Desktop recommendations?

[Nystagmite]

I currently have a Dell Inspiron 1750 laptop. It's nearly 4 years old and is about to die on me.

 

Can anyone recommend a decent desktop please? With or without a monitor will do. Would rather not spend more than £400-500 on a desktop. It's mostly used for listening to music, surfing the internet and doing uni work, which is mostly word processing.

 

Thank you.

[snowdragon]

I have just bought a packard bell with 4 gb and 500 hard drive from Staples for under £300, do not go to curry's/pc world,

[Nystagmite]

Thanks. You're at least the second person to advise me to avoid PC World. How come? I did have a nose on there just see what was out there.

[renegadeimp]

Its overpriced and they wont help you if something breaks. Check the pc world forum.

[locutus]

My computer is 3 years old and does everything I want it to.... What troubles you having Nyst?

[gioppino]

Thanks. You're at least the second person to advise me to avoid PC World. How come? I did have a nose on there just see what was out there.

I don't know where you live but if you can, buy from a computer fair. I have always had the best deals in computer fairs.

[Nystagmite]

My laptop has now officially died. Can't charge it full stop, new battery and charger and I have a vertical red line on my screen, which isn't good apparently.

[renegadeimp]

Thats a graphics chip error. Seen it in my job when i fix tablets that are used pretty much non stop all day.

[silverfox1961]

Have you ever thought about building your own? With your budget you can get some quite decent stuff off the interweb.

 

While Maplin are not that cheap, they do everything you need but if you can find an independant they will build one to your specs

[renegadeimp]

Also check on scan and dabs. They have some brilliant offers usually.

[Nystagmite]

Thanks. Hadn't thought about building my own. My brother has done this and I think he's looking into doing it for mum's new computer too.

[renegadeimp]

Building a compuer is easy. Everything only fits one way, like a jigsaw. The only remotely difficult part is connecting the case wires ( power button/resetbutton etc) to the motherboard. And even then, all modern cases have the name of the wire written on them. Just make sure the word faces outwards when you connect it to the mobo and youre set.

[silverfox1961]

Building a compuer is easy. Everything only fits one way, like a jigsaw. The only remotely difficult part is connecting the case wires ( power button/resetbutton etc) to the motherboard. And even then, all modern cases have the name of the wire written on them. Just make sure the word faces outwards when you connect it to the mobo and youre set.

 

I have built two from scratch and I'm still around to talk about it. No, the first one didn't blow up! I just passed it on.

 

With any new motherboard, the manual that comes with it is (usually) comprehensive just make sure you have an anti-static wrist strap before you begin

[renegadeimp]

Ive builr literally hundreds including server arrays. Its just people make it sound harder than it actually is.

[Nystagmite]

Thank you

 

I spoke to my brother who said if I go on to scan.co.uk and dabs, I can build one that way. Just tried doing that and it's under budget by about £150.

 

Now just to find some space for it...

[renegadeimp]

Can you give links to the parts, i'll have a scout around and see if i can come up with cheaper, or a better spec for the same price.

[Nystagmite]

I think it was this

[Ford]

have a look also on e buyer and crucial (memory) if diy, their prices are usually competitive.

do you have an operating system to install?

if not diy, then could go with a custom build?

Edited December 21, 2013 by Ford

[Nystagmite]

No OS to install. Would prefer to get Windows 7. Not overly keen on 8.

[renegadeimp]

You can get an OEM version of win7 pretty much anywhere on the net. Then just activate it online.

[renegadeimp]

I wouldnt buy that system you just linked though. Can i ask your max budget and what you are going to use the system for?

[Ford]

No OS to install. Would prefer to get Windows 7. Not overly keen on 8.

 

ok, so you'll have to get one as well if diy and factor that in yr cost. (unless you go for a freebie outside of MS, eg one of the linux desktop o/s? or...?)

Edited December 20, 2013 by Ford

[Nystagmite]

It would just mostly be studying (word processing) and general everyday use.

 

Budget is £4-500.

[renegadeimp]

Alright. Should be able to get you a better system than you spending 300+ on 10 year old tech.

[renegadeimp]

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/nzxt-source-210-elite-white-mid-tower-gaming-case-with-usb-30-w-o-psu

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/500w-corsair-builder-series-cx-cp-9020047-uk-80-plus-bronze-sli-crossfire-eps-12v-quiet-fan-atx-psu

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-fx-6300-black-edition-vishera-six-core-s-am3plus-35ghz-14mb-total-cache-95w-retail

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-m5a97-evo-r20-amd-970-s-am3plus-ddr3-sata-iii-6gb-s-sata-raid-pcie-20-(x16)-atx

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-corsair-ddr3-pc3-10600-(1333)-non-ecc-unbuffered-9-9-9-24-15v

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-sapphire-hd-6670-1600mhz-gddr3-gpu-800mhz-480-cores-2560x1600-dvi-d-sub-hdmi

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/liteon-ihas122-14-22x-dvdr-8x-dvddl-dvdplusrw-x8-rw-x6-dvd-ram-x12-sata-black-oem

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1tb-seagate-st1000dm003-barracuda-720014-sata-6gb-s-7200rpm-64mb-cache-8ms-ncq-oem

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/arctic-cooling-alpine-64-pro-rev-2-universal-cpu-cooler-fm1-am3plus-am3-am2plus-am2-and-939

 

 

 

Quick and dirty setup for around £400. You can probably tweak the parts to get it a bit cheaper for more or less the same performance, but the parts above will give you a system that is around 10x as powerful as the one you originally linked. It's perfect for what you want to use it for, and can play most games at medium graphics if you choose to do so.

 

All you need is a monitor, keyboard and mouse, and the OS.