PC for Parents

Irish Gunner

Ok parents want a decent PC as they one they have well is S**te

Told them to avoid Dell as their customer service is crap especially if anything goes wrong

I get all most of my PC parts from Marxcomputers and they are very helpful and they can call down to them should anything F up

Saw some of their specs below

http://www.marxcomputers.ie/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?product=PCs&cart_id=

Told them to keep the monitor they have as it will do

Only going to use it for email and internet is it worth €375?

I have Windows XP so I can put it on their pc

Any other good offers not madly priced or is Dell any good

Cheers

Cuddlesworth

For a cheap and simple pc dell is normally a good option. Simply because you get a monitor and keyboard etc...

Creamy Goodness

that machine seems good, you might aswell double the RAM up for an extra 25 euros, to make it an even 400.

as XP isn't a pretty site on 256mb ram.

awhir

omg i thought i was the only person online at this time.

thought you all have to work.lol

Nukem

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b&c=ie&cs=iebsdt1&l=en&oc=D04111&rbc=D04111&s=bsd&sbc=iebsdrsdimen_1100_3&fb=1

Probably you best bet is this. Upgrade to a 2.8Celery and 80Gb and add an XP Cd and a set of speakers,reduce the warranty and it roughly comes to 360 and dunno bout del. and now ya get a free printer

GF brothers got 2 of these for basic use and i was dead impressed,fierce pC for the money:p

(if the above link is broken check http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/dimen_1100?c=ie&cs=iebsdt1&l=en&s=bsd )

andy1249

As the man said in the OP , stay away from Dell if at all possible , with Marx you know you are getting standard parts , easy and cheap to replace , and they are local boys , so no crap with support !!

And as a previous post mentioned , 256MB is not enough to run XP , double the memory for the extra 25 and the system is fairly decent.

TerrorFirmer

I don't know where all you guys get "256 Ram will not run XP"

I not only used XP with 256mb Ram, I used to play Far Cry and Call of Duty on it too.

You do know XP actually works even on 64mb of ram, right? Unless his parents plan playing games or using multimedia applications - and I don't mean listening to music and playing DVDs - 256MB ram is perfectly fine and XP will run fine on it.

kippy

I would go with one of the machines from Dell.....one of the cheaper options mentioned above will do the job......I doubt your parents will be palying any games or using any processor hungry apps, in which case the cheapest possible machine from dell will more than adequately do the job.
256 RAM is enough to Run XP well.
Keep the "support" option to one year as three years is a waste of money-in my opinion if the machine does not fail in the first year or even in the first two months it is not going to fail until after three years.
Anyway-to be honest the machine from Marxcomputers is pretty good value as well but the best valus is with dell beacuse of the "extras" it ships with.....
Kippy

TommyGun

Ye, for the standard home user Dell is the way to go. Well tested systems with good service.

Creamy Goodness

i never said Xp wouldn't run on 256mb, but for an extra 25 euros (5 or so drinks in dublin) double the ram is a good deal.

Naikon

Personaly i would just build a new computer as it does suit me and you can pick your own components ect but in your position i would buy off DELL because of tech support ease of setup ect. stay well clear of PC WORLD however, i warn you they are BRUTAL in terms of everything.

andy1249

Just my opinion but I think you'll find its a common one ,

Dell's Customer support are rubbish , they wash their hands of you once they have the cash , the phone bills for tech support are scandalous.

The case , power supply and motherboard fixings are non standard , so upgrading is out in future , if you dont mind that , then go with Dell.
Your next computer will be totally new as nothing on this will work with it.

Yes XP will run on 256MB , the same as I run on Jack Daniels and red bull , slowly and awkwardly , its all a questions of standards I guess , I prefer an instant response in windows , and maybe the convenience of running more than one program at once !

I would love to see far cry on 256MB of ram , must have been a nice slide show !

maidhc

andy1249 wrote:

Just my opinion but I think you'll find its a common one ,

Dell's Customer support are rubbish , they wash their hands of you once they have the cash , the phone bills for tech support are scandalous.

They dont charge for tech support, if you get through to a native english speaker you are fine. Overall easier to deal with than your general PC World bufoon...

andy1249 wrote:

The case , power supply and motherboard fixings are non standard , so upgrading is out in future , if you dont mind that , then go with Dell.
Your next computer will be totally new as nothing on this will work with it.

PSU is standard on most dells. Processor, Memory, HDD, CD-Rom and graphics are all generic anyway. Only thing you will throw away will be the case, mobo and depending on the model, the PSU.

Dont build the computer yourself. If it breaks (or more likely, they break it) it will be your fault if you build it. As going for Dell, they tend to be the cheapest, but if you can get a good deal from somewhere else take it.

TempestSabre

I bought a cheap Dell off the outlet about a year ago. It has a standard PSU, case and board are different though. I couldn't have built it cheaper and included the XP licence. I don't use their support, but I do consider the warranty worthwhile. How about the 2nd hand route. Lots of decent machines around 2nd hand. For example I'll probably be selling mine shortly, and it will be a better spec than those on Marx, with XP etc, for the same price.

Irish Gunner

Cheers

Thanks for all the advice

Going to go with Dell and Parents want a new printer so go with their free one, although refills might be bit more expensive

After speaking to people who ordered from them they had no problem. Will ring them myself as if parents do they will order too much

just looking for the basic and maybe a dvd player and cd burner thats about it, they wont be playing any online games unless you count solitaire:D

May go for the upgrade in memory

will sell the old PC packard bell spec here when I they get the new one

1 question I have xp home can I install it on their pc using different Cd key ?

Then again most of the desktops on Dell come with ms media whats this like ?

Ta

TerrorFirmer

andy1249 wrote:

Yes XP will run on 256MB , the same as I run on Jack Daniels and red bull , slowly and awkwardly , its all a questions of standards I guess , I prefer an instant response in windows , and maybe the convenience of running more than one program at once !

I would love to see far cry on 256MB of ram , must have been a nice slide show !

I think there must have been something wrong with the computer you were using - as I previously stated XP runs perfectly fine on 256mb of Ram unless you are doing multimedia intensive tasks. The specs of my previous PC: 2Ghz P4, 256MB DDR ram, 64mb Geforce 4mx w/XP home - Far Cry ran at 800x600 with options on medium, and to be honest, it still looked reasonable to look at and had a consistantly playable framerate.

XP, again as I have previously stated, runs on 64mb if needs be and in my office, on 500mhz 128mb (128mb pc-100 ram even at that) ram machines no problems given the tasks they do be up to - bog standard browsing and processing.

So again, unless his parents plan on playing newer games, which I somehow doubt, 256mb RAM is plenty for basic home use. Sure, if you were running on the bare minimum of 64mb of ram, XP would no doubt be sluggish, but on 256mb, its more then you'll even need for browsing the net, listening to music, watching DVDs - and wow, wait for it! - maybe even....ALL AT ONCE! :eek:

Also andy thats rubbish about not being able to use anything from your old Dell PC - sure the mobos and psus can be non-standard but thats what you get when you buy from a company adapted to a home market, what do you expect - and you can easily re-use any cpu, ram, hdd, optical drives, gfx card that came from a DELL computer with no hassle.

TempestSabre

Dell usually come with an OS.

Irish Gunner

went for the below with 17' monitor no gaming here

Dimension 1100 - 2.8Ghz - 80.00Gb HD - 512.00Mb Mem - DVD - Modem

+ - Dimension 1100 P4 Processor (2.80GHz, 533fsb) - - 16X DVD+/- RW - - No Floppy Drive - - 80GB IDE (7, 200rpm) Hard Drive - - 2 x Doc Dimension 1100 ENG/UK Cord - - Dimension 1100 Badge - - Sonic Software for DVD/RW+R (No Media) - - Dell 2 Button USB Scroll Entry Mouse - - Dell Enhanced USB Multimedia Kybd - - Dell Media Experience 3.0 - - Tiscali Pan Euro ISP - No Media - - McAfee Security Centre V7.0 90 day Trial Version - - Paint Shop Picture Studio 1.01 - trial version - - DVD 5.1 Power Software (no media) - - Photo Shop Photo Album (5.22) - trial version - - 512MB (2x256) Dual Channel DDR400 - - V.92 Modem Data/Fax/Voice PCI UK - - Microsoft® Works® 7.0 - UK - - Image Restore Utility - - AOL 8, BT + Tiscali ISP combo - UK - - Dell Media Experience 3.0 - - Dell Support 3.0 - - Genuine Windows® XP Home SP2 - - Genuine Windows® XP Home SP2 - UK - Dell A215 Speaker KIT

Price 573 including 1-year warranty

TempestSabre

What monitor?

TommyGun

Irish Gunner wrote:

went for the below with 17' monitor no gaming here

Dimension 1100 - 2.8Ghz - 80.00Gb HD - 512.00Mb Mem - DVD - Modem

+ - Dimension 1100 P4 Processor (2.80GHz, 533fsb) - - 16X DVD+/- RW - - No Floppy Drive - - 80GB IDE (7, 200rpm) Hard Drive - - 2 x Doc Dimension 1100 ENG/UK Cord - - Dimension 1100 Badge - - Sonic Software for DVD/RW+R (No Media) - - Dell 2 Button USB Scroll Entry Mouse - - Dell Enhanced USB Multimedia Kybd - - Dell Media Experience 3.0 - - Tiscali Pan Euro ISP - No Media - - McAfee Security Centre V7.0 90 day Trial Version - - Paint Shop Picture Studio 1.01 - trial version - - DVD 5.1 Power Software (no media) - - Photo Shop Photo Album (5.22) - trial version - - 512MB (2x256) Dual Channel DDR400 - - V.92 Modem Data/Fax/Voice PCI UK - - Microsoft® Works® 7.0 - UK - - Image Restore Utility - - AOL 8, BT + Tiscali ISP combo - UK - - Dell Media Experience 3.0 - - Dell Support 3.0 - - Genuine Windows® XP Home SP2 - - Genuine Windows® XP Home SP2 - UK - Dell A215 Speaker KIT

Price 573 including 1-year warranty

Sounds like good value.

Irish Gunner

TempestSabre wrote:

What monitor?

17' flat monitor dont have the spec

now i have to look for a printer for them..........

Any suggestions

DemonOfTheFall

andy1249 wrote:

Yes XP will run on 256MB , the same as I run on Jack Daniels and red bull , slowly and awkwardly

Love it!