what pc to get next? shuttle or tower? and what chip?

[danielson]

eed a new one as the current one is near stone age

i was thinking of going for a shuttle type pc (the small cube ones) specifically one that doubles up as a media centre such as

question is is it worthwhilke going for one like this or is it better to get a tower instead? i know the tower is more expandable but if im not going to do more than work, movies, songs and gaming as well as the internet whats the point?
but is it likely to be decent a choice and which one to go for?




as for my dad, he can;t really use a computer so i was either thinknig of a very cheap media centre with a sempron style chip (i.e. cheap) or a mac 'mini'...since mac's are a bot easier to use?

whadda think? bundles of karma to the the best answers

 

[jack sparrow]

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APP.../70104/wo/nN7qbItvNPQ02FGzXx41PkCaIXp/11.?p=0

Add a 30" flat screen for another 3K or so and your good to go.

 

[UA_Iron]

I would never ever ever buy an apple.

Build it for 64 bit processors - that'll be the new thing pretty soon.

 

[Dial_tone]

Get a Shuttle system that uses a Pentium M chip unless you need really high performance....very quiet.

 

[danielson]

so the consesus is still go for a shuttle, just make sure it has 64 bit processing? I wont need that higher performance as im a low end user (dont even have time to play games or surf that regularly now ) but i do still want it to be a little future proof as I get Pc's every 6 years

 

[Raina]

I don't have any idea but nice to see you!

 

[milo hobgoblin]

Dual core athlon baby, 2 gigs of RAM, nice video card and a SATA II drive... the box it sits in.. just doesnt matter..

Whats under the hood is all that counts.

I got a dual core athlon.. my oh my. I can run multiple apps.. and using processor affinity they all scream.

 

[alien amp pharm]

I suggest getting one without internet access.





(nah I'm joking. You're actually one of my fav posters)

 

[GoldenDelicious]

so long as you have a few decent features on the shuttle mainboard (a bunch of reliable, decent, onboard stuff) dont worry at all about expandability....these days its not worth screwing around upgrading

and stay away from mac imo. for clueless newbies, i prefer windows because they find more clueless newbies to bounce off (im not a mac hater, in fact i think they are supurb machines)

 

[Testosterone boy]

Windows has more backdoors than Canada.

If you want privacy/security...consider that.

 

[danielson]

cheers guys

Raina - Hi! how are you? hope life is going well

I think im gonna shoot for a shuttle and get one with a decent motherboard rather than the media centre ones. they dont seem all that great other than being able to use them as a hifi when they are off

aap - My coputer is such a sack of shit, one of the ram chips has fried meaning when the computer hits 128mb of needed ram it freezes. this happens a lot. I cant even access the internet reliably, im on 56k which if i can get IE to boot sometimes doesnt even recognise the computer is connected to something, somewhere

GD - cheers for the advice bor

Test boy - Yeah i know macs are more secure and stuff, i just like games. the warhammer ones look freaking cool and it also means i can stop playing games my computer is capable of (pong)

DT, Milo and UA, thanks forthe advice. I'll hit you all up when i get the chance. gotta dash

 

[BrothaBill]

Id go with a gateway media center pc, simplify all of your media into one remote everything.
http://www.gateway.com/programs/med...eway media pc&cm_cat=CNS&sg=hm&ph1=8005553006

 

[bullett]

Hi dannyboy,

Check out all of the small form factor pc's on tomshardware.com...

great info, and they do comparisions....

I have three SFF pc's, and I think the asus is the best, but according to my specs, maybe not your's....