I find LBA very therapeutic so I don't wish to be cured thank you very much. However, might I suggest a compromise. You send me a mega wad of dosh to allow me to indulge myself even further and I in turn will send you my surplus lenses.

Everyone's a winner... lol...

Hi LennyBloke and congratulations on your new acquisition. I'm sure you will notice the vast difference in speed compared to your last setup and fluidity of Win 8 as opposed to Vista, Win 8 is also extremely stable as well. The new interface might prove a little vexing at first but you'll soon get the measure of it.

Enjoy it I know you will!

Best wishes...

For reasons mentioned above, if you are computer savvy consider re-building your existing desktop to your own specification.

1/ A new motherboard. It doesn't need to be the latest incarnation designed for a high-end gaming rig. A mid range board that will take a modern multi core processor and support at least 16gig of ddr3 ram and adequate room for expansion ie sata & usb ports should be more than adequate.

2/ A multi core processor (minimum of 4 cores, preferably six or eight to future proof) AMD OR Intel. AMD has generally always provided more bang for buck and are usually less expensive. If you go the Intel route then one of the later I5 processors will be much more cost effective than an I7

3/ A minimum of 8gig of ram, preferably 16gig as a programme like photoshop will make use of it.

4/ A mid range gpu such as a HD7750 with 1gig of gddr5ram is more than adequate and not overly expensive.

5/ An ssd for the operating system is a luxury if your budget allows but by no means essential, otherwise, large capacity hard drives are relatively inexpensive.

6/ One of the most important parts and oft skimped on by self builders is the screen you stare at for hours on end. Get the best IPS monitor your budget will allow.

7/ You may need to consider uprading your PSU as well but a good quality 450watt (at least bronze cert) PSU will be a good investment and not too pricey.

Monitor aside, I reckon your budget will build a top notch desktop and leave you change as well.

The beauty of doing it yourself is you design it with your choice of components to suit your own needs and budget and just because it's a home build doesn't mean it should be any less reliable than a shop bought PC. And, if you sourced all your components from somewhere like Scan Computers, Dabbs or Aria for example, they will be able to advise you on any potential compatability issues. Also, a big advantage of a desktop over a laptop is that if something does go awry, a desktop is generally much easier to access and fix, replace or upgrade components than a laptop will ever be.

Last but not least and particularly important for us photographers storing our treasured photo's is to remember the first three rules of computing; BACKUP! BACKUP! BACKUP!

Hope I don't sound to pedantic!

Whichever route you decide upon, good luck and best wishes....

PS It's also that time of year when the odd casual dropped hint might save you a lot of frustration... lol...

PPS If your present hardware is ok and it's just windows that's broke, a format of your hard drive (after backing up your files of course) and re-installing windows is often a good panacea for many ills...

Beautiful set David...

Nice set Mille19, well done. I'd wager they would look well in black & white too...

That can depend on how good one's eyes are and for some like myself it's a major benefit. As for cost, after trade allowance on a very nice but no longer used ME Super, I paid only £160.00 more than the cost of a new iis. For me the decision was a no brainer.

Whichever version of a Pentax dslr one has will produce excellent photographs. Later versions however will generally help to make taking great photo's easier (we hope) and as the saying goes 'yer pays ya money an yer takes ya choice'....

Another useful aspect, for some of us at least is it's focus peaking ability.

PS Thanks NeilP for the link to this very interesting site.

Another possible option would be a 'Panagor Auto Macro 1:1 Converter' see here:- link or google for more info.

I have one which is in virtually new condition boxed and cased in an M42 mount which you would be welcome to for £36.00 inc postage and paypal fees.

That's if you are interested of course, or anyone else for that matter....

Regards.

I think you are correct Barrie in that it's probably only the Pentax FF lenses that will be compatible, so my apologies if my original post was inadvertently misleading.