Arianet Value 2800 Intel PC

Works Well With Linux by MOhare

Just bought one of these for my brother for XMAS. Works an absolute treat with the latest version of Ubuntu 8.10. It all installed first time. Encountered no problem with graphics, sound or networking.

System seems fast and responsive and very quiet. While running Ubuntu there is plenty of RAM free. BBC iplayer can run full screen video (1900x1200) in HD content mode. The build quality is also better than I expected.

Go for it, at this price it is a bargain.

 After the euphoria by bootneck

A update since my purchase of my Arianet Value 2800 Intel PC on 24th July 2008. After the euphoria of the purchase back then and my first review things have moved on. I have installed a Zotac 8600GT graphics card, a SAMSUNG HD501LJ [Hard drive] (500.11 GB)Which has the MS XP Pro and running, on the supplied 80 gig drive I have dual booted Linux Ubuntu.

The PC after running it for five months is a great bit of kit as you can see is easily expandable, reliable and great value or the money, I don't think you could get a better value for your £ any where else.

In the future should I have to buy another PC I will look no further than Aria and certainly will NOT be be buying a proprietary over priced brand. Thanks Aria for giving great value at great prices.

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 Great alternative to credit. by ajcham

The Arianet Value 2800 is designed to be upgradable, so in buying it my plan was that I'd start with a basic, but perfectly functional, PC and add better parts over time. This, to me, was a much better alternative to taking out a finance deal on a higher spec PC.

Although the price is fantastic, be sure to factor in any additional costs that you may incur. Of course, this is a base unit only, so you'll need to consider a monitor and peripherals too, if you don't have any spares handy.

I would also recommend adding a DVD drive to your order. The DVD-RW lightscribe drive I purchased is no longer available from Aria, but there are plenty of other options, including a DVD-ROM drive for under a tenner (quickcode #27926) if you aren't bothered about burning capabilities. Be warned that a DVD drive is absolutely necessary if you intend to install Vista, which brings us neatly to the next point:

As one should expect, this PC comes without an operating system. If you want to use Windows you'll have to pay upwards of £65 (#25901 - Vista Home Basic). If on the other hand you are, like me, a Linux user, you'll be thrilled at not having to pay the so-called 'Microsoft Tax' for a pre-installed OS that you won't use. Aside from saying that it's worth looking into, I won't try to push Linux any further here.

So how is the machine to use? As I said, this is basic machine - it won't knock your socks off in any respect, but it'll get the job done in most day-to-day tasks, such as email, web, office and graphics work.

With mine, I also purchased an additional GB of memory (#28542). Depending on your use, it may be rare that you actually need the second GB, but you will still enjoy a small performance boost from having the memory running in dual-channel mode.

Furthermore, I found that anything more than very basic 3D is too much for the on-board graphics. As a result my first upgrade (excluding those at the time of purchase) was to install a cheap Nvidia grapihcs card, which improved things significantly. Whether or not this will be necessary for you will again depend on how you intend to use the machine.

As I stated in my introduction, the capacity for upgrading makes this machine a fantastic alternative to taking out credit in order to fund a PC purchase. Sure, it'll get there gradually, but after time I will have a far more powerful PC than I could

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 Fantastic Value by Richard

I ordered one of these last week for my daughter who's machine had literally gone up in smoke!

Added another gig (thanks shaun for the quick code) plus XPSP3 and the 19" LCD monitor, all came to a tad over £200 inc vat & shipping.

Installation was a breeze, everything easy to get at, and very neat & tidy inside, it seemed a shame to untie the cable loom to add DVDR and floppy from the old machine.

I can thoroughly recommend this system to anyone wanting to have a basic or second machine for internet, word processing, and general use.

It has a 520W PSU so plenty to spare if you want to use all 4 SATA sockets for drive expansion.

Comes with full motherboard manual and driver disk too.

You couldn't buid it for less!

Another star quality bargain from Aria, Thanks :-)

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 Upgrade possibilities by Dave R

Would it be possible to replace the processor with a Pentium 4 2.8GHz from my old PC ? I also have a spare SATA drive that I would like to install if possible.