PC help please...........what to go for!
 

Pete and I are thinking that it might be about time to get a new pc..........but to say we are totally clueless about them is an understatement.:help:

We don't want to spend a huge amount, and neither of us are into online gaming. We just want something user-friendly, but we haven't got a clue about the new operating systems, or even what most of the blurb actually means.

The two we are looking at are the Inspiron 531 and the Inspiron 530, as shown in the link. If any pc expert would give their opinion about these, and also tell us which they think is the better one, we would be very grateful.
http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr...n&s=dhs&~ck=mn

Also, if they have a better recommendation, that would also be gratefully received. We don't want to spend more than £400.

Re: PC help please...........what to go for!
 

Im the same as you re pc,s however aldi are doing a sale at the minute and of the guys at work was saying that the specs for the Medion they have up for sale at the moment is pretty good, £399 if memory serves.

Re: PC help please...........what to go for!
 

Dell are solid for the money, usually, but also very easy to deal with, good information etc. Though their customer service isn't usually great. I'd get Windows XP to be honest, Vista looks nice but adds nothing and doesn't work right yet... Dell actually reintroduced XP on public demand :D Also, this might have changed but when I got mine the call centre staff had the power to haggle, which was hilarious-

"I want this"
"That'll be xxx amount"
"Really? That's good. I'll maybe have that, I need to check with other shops first"
"In that case, I can offer you it for this"
"Hmm"
"With a free upgrade to this!"
"HMM. OK, that's ace, if I call back in an hour can you guarantee me that deal"
"Yes, if you speak to me"

So, I phoned back and asked to speak to that person, the salesman I got said "What's she offered you", I told him, and he said "I can beat that by £25 if you buy it from me"!

So, I saved £100 off an already very good price, and got a free soundcard upgrade. Which they forgot to send me, so I then got the full cost of the soundcard refunded, which was about £20 more than what I paid for it from another shop. Competition in action :)

Try here:

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/de...tafrbsd&~ck=mn

This is their factory store, warranty refurbs, distance selling act returns etc. You can sometimes find some ridiculous deals here, not always but it's worth a look... I couldn't find one that quite fit when I got mine, but if I could have I would. Sometimes you can get a whole system for less than the OEM price of a couple of the components, I've known people to buy the recon Dells and break them for parts!

Re: PC help please...........what to go for!
 

What he said, actually Ive got a dell myself and tbh its been great, just a bit more than £400 thats all

Re: PC help please...........what to go for!
 

Both our current pc, and the previous one have had Windows XP, and I have to admit, I've always been happy with it. All of the PC's we've looked at now though seem to have Vista.

Can anyone explain what the difference is between Intel Celeron®, Pentium dual-core, and Core™ 2 duo processors and AMD Sempron™, Athlon™ 64, and Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core processors


The pc we are currently using is AMD Athlon, but I haven't got a clue if that's good or not:confused:

Re: PC help please...........what to go for!
 

Can't help you with the processor differences, though if you're not planning on doing anything special with the PC, I doubt it matters.

We use Dell for our business PCs, and you can still buy XP machines from them. You have to select the 'small business' menu rather than 'Home' .

eg Dimension 9200 . Choose the customise with Windows XP button, and if you change the support level back down to minimum, you can get a pretty good spec for your price range: 2Gig Ram, 320Gig Hard drive , 22" monitor.


I must point out that I'm not recommending this for you, simply because I don't consider myself any sort of expert in home PCs. You might be missing out on something that a home PC user would take for granted. It looks OK to me though, and we've always had good experiences dealing with Dell at work.

Re: PC help please...........what to go for!
 

I'm not very good at AMD, but... Celeron = cheap Intel, usually. Lots of the ones that are still out there are Pentium 4, Netburst chips, old and rubbish- they were pretty poor when they were new tbh. Pentium Dual Core is similiar, but with an extra processor core, but don't be tricked into thinking they're twice as good. Still, this PC has a Pentium D 2.8ghz chip, and it's alright. If you were overclocking a PC (tuning, basically) they go like stink, but most budget PCs won't allow that and it's a hassle. Pentium 4 and Pentium D are really only a viable option if they're seriously cheap these days.

Core 2 Duo has been pretty much the daddy since it was launched, which is why I don't know anything about current AMDs :) But they've just changed all the product codes, I lose track of what's new and exciting. A Core 2 E6300 or £6600 is a very good processor and quite cheap.

Question is, what are you actually going to use it for? Even the worst modern processors are still very powerful, but then, the COre 2s are excellent and not actually all that expensive (at high street prices, the top-end Pentium Ds are still more expensive than the bottom-end Core 2 Duo, even though they're slower).

Re: PC help please...........what to go for!
 

Pretty much what we use this one for........storing photo's and info, browsing the internet. We don't have a DVD drive at the moment, that would be a must. I have to admit, maybe just upgrading this one would be a better option. I've just looked at the specs, and apparently it has 80 gig hard drive, an AMD 2000+ processor, and an ASUS motherboard...............all of which means sod all to me:D How difficult would it be for total numpty's like us to upgrade?

Re: PC help please...........what to go for!
 

id go for xp if at all possible, makro are doing the medion bundle with 17tft and printer for £299 + vat but this one comes with vista home.

Re: PC help please...........what to go for!
 

try a high street pc shop who put there own together that way they could install either xp or vista the choice is yours.