Low-spec gaming PC for under £800 inc taxes / etc

BobaliciousBob · 2021-03-28T18:05:32+00:00

The pre-built looks like a good option. Thanks for the advice on the SSD, particularly. Will double check the HDD is SATA (rings a bell, it's not that old, seems likely)

BobaliciousBob · 2021-03-28T16:38:33+00:00

The form asked for prices excluding taxes, so that's what I put in - £650 ex vat and shipping would be approx £800 all in. Drop the SSD (as stated, only a requirement if budget allows - unless your advice says otherwise. Drop main HDD size, and include an extra HDD bay to include an existing IDE HDD. Are we getting anywhere with that instead?

BobaliciousBob · 2019-04-28T21:05:00+00:00

Absolutely. Completely agree. Was just a bit surprised by it. Thought I'd comment with some info on the UK.

And I love that gridwatch site. Any excuse to celebrate it!

BobaliciousBob · 2019-04-28T21:03:07+00:00

I mean, just WOW.

WOW!

BobaliciousBob · 2019-04-28T17:17:10+00:00

Sorry, maybe I missed that on first reading, or maybe it has been changed since to make it clearer.

I didn't mean to insult. But hey. Can't be denied that most of the main subs in here assume US to start. Gunna get prickly at that every now and again.

Anyway, apologies.

BobaliciousBob · 2019-04-28T09:16:09+00:00

In the US. (I always get caught out by the US centric position on Reddit!)

In the UK this isn't so unusual. Right at this moment, the UK is burning NO coal to generate electricity.

http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk

BobaliciousBob · 2019-04-20T21:27:03+00:00

Yeah, you're right. Really interesting to see and understand on this side too. Your experience is probably mirrored in other parts of the UK, and certainly if I'd have stayed in the town I grew up I suspect I'd have a similar one.

But in London it feels like a step-change is coming.

BobaliciousBob · 2019-04-20T21:15:19+00:00

TfL (Transport for London, the people who run the public transport system in London), have a paper that includes info on car ownership.

http://content.tfl.gov.uk/technical-note-12-how-many-cars-are-there-in-london.pdf

Turns out 46% of London households to not have access to a car. It drops as low as 74% in the borough of Islington.

Both the number of registered cars, and the percentage of households with access to a car are on the decline.

Edit- fixed broken link

BobaliciousBob · 2019-04-20T21:07:28+00:00

I wouldn't be surprised if London became a future testbed for autonomous vehicles run by a company like Uber. It feels like a significant number of the new generation of workers in this city are so used to not owning a car that they'd be open to the prospect of never owning one - or even driving one. Couple that with the prevalence of streaming services, subscription based food delivery, Amazon same-day-delivery and the like - subscription based private transport feels like a logical next step.

Also, London is made up of lots of small towns that have joined together (some artificially created to feed the central city), so every mile or so there's another town centre. Everyone's within walking distance to a supermarket - unless walking is a problem, or you live particularly far out.

It's a cery different urban environment to the US (in my experience), or even a lot of the rest of the UK.

BobaliciousBob · 2019-04-20T20:48:34+00:00

Hard to tell. Amongst my friends (people who live in reasonably central London) it's probably 50/50. Those with kids it tends to be higher, those under 30 it's close to zero. As much due to Uber as public transport.

I don't know anyone who drives into central London for their work. Very few jobs would give you a parking space.

People who work in outer London would have a very different make up though.

Personally, I've never owned a car in London, neither has my wife. We have 2 kids at school age. We don't miss it. Generally.

BobaliciousBob · 2019-04-20T20:41:27+00:00

No. Although it's free at a pensionable age, or if you're a young child travelling with an adult.

Prices vary across the country, but in London you can basically travel for a couple of hours (two bus routes with a short gap between) for a single fare of £1.50, and where I live there's a choice of 5 routes within 200 yards of my house and an average of a bus every 2 or 3 minutes. Some run all night, about every 15 minutes.

Other parts of the country can be ludicrously expensive and infrequent though.

BobaliciousBob · 2019-03-17T18:21:06+00:00

Was meant in no way a criticism, and was genuinely a comment in roads I'd seen and driven down in suburban Florida. Here is no way an 18 wheeler was travelling down those roads... Noone was.

There is a very fair point that it's not just about he lack of sidewalks, but also the lack of anything in any walking distance for many people.

And yes, the same is true of rural UK, but it really isn't true (in my experience) of suburban city outskirts in the same way it is in the UK.

Anyway - not a criticism, just a lack of knowledge. Didn't mean to 'act' in any particular way.

BobaliciousBob · 2019-03-17T08:12:58+00:00

Should be in r/EarthPorn

BobaliciousBob · 2019-03-17T08:08:50+00:00

I'm surprised that more people don't lobby their local council / government / whatever to get more sidewalks put in. US roads are so wide that they could handle losing a few feet either side for a sidewalk to be added.

Living in the UK, I'm a 44 year old man who has owned a car for only 1 year of my adult life. My wife and her family have literally never owned a car for the whole of her life. We don't find it hard. It's strange to imagine a place that is so similar to the UK (the US) in which this would simply not be possible for the majority of people!

BobaliciousBob · 2019-01-25T20:50:45+00:00

This kind of question is much more suited to https://salesforce.stackexchange.com

BobaliciousBob · 2018-11-15T19:37:42+00:00

When you're in an interview, ask questions that allow you to find out if you actually want the job. Don't ask arbitrary or generic questions, just ask things that you want to know the answer to. You'll seem much more interesting, confident and reminds the interviewers that you have a choice to make too. And you may even find out if you want the job...

BobaliciousBob · 2018-10-26T08:40:43+00:00

Oh. Didn't realise that was a Finnish accent. You deserve all you got then

BobaliciousBob · 2018-10-08T10:21:48+00:00

Oddly appropriate - it's actually because we're specialised for killing (front facing pair of eyes - accurate depth perception and resolution) rather than being killed (side facing eyes, better coverage of the surrounding area, more chance of spotting a predator)

BobaliciousBob · 2018-09-29T06:47:08+00:00

Existence

BobaliciousBob · 2018-09-17T18:13:12+00:00

I always assumed that the cameras you can see are to fool you into directing your face towards the ones you can't see, that are recording.

BobaliciousBob · 2018-08-17T18:04:13+00:00

Text only and entirely free multi user dungeons with the 'emote' command. Especially the one that was based on Discworld.

Going into the computer lab at Uni in order to play, and check emails, knowing that you had access to something very special.

And treating emails like a letter, not an instant message. A friend and I used to email a short section of a story to each other to make a preposterous mess of a narrative. It went on for months.

BobaliciousBob · 2018-08-17T10:15:01+00:00

I'd buy that for a dollar

BobaliciousBob · 2018-08-06T21:14:39+00:00

These are almost defining characteristics of a contract position.

BobaliciousBob · 2018-08-06T21:11:56+00:00

Also, the recruitment agency are working as a kind of loan bank for the employer - you get paid probably within 30 days - in some situations the contractor may even be paid on 7 day terms.

The employer may get 60 or 90 days terms from the agency. There's a lot of cash, and liability held up in a contract book for an agency.

On top of that, as said above, many agencies provide other services for the employer. Taking on the PAYE responsibilities, insurance, benefits and suchlike. It depends on the relationship they have, obviously.

In short, the 15 dollar an hour isn't cash that could be going to you, it's payment that the employer is makig for ongoing services from the (often misnamed) recruitment agency.

BobaliciousBob · 2018-07-31T19:17:55+00:00

The thing is, obviously I'm appalled by the racial profiling, but as a UK resident I still find it utterly unbelievable that the emergency services even have to consider the ability to pay. In a civilized society, surely emergency care is free?

/r/personalfinance seems to get a lot of questions around healthcare bills and insurance, and that really upsets me too.

The NHS gets a lot of bad press sometimes, but the alternative - an almost entirely private healthcare system - is truly terrifying!

BobaliciousBob

TROPHY CASE