computer rage)
if I've saved up a bit.
When MM mag first started, if memory serves,
it was more about budget this and budget that.
Although it has drifted up in terms of component
prices, etc. I have to say that the cover price
has always stayed in the proper range.
A challenge to MM towers:
Build an all-new PC capable of doing normal PC type activities
whilst 'folding for a cure' for £300 all in. (PC unit only).
But - it must beat a shop-bought one at the same price
in overall performance.
..................................................................
Patrick
Relax! It's only an opinion.
Don't anthropomorphise computers - they really hate that!
34.714, Total Geek
Rig #1 -
Abit AW9D-MAX
Intel D805 @ 4319.49Mhz
Ingsoc newspeak @ 300wpm, just to see if anyone notices this sig change.
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286
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Today @ 10:26:08
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| As I remember (and please correct me if wrong!) but MM has in the past done features on building a unit to a budget. I think one article was written around a one hundred pound budget. They may not have been great machines bu were more than adequate for office/internet etc. My current rig is probably the most expensive I have had costing me about five hundred pound, my previous one was built for a touch over two hundred, but I re-used the monitor, keyboard etc. The biggest problem I have is not having a credit card which rules out online shopping, or telephone sales from some of MM's advertisers. If MM does choose to do another article following the suggested £300 budget, then how about doing it without being able to use credit card ordering? Look at how long it takes to wait for components from MM's classifieds or ebay and the possible hazards such as dodgy sellers?
i dont really know what I'm doing but it looks good!
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The Pigs of Uranus
Group: Moderators
Last Login: Today @ 11:20:15
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Yes there have been plenty of how to build a cheap PC articles.
All done by Louis if memory serves.
£300 Logicman, that's not much of a challenge
Try £217 inc VAT and Delivery for a D805, 512mb ram, 80gb HDD and 16x DVDRW.
£277 will get you an E6300 with the same specs but different mobo.
Dave R
XP Pro + various VMs: Q6600 @ stock, Asus V3-P5G33, 2GB DDR2 800, 7600GT
XP Pro: E1200 @2.4Ghz, GA-G33M-DS2R/S2, 2GB DDR2 800, 3450 on HDMI
Mandriva S 2008: SOA Athlon 2200, 1GB DDR, 9550
Windows Home Server: S3000, ASUS V2-M2V890, 512mb DDR2 667, 1TB
4GB USB Pendrive: Mandriva 2009 - my portable PC
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186
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 13/03/2008 19:06:40
Posts: 86,
Visits: 106
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I am gratified by the replies so far.
DerekMort and ricedg are correct and there have been some brilliant articles by Louis concerning computing on a budget. However I would like to know if readers are interested in such a survey as I am sure it would be fascinating to all of us. For instance - how many other people in your area buy the mag, are there greater sales in one area than another, etc. Maybe MM could offer a Mug for taking part (first out of the hat). I do not envy those who are able to buy the best but surely any magazine can only be better for knowing more about it's readership. MM is still for me the best computer mag on the market and we get 4 a month for little more than the price of some of the more glossy and overpriced monthly one's.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Armor ATX case with Thermal Guage 400W PSU
ECS KV2 Extreme AMD64 939, AMD64 3000+ Winchester o/c 2Ghz (9x222)
Elixir 1Gb (2x512mb) DDR400 Dual Channel,
ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro 512mb AGP,
1x80Gb Sata + 2x40Gb Eide
Samsung DVD-RW 16x (TSSTcorp TS-H552U)
WinXP Pro SP2, NTL 2Mb Broadband
Second Machine:
MSI Socket A, Duron 1300, Geforce MX2 440 64Mb, Generic 512Mb
Maxtor 40Gb, CDRW, DVD, Win98 SE/WinXP Pro/Suse Linux 10
Manureds
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286
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Today @ 10:26:08
Posts: 233,
Visits: 1,285
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Yes there have been plenty of how to build a cheap PC articles. All done by Louis if memory serves. £300 Logicman, that's not much of a challenge Try £217 inc VAT and Delivery for a D805, 512mb ram, 80gb HDD and 16x DVDRW. £277 will get you an E6300 with the same specs but different mobo.
Dave R Not quite the article I would like it to be though Dave, where is the case, monitor, keyboard, os? Does the motherboard have on board graphics or would a card be required as well? Build a complete system for £300 running XP, there's at least £60 gone already on the OS! Ok, any other os would do and Linux is free, but let's imagine it's for joe student on a budget and wants to run XP only, as it's going to be slowly upgraded as time and money allow, and he/she wants to play the occasional low budget game from time to time. Can we get a printer on there within the budget for coursework? Scanner? what is possible for the budget, stretching it as far as possible and getting as much in that could be useful for someone.
i dont really know what I'm doing but it looks good!
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