Best ready made PC for £300-£400 isss....

[pwig]

insert your answer here...

[pwig]

The best answer gets the prize of 1 Beer

And it doesn't need to come with a montior..

[pwig]

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productde

Is that any good folks?

[Trooper2]

PWIG go have one made to order at a local mom and pop computer store, it will cost a little more and you probably can't get an extended warranty (over one year) but if you do have issues they will be more likely to fix it in reasonable time than the big companies will (their customer service sucks). If you want to go with one of the biggies then check out what your local COSTCO has in stock as thier prices are hard to beat and they let you return it up to six months from purchase date for any reason what so ever.

I don't drink alcohol so if you like my idea buy Nervous a brew.

[m1spw]

Dell is probably your best bet if you want to go mainstream. Probably better to go to a local independant computer shop, tell them what you want and then ask how much you want to pay, see what they say.

If you're not sure, write down what they are offering, post it up on here and ask if its good value, simple.

And don't call me names.

[pwig]

www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/pcrange.html?MTP


What about that?

[wannanicecar]

m1spw said:

Dell is probably your best bet if you want to go mainstream. Probably better to go to a local independant computer shop, tell them what you want and then ask how much you want to pay, see what they say. If you're not sure, write down what they are offering, post it up on here and ask if its good value, simple. And don't call me names.

Fully agree - If you are prepared to make a quick decision and have a bit of patience, keep looking at Dells outlet store. They have some great bargains in there from time to time but they don't hang around. Get an idea of the spec that you would like (a realistic idea helps!) and keep checking the prices.

Only thing to watch for with Dell is the delivery charges which they keep hidden until the last possible moment of the payment details. I'm not sure what they are charging currently but last time I was considering one it was around £50 IIRC

[m1spw]

I've just thought of something else. Its probably out of your price range, but on (IIRC) Wednesdays Apple open their refurbished store section on their website, where they have their customers returned goods which have been checked over etc with discounts of 10-50%. You could pick up a good deal but you'd have to be quick as they normally sell out soon after the web store opens.
ETA: Also what about browsing ebay?

>> Edited by m1spw on Wednesday 18th January 22:05

[Kinky]

J,

Sent you an email

K

[mr_yogi]

IMO if you want a cheap PC, Dell are the best bet and if you're buying a "new" PC as opposed to the outlet then I think they generally have offers on for free delivery or extra memory or whatever. To be honest £ for £ I don't think you can beat Dell unless you have something particular in mind, but for £3-400...

[zumbruk]

mr_yogi said:

IMO if you want a cheap PC, Dell are the best bet and if you're buying a "new" PC as opposed to the outlet then I think they generally have offers on for free delivery or extra memory or whatever. To be honest £ for £ I don't think you can beat Dell unless you have something particular in mind, but for £3-400...

The only thing to bear in mind is that Dell have an (entirely justified) reputation for absolutely dire post-sales customer support.

Another place to keep an eye on is Morgan Computers;

www.morgancomputers.co.uk

I've bought assorted stuff from them and been entirely satisfied.

[jimothy]

Mac mini?

[BCA]

www.eclipse-computers.com

£400 will get you something thats happy to run GTL if you look under thier "custom system build" option and spec away... they built mine within two weeks and its err, rather awesome.

[rsvmilly]

zumbruk said:

mr_yogi said: IMO if you want a cheap PC, Dell are the best bet and if you're buying a "new" PC as opposed to the outlet then I think they generally have offers on for free delivery or extra memory or whatever. To be honest £ for £ I don't think you can beat Dell unless you have something particular in mind, but for £3-400... The only thing to bear in mind is that Dell have an (entirely justified) reputation for absolutely dire post-sales customer support.

But on the plus side, we have about 70 dells here and none of them have ever suffered any breakdown. Some of them are five years old or more; 933Mhz processors.

We used to buy clone machines but they were generally crap. Dell are now so cheap it is a no-brainer. (Incidentally, their business support is supposed to be much better - not that we've needed it)

For cheap, run of the mill PCs you'll struggle to beat Dell's buying power.

[pwig]

Very interesting. Eclipse seem to Eclipsing everyone else at the mo


Graphics Card(s)
128Mb ATi Radeon X300SE PCI-Express VGA Card £29.53

128Mb/256Mb nVidia GeForce 6200TC PCI-Express VGA Card £28.95

256Mb GeForce 6600LE PCI-Express16 VGA Card £47.95

256Mb GeForce 6600 PCI-Express16 VGA Card £59.11

128Mb GeForce 6600GT PCI-Express16 VGA Card £86.65

256Mb GeForce 6600GT PCI-Express16 VGA Card £95.95


Which is the best value out of them?

[_dobbo_]

When it comes to GFX cards, best value is really a subjective thing, do you want to play games? If so the only real option that doesn't make your new PC obsolete in 5 minutes is the last one. If games don't bother you then the card is effectively irrelevant, get the cheapest one there.

[rsvmilly]

_dobbo_ said:

When it comes to GFX cards, best value is really a subjective thing, do you want to play games? If so the only real option that doesn't make your new PC obsolete in 5 minutes is the last one. If games don't bother you then the card is effectively irrelevant, get the cheapest one there.

And even then, the 6600 doesn't support the latest rendering effects. I think only the top nVidia does (7900GTX?) which is now available for about £200, from Aria IIRC.

[pwig]

I just wanna play GTL

[rsvmilly]

pwig said:

I just wanna play GTL

Those Dell Dimensions are fine for office/browsing purposes but it is no gaming machine. It has onboard graphics - which is shite. It probably doesn't have an AGP slot so you you can't put a half-decent card into it. I very much doubt it has the newer standard of PCI Express.

You need to either choose one from a different Dell range, such as this or get one custom made by your local computer shop or tekkie.

[pwig]

RSV the list was from the eclipse site. Who do comps within my budget on 'Custom build PCs' including the above graphics cards.