Looking for a new family pc

[steveg]

Hi ,
Looking for a family pc , not a gaming machine .
Dell is doing the following for 349 its got 50 quid off & double memory upgrade
seems a fair price for a dual core pc & 19 inch screen ?
What do u recon ?

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dells...sftdppdesktop3

unless you are interested in the capabilities of the motherboard then I'd say go for it

it's just a family pc which with those specs will be plenty enough to browse the internet and create Office Docs

Seems like good value, but if it were me I'd want to go for the OS upgrade to XP Pro rather than that Media Centre thingumy-bob. "Better the devil you know" in my case.

Why not build your own? It's really not difficult and a complete newbie can do it in about an hour and there are guides in most computer mags too. You'll probably save money while you are doing it and most parts have lifetime warranties now too.

Originally Posted by Moffatt666

Why not build your own? It's really not difficult and a complete newbie can do it in about an hour and there are guides in most computer mags too. You'll probably save money while you are doing it and most parts have lifetime warranties now too.

That's fine until parts just don't work together...been there, done that! I work in IT so know a little bit more than the general public (I like to think!) yet it still happens, it's also happened to my brother. If you aren't able to debug why parts don't work together you may get stuck...

Most PC's these days kick ass, it gets on my tits when I overhear sales persons telling people "yeah, this 1.8 gig machine will be ok for emails but for surfing and downloading you need a better spec machine".

I say go for the dell offer, I have so far got 5 desktops, 2 laptops and a printer from them and they have all been great machines.

I've just bought 3 Dell E521s for work. I spec'd them up a bit and everyone seems pleased (3 code-hackers, including me). AMD X2 5600+ CPU, 2 Gb RAM, 320Gb hdu, XP Pro, 2 x 19" displays on ATI X1300 Pro display adaptor. Nice!

[northwind]

At that price it'd be fairly difficult to do a quality homebuild inc software... The processor's a bit behind the curve but really who needs the latest thing? The graphics cards offered there would be a total joke for gaming, but that's OK for you. Hard drive's not big but fitting another is dead easy, specially in that chassis- it's got a great hard drive mounting system. Be warned though, the case can be VERY noisy, mine's developed all sorts of annoying rattles and hums, so now it's got bits of cardboard stuck in every crevice. Not a particularily quiet PC if it'll be in a living room either.

I'd maybe upgrade the screen to the widescreen- I had that screen on mine and it's pretty good, not all that sharp but it worked well. But for a lot of stuff, widescreen is just better.

What will you actually be using it for? Web, home office, video maybe?