Selfsufficientish.com

I really need a new pc. have been told by DH that he is willing to fork out for one...
i need it to run photoshop cs3 (or at least photoshop CS), be broadband capable, and if windows vista is installed I'll need £60 spare for an OEM copy of winXP lol...

Asda have an Acer in stock at the moment, does all of the above but is £200. that's really my top end budget.

how easy is it to BUILD a pc?!

Not too difficult, as long as you have a bit of PC know how.

Probably will be more expensive tho.

damn. got the knowledge (ok, got the little brother who's a technowhizz) just not the cash. ta.

check out freecycle in the area, you may get something there. I have a PC that i'm not using, but postage from up here may be a bit much.

And there is a cheaper option than the £60 for XP.

take a look on ebay, loads of laptops on there with various platforms on them. or leave until after that commercial day on the 25th and buy all those being sold 'cause mummy and daddy bought new ones for Junior!

seriously, contermplate stripping Vista off, and installing Ubuntu - you could try Gimp which is part of it - the free photoshop, (they do a windoze version if you want to try it out) http://www.gimp.org/

I have tried MANY times to get to grip with photoshop, and have given up in disgust (totally counter-intuitive) - the Gimp is as powerful, and much more user-friendly

Martin wrote:seriously, contermplate stripping Vista off, and installing Ubuntu - you could try Gimp which is part of it - the free photoshop, (they do a windoze version if you want to try it out) http://www.gimp.org/

I have tried MANY times to get to grip with photoshop, and have given up in disgust (totally counter-intuitive) - the Gimp is as powerful, and much more user-friendly

I have never been sure about the ideas behind calling a bit of software the gimp. I mean "the gimp is as powerful and much more user friendly" just sounds plain rude

As for making a computer, Dave made one from bits that he found in skips. I imagine that just after christmas there will be loads of freecycle. If you have no luck on yours then try asking friends across the country to check on theirs. Hmm now where could you ask people from all over the country to check their freecycle......

Second thoughts you would have to ask friends nearby who might be visiting your area as the postage of said PC might be pretty high.

you see I am very into photoshop having been using it professionally for the best part of 5 years now lol! i could never get to grip with gimp (i have the windoze version)... may have to do for now 'cos i can't get my version of photoshop which i got with two pieces of eight and a treasure map to work after a huge system crash...and obviously, having been found on a deserted island by a bunch of dirty men wearing eye patches I can't very well call Apple to fix it lol!!!

I am fine with the idea of a second hand PC but my husband is not- he just looks at the amount of dodgy crap my brother does with his compoopter and wonders if everybody is the same.

does the cheaper way of getting XP involve some form of galleon or anything connected with peg-legs and parrots?!

aaaaahrr me hearties.

mrsflibble wrote:does the cheaper way of getting XP involve some form of galleon or anything connected with peg-legs and parrots?!

aaaaahrr me hearties.

Aye!!

hmmm. after my experience with rum-swigging versions of photoshop I'm not too sure whether to follow the treasure map to find a windows OS; think I'd rather swallow the cost than run the risk of walking the plank!!




I love this site, people GET me lol!!!

I may have found the answer.......having stuffed the bios on my own laptop, I got my geek friend to sort it, and took the opportunity to pick his brains......
if you want a new or refurbished laptop with XP - http://laptopshop.co.uk/ - he's used them for ages, and recommends them!

looking fabby...

foudn another site too, www.europc.co.uk